Posted: Aug 11, 2008 10:16 pm EDT
Yesterday we ran a WIR K2 special; and here goes the second edition, wrapping up other events over the past two weeks. Pakistan has been action packed with a first ski descent of Nanga's central Diamir face; a new route double by Babanov and Afanasyev; G4 success by the Spaniards and an Italian new ascent on Beka Brakai Chhok.

Piotr Morawski delivered a GI & GII debrief; while in the polar areas a solar eclipce and global warming were big issues. ExWeb flew a banner over Manhattan but the Olympic inauguration lost more publicity to Russian tanks and jets invading Georgia Friday.

Thoughts went to Georgian climber Gia Tortladze (Shisha central twice, Cho Oyu, Everest, Lhotse and several K2 attempts, latest in 2006) who escaped a car bomb attack on his life only this past January.

ExWeb special: Stitzinger's first ski descent of Nanga Parbat central Diamir face It has been an unfortunate season for Karakoram extreme skiers. French Jean Noel Urban was lost on Gasherbrum in a crevasse fall and the North Face Ski & Snowboard G-II Expedition aborted their summit attempt on July 23d. The season was equally dark on Nanga Parbat; but there were highlights. Following his 2006 speed ascent and complete ski descent of G2; Luis Stitzinger climbed Nanga as a guide via Kinshofer route. He wanted to reach summit over the unclimbed Manzeno ridge, where he climbed until Manzeno Peak and descended due to bad weather via Messner route on the Diamir wall. Finally he made a speed climb up the Kinshofer route, had to abort short from summit but skied down the whole Diamir face in a 24,5 hours roundtrip.

Broad Peak, G1 and G2 triple - new route double! Valery Babanov and Viktor Afanasyev summited BP on July 17th via a new, 3000 meter long route which they rated “VI, WI5, M6, Max 90º”. Starting July 29th, the two went on to attempt a new route on the SW face of Gasherbrum 1 in alpine style. The two reached the summit of G1 on August 1. Incredibly, on the second night a rock shot right through the climber's tent hitting the sleeping Viktor in the head. The climbers spent the remains of the night trying to stop the bleeding, wrapped the wound, put on helmets and resumed the climb by daybreak. “We thought our climb was over, but couldn't go down our ascent route." Left without a choice, the two climbed up the new route to the ridge from where a safe descent would be possible. There Viktor decided he wanted the summit after all. At about 3 pm local team mates Valery Shamalo, Pavel Chochia and Elizabeth Revol made an unscheduled show, and the 5 climbers summited GI together. With that Valery Babanov and Viltor Afanasiev had opened two new routes in alpine style within only 16 days. Valery and Viktor will reportedly try to climb Gasherbrum II next.

More on Revol & co Before G1; Valery Shamalo and Pavel Chochia summited G2 on July 29th via normal route; while Elizabeth Revol summited G2 on July 30th via the classical route, expedition leader Valery Babanov confirmed on his website.

Gasherbrum IV success August 1 Alberto Iñurrategi, Jose Carlos Tamayo, Ferran Latorre, Juan Vallejo and Miguel Zabaleza summited Gasherbrum IV via the NW Ridge (the third conquest of this 1986`s route). On descent, Ferran Latorre suffered leg injury due to rock fall. The team managed to bring him down and reached BC August 2nd.

Broad Peak summits, Veikka tops out no 13 July 31 at around 11 am, French duo Stephane Portier and Claude Labatut, Italians Mario Panzeri and Daniele Nardi, and Finnish Veikka Gustafsson summited Broad Peak. The mountain marked the second top in Pakistan this season for the Italians who previously summited Nanga Parbat, and also for Veikka Gustafsson who previously summited G2. With Broad Peak, Panzeri now has 9x8000ers, Nardi 4x8000ers and Veikka 13x8000ers.

Chris Warner's Nanga Parbat debrief: about Karl, Saman, egotism, camaraderie, risks and the spirit of mountaineering. For a number of years now, stories of people left for dead but surviving on Everest - such as Beck Weathers, Lincoln Hall, latest Sultan and Faruq - have taught mountaineers that we can survive on high altitude much longer than we had previously thought. This summer, Nanga Parbat offered the same lesson, only too late. Go to Chris Warner's debrief and get all the details on what went down on Nanga Parbat last month, including flashbacks on K2 last year; egotism, camaraderie, risks and the spirit of mountaineering.

Nanga Parbat take 2 American Fabrizio Zangrilli is in Pakistan with Billy and Dave for an attempt on the Rupal Face. Fabrizio Zangrilli provided a detailed report on the team's gear.

Piotr Morawski's GI & GII debrief: Beyond the summit fever Polish Piotr Morawski has submitted a debrief on his Polish-Slovak Alpinus Expedition. Together with Peter Hamor, shortly after their very demanding Annapurna attempt, they made a beautiful traverse of Hidden peak, in alpine style and hard conditions, ending with a cool ascent to GII, ahead of dozens of climbers burning with “summit fever.”

Simone Moro's Beka Brakai Chhok first ascent debrief: "we climb to live" "Vetta!!Vetta!! Vetta!!! Finalmente!!! (Summit!! Finally, the summit!!)." So began Italian Simone Moro's report on the first ascent of Beka Brakai Chhok he did together with Herve Bramasse - without high camps and in less than 48 hours. In light of the recent events on K2 and Nanga Parbat, Simone wrapped up: "Alpinism is not just death, tragedy, survival and heroism. We hope our climb will serve as a reminder that mountaineers like us and many others climb mountains to live, to enjoy, to grow. And to accept the verdicts of life and sometimes also of fate; without arguing or lacking respect toward those who share the same value: the value of life."

Danijela's impossible climb to the top of the world "Don't play to impress, play to win," said Michael Gersitz about the game of poker. Dealt nothing but leftover cards at birth, Danijela too had a choice. After spending most her life in an institution and an IQ level of only 80, Danijela Jovanovic became the only woman without hands and feet to pass the mental and physical training set up by Extreme Sport Club "Pozitiv" and Federation for Sport and Recreation for People With Disabilities of Serbia. Saturday, she summited Mount Elbrus! With this success; Danijela will head to Aconcagua in January next year - and you already guessed the ultimate goal: the summit of Everest, with Danijela the first disabled woman to climb all the way to the top of the world.

Gasherbrum 1 Mid-July, Colombian Fernando Gonzalez-Rubio attempted Gasherbrum I along with Veikka Gustafsson, but the two were forced to abort the summit bid around 7.600m due to bad weather. Portuguese couple Dani & Paulo also aborted their summit bid.

Nike's swim at the North Pole before total solar eclipse Eclipse hunters Nike and David Speltz traveled on an Arctic ice breaker for a total view of last Friday's solar eclipse. At the exact North Pole, Nike celebrated by taking a swim on the spot. Even more frustrating to Lewis Gordon Pugh were probably the couple's live images over Contact 4.0, showing an extensive ice shield still covering the Arctic sea.

Henk De Velde update: comparing polar ice 2007/2008 Comedy BS-busters Penn and Teller revealed that Al Gore’s mansion not only consumes more electricity every month than the average American household does in an entire year; the "offset-points" (similar to pardon points offered by priests for money in the past) Gore buys actually come from his own company. The Global Warming issue is attracting increasingly more heat; few are aware that Mars is losing parts of its southern ice cap and has overall warming similar to the one experienced on Earth. Also other planets show similar patterns. So what's going on? Henk De Velde knows well how to research ice conditions and last week the sailor dove into the subject. "This year a passing will be impossible for a small boat as you can see on the ice situation map end of July 2008," he wrote about the NW passage, adding "Arctic ice has diminished, but there's more ice in Antarctica now. Truth is about 2/3rd of total North Pole ice always melts by the end of the northern summer. This summer it got down to about 1/4 of the winter amount. It is much less alarming if you consider that the total between the 2 poles only represents about a 5% reduction from normal."

ExWeb interview with Alex Hibbert about their 113 days on Greenland Alex Hibbert (22) and George Bullard (19) sledge-hauled a 1374 miles (2546 km) return journey on the Greenland Icecap. ExWeb caught up with Alex to get the scoop on lost depots, food shortage, crevasse crossings and more.

Fatality on Andrea Doria wreck dive Newsday.com reported that on July 30th, Terry DeWolf, 38, of Houston became the 15th diver to die exploring the wreck of ocean liner Andrea Doria, sitting in 235 to 255 feet of water. Such depths require a slow ascent and tech diving, with gas mixtures other than compressed air used to avoid bends and narcosis. Wreck diving in general is dangerous due to divers getting stuck or disoriented in ship's chambers; DeWolf was reportedly found outside the wreck and cause of death is yet unknown.

08/08/08: Red Torch For Tibet banner flies over Manhattan; ExWeb crew light torches on peaks Last week was packed to say the least at ExplorersWeb. The drama on K2 was abruptly disrupted by another pressing event: The Olympic Games kick-off. ExWeb ran a number of special stories: wrapping up the past Everest season, publishing the list of International Human Rights and compiling all the amazing images of supporting climbers and explorers around the world. Thursday evening, the first red candle for Freedom was lit by Herve Perouse in Bulgaria, close friend of French K2 victim Hugues and with that time had come for the Final Ignition of red flares for the SadSmokyMountains project. ExWeb flew a "Red Torch for Tibet" banner over Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, while Alberto Peruffo did things in Paris. ExWeb's US editors simultaneously climbed Colorado's Mount Democrat with a torch, while other ExWeb editors had already "lit up" Mandela's Robben Island prison in South Africa and Pico del Alba in Huesca's Pyreenes. Check the pics and fully story about ExWeb's "virgin activists."

Alberto's project was not alone in actions for Human rights. Reporters without Borders took over 104.4 FM and broadcasted free radio in Beijing just hours before the opening ceremonies Friday. The 20 min program called for the Chinese Government to respect free speech. This was the first non-state controlled radio broadcast in China since 1949. Media reported that a member of China's Ighur minority set himself on fire in Turkey but fellow demonstrators managed to extinguish the flames. In Kathmandu, 1130 Tibetans were arrested when they demonstrated outside the Chinese embassy. In San Francisco, protesters walked over the Golden Gate Bridge after again climbing it Monday and posting Free Tibet banners. In Copenhagen, Demonstrators pledged to cut off hair outside the Chinese Embassy.

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

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