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.

…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.

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:Reason #4: Failing to make it to the mountains

You shouldn’t overlook this, really. Many people have plans in life and as such, they have plans to climb mountains. But, we’re not always good enough at planning and making things happen. This means, you lose out on much of the fun you deserve.

The solution’s easy. You have to put all your important goals in writing. This is something you might have heard before, but HOW you do it is just as important as doing it. So, along with your other possible new years’ resolutions, I want you to:

1. 1. take a piece of paper
2. 2. write down the top 8-10 goals for the year – personal, career and travel/climbing goals.
3. 3. next to each goal write down the answer to the following questions: 1) why is it important to me? 2) what is the biggest obstacle to this goal? 3) what/how do I need to change in order to reach this goal?
4. 4. stick this paper above or next to your computer monitor where you always see it
5. 5. cross off the goals you’ve achieved

By the way, when you dig deep enough on “what’s the biggest obstacle to this goal” – you’ll almost always boil things down to YOU being the obstacle. Or rather, you not having enough time/energy etc. to get the things done. Now, Uncle Dan has a solution for this one as well.

1. 1. make a checklist of all the things you need to get done for each desired goal
2. 2. go through the list and ask yourself: is this REALLY necessary? Cross off any items that don’t directly impact the result of the goal
3. 3. go through the list and ask yourself: who can do this for me?… I mean, you can outsource a huge portion of your life and have friends/family/a colleague/some stranger you hire do much of the things you don’t want to do but are necessary. Make a list of all the activities you can outsource. A convenient example: you really have to rake the leaves in the yard over the weekend. It takes half a day, so no climbing for you Mr, if you choose to do gardening on Saturday. Isn’t it worth it to pay 10 bucks to the kid down the street to do it for ya?

This may seem like a self-help blogpost, but hey, getting a few spare days each year to make the trip to the mountains really is a hard task. Just doing the simple process above can win you an extra vacation where you climb a really awesome peak. Not to mention attaining other goals of yours.

Can you relate to this, or is it just us!?

I’m really interested on your experience. Do you have a similar system? Please comment away and feel free to disagree too.

I’ll be back with Reason #3 in a few days.

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.

Of course, when it comes to Europe, the talk is normally about Chamonix- at least for most of us. Even our company can’t miss the opportunity and do a couple Chamonix Ice Climbing workshops this winter.

Hey, almost half the readers on this blog are from the US, so it ain’t fair that we always rave about Europe, right? Here is a good NG blogpost on a perhaps less well known US spot way up in Montana… in their Best American Adventures series.

Have fun and share with us here some of your favorite ice climbing locations and

Miss the ice and your tools after a fun season? No need to worry, just be creative. Head on downtown like these guys and gals did and take your ice axe along. If you want to add more excitement, you can try drytooling on public buildings and get chased by security. (Just kidding.)

Enjoy and be inspired:

Awesome video shot on and above the Stüdl ridge of Grossglockner (3797 m) Austria’s highest peak. More and more people visit this magnificent peak from the UK and Italy as well. Even though its height doesn’t match up with the Western Alps’ 4000ers, a Grossglockner climb is a spanking cool experience.

Just lost a fellow countryman of mine on the icefall on Everest Norh Col. Chunks of ice breaking off at 7000 meters – this kind of stuff is unpredictable on routes like Everest’s North Col. Nothing you can do about them, other than avoiding routes with high objective danger. It’s a sad, sad day, a huge loss for the climbing community. Konyi leaves behind a wife, 2 daughters and a beautiful life of 54 years.

It was all over the news. But, after reading several sources, the pieces just didn’t fit together. With good air supply and proper clothing, it is possible to survive something like this, but it’s the details around the rescue that just made things fuzzy and no one has been able to give me proper explanation on what probably happened, until I saw the video interview with the victim at the hospital.

I think it may have been a bit of the usual media overhype, or rather, confusion – without their malevolence – in the articles. I had been personally affected by such “typing errors” on several occasions before. Here is what I didn’t get:

• The skier was found under 50 cm of snow with no injuries besides mild hypothermia.
• It was a rescue heli that found him 17 hrs. after the accident whose crew “spotted movement on the surface”.

On avalanche courses, we regularly burry people under 50 cm of snow, then several people jump on the snow above the burried guy or gal and we leave the client there for as long as she can stand it under the snow. (We leave the feet sticking out, so they can signal if they want to come out). From under 50 cm of snow (OK, with the lower leg uncovered) it takes about 6-8 seconds on average for the client to undig themselves and break free from under the condensed snow.

This gentleman in the Swiss Alps ended up being burried, so that – thank Goodness – he had part of his head sticking out. So the 50 cm layer is a weired figure, as his head was at least partly free. Now, you may think, he should have been able to free himself from under such little snow without any serious injuries – but fact is that his legs and arms were wide apart and just couldn’t move them. It was as if he were stuck in concrete; and moving his hips and back didn’t help either.

Movement on the surface was spotted from the heli: it was, after all, his helmet sticking out, that the morning sun probably shone on – that was spotted from the helicopter. Now it makes sense.

All in all, it’s a very happy ending and I’m glad it didn’t turn into another tragedy.

Here, the lucky guy, “in his second life”, talks to press about the event (in French, German subtitles).

I don’t get it. Who was it that came up with the idea of making avalanche shovels out of plastic? Have they ever seen an avalanche from up close? I don’t dare asking whether they have tested these shovels at all…

How fast will this thing break?

See, when you’re digging for a buddy under the filthy, cohesive, chunky ice that an avalanche brings down, there is immense strenght in you. Adrenaline starts pumping like crazy and it empowers you to do things beyond imagination. I have a friend who was on the beach when the tsunami hit South-East Asia in 04. He was running from the water and jumped a 7 foot stone wall in no time. The following day, he was standing bewildered at the foot of that wall – “how the f**k did I jump this thing?!”…

Alloy - much better!

When you start beating ice with a plastic shovel with this kind of strenght, it’ll break and you’ll have to keep digging with your skis or your hands – which is hopeless, right? Bottom line: don’t use plastic shovels. Forget aluminium too. What you need is a great alloy which is also light. I came across this hybrid solution which looks promising, but I don’t know whether it actually got manufactured or not…

Of course, findig your buddy and starting to dig is already an achievement, you have to know how to locate her first… and, of course, there are better blogposts than this one on shovels, if you’re into the topic.

So why do they make plastic shovels? The only reasonable area of use for these things that I can think of: big mountain expeditions. Here, avalanche rescue is practically hopeless. What you need shovels for on expeditions is digging snowcaves and holes for your tent; which is mainly done in soft snow, without the brute force that’s pounding in you during a rescue. Plastic shovels definitely have an advantage in weight here…

Stay safe, rock ‘n’ roll… and comment away.

Hey, I got a chance to catch up with arguably one of the most successful high mountain climbers on the planet. I picked his brain on climbing training, sponosorhip and many other things… Check out the conversation:

Denis Urubko interview from ClimbBigMountains on Vimeo.

So who is this guy?
Denis Urubko of Kazahstan has climbed 16 8000 meter peaks. He became a hero when summiting the last Himalayan peak to be unclimbed in winter: this February, Simone Moro and Denis summited Makalu. Later, in May, Denis climbed a new route on Cho Oyu to complete his last 8000 meter peak, becoming only the 15th in the world to do so and the 9th to absolve all 14 without the use of supplementary oxygen. Denis is only 36 years old.

After having sat through an exciting 2 hour presentation of his, I got the impression that not only is Denis an exceptional mountaineer, but also a great person. Thanks again for the interview, Denis!