Posted: Oct 14, 2007 09:54 pm EDT
Buried! What a remarkable fall season it has been in Himalaya. Loads and loads of snow omitted all summit attempts except on Cho Oyu. Not even Shisha's central summit could be reached and Sunday a message arrived that Nives and Romano had to abort their summit push on Makalu as well. With that, all eyes were on Dhaulagiri - where Kinga and Dodo reportedly had to retreat after reaching 8157 meters.

Makalu - Nives & Romano - it's over Saturday, Nives and Romano tried a single summit attempt. "There really is too much snow," Nives said prior to the push, "we sink at every step. As Romano and I are alone, we must break all the tracks and one such attempt is all we will manage."

Friday, the two climbers went up to 6600 meters and made a bivouac for the night. Yesterday they pushed for 7400 meters, reaching the ridge, when a gale blew up. The exhausted climbers tried to find a place for a last camp, and shoot for the summit from there. But Sunday they were forced to retreat to BC. Romano reported that the snow was absolutely horrible, "we had to break trail at every step, sinking deep, the conditions were impossible and I was just too tired to continue. We gave it our all, but there was nothing to do." The climbers called in with their decision to abort as soon as they reached back in BC today, and expect to be back in Kathmandu within seven days.

Dhaulagiri update! Two teams established camp III and tried for the summit Saturday. Dodo and Kinga reached upto 8157 meters and then returned to Camp II, according to a message sent by another team to BC, reported the webmaster. "I guess, they will arrive BC tomorrow afternoon."

Dhaulagiri - the Dutch report. Dodo, Kinga and Fredrik are among the last on the slope: "The French, Slovak, Polish lady, who started their expedition later, are still awaiting their chance. The Swedish Skier/Climber and the Korean also wanted to wait longer to allow a possible summit attempt," reported the Dutch climbers from Kathmandu on Friday. "We have not really got any news from the mountain in the last 4 days. Although we hope that they get a fair shot at the summit, our hopes are low. At the moment that we left basecamp, the risk of avalanches had increased to dangerous levels. Our biggest concern at the moment is that all return safe, with our without a summit."

Jannu - climb is on! Sergey and Valery ascended Peak Merra (6334 m) October 6th and later found a way up to the snow plateau and reached 5100 m. Sunday the message came - the climb is on!

Andrew Lock - Not this time "The hoped for weather window hasn't arrived and the mountain remains shrouded in lenticular clouds, as strong winds blast over it and the temperature plummets ever lower. Our forecast indicates the same or worse for the next week, only to be followed by the jet stream moving south over the mountain, effectively ending the season," Andrew reported.

Cho Oyu - Alaska boys' ski descent Tyler Johnson, Rory Stark and Will Stark from Anchorage, Alaska made the Cho Oyu summit on October 3rd, in cold weather and high winds. Rory and Tyler skied from the summit to Camp 1 without removing their skis. They only used the fixed lines at a section between camp 1 and camp 2 in order to get through the icefall.

Christian Stangl speed ascent encore Last year, Austrian Chris Stangl climbed Everest north side from ABC (6.400 m) to summit without O2 in 16 hours and 42 minutes! Last week, he speed climbed Cho Oyu in 15 hours and 6 minutes from BC to summit. "Due to the general bad weather this season, I could only spend three nights at camp 1 (6.400 m) for acclimatization before starting my summit push on September 30th, at 05:00 pm. I climbed non-stop through the night and reached the summit at 08:06 am on October 1st" Chris reported from Kathmandu.

Everest Rocks! Touted as the highest rock concert; let's be fair and not forget the gig Oz Bayldon and the Hidden did on Kala Pattar in 2005... Everest Rocks is making waves, and in Shannon’s dispatches, you'll learn how to find a full fledge recording studio and a snare drum for Slim Jim Phanton in Kathmandu.

Cho Oyu - More summits Six climbers from the Seven Summits Club – Alpindustria expedition were among the last to summit the peak. Another Cho Oyu summit was bagged by Ricardo Guerrero from the Cordoba Everest 2008 expedition.

A debate is raging in Canada on whether or not the country's first Everest summit was cool. Following the 1982 expedition, Messner reportedly said the climb accomplished “nothing new and nothing special.” Pat Morrow (one of the summiteers) told the Vancouver Sun, “It’s not something we should be proud of as Canadians. We put Canadians on the summit, but not by an unclimbed route.” Others disagree, pointing out that it was an inspiration to other Canadian climbers, who went on and did tougher climbs on the peak.

Since the Maoists managed to force a postponement of elections for an indefinite period, chief Prachanda has become bolder. Now he says that unless Maoists demands are met, they could bring down the interim government altogether. The world hurries to aid the weak Nepal leadership. International protests have been been made and India is sending a senior diplomat to push for an early election and a return to democracy.

Ama Dablam made sad headlines last year. A climber fell to his death down the west face; making a rescue attempt impossible. “To our disbelief, back in Kathmandu our garbage deposit was refused to us,” a member in the team reported to ExplorersWeb. “Apparently, dead bodies which can not be retrieved are considered garbage!” The accident followed the night of November 13, when a large part of a serac collapsed on the upper slopes of the peak. The falling chunk of ice hit Camp 3 on the normal route, sweeping six sleeping climbers off the peak and sparking a debate between mountaineers on overcrowding. Nevertheless, lots of teams are in place again; some reports say that only Summit Climb have no less than 45 climbers on the Ama this season.

Kendal Mountain Festival gearing up for Nov 9-18: 'When is Adventure Madness?' Kendal’s Extreme Film School has been re-named the Adventure Film Academy; and the International Festival of Mountain Literature moves to Kendal this year with an event titled ‘When is Adventure Madness?’ on Saturday 10th. Together with an one-off audience with Doug Scott on Thursday 15th (limited tickets) the Book Festival is shaping up for yet another unmissable year, state the organizers.

In the news - Seeing Everest as the tallest ATM in the world? When ExWeb visited Kendal in 2003, Conrad Anker was first up, speaking about the team who invited him to join their expedition in search for Mallory’s body. The big issue centered around the use of the body’s pictures. Anker wasn’t especially happy with the teams’ decision and wasn’t in agreement with it, “The decision was based on money, and the feelings of the family (Mallory’s) were compromised,” he said. Contradictory, in a New York Times article posted last Sunday, Conrad Anker told the journalist that he climbs Everest “Because Everest pays.” Anker, who has 2, 8000er summits under his belt (both Everest normal route, on oxygen) said “I can make money on Everest. I’ll be brutally honest.”

Everest climber, 56, to sail non stop and solo around Antarctica in the Southern Ocean "Do you know if anyone has completed an ocean row (eg Atlantic) and climbed Everest?" asked a reader's email. In fact, there is at least one. Fedor Konyukhov is the current record holder for unassisted Atlantic E-W solo row. He climbed Everest in 1992 (South Col) with no less than Eugeny Vinogradsky (recent Everest North Wall and K2 West Face summiteer). He's also done amazing polar trips and crossed the Atlantic 12 times. Friday, Fedor set sail on a shake-down solo voyage in preparation for an attempt to sail his 27 metre (88') boat "Alye Parusa" around the 14,600 nautical mile Antarctica Cup Racetrack and in doing so claim the inaugural world record for sailing solo, non-stop, around this hard track, which circumnavigates Antarctica in the Southern Ocean.

Word from Beyond Endurance: South Pole is on, traverse - maybe The Irish Beyond Endurance Team 07/08 will attempt a supported Hercules to SP expedition, but are still looking for funding to traverse out to Axel Heiberg. Irish Pat Falvey will lead the team. Other members are Clare O’Leary and Sean Menzies. Alaska resident and 2003 Everest summiteer Gerard McDonnell (recovering from a rock fall on K2 last summer) is replaced by Jonathon Bradshaw. Pat and Clare are Everest summiteers - Pat has topped-out twice; Clare was the first Irish woman to achieve the feat. The expedition aims to become the first Irish team to reach the South Pole and, if money come their way, to traverse the continent.

No one forgets an inspirational teacher: Fuchs Foundation expedition kick-off at RGS October 24 Temperature Torture. Naked in Antarctica (and loving it). There’s No Way to Degrade a Tardigrade! Take only photographs, leave only footprints. You guessed it; the first teachers’ Antarctic expedition gets ready to leave for Puntas on 24th October.

Once in a lifetime - do the Northeast passage! Adventure Associates invite you to join one of their most ambitious expeditions ever, a transit of the Northeast Passage, which follows the Arctic coast of Russia from the Barents Sea to the Bearing Strait. Adventure Associates state they were the first and will be the only- expedition company capable of offering this journey aboard a polar-class icebreaker in 2008. The expedition commences in Anchorage, Alaska prior to flying to Anadyr, Russia ending in Helsinki 26 days later.

Erden Eruc's bliss: A 12 foot home and plenty of plotting neighbors The last man rowing on the Pacific Ocean; Erden is actually enroute to be the second in history to circumnavigate the earth by human power. It was fitting then, that he was among the first Jason Lewis called up Saturday. After a quick chat, Erden was fast back to his own universe. Followed by a school of various fish, all avoiding his elaborate hook setups lately, Erden is as busy as ever.

Expedition Amazonas: Terrifying first week in IV/V whitewater calls for plan B Expedition Amazonas is a 7 month, 7000km trek and paddle, along the entire length of the mighty river. Late September, the team arrived in Pilpinto, began their hike to the river mouth, and hit the water. One week later, they were spat right back out.

Tomek and Wacek 'wrong-way' voyage update. Polish Tomasz Lewandowski lost it all, left for America, gained it all back fishing for scallops, met Beata, bought his dream boat and left for a solo sail around the world against the winds. In the latest reports, first mate Wacek was busy chasing sea birds on deck and barking at whales. "It's rude and un-Polish to deny strangers rest" Tomek tried to explain, "but the Jack-Russell is a spoiled, California-born Anglo-Saxon!" The sailor himself listens to 30 years old Polish audio books, "some of them however are hard to endure, the people who read them were probably chosen for the job at a party meeting...for example I can’t stand to hear books read by Mr. R. Nadrowski...he totally corrupted Shogun!"

ExWeb Columbus Day Special: Mars ho! Oxygen in Space Almost 2000 years before Columbus voyage, Eratosthenes said that the world's oceans are connected and that the earth is round; he even calculated its diameter to within an error of fifty miles. Great human voyages of discovery are often held up by other reasons than lack of know-how. In the third entry about ExWeb's private mission to Mars; we examined the final part of life support: Oxygen.

Read these stories - and more! - at ExplorersWeb.com

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