Ain’t Climbing Elbrus This Year. Hello Damavand!

We decided to call it off. No Elbrus this year. The situation is just too unreliable and the area may be closed when our July climb comes. So instead, we’ve been suggesting our clients to go to Iran’s highest peak, Damavand. Yeah, just go climb Damavand this year – it’s fantastic and it’s cheaper than Elbrus. It’s a bit easier due to there being less snow, less cold… despite Damavand having a slightly higher summit.

Why climb when you can ride Damavand? Nah, you can't really do that.

I swear there is NO photoshop involved in the above picture. The sky really is THAT blue. So, which do you think is a better ‘party’: Damavand or Elbrus?

New Pics for The Grossglockner Climb

Hey guys, we just beefed up our Grossglockner Climb page with a few new fancy pics. Check out the Climbing Grossglockner page on our website. Better yet, check out the mountain for real.

Grossglockner is Austria’s highest peak at 3797 meters and is probably the most-climbed mountain. If you want a good climb in the summer and avoid crowds, try climbing on a weekday. Otherwise, start out from the hut as early as possible. That way you’ll only run into traffic jams on the way down. If you’re a gnarly climber and can handle UIAA III-IV ridges with scary drops, go for the Stüdlgrat variant.

Afghanistan, the Wakhan-Corridor

This is probably the shortest post on this blog, ever. Check out this stunning trek to a country with a very bad brand.

Mt. Damavand Climb – the Cultural Excitement

Fun jeep rides in Iranian mountains...

One of the most unrecognized high peak treks on the globe is Iran’s Mt. Damavand (5671 m). Just yesterday, we threw a really sweet Mt Damavand climb package on the website. We’re pretty good at doing Iran; Daniel, our mountain guide has been to and travelled accross the country on several occasions – mostly doing photography and guiding. More »

Mt. Elbrus Climbing – Some Questionmarks Arise

…but nonetheless, we are optimistic!

Approaching Elbrus summit with the lower, eastern summit in the background

It’s been written at several places that Islamic terrorists killed foreigners and exploded bombs at ski resorts near Mt Elbrus. The area is currently closed for climbing.

That’s bad news for the thousands who want to climb the peak every year. Like us. We have a fun and very successful Mt Elbrus climb every year. It’s set to take off early July. We may postpone it to August, however. We really hope the Russian secret service will be able to clean out the area and make it safe again. It’s really a question of prestiege for them as well, since the 2014 Winter Olympics are set to take place in nearby Sochi.

Let’s hope for things to settle very very soon! Needless to say, we’ll keep you updated.

Top 4 Reasons You Fail to Climb the Peak of Your Dreams – Part I

Approaching the summit of Rysy in the High-Tatras

To kick things off for the new year, the boys and girls at ClimbBigMountains.com have decided to compile a list of some observations from the past 5 years. On what? Why people we know have failed to reach their desired summits. We’ll leave out the obvious ones, like bad weather because you can help that with a little planning. The list has a few surprising items and tips on how to overcome them…  Here is part 1 with a very much overlooked reason: More »

Ice Climbing in Chamonix, Scotland and Elsewhere

I’m really in the mood for ice climbing now. It’s always like this in the fall. You know, rocks are always wet from rains, snow is a few more weeks off… But it’s always the ice I yearn for the most.

I was drooling over the Petzl movie below, just yesterday. It features – along with funny French dudes – speedclimbing sensation Ueli Steck doing their things on Ben Nevis:

Scottish Icetrip – English from Petzl-sport on Vimeo.

OK, this is mixed climbing, which is even more fun.
More »

Ski touring @8000m+

There are only a handful of the 14 eight thousander mountains which are skiable almost all the way from top to bottom. Cho Oyu is one of them and it is also one of the “easier” 8000 meter mountains on Earth.

Of course, we have the “first ski descent of K2” and “skiing Everest” sorts of news… As many of us know, rock is unpleasant, if not impossible to ski on and these descents are only skied in a small proportion. The brave adventurers are often forced to unmount and tie the skis on their backpacks and rapell… But when we talk about skiing Cho Oyu, you’ll know that it’s real from top to bottom (not that Everest/K2 descents aren’t real – hands down for anyone who carves turns at those altitudes)… Cho Oyu can be tour skied almost all the way up and down.

Ski touring at such altitudes is pretty demanding as you can imagine – it’s actually tougher on your body to carve turns in deep snow or frozen firn, than it is to slowly inch your way in crampons on the ridge. Plus, on the ascent, you have all the mounting/unmounting to do which also takes a whole lot of steam.

Also, when you tourski way up there, you run into a whole lot of issues with gear. Especially footwear. High altitude climbing boots are pretty good already with insulation and keeping your feet dry, but the same cannot be said for ski touring boots. So you need overboots and those sorts of things. So it’s really a lot more complicated.

As you might imagine, the whole equipment issue ends up being a weight issue. When every gram counts, it’s a real pain in the ass to have to carry a 1.7-1.8 kg skiset on your back, heavy skiboots on your feet and the extra “gaiters on steroids” for protecting your feet. Not to mention the wind occasionally catching the skis every now and then.

But then, in deep snow when the slope isn’t too steep, you advance with less effort. You’re also a lot faster on the way down (unless you’re forced to rapell a lot and carry your skis) which adds a great deal of safety to the descent. What diminishes that presumed safety advantage is the condition that instead of going on in a group where you are near one another and can easily help, ski descents are more lonely. At this altitude, if the top guy takes a spill and the others have skied down a few hundred meters, it’s a real crappy situation if they have to climb back up to assist.

The whole reason I’m typing this post now is beacause on of our mountain guides, Laci Mécs is over on Cho Oyu right now, going for a ski descent, so I thought it’s a timely thing to share with you some of the issues we discussed before his departure. Wishing him and the rest of the team the best of luck and plenty of backwind for the descent… and wishing you a long ski touring season:

Dan Bergstein

Climbing Technique – Proper Placement of Your Hips

You know, how you’re always told as a beginner climber that you should place your weight over your feet and use as much of your leg strength as possible? Well, yea, you say, logical thing… BUT if you’ve gotten along in improving your climbing skills, then you’ll know that it’s easy to THINK you’re doing it right. Unless there is someone who really looks after you and cares about your climbing, you only realize that you’ve been doing it wrong when you start to do it right – accidentally. More »

Ueli Steck going for speed record again

Via Mountain Hardware: This time, our hero, Ueli is going for a speed climbing record on El Cap. Watch some preparatory footage here:

Alex and Uli speed climbing The Nose on 5.20.10 from Chris Falkenstein on Vimeo.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, here is how Ueli made himself a brand name in speed solo climbing: