Quarantine good lectures :
Heinrich Harrer
- 7yrs in Tibet (1955)
- Return to stone and (1964)
Joe Brown
- autobiography The Hard Years (1967)
What about yours?
"Almost a year ago, in March 2019, our film's protagonists Sergey Nilov and Dmitry Golovchenko attempted to climb the virgin East Face of Jannu /Kumbhakarna. (Actually they succeed to climb the face till the ridge at altitude of 7400 m). The premiere of 'The Wall of Shadows' (90 minutes) will take place in the Spring. More details soon! 📷 by @golovchenko.dmitry "
Words from Eliza Kubarska, director, a strong woman that last year provided an incredible support to those fantastic Russian guys.
As a personal note, I'm proud to call them my friends, since the bond I had following their epic adventure on that holy mountain, became very important to me.
Dedicated to Demchenko Alpine Club Moscow, to Victor Gorlov, Sergey, Dmitry, Eliza, Anna Piunova
"...striving for veracity has its own value: a reconnection to a sense of something genuine and real, all too easily eroded in today's world. "This is history," Eberhard Jurgalski says. "Why not tell the truth to people.... given the potentially large number of inaccurate summit claims, THE WHOLE 8000ers HISTORY SHOULD BE REWRITTEN."
Damien Gildea noted :
"An important and wide-ranging editorial here from Katie Ives that covers many of the different ways of looking at mountains and summits. Given that it's looking increasingly likely that no one person has ever stood on the true summit of all fourteen 8000m peaks, this is a conversation that the climbing community needs to start having. A lot of good work has been done by Rodolphe Popier and Tobias Pantel on the problem of Annapurna and the clusterfuck of Manaslu, respectively, and the work continues.[and on Dhaulagiri as well, NdR]
It's not about bringing down any one person or any particular way of climbing, though ignorance, incompetence, dishonesty and commercial greed all play their part in this story, on top of the sheer brutal reality of climbing that high, and our human frailty in dealing with it.
It goes beyond that, to understanding exactly what it is we seek when we go to, and up, mountains in the first place."
I also remind you that Eberhard Jurgalski, the mind behind 8000ers, as Himalayan DB the most important stats fact checking archive on Earth high peaks (but 8000ers include also in his stats Karakorum high peaks) , declared that :
" If we stick on true proper summits , I'm afraid that ANYONE [in the 42 people list] should be declared an all 14x8000 climber"
The Measure of a Mountain - Alpinist.com
www.alpinist.com
[This Sharp End story originally appeared in Alpinist 69, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store. Only a small fraction of our many long-form stories from the print edition are ever uploaded to Alpinist.com. Be sure to pick up Alpinist 69 for all the goodness!—Ed.]East Face of Fitz Roy/Cerro Chalten, Patagonia as seen by I Ragni di Lecco - Arrampicata Alpinism Climbing President!La parete Est del Fitz Roy
Passarci sotto ha sempre un sapore speciale...penso proprio che questa sia la mia parete preferita in Patagonia!
Karpos Kong Scarpa Spa Team Vibram I Ragni di Lecco - Arrampicata Alpinism Climbing DF-SportSpecialist Cai Sezione di Lecco "Riccardo Cassin" Urban Wall - Milano Climbing factory evileye.eyewear Imprimis srl
+++ Winter expedition 2020 best pick +++
Despite my initial thoughts and doubts about this young German climber "impossible" winter solo on Everest West Ridge route (rarely repeated in any season), Jost Kobusch did a fantastic effort in good style, reaching 7366mt before ending his summit bid and coming down safe and sound from the highest mountain in the world.
2 months of slow, steady progress facing harsh weather, technical hard difficulties, avoiding as best as possible the objective dangers as avalanches, spindrift, winds and crevasses, opening and equipping with rope the initial steep wall, passing many nights at LhoLa pass tent (6000mt), searching another route after the equipped section crushed under avalanche, going down at BC and back at C1 then finally pushing straight up to the proper West Ridge.
And managing some physical troubles during the entire expedition.
For sure, my personal pick of best winter expedition 2020. By fair means.
(ph Jost official)
Denis Urubko took some stings out of his thoughts..thanks to Denis and Elena Laletina for giving me permission of translating his interview.
"I don't like mountains : I've lost too many friends, up there [..] My partners have often proved to be a burden, as has happened many times with Simone Moro and the major part for K2 Polish expedition climbers [..]"
Read all his thoughts here :
montagnamagica.com/en/denis-urubko-nulla-e-definitivo/
Denis Urubko: Nothing is Definitive, Montagna Magica
montagnamagica.com
Denis Urubko has released an important interview with Russianclimb.Denis Urubko senza peli sulla lingua :
"Vedo molte speculazioni negli ultimi tempi, la gente parla di me … “blah blah blah” , lo fanno per promuovere se stessi.
Per favore! Quante bugie … sia da chi scrive sia da altri alpinisti."
Ringraziando personalmente Denis per il permesso di tradurre ed Elena Laletina di Russianclimb, vi invito a leggere il resto delle sue esplosive parole, qua :
montagnamagica.com/denis-urubko-nulla-e-definitivo/
DENIS URUBKO : Nulla è definitivo, Montagna Magica
montagnamagica.com
Denis Urubko ha rilasciato una importante intervista a Russianclimb.In attesa di completare la recensione del libro di Marco Berti su " Tom Ballard : il figlio della montagna" (Solferino RCS libri, 2019), ripropongo la riflessione che scrissi l'anno scorso, al termine delle dolorose ricerche di Tom e Daniele Nardi compiute da Muhammad Ali Sadpara e poi dal team di Alex Txikon sullo sperone Mummery del Nanga Parbat.
Esattamente in questi giorni, l'anno scorso, mentre era ancora ignota la sorte dei 2 alpinisti, sulla stampa e sui social italiani si sviluppò un aspro dibattito e furono rilasciate numerose interviste e dichiarazioni assai controverse e discutibili.
montagnamagica.com/la-tragedia-sullo-sperone-mummery-fanatismi-e-alpinismi
La Tragedia sullo Sperone Mummery : Fanatismi e Alpinismi, Montagna Magica
montagnamagica.com
[caption id=+++ Winter Everest : Game Over +++
Jost Kobusch reached 7350mt in his incredible winter solo attempt on West Ridge.
In his long expedition the young German climber showed patience, resilience and after a long phase of shifts between Base Camp and Lho La Pass, where he had his C1 tent, in the last days he found a key passage gaining the access at the proper west Ridge, he slept at 6700mt then climbed up 7350mt on the Ridge, where he decided to stop his attempt due to strong winds, avalanches risks and a bit perfect physical condition.
He's back safely at BC.
Congratulations to him, he did an extraordinary feat and gained a wide experience in winter climbing : hats off and let's see next year!
Alex Txikon team reached a maximum altitude of approx 6900mt on Lhotse wall.
Since the beginning his expedition was unlucky, first his partner Garcia fall in a crevasse, then another one got sick, as well some Sherpas; condition of the Lhotse wall were dangerous due to hard ice and stone falls.
He tried a different route from C2 to the left of Lhotse normal route to C3, but in the last attempt weather was bad, lot of snow on the way to C2 and then objective hazards were too high on Lhotse face.
Alex called off the expedition today.
This was his third Everest winter attempt.
(ph 1,2 Jost Kobusch / ph 3 Alex Txikon)
"It was clearly a mess of people, like 7 parties, and under these circumstances it felt like ascending Ama Dablam or a technical 8000er."
Read my article on Rock and Ice magazine about last climbs and.. Traffic jams on Patagonian Spires
Traffic Jams and New Routes on Patagonian Spires - Rock and Ice
rockandice.com
Patagonian weather is always unpredictable, but this year has been particularly poor for climbable conditions. Bad weather raged from Christmas 2019 for over a month. But finally, at the end of January, an extraordinary weeklong ... Continue reading "Traffic Jams and New Routes on Patagonian Spires"