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Libecki Brothers Explore Virgin Vertical Earth in Greenland Story and Photos by Mike Libecki ASC Adventurer  The Libecki brothers on the summit of the Polar Bear Fang Tower. Mike (in the foreground) spent a decade planning and dreaming about the first ascent of this unclimbed tower. I knew exactly where I wanted to go. I had satellite images from the Danish government and every map of the east side of Greenland loaded on my laptop. I zoomed in to double check our location. The 2,800-foot Polar Bear Fang Tower, the object of my obsession, was just around the corner.
It was close to 1 a.m., and the midnight sun was hiding behind the massive mountains surrounding us. Before dropping us off, our captain sailed back and forth looking for polar bears. Last time I was here, there were 11 in the area, but the coast was clear, so he dropped us on the rocky shore.  Arctic Gulls This past summer, veteran ASC sailors Matt Rutherford and Nicole Trenholm sailed from Annapolis, Maryland through the North Atlantic, the Labrador Sea, and north along the west coast of Greenland to Qaanaaq, a point just north of Melville Bay. The four-month voyage was part of their work with the nonprofit organization, Ocean Research Project.
 ASC's Landmark crew caught this mountain lion on a camera trap in northern Montana. Big cats are magnificent, powerful creatures, with incredible stealth and hunting prowess. Their populations are in decline worldwide, caused by habitat loss and conflict with humans.
"More humans populate the planet than ever before, encroaching further and further into previously natural areas," according to the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative. "When human and big cat populations collide, the big cats typically lose." The more we know about these magnificent, powerful animals, the better served the conservation community will be to protect them. Here are a few of the big cats ASC has captured on camera traps and tracked, informing our research partners from Utah to Costa Rica. |
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