The Georgia Aquarium on Friday night welcomed into the world its first-ever beluga whale calf -- and ever since its staff has worked around the clock to keep the prized mammal alive.

The beluga baby, the first to be born from parents who were born in captivity, emerged from her mother in a weakened state and weighing only 82 pounds. The female calf is said to be in critical condition and under 24-hour veterinary care.

Image shows beluga whale calf being born Friday night at at Georgia Aquarium

This is not surprising, considering that newborn beluga whales often do not survive with first-time mothers, in the wild and in captivity.

But the Georgia Aquarium staff, which anticipated a life struggle, worked during the pregnancy to train the mother how to nurse and care for her first baby, which was conceived naturally and not through artificial insemination -- a rarity among captive belugas.

It also placed divers in the water at the time of birth, to help the female calf surface and take her first breaths.

Divers help the beluga whale calf take her first breaths

Because the calf is too weak to nurse, the staff is feeding her a mineral-rich formula from colostrum collected from the mother, whose name is Maris.

"Since the moment of birth, our animal care and veterinary teams have been giving around-the-clock care to Maris and her calf, taking every measure possible to ensure that the calf thrives," said Dr. Gregory Bossart, the aquarium's senior vice president and chief veterinary officer. "We became concerned when the calf didn't demonstrate that it could swim alongside its mother. Without our response, this calf would not have survived."

There is some promise, as Maris' maternal instincts are becoming more evident, according to the aquarium blog.

"Given that this is Maris' first pregnancy, we are certainly pleased to see the development of her maternal behavior," stated William Hurley, chief zoological officer. "[But] there are many milestones over the next several days and weeks that this calf must surpass, that will be extremely critical to its survival. We are hoping for the best, but the reality of the situation is, we still have a long way to go."

There are only six facilities in North America that contain belugas, and only a handful of births occur each year. Maris was born at the New York Aquarium in 1994, and the father, Beethoven, was born at SeaWorld San Antonio in 1992. Beethoven is the first beluga calf to be born in captivity.

As for the unnamed calf, she has received overwhelming support among fans who have visited the aquarium's Facebook page.

Writes Cathi Muckerman: "Fight, Baby Girl!!! Thoughts and prayers being sent to all involved in the care of this very special creature."

Adds Heather McRae Vence: "Welcome to the family little girl. We have been so excited to meet you for months. You have my family's prayers. I know the staff is taking amazing care of you."

There was little change in the calf's condition as of late Tuesday morning and Hurley said the 24-hour care will continue for Maris and her baby for "as long as is required."

-- Images are courtesy of the Georgia Aquarium

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The Chugach Powder Guides' Kings and Corn package is the ultimate experience for those who like to mix their angling with angulation, and has become a bucket-list item for many avid skiers/fisherman. Picture nights in a luxury backcountry lodge in Alaska, five days of fishing for king salmon, and five days of summer corn skiing, with a little whitewater rafting and gourmet meals thrown in the mix.

There are some distinct advantages to Kings and Corn when compared to a standard AK heliskiing trip. While you won't be bagging ski movie lines in blower powder, you are also less likely to be shut down by weather for the entire week. And it's corn skiing--the velvety smooth turns you get when a frozen snowpack starts to warm up in the morning--which most skiers will tell you is the next best thing to powder. And there is little to no avalanche danger, so you eliminate the pucker factor and the threat of copious amounts of downtime often associated with Alaska Heli Skiing. K& C takes place in June, when southern Alaska can have 19 hours of daylight, which leaves plenty of time for hooking Kings.

For 2012, Kings and Corn returns to Winterlake Lodge, which hosted the program for it's first nine years, for three sessions in June. The week includes guided skiing, fishing and whitewater rafting, lodging for five nights, and meals. The lodge is nestled between Denali and two smoldering volcanoes--Mount Gerdine (11,258) and Mount Torbert (11,413), with views of the vast Tordrillo range. The fishing takes place on the Talachulitna River. And if the skiing and fishing aren't enough, you can also raft down the Class III Happy River. The $9000 price tag isn't for the budget conscious, but when you add up all the amenities--guided skiing, guiding fishing, guided rafting, lodging, meals, sea plane travel in and helicopter shuttles to all activities--it starts to seem pretty reasonable.

Epic Quest

Wakeboarding films are alive and well. To prove it, former editor of GrindTV Patrick Wieland teamed up with Slingshot Wake to produce Lipsmack, an epic film featuring the creative side of wakeboarding. Wieland and crew spent almost a year traveling to various locations filming and building over 47 custom rails. As such, the film focuses on the explore, create, and shred aspect of the sport.

Lipsmack features riders Jeff McKee, Oli Derome, Shredtown, Mike Ennen, Jeff House, Steffen Vollert, Nate Perry, Dylan Miller, Brian Reeder, and a few special guests.



The film is available for download on iTunes.

Here are a few photos from the filming of Lipsmack:

Effective use of the helicopter.

The mastermind behind the lens Patrick Wieland

Tragedy struck on Mt. Everest over the weekend as at least four mountaineers died during a very crowded couple of days near the summit of the world's tallest peak.

The climbers have been identified as Eberhard Schaaf, 61, a German doctor; Shriya Shah, 33, of Canada; Song Won-bin, 44, of South Korea, and Ha Wenyi, 55, of China.

A Sherpa guide remains missing.

The first clear weather of the season led to a mass summit attempt on Friday and Saturday, and about 150 climbers reached the top the 29,035-foot Himalayan giant, mostly on Saturday.

But ferocious high-mountain winds and large crowds that choked ascent routes on Everest's South Col route, delaying summit bids of several teams, created an extremely dangerous situation.

"There was a traffic jam on the mountain on Saturday. Climbers were still heading to the summit as late as 2:30 p.m. which is quite dangerous," Gyanendra Shrestha, of Nepal's Mountaineering Department, told the Associated Press.

"With the traffic jam, climbers had a longer wait for their chance to go up the trail and spent too much time at higher altitude. Many of them are believed to be carrying limited amount of oxygen and not anticipating the extra time spent."

Ang Tshering Sherpa of the Kathmandu-based Asian Trekking adventure company explained to Agence France Presse: "Climbers spend their energy on the ascent and they are exhausted and fatigued on the descent."

Altitude sickness and exhaustion are believed to have been primary factors in the fatalities. The Seoul-based Yonhap news agency is reporting that Song, after collapsing with fatigue, fell at an area known as The Balcony, a small platform area at 27,600 feet.

AFP reports that the body of the Chinese climber was found at 28,000 feet.

Mt. Everest's so-called "Death Zone" is the region above 8,000 meters, or 26,000 feet, where freezing temperatures and low oxygen levels make it nearly impossible to survive for more than 48 hours.

On average, a handful of climbers perish each year on Mt. Everest. This year, according to Everestnews.com, there have been at least six fatalities, and 198 successful summits.

The most tragic day on Everest, with late summit bids also a contributing factor, was May 10, 1996, when eight people died after becoming trapped in a snow storm.

That season was the deadliest on record, with 15 fatalities.

Nearly 4,000 people have reached the top of Everest since 1953, when Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first to scale the peak.

-- Top image shows Mt. Everest as viewed from Nepal, while second image shows the southern route to the summit

A 43-year-old woman's shorts were ignited, allegedly by two very hot rocks that she collected at the beach in San Clemente, California and placed in her pockets.

The woman, Lyn Hiner, had spent the afternoon of Saturday, May 12 with her daughters, picking up rocks along the shoreline at Trestles beach. The stretch of coast is best known for the wave at Lowers, which plays host to many international surfing competitions each year and a contest on surfing's World Championship Tour. Located just north of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which recently reported a radiation leak, Trestles was once part of the Camp Pendleton military base, but is now preserved within the lines of San Onofre State Beach.

The trademark cobblestones that line the shore are pushed there by the flow of the San Mateo Creek. Among those rocks were the seven that the Hiner family brought home from the beach that day-- two of which Lyn placed in her right short-pocket.

About an hour after returning home from their outing, while standing in her kitchen, Lyn Hiner's shorts burst into flames. After an attempt to 'stop, drop, and roll' unsuccessfully, she called for her husband's help. But he wasn't able to put out the fire until the shorts were removed.

As a result, Lyn sustained third-degree burns on both her right arm and leg, receiving surgery on Thursday to treat them. Her husband, in trying to remove the shorts, also sustained second-degree burns on his arm.

According to the OC Register, the two rocks have been sent off to a state lab for testing, to verify the Orange County Public Health agency's determination that the naturally occurring phosphate substance that was found on the rocks acted as the catalyst for the fire.

While it is expected to be weeks before the final test results are released, the bizarre event remains puzzling even to experts. Captain Marc Stone, an official with the Orange County Fire Authority, spoke to reporters at the Register, stating, "There is phosphorous that naturally occurs on the sand at the beach, but no one has ever heard of pants catching fire."