Letters

The Loss of a Legend
Born and raised in the Midwest, I know nothing about surfing. And yet I was mesmerized by Jon Krakauer's powerful article on the death of pioneer big-wave surfer Mark Foo ("Mark Foo's Last Ride," May). After reading it, I sat quietly alone and stunned for a while, unable to move, staring at the photos of a rare man whose life passed before our eyes.

Gary Tarsha
Holland, Ohio

Thanks for Krakauer's compelling article. Talking on a regular basis, to anyone who would listen, of his feelings about a premature death merely kept Foo's door of fate wide open. Stepping through it was then easy for him when the opportune moment presented itself in the swells that Friday at Maverick's. Though this is no consolation to those who loved Foo, I suspect that he was deeply satisfied leaving this world doing something he was so passionate about.

Jeff McConville
Costa Mesa, California

Second Opinion
I found Todd Balf's story on Greg LeMond's retirement from professional cycling quite disappointing ("You Won't Have Greg LeMond to Kick Around Anymore," April). As Greg's exercise physiologist for the past five years, I feel uniquely qualified to comment on his health, his forced retirement, and his character. Greg has mitochondrial myopathy and had to leave professional cycling because of the condition. Balf wrote about it as if Dr. Rochelle Taube and I fabricated some obscure disease to justify Greg's last few years of poor performance. The story is an insult not only to Greg, to Dr. Taube, and to me, but also to the thousands of Americans who suffer from mitochondrial myopathy.

Daniel J. Zeman
Institute for Health and Fitness Inc.
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Todd Balf replies: I'm baffled by Mr. Zeman's response to my story. Nowhere in the article do I question the diagnosis, nor do I belittle its obvious gravity. That said, it would be disingenuous to report that the diagnosis, and its devastating impact on LeMond's performance, was accepted categorically by everyone in cycling. That is not a comment on LeMond, Taube, or Zeman, but rather a not-so-surprising reaction, given the utter obscurity of the illness and LeMond's high profile. In a more thorough reading of the story Mr. Zeman might find the LeMond I found: energetic, friendly, and eager to embrace the next part of his life.

Early Returns
Hampton sides's article on the release of wolves in the Rockies seems to prematurely condemn wolf B-13 for mauling a newborn calf without stating all of the evidence ("Return of the Hunted," April). Sides wrote, "The autopsy was unequivocal: bovine blood on lupine teeth, black hair in the stomach." Had I read only your report, I would have understood that the wolf killed the calf. But a March 27 article in Newsweek had a much different conclusion. It stated that "according to autopsies by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the wolf did not kill the calf. The newborn died of natural causes; the wolf didn't."

Shane Mergenthaler
Polson, Montana

Hampton Sides replies: Initially, the consensus among U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials was that B-13 had indeed killed the calf in question; as far as they were concerned, the wolf's autopsy was unequivocal. The results of the calf autopsy, which surprised everyone close to the case, were not made public until after Outside went to press

But the plot thickens: In late April, another reintroduced wolf, an alpha male bearing radio-collar number ten, was apparently killed by a poacher. A week later, however, conservationists were thrilled to discover that the dead wolf's mate had given birth to at least seven healthy pups.