What Happened on Peak Lenin

Hey, I’m back from my first big mountain. Things went not quite the way I planned. Anyway, I need to get back on my feet, get life organized and I’ll be with you with the report on what happened on this 7100 meter monster. Thanks for your patience.

Search called off after Tragedy in China

American climbers [tag-tec]Johnny Copp[/tag-tec], [tag-tec]Micah Dash[/tag-tec] and [tag-tec]Wade Johnson [/tag-tec]were tragically killed in an avalanche in the Sichuan Province of China during their attempt of climbing Mount Edgar.

The blog at climbing.about.com recently informed us that the search has been called off, after locating the bodies of Johnny Copp and Wade Johnson. Micah Dash is reported to be still missing. This story has been all over the news, as the party of three were well known in the climbing community. I found this incredible video featuring Dash and Copp on the spectacular site of photographer/filmmaker Jimmy Chin. What’s really shocking in the video are the last few minutes, where the two talk about risk and tragedy in mountaineering, with pans of Chamonix’s mountaineering memorial site. Ironically, the film was shot and edited in great part by Wade Johnson.

Our condolences to the friends and family of the three alpinists.

Micah Dash and Johnny Copp segment of “The Sharp End” from Cedar Wright on Vimeo.

Here is a tribute video from Black Diamond’s blog:

Tribute to Jonny, Micah and Wade (updated) from Ben Alexandra on Vimeo.

Losing a Fellow Climber

It’s been quiet here in the blog. One reason is the good weather – I’ve been out on the rocks or doing stuff around the yard… This weekend it’s kitesurfing, for a change…

I’ve meant to post this week, but bad news hit. Wednesday. Fellow friend and climber, Levi Szabo died in the Nepalese Himalayas on Manaslu (8154 meters) whille descending to C4. Extremely tired, he slipped on relatively easy terrain and couldn’t regain his control after a slide and went over a 500 meter cliff at 7300 meters.

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Everest Basecamp Avalanche Video

Avalanches on the Khumbu icefall above [tag-tec]Mount Everest[/tag-tec] BC (Nepal side) are more or less common, but few are as powerful as the one in this video… Even smaller ones sweep ladders and fixed ropes away. If you google Everest BC avalanches, you’ll find a few videos – this is probably the longest and most exhibitive of all. On most of these videos, the avalanches originate from the left side of the Khumbu glacier and as far as I know, the route up the glacier avoids this side…

Still, it’s scary as hell. I witnessed an avalanche…

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How to rappel with three people fast and sound

A really cool blog: Alpine Awakening by mountain guide Kurt Hicks recently featured a really good article on how to rapp quickly and securely with a party of three. It’s clever and definitely makes rapping faster and more secure when with a group of 3. Just make sure that the anchor points are strong enough to hold 2 climbers while they rapp simultaneously! Check out the post here.

Update: I got the idea for this post via onthesharpend.com

Say, where are you climbing?

The tourskiing season is coming to an end here in Europe and everyone is seriously starting to look at their climbing targets for the summer.

Thus came the idea of the survey – who is going where? I’m dying to find out – and I bet you are too – what’s hot and what’s not this year… Let’s focus on the birthplace of mountaineering for now – Europe, more specifically, the Alps. If you want, we can do similar a survey for you Americanos and Americanas as well afterwards

Right after we get enough data, I’ll share the results – which may be surprising…

So, here we go…!

Can You Be a Climber Without Being a Mountaineer?

A friend and I were talking last night… He’s a great [tag-tec]alpinist[/tag-tec], having bagged several difficult routes in Europe and getting to 6600 meters on the shivering, cruel North Face of [tag-tec]Khan-Tengri[/tag-tec]. He went on a small climbing vacation to Croatia’s [tag-tec]Paklenica[/tag-tec] National Park – a paradise of bolted single- and multi-pitch rock routes.  With his girlfriend, a novice climber, they did a few routes where – after topping out, you could opt to hike back on steep, rocky trails to the foot of the wall instead of rapelling.

Great weather in late autumn and a ton of people [tag-tec]climbing[/tag-tec]. But what became apparent to them is the inadequacy of a bunch of sport climbers to… actually hike. It was a disgrace. More »

First Ascent of Fisht Western Face in the Caucasus

You’ve got to have respect for Russain mounaineers. In Europe and North-America, they get too little attention. I just read on the English pages of mountain.ru (great site, by the way, full of priceless information) that a team of five ascended the 560 m wall of Fisht’s Western Face straight on the fall line. The conditions were incredibly crappy for them, but the tough, Prussian-style schooling paid off: they were able to ascend despite the poor conditions – despite hardly even being able to reach BC in the snowy and ici days of the Caucasian February.

Check out the dispatches here and lament over what it must have been like to climb this baby in early March:

Climbing Training: 4 Usual and 4 Unconventional Tips to Boost you on Big Mountains

You know you want it. Spring is approaching and you can hardly stop thinking about that rock route or mounain peak that you’ve been wanting to climb so badly. So how’s it gonna be?

What do you do when you’re working the rat race instead of sending a beautiful alpine route or an inviting rock face? The sweetest weeks of the alpine climbing are sneaking up on us and you’re no fitter now than the same time last year! So you’ve got to train, if you’re to hit your aspiration. Today, I’m writing to share with you some conventional and unconventional tips for [TAG-TEC]climbing training[/TAG-TEC].

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Big wall climbing: Trango, Pakistan

Check out this video. 4 surprisingly cool French (no offense there ) mountain guides hit Trango wall on a brand new route, taking like 20 days to summit the 1600 meter route. Shows you just how far a great deal of humor, laughter, friendship and bad ass climbing will take you take all of them very seriously.

The funny thing is that one of the guys acutally “left” the team above 5500 meters – he jumped off with his wingsuit!

The team named their “project” – or the video at least Azazel, which is a name used for Satan in the Bible. Hmm, wonder what’s up with that…
Thanks to gorida.com for pointing this video out in his blog.