Posted: Jun 22, 2008 10:58 pm EDT
Dodo Kopold bagged the first summits this season but Himalaya lost another legend: French extreme skier Jean Noel Urban was killed in a crevasse fall on Gasherbrum 1 Wednesday.

French extreme skier Jean Noel Urban lost in fatal accident on Gasherbrum 1 Setting up camps on Gasherbrum 1, on June 18 at around 5 am, Jean-Noel Urban was leaving Camp 2 for Base Camp, when he fell into a very big crevasse. A search was attempted the next day, without results. There has been heavy snow fall since and rescue attempts have now been aborted. The 47-years-old French climber and ski instructor had skied a large number of 50-60 degrees steep slopes in the Alps, Central Asia, America and the Himalayas. This season, Jean-Noel and regular climbing partner Nicolas Brun planned to attempt an ascent of the Japanese couloir on the NW side of Gasherbum 1; and later an ascent and ski descent of Nanga Parbat by the Kinshofer route, Diamir side.

First 8000+ summits of the season in Karakoram: Dodo bags GI and GII - K2 next! Only 15 days alter arriving in BC, once again Dodo Kopold showed his worth; this time by bagging the first 8000+ meter peaks this Karakoram season: GII via the French pillar on June 9 in alpine style, and Hidden Peak (G1) a few days later with Vlado Plulík in a 16 hour roundtrip push from the saddle. The two will now move to K2.

Safe! Roby and Marco G2 inferno Italians Roby Piantoni and Marco Astori summited G1 on Sunday June 15 and went straight for GII from C2 (6,400m) on Gasherbrum La, the col connecting both peaks. At 3:00 pm local time Tuesday, Roby and Marco were back at 7,300m on the east ridge, crouched behind a rock outcrop to shelter from the wind. The descent to BC took 14 hours. "Had they continued up, it would have ended in a slaughter," their home team reported. Thick fog, horrible wind and most of all, deep snow - in which they sunk at each step for 12 kilometers ended their goal of linking GI and GII across the ridge.

Gasherbrums traverse - Himalayan Trilogy Reactivation On June, 17 Piotr Morawski and Peter Hamor began their great Gasherbrums (1-4) Traverse, pushing up the Spanish route on G1 with heavy backpacks. After two days of ice climbing, they have reached 6600 m where they are currently bivouacking on small platform. Halted by snowfall, Friday they were unable to neither ascend nor descend. The weather forecast is bad. Fortunately, the two brought with them food and gas for almost ten days.

Gasherbrum II: Hiro is back Japanese Hirotaka Takeuchi and Finnish Veikka Gustafsson are joining the Amical team on GII. The climbers are currently on their way to BC. Hiro is coming back to the mountain were he was nearly killed in an avalanche last year. Viekka only has GI, GII and Broad Peak left in his 14x8000ers quest.

K2 latest A Korean and a Serbian expedition have reached BC. Carrying ropes and supplies for C3, Roeland and Wilco moved from BC to C2 on Monday among rock falls and avalanches set off by warmer weather. The original plan to start fixing the route to C3 was thwarted by weather forecasts and the climbers returned to BC later in the week. Expedition porters are bringing additional 600 meters of rope from Skardu while Charles Boyd’s American and Mario Merelli’s Italian teams are on their way to cooperate with the Dutch. Currently on Broad Peak, Alberto Cerain’s team will attempt a BP/K2 double header. Alberto Cerain intends to climb K2 alone, without using the ropes fixed by the other teams.

Pakistan spires: Bowie and Normand back in Pakistan Barely a month since his climbs and a rescue attempt on Annapurna; Don Bowie is in Northern Pakistan to attempt Distaghil Sar. Don is teaming up with Bruce Normand, his summit partner on K2 back in 2007. The two are joined by UK climbers Peter Thompson and Ben Cheek. In the village of Shimshal, a group of representatives from the local tourism committee showed up, informing the climbers that they would be negotiating on behalf of the porters who were to carry our loads to base camp. "We immediately smelled trouble, and trouble is exactly what we got…Next Dispatch…Don vs. 34 angry porters.”

First Iranian lady expedition leader to climb Nanga Parbat in a call for Karoon river Last year, Kazem Faridian was one of the climbers when in a United Nations high-altitude summit push of sorts Russia, Korea, Portugal, Iran, America and Italy bagged K2 together. This time, Kazem is headed to Nanga Parbat as technical manager with an Iranian team led by lady climber Leyla Esfandirari - the first time an Iranian lady leads a Himalayan expedition. Another landmark is that this is the first Iranian expedition to actually have a sponsor. The sponsoring Rexroth Bosch Group along with the environmental Narvan Arra association hopes the expedition will raise global awareness about the disaster of Karoon; one of Iran's mighty rivers. The river stretches about 960 km out of which about 400 km have been polluted.

Everest north side: When will the Chinese peaks open for climbing? Between the Olympics this summer and next year's 50 year anniversary of Dalai Lama's forced exile from Tibet - there's a real risk that climbing in Tibet Himalaya will remain closed. "We are still optimistic that expeditions and tours will be permitted in Tibet this autumn," wrote Ang Tshering Sherpa (Asian Trekking) from Nepal however. "We have revised prices for Tibet for your information in case the area opens."

Meanwhile, the Chinese Olympic flame returned to Tibet for a second time after their previous visit on Everest. The roughly 10 km (6 miles) run in Tibet was set to begin at Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama's former summer palace (which the Chinese bombed before Dalai Lama's exile) and end at Potala - Tibet's "Vatican". Banners saying "Go China" and "Go Olympics" were strung up in Lhasa while truckload of riot troops stood watch in the city center according to AP who were forced to erase their footage. Chinese officials say that the Dalai Lama is preparing "suicide squads" to carry out attacks, AP also reported.

Final Ignition for Tibet: Peruffo calling urban climbers around the world Berlin, Paris, New York, Rome - Italian artist/climber Alberto Peruffo wants red flares lit in all these cities and he even has some of the buildings set. The simple civil action will result in a monumental work of art for Tibet and human rights; and you are invited: lit a red flare on a high terrace or roof of any skyscraper, ancient architectural structure or tall building anywhere in the world. Send the pic to Alberto. The project has grown into a mega event. On May 11 - in the first ignition phase - more than 100 summits were involved including red flare climbers making a difficult ascent on Matterhorn. Final Ignition is set for the official Olympics inauguration day, August 8th, 2008, regardless of weather.

"Free Tibet" new route on Ama Dablam west face Italian alpine guide Francisco Fazzi and Spanish Santiago Padros have opened a new, difficult route on Ama Dablam for Tibet. Planetmountain reported that the two scaled the west wall near the Japanese route from 85 traversing left midway up and following the bastion to the top. The climbers rated the Free Tibet 2065 route 1500m/V+/80°/M5+

And he's off! SY Icebreaker enroute to Antarctica - and Vinson This one is truly something else: for the last five years, Swedish Tommy Eriksson has been transforming a 32 foot sailing vessel into a private icebreaker. The adventurer is now enroute to Antarctica, where he plans to anchor and then ski across the ice to climb Vinson. He hopes to summit the peak in January 2009, and then sail back home.

Jerry's Top Ten Expedition BS Countdown complete: Kobalenko off to the wilderness "Faking an accomplishment; Claiming something is a first, when it's not; Pretending that an expedition is all about something socially relevant; Claiming that an expedition proves something it doesn't; Hiding the fact that an expedition is guided; Telling your audience that all it takes to live this life is the courage to follow your dreams, when you're sitting on a trust fund..." Jerry Kobalenko has finished his top-ten expedition BS countdown and left to paddle 1000km from Goose Bay, Labrador to Blanc Sablon, Quebec - probably a first.

Victoria Island: Shredded Kevlar and Battered Spirits Chris Bray and Clark Carter, with their 250 kg PACs, are challenged by melting lakes, deep, slushy snow, sloppy quicksand-style mud, defrosting permafrost and vicious pieces of rock. "Having burnt almost all of our anger and frustration yesterday, today we spilt the rest of it within the first hour of hauling, and from that moment on we merely carried onwards, slowly, methodically, mechanically - broken men - accepting each punishment as it was dealt out to us, and then standing up and falling silently back into the line of the harness," they reported day 22.

Greenland: Ronny Finsaas to test the winds again Antarctica record kiter and Patriot Hills extreme chef Norwegian Ronny Finsaas is on his second expedition across Greenland in the past three months. Ronny has done it from east to west in April/ May and now he is doing it from south to north. In 2005 Ronny’s friend, Niklas Norman, and his Windpower Expedition team did a kiting expedition on the same route, “Using only 21 days on the 2300km long trip with an average speed from sea level to sea level of 110 km/day. Setting a new world distance record in 24 hours of 442,7 km. (Old record: 271 km)."

US Coastguard rescues North Atlantic rowers Last Saturday, Falmouth Coastguard received an Iridium call at 01:00am BST from one of the crew members aboard the 29 foot rowing Boat ‘Scilly Boys’ stating that the boat had capsized, 420 nautical miles east of Cape Cod and all four crew were in the two cabins. Merchant vessel ‘Gulf Grace’ was diverted to the rowing boats last known position and a search aircraft (Hercules) was scrambled to assist in the search. The Crew were located by the aircraft and taken aboard the ‘Gulf Grace’ at 8 pm.

Henk De Velde update: about being first Following Jerry Kobalenko's BS countdown, Henk De Velde penned his own piece. The only sailor who sailed a catamaran non stop around the world; the first single-handed attempt to sail the Northeast passage and the only one who wintered over in the ice of Siberia, "how insignificant man-made records are," Henk says. And how much BS is involved. Philippe Monnet; Olivier the Kersauson; Vendee Globe - all making their own "records" along with iffy claims. "The first American, the first Dutchman, the first German, the first Negro, the first Chinese, the first Esquimo, the first Blind, the first with a banana in his mouth..." it's all vanity, Henk says: "I see small boats sailing around the world. You never hear about them. In marinas nobody looks at their tattered hulls.
For me those men and woman are world champions."

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