Posted: Nov 23, 2008 09:47 pm EST
The Polish are at it again – cool climbs are coming up in winter Himalaya. A couple of fatalities have taken place on Ama Dablam, with details sketchy at least regarding one of them. There were debriefs from Nuptse and Anna II; and plans emerging for Everest 2009.

Flattened tents, broken bindings and bruised ribs; one waits for an evacuation and another is in bed with flu and fever. Skiers are struggling towards the pole with considerable difficulty; Antarctica is full throttle.

Through the good and the bad – such are the lives of the free and the brave. Due to the shuttle launch ExWeb’s WIR was scrubbed last so here goes a two week review.

Pumori accident report French female climber and sky-runner Corinne Favre was seriously injured on Pumori. "She got hit square in the chest by a very large chunk of ice the size of an armchair,” Fabrizio Zangrilli, who was leading another team on the mountain, told AFP news agency. The American mountain guide hauled Corinne down for over four hours, before Sherpas and other team members were able to reach them and help. Favre suffered multiple fractures and serious chest injures.

Bad form on Island Peak "When you decide to take down a fixed line, please be sure no one is rappelling on it!” An FTA team leader reported that Island Peak was busy with a lot of egos, inexperienced climbers and territorial Sherpas. One of the teams reportedly began to take down a rope that someone was still rappelling down.

Ama Dablam fatality After summiting on the 4th of November, FTA team member Wei Cui fell while rappelling down the Grey Tower and was fatally injured. After falling from approximately 6300m he came to rest near 5800m on the south facing slopes below the tower. "Wei Cui's body was recovered but the cause of his fall is unknown,” reported FTA.

Another fatality on Ama Dablam EverestNews.com reported that a French climber, named by Gyanendra Shrestha with the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation only as "Jean Mary," on a different Ama Dablam expedition died in the same place as Wei Cui around November 1st. A loose end of a fixed rope could have been mistaken by both climbers who simply rappelled off the end, the source reported.

Over on Makalu, hoping for a last-minute chance, on November 4th Steve House rushed up Makalu’s west face on his own – only to be sent back down again by the strong wind. “It feels like this has been a very long trip to me,” Steve concluded. “Everything that could have gone wrong in an expedition actually went wrong: we had problems with logistics, we all got sick, BC was extremely cold, and wind virtually never stopped. However, we’ve spotted at least two potential routes up the West face which may be climbed alpine style - it’s one of the greatest walls on one of the finest, most difficult mountains in the world. I have the feeling that we will be back in the future – it’s still a great target.”

Annapurna II debrief “Strong, freezing, winds wouldn’t stop, so that we never reached higher than 7200m,” Croatian Ivan Ferencak told ExplorersWeb. “Some of our members got hurt on our last attempt: One guy was hit by falling rocks, which luckily caused only minor injuries; others were literally blown off from the ridge by the wind, and sled down steep slopes. Our C3 at 6900m was destroyed by the wind the night after our retreat from the first summit attempt, and we never got to rebuild it after that. Also, some massive seracs broke and fell right on our route from C2 to C3, so we had to find a new, harder but safer way around. Still, we enjoyed the climb and the experience,” the Croatian climber concluded.

Kang Guru: “I have personally enjoyed the experience of Kang Guru and although we are all disappointed about not reaching the summit, I think we have had quite an unique expedition by having such a seldom climbed mountain all to ourselves,” reported Altitude Junkies/Project-Himalaya team leader Phil Crampton.

Everest 2009 With rumors that restrictions in Tibet will not let up next year; most Everest expeditions are setting their sights set on Nepal’s southern side. “Everest from Tibet looks like being closed again in spring 2009 so we are heading back to the warmer, although more expensive side of the mountain,” Altitude Junkies reported. Phil Crampton and Project-Himalaya’s Jamie McGuinness will lead upcoming expeditions on Everest’s south side and Lhotse. Also headed for the south side are Peak Freaks, Adventure Consultants, Alpine Ascents, IMG, MM, etc.

Dutch comment to BBC Nangpa La documentary Nov 10, ExWeb's mailboxes were suddenly littered again by the trademark Chinese spam we grew so accustomed to this past Everest spring. Soon, an explanation arrived. A BBC documentary had just aired about Nangpa La. "That the Chinese border patrols shoot Tibetans trying to flee to Nepal should not come as a surprise to us," commented a Dutch viewer in an email to ExWeb. "But the naïve lack of awareness is disturbing. Even more so when people who have been witness to these killings start to quarrel about whether to make these images and facts known to the public at large. 'I could loose my permit' is their defense. You should not even want to be on Everest [...] praise to the Romanian cameraman and the American who understood where one should stand, and shame to those that doubt if their presence on Everest or other expeditions in the future is in danger."

Nuptse South face debrief After acclimatizing up to C1 on Ama Dablam, on October 27th Stéphane Benoist and Patrice Glairon-Rappaz launched their single-push on Nuptse. The climbers dug a small ledge on ice for their first bivy night at 6,500m, and progressed on vertical ice up to 6,800m the next. On day three, they left ropes and gear behind at 7,100 meters and shot straight for the summit ridge at 7,700m where they got at 7:00pm. They retrieved the gear on descent and reached the second bivy spot at 2:45 am, finally rappelling down crystal-ice walls all the way back to BC on October 30th. Stéphane and Patrice named the 2,000 meters-long, up to 90º new route “Are you experienced?”, and graded it M5. “The route demanded all the stamina, will-power and experience we had assembled through our entire lives as alpinists,” they concluded.

Polish winter action ahead! Artur Hajzer will lead Robert Szymczak and Canadian Don Bowie (both part of the rescue attempt of Inaki Ochoa this past spring) on Broad Peak this winter. Artur has five 8000ers under his belt (latest Dhaula in May with Robert), three of them climbed via new routes, and the first winter climb on Annapurna. Arthur and Robert were also members in the Polish winter attempt on Nanga parbat two years ago (with Szymczak as expedition Doc). A second Polish team led by Jacek Teler will attempt Nanga Parbat.

American Alpine Journal call for New-route Reports It's that time again! Submit your climbing report and images to the American Alpine Journal - the 2009 edition is one month early this year so you need to get your stuff together fast. You'll get your place in history and will also help others to plan and estimate their future climbs.

Antarctica: skiers off Armin Wirth and Dieter Staudinger started their expedition from Neumayer Station around November 9. Patriot Hills teams arrived the ice a few days later. There are four crossing/return journeys. Starting points range from Hercules Inlet to the Messner Start, Neumayer Station and Shackleton’s hut on the Ross Ice Shelf. Most groups started around 11 November.

The women Chus Lago is the only solo woman on the ice this year; an Everest summiteer and a Snow Leopard (she has climbed the highest peaks in the former Soviet Union), Chus now intends to become the first Spanish woman to ski to the South Pole. Sarah McNair-Landry is guiding for ANI/ALE; and Jill Maxwell from Australia will join Eric Larsen’s team from the Messner Start.

The men are not only in the majority; five of them are planning a speed attempt of less than 40 days (Hannah McKeand holds the fastest time from Hercules Inlet at the moment.) Mark Langridge has to be fast, because he plans to turn around at the South Pole and ski back without the use of kites. Todd Carmichael is back after last years attempt. Richard Weber and his ultra-endurance team-mates, Ray Zahab and Kevin Vallely, will also make a speed attempt.

Four skiers are solo and unsupported; Mark, Todd, Teemu and Chus. Julio Fiadi is back with his rigid, habitable sled. Although he will have no ski partner he will have support with a resupply.

Tough start Teams have been struggling in high winds and over very large crevasses in the Hercules Inlet area (the Shackleton descendants instead were glad not to experience the crevasses that Shackleton reported 100 years ago on Ross Ice Shelf). One team crashed with their kites, tent poles snapped and the tent collapsed for another, one skier broke his binding and had to tape his boot to the ski. There are reports of eyes frozen shut, smashed goggles, malfunctioning stoves and broken ski poles (one currently replaced by a tripod). There are wrong drop-off points (forcing strenuous backtracking to 80 degrees), unexpected sastrugi fields, foot-blisters as large as 50 mm, and bruised ribs. A skier (Peter Valusiak) waits for an evacuation (his mum had a stroke) on the Novo side and solo Finn, Teemu Lakkasuo is in bed with flu and fever.

UK Shackleton descendants, Worsley, Gow and Adams, departed from Shackleton’s hut on 14 November. The next day they set off from Inaccessible Island to Hut Point where Scott's 1902 Discovery Expedition hut is located. They passed the Cape Evans Hut, built in 1912 for the Terra Nova expedition, during which Scott reached the South Pole but perished on the way back. Once underway on Ross Ice Shelf, the going was much more difficult than the previous two days, with deeper snow and a headwind, their home team reported.

ExWeb interview with Sarah McNair-Landry: “It’s great to be able to make living by doing what I love!” Sarah’s last couple years have been packed with expeditions, so much so that she is starting to call her Hilleberg tent home, she says. This 2008-9 season she is guiding a group of four skiers from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole (kiting back to the coast with one of them). ExWeb’s Correne Coetzer caught up with Sarah in Punta Arenas just before she left.

Mike Horn – no Peninsula start The glacier had many dangerous crevasses where Mike Horn scouted so he returned back to the crewed boat and decided to fly in from Punta Arenas instead. Pangaea took four days to cross the turbulent Drake Passage and will now head to a boatshed for a few weeks and have some work done while Mike is trekking to the South Pole.

Tommy's icebreaker: back to Mar Del Plata The mechanic never showed up so Tommy fixed the engine himself, and reached Puerto Santa Elena en route to Ushuaia last weekend. The place not a "puerto" exactly, but a somewhat protected bay in the middle of nowhere, sporting a few hills and scattered bushes. Unfortunately, the engine broke again so Tommy was forced to sail back to Mar del Plata, hoping to have the engine fixed in the marina after all.

ExWeb special report: Godspeed Endeavour! T-1, Don's kick-off party at Cocoa beach was like out of an Apollo movie. People strolled the white sand or lined up at the barbecue chatting about meteorites, space - and the current economy. Endeavour was scheduled to launch the following day, Friday November 14. The weather had looked iffy for a while, but by the time team ExWeb entered the Kennedy Space Center by late pm, all systems were go for a rare night launch - the last scheduled by NASA. Go check the special ExWeb report.

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

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