|
ExplorersWeb.com
Website
ExplorersWeb.com
The
story of Lincoln and David just won’t rest. More
details are emerging in this season’s Everest
drama, and more victims are surfacing. Meanwhile,
the Pakistan climbing season is heating up while the
North Pole is an unpleasant place in early June: One
expedition aborted last week fearing for their life.
Heroes
at Lincoln Hall’s farewell party: Meet the Sherpa
rescuers Last Friday, a very special farewell party
took place in Kathmandu’s Radisson hotel: Australian
Everest survivor Lincoln Hall and his wife Barbara
had dinner with the expedition Sherpa team that rescued
Lincoln and brought him back to life. Russian Expedition
leader Abramov also released the names of the 11 men
who saved him in the 11 hour long descent.
That
same day, Alex and Ludmila also met Himex leader Russell
Brice, who reportedly took off for home not in the
best of moods. “We believe we need to express
our moral support to the leader of the guides’
community at Everest’s North side,” reported
Alex and Ludmila. “Many have put the blame on
Russell, for not providing help to David Sharp. In
our opinion, this is absolutely unfair,” stated
Abramov.
According
to available records, on the 14th, 12 members from
HIMEX and a number of people from India climbed with
David Sharp to the summit and on the 15th, at least
30 people passed by the dying climber, most from the
Turkish and Himex team. While David Sharp was alive
and even talking for a long time, nobody really tried
to arrange for his rescue, instead climbers say they
were instructed by Russ Brice to continue their climb.
No entries were made in the Turkish and Himex summit
dispatches about David and ExplorersWeb contacted
both teams for comments - only the Turkish climbers
have replied.
Turkish
climbers about David Sharp: "He was not part
of a team" The Turkish climbers started out at
10 pm on the 14th, and reached David already before
midnight - he was then sitting up in the rock cave.
Himex started out by midnight, reaching the climber
a few hours later. Thereafter, more climbers passed
David in a time frame of 12 hours, and Himex Sherpas
even video filmed him talking as late as noon for
the Discovery Channel documentary "Everest: No
Experience Required," (Ed note: David was on
his third Everest climb) after which they too descended.
The Turkish climbers reported to ExWeb what had happened
on their end, concluding that David Sharp died in
parts because he wasn't part of a proper team.
Everest
BaseCamp MD: "Lady Korean climber saved after
falling 1000 feet at 8600 meters altitude" Back
home after managing the HRA clinic on Everest’s
South side BC, Dr. Luanne Freer reports about a young
Korean lady climber who was saved from death after
falling 300 meters near the Balcony (8600 meters)
last month. “With all the bad news that seems
to be being written about Everest lately, this is
an example of the good that can happen when folks
pull together," writes Luanne. "People risking
their lives, their personal dreams just to help a
complete stranger...I do believe that that's the rule
and the "dark side" stories are the exception."
Andries
Botha: The prize of a summit MD Andries Botha is back
home from Everest, with a summit and a record (the
oldest Canadian summiteer). But the doc also brought
back with him frostbite and an insight in the darker
side of the human nature. Member in Ice 8000 team
(formerly Himalayan Guides), organized by Henry Todd,
Botha summited on May 18, from the South side of the
mountain. Botha experienced bouts of diarrhea just
below the final camp – on the way up, but carried
on to the top despite the dehydration. After summit,
his oxygen ran out. Badly frostbitten, Botha had to
be evacuated from BC. Back home, Botha had second
thoughts about Everest and commented on the case of
David Sharp, "I didn't appreciate the attitude
of most of the climbers there" he said.
ExWeb
interview with Everest speed climber Christian Stangl:
“I passed a climber having problems with his
O2 system” Christian Stangl achieved a no O2
speed ascent on Everest north side. Christian took
16 hours, 42 mins to reach the summit from ABC, plus
6 hours more to return to the starting point - a new
Everest speed record. ExWeb contacted Stangl for specs
on the May 25th climb. In the interview, Christian
also provided some details on the climbers he passed
en route: German Richard Weber who perished on the
higher sections of Everest, and Australian Lincoln
Hall who was left for dead.
Everest
north side fatalities - Indo-Tibetan Police officers,
"btw we lost one on the 14th" A large team
of Indo-Tibetan Police officers summited Everest from
the north side the night David Sharp was on his summit
push. The expedition included 26 ITBP personnel, one
CRPF man and one from the Intelligence Bureau. Between
laudatory comments, the ITBP Director General V.K.
Joshi said “the CRPF jawan, Constable Srikrishna
fell down a steep slope while descending - search
and rescue operations proved futile,” according
to The Hindu. The exact location and circumstances
of the accident are unclear. A second group of ITBP
officials reached the summit on May 16. The second
group’s success was also published in local press,
with no mention of the accident, or David Sharp.
With
this report, the north side has now claimed 8 climbers,
and the south side 3, plus one on the Lhotse face
(shared route with Everest). However, only Everest's
south side numbers are confirmed by officials. Meanwhile,
climbers on the north side of the mountain have reported
fatalities unaccounted for.
Everest
traverse - Simone Moro deported from China “I
have defined my legal status with the Chinese authorities,
and I was strongly admonished for the border violation.
I don't recommend people to repeat my traverse, or
any other kind of unauthorized mountaineering. My
adventure ended up a complicated legal story,”
dispatched Italian Simone Moro from Kathmandu. Simone
summited Everest from Nepal and traversed down to
Tibet without a permit and was deported. The Liaison
Officer contacted the TMA (Tibet Mountaineering Association)
as soon as Simone reached Everest’s north side
BC. According to TMA, Simone alleged he couldn't make
his way back after reaching the summit, because the
ropes (on the south side) were cut. TMA general secretary
Zhang Mingxing said Simone's excuse was "unfounded",
Xinhua news agency reported.
Two
legal traverses this year In addition to Simone’s
there’s been at least two other Everest traverses
this year. Korean 14x8000er summiteer Park Young Seok
and Sherap Jangbu Sherpa traversed from Tibet to Nepal
on May 11, after previously obtaining (and paying
for) a climbing permit for both sides of the mountain.
Later that month, on May 18 Swiss Mario Julen, a client
in Kari Kobler’s team, summited Everest from
the South side with Dangima Sherpa. Just as Simone,
the climbers traversed down the Tibetan face of the
mountain - where Mario was included as a member in
Russ Brice’s Himex team.
Everest
2006, here come the climbers: Alberto Iñurrategi
for the Hornbein Couloir, alpine style When commerce
leaves Everest, the climbers arrive. Basque 14x8000ers
summiteer Alberto Iñurrategi is getting ready
for an alpine-style climb on the highest peak on earth,
during the lonely post-monsoon season. Alberto plans
to climb Everest this fall, following the Hornbein
couloir on Everest north face. Still looking for partners,
Iñurrategi hopes to do it in a three-man team,
without supplementary O2, high-altitude Sherpas or
fixed camps.
Everest
2007: British Docs from intensive care units to the
summit - and back In spring 2007, a team of climbing
physicians and researchers will conduct experiments
including blood oxygen readings and brain function
tests at high altitude, and at Everest’s summit.
Their goal, apart from becoming Everest summiteers,
is to study how the human body responds under extreme
conditions. The research will be used to improve better
the treatment given to critically ill patients in
intensive-care units in the UK.
Manaslu’s
new Kazakh route: Back to Alpine style On May 8, 2006
Kazakhs Denis Urubko and Serguey Samoilov completed
a new route on the NE side of Manaslu (8163m) a candidate
for Piolet d’Or. Check out the new route on the
site.
Nives
Meroi: The (not so) desperate house wife between Dhaulagiri
and K2 “We just got back home - the washing machine
is working full throttle - on June 15th we'll hit
the road again,” reports Italian female ace climber
Nives Meroi. After their recent Dhaula summit (the
only success there season beside Kazakhs Maxut and
Vassiliy) they will make a second shot at the Mountaineer's
mountain - K2, trying their luck from the southern,
Pakistan side of the mountain. If they make it, K2
will be the 8th 8000er summited for them both (plus
Shisha Central). “As always, we will climb sharp
and light,” reports Nives. “We will use
no supplementary O2, neither high altitude porters.”
Gasherbrum
II: Kari Kobler's team for a first complete North
side ascent Spaniard Manuel ‘Lolo’ Gonzalez
is joining an international team led by Swiss Kari
Kobler climbing the peak from the North side, located
in Chinese territory. A team of nine international
climbers will meet up in Kashgar, China and approach
from Shaksgam, an isolated area in the huge Sinjian
region. Camels will transport their gear. On the way
to the mountain, the team has to cross the Shaksgam
River. They have 36 days to get acclimatized and climb
the peak before they are due to head back on July
21, hopefully before the waters rise. “Kobler
has organized the trip as a commercial expedition,
but the fact is, all members are experienced and self
sufficient,” Manuel told ExplorersWeb. Conditions
will ultimately dictate the line. There have been
several attempts from GII’s North side, but no
one has ever completed a route to the summit from
that side.
Bulgarian
Everest summiteers for Nanga Parbat and a new route
on G-1 Nikolay Petkov and Doychin Boyanov - two of
the best known high-altitude climbers in Bulgaria-
are headed back to Pakistan, Peter Petrov told ExplorersWeb.
This year they have set their sights on a cool double-header:
Nanga Parbat and Gasherbrum I (Hidden Peak). Nikolay
and Doychin plan to attempt both peaks in light style,
but say that conditions will ultimately dictate their
tactics on both peaks, and on the exact line of ascent
on GI.
Gasherbrum
II-Broad Peak 2006: Dutch The Dutch Karakoram Expedition's
members have arrived in Islamabad, going for a double
header this season: GII and Broad Peak. Reinier Zuidhoff
is the leader of this 4 man-strong team. Once acclimatized
after reaching the summit of GII, the Dutch plan to
move to Broad Peak hoping to complete its normal route
through a fast, single push.
Nanga
Parbat update: The Pakistan mountain weather experience
American Tom Torkelson and his German client were
the first commercial team to arrive on Nanga Parbat
this year. Being the first provides the climbers with
a unique feeling of adventure and freedom at the beautiful
Diamir side of the mountain. But it also has some
disadvantages - particularly if ropes need to be fixed.
Tom’s VisionQuest team fixed 250 meters on the
Kinshofer wall before reaching Camp 2 – but it
still wasn't enough. “What appeared to be snow
in the upper couloir is in fact hard blue ice, barely
covered by a skin of snow - difficult climbing,”
he reported earlier this week, only to get buried
by heavy snow fall the next day.
US
Officials demand West Coast tsunami warning system
Nearly 18 months after a giant wave swept over the
beaches of western Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia,
Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh – destroying
nearly everything in its path and killing nearly 216,000,
top government officials in the US say its time for
to improve this country’s warning systems before
the West Coast suffers the same fate as the Asian
tsunami. According to the Government Accountability
Office (GAO), the United States lacks a strong warning
system and in depth analysis on the effect a tsunami
could have on America’s coastline.
Roz
Savage phones Adrian Flanagan: "Fancy an Atlantic
row?" As vast as the Atlantic may seem, the world
of ocean rowers and explorers alike can be a small
one. British Roz Savage, who set out from the Canaries
to row single-handedly 3000 miles across the Atlantic
in the Woodvale race, first met fellow Britt Adrian,
currently out on a solo around-the world sail last
summer, "We were both up to our eyes in preparations
for our respective voyages, but still found time to
have dinner together occasionally. Adrian came to
play a larger role in my project than I'd envisaged.
My weatherman let me down - the forecasts dried to
a trickle and then stopped altogether. Adrian stepped
into the breach. He would request the GRIBs for my
bit of ocean as well as his own, and then pass on
his reading of the information to me.”
Raphaëla
completes solo unsupported crossing of Indian Ocean
After 60 days at sea, French Raphaëla le Gouvello
crossed the finish line off Reunion Island Thursday
at 10:21 am local time, completing the first solo
unsupported 6,300 km (about 3,400 mile) wind sail
crossing of the Indian Ocean, traversing from Exmouth
Australia to the northwest of Reunion Island. It’s
just another world first under Raphaëla’s
belt. The lady vet doc has been a passionate windsurfer
for 30 years. In late 2003, she made a 4,455 mile
solo journey across the Pacific Ocean on her windsurf
board in 89 days and 7 hours. Her route followed the
footsteps of Thor Heyerdahl's Kon Tiki, between Lima
and Tahiti. Raphaëla has announced that she would
not be tackling any more oceans, but said that she
had many more projects, again linked to protecting
the environment.
North
Pole - Top of the World: This is melting “We
have just finished our 7th full day of travel since
we were resupplied,” reported British team member
David de Rothschild. “Since then we’ve only
managed to rack up a very slow, deep wet snow, ice
jumbled 22 miles.... Yup 22 miles!! At one point,
in the not too distant past, that's what we were managing
in ONE to two days travel ... Oh how times have changed.
There is water everywhere. Being a month behind schedule
on this massive expanse of floating ice that I have
been fortunate enough to call my home for the past
3 months, has suddenly started to transform. It's
like a giant snake waking from hibernation trying
as hard as possible to shed its skin of ice for a
new summer coat of open water. This daily re-shaping
of the endless solid white landscape has left a myriad
of cracks, twists and turns that often lead to a frustrating
dead end...”
North
Pole - One World: Waiting for a resupply Americans
Lonnie Dupre and Eric Larsen instead reported that
Arctic ice conditions have not been that bad lately.
In fact, their canoe-sleds are especially built to
cross open water leads. By last weekend the two reached
the 87th degree of latitude. As soon as they found
a suitable place to set up camp, they began making
preparations for an airdrop.
Arctic
crossing teams: Bettina and Jean Gabriel ABORT After
97 days on the ice, Danish Bettina Aller and French
Jean Gabriel Leynaud have called their expedition
off and asked for an evacuation. They described very
tough conditions in the Arctic - mostly due to bad
ice and large amounts of open water. The couple found
themselves on a small chunk of ice the other day when
the ice and ocean around them started packing. The
small island was rocking and it was pure luck they
drifted close enough to a larger ice pan, reported
their home team. "They had just time enough to
hop onto that before the little ‘island’
wash crushed between larger ice blocks. A few days
earlier the explorers were crawling over huge blocks
of pack ice, when JG’s sledge fell down between
two blocks. "At the bottom [of it] there was
open water. The sledge was so heavy it threatened
to pull Jean-Gabriel down, but luckily Bettina was
nearby and could rush to his rescue immediately. Those
two events, among others, have forced them to make
the difficult decision to abort and be evacuated.
There is nothing wrong with their health, but they
fear for their lives," it was reported.
Alaska
winter 2006-2007: Cameron McPherson joining the Arctic’s
legion of ghosts “After months of agonizing (should
I go alone, or with a partner this time?) I've decided
to stick with my original approach to the Arctic:
to go alone - for me, this is the purest way, and
the most challenging, and the most rewarding,”
reports American Cameron McPherson. In November-December,
2006 Cameron will set off for the North shore of Alaska
to travel roughly 200 miles on foot. Much of the journey
will be on sea ice, but always keeping close to the
coast – this time at least. In fact, Cameron’s
real dream is to trek alone to the North Pole, someday.
His next Alaska trip and subsequent expeditions are
focused to get further out from shore each time, thus
training for an eventual solo journey to the NP. “I'm
building the experience that will give me a good chance
of surviving a solo trek to the North Pole somewhere
in the next few years. For me, the trail to the Pole
starts on the sea ice off Alaska, this coming winter.”
Arctic
1000: 600 miles unsupported across a remote land called
America On June 11, Publisher of Backpacking Light
Magazine Ryan Jordan (Bozeman, Montana) will join
Roman Dial and Jason Geck (Anchorage, Alaska) for
a 1000km (600 mile) unsupported trek across the wildest
side of America. The route will traverse the most
remote (westernmost) region of Alaska's Brooks Range,
starting at the Chukchi Sea near Point Hope and ending
at either the indigenous territory of Anaktuvuk Pass,
or the Alaskan Oil Pipeline Highway ("Haul Road")
near Wiseman. The team hopes to complete the trip
“unsupported, ultra-light, and by fair means"
avoiding hunting, fishing or foraging and none of
them is allowed to follow roads or to enter villages
for any kind of support. Total distance covered will
be approximately 550-625 miles (about 900-1000 km)
and they will travel at night, and sleep during the
day - minimizing the amount of insulating gear they
will have to carry. For the final third of the trek,
they will walk nearly 50 miles a day.
Armageddon
was down there - killer meteor crater found under
Antarctic Ice About 65 million years ago, a huge meteorite
came crashing down to Earth, creating the gulf of
Mexico and leading dinosaurs to extinction - at least
that’s what the scientists say. Now, another
team of researchers has found a much bigger meteor
crater, dating even earlier and buried under the ice
of Antarctica. According to the latest studies, the
repercussions of this meteor hitting the Earth would
have been also much deadlier than a bunch of reptiles
dying. The 'big one', say scientists, left a path
of utter devastation, annihilating virtually all signs
of life on the planet. Scientists believe the impact
would have started the breakup of the Gondwana super
continents, and the sudden extinction of the species
populating the plant back then paved the way for the
dinosaurs to rise to prominence.
Discovery
closing in on July launch NASA has approved a major
design change in the space shuttle's fuel tank, clearing
the last major hurdle before shuttle flights can resume.
NASA reports that next week, the astronauts and ground
crews will go through a full launch dress rehearsal
at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The terminal
countdown demonstration test runs June 12-15 and Space
Shuttle Discovery's launch is targeted for July 1
in a launch window that extends to July 19. NASA will
confirm the launch date at a June 16-17 meeting to
review the shuttle's flight readiness.
Read
these stories - and more! - at ExplorersWeb.com (Credit:
ExplorersWeb.com)
Profiles
Explorers
and Adventurers
Disasters
Survivors
|
