I’m recently a Wyoming Girl, but having spent a few years in the unshorn-leg-hair land of Oregon, this still feels like it hits close to home. The following is excerpted from a larger piece that appeared in the Northwest Mountaineering Journal about last December’s well publicized–or completely over-hyped–series of fatalities on Mt. Hood.
On July 22nd we reckoned the approach to the base of the South face and assessed the real magnitude of the challenge. The wall only grew taller and more vertical as we came closer. We roped up in the middle of the glacier to cross some crevasses, checked out the start of the climb and came back to camp to sleep for a few hours before the start of what would prove to be the most demanding adventure of our lives.
Stirring the pot of ethical debates, Chris Kalous–who apparently has some sort of climbing credentials, though I know not where–gives a nice seven minute speech about the inaccurate and self aggrandizing nature of aid ratings.
I am just back from my follow up visit to China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) in Lhasa, Tibet. On our agenda was the following issues: the impact of the Olympic expedition on other climbers, theft and misconduct on the mountain and the difficulty of managing the yaks.
While reading the weekly feature about Ontario ice, I noticed the sole picture of Minnesota ice climbing. I felt it necessary to add to the discussion by indicating that Nightfall (WI4+, 60m), Minnesota’s longest natural ice fall, is also the site of the Gentleman’s Occasional. This almost annual event is, likely, the most important gathering of ice climbing enthusiasts in the country.
I wanted to like this because I love the Huber brothers. If I could climb 5.14 in leather pants, I would. Actually, if I could climb 5.14, I would do it in leather pants to prove a point. Much like the Hubers. Alex is a physicist, too, just to spice things up. In any event…
Captain GJ Finch, who took part in the Mount Everest expedition, speaking at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, London, last evening on the equipment for high climbing, testified to the comfort of cigarette smoking at very high altitude. He said that he and two other members of the expedition camped at 25,000ft for over 26 hours and all that time they used no oxygen.
K2’s mighty West Face is one of the greatest big mountain walls in the world and ripe for a beautiful alpine style ascent. This past summer a large, 18-person team of Russians converged upon Concordia intent on forcing a direct line up the steepest part of the face by any means necessary. Like they have done before on Jannu, they sieged the mountain, fixing ropes from base camp to nearly the summit, establishing seven camps enroute!
Alpinist seeks a producer for The Alpinist Film Festival.
Dynamic and challenging part-time position helps plan, organize and execute annual film festival for Alpinist Magazine. Applicant must be self-reliant, resourceful, organized, experienced in event planning and proficient in budgets and fundraising.
I have not yet had time to read through Alpinist 21 properly, but I noticed a picture caption on Page 82 that gives the impression that the first ascent of Chomolhari (7326m) was in 1996. The record of ascents of Chomolhari is a bit confused, and few people are aware of the significance of the epic first ascent–alpine style–by F. Spencer Chapman and team in 1937.
