March, 2003 news

28 March, 2003 Nuptse East (7804 m): Duo Babanov - Suviga crossed 6000 m altitude, in spite of snow weather. Detales - soon.

28 March, 2003 Gia Tortladze: Why we abandoned Winter K2 expedition

28 March, 2003 Gia Tortladze and Iljas Tukhvatullin are going to the International Manaslu expedition. The Poles are at it again - Piotr Pustelnik is organizing an expedition to Manaslu this spring. Along with 5 Polish climbers there will a Georgian, Slovenian, and an Uzbekistani as well. Prior to Manaslu the team will acclimatize on nearby Larkey (Larkye) Peak - they expect to make base camp by April 15th.

Expedition members: Piotr Pustelnik - PL (leader), Anna Czerwinska - PL, Jozef Gozdik - PL, Krzysztof Tarasewicz - PL, Batrbara Drousek - SLO, Gia Tortladze - GA, Ilja Thukvatulin - UZ,and Piotr Klepacz - PL (non-climbing doctor.)

27 March, 2003

Pavel Shabalin and Iljas Tukhvatullin were awarded by the Golden Carabiner prize for the best climb of 2002, established by IMA - International Mountaineers Assotiation They made the first climb of the new route on Aksu (5217 m), Pamir Alay, (Sept 20 - Oct 5, 2002)

26 March, 2003 Nuptse East (7804 m): Babanov and Suviga reached 5800 March 22, had rest next day, and then they were planning three days climbing bivying on the route.

24 March, 2003 JUBELEE EXPEDITION "Saint Petersburg - EVEREST 2003" : The team (9 persons) will flight to Kathmandu March 31.

24 March, 2003

Iceclimbing World Championship (Kirov): photogallery by Serguey Shibaev (part 1) is on the site "EX" - russian magazine of extreme & outdoor

20 March, 2003 Nuptse East (7804 m) Valery Babanov and Vladimir Suviga reached 5750 m, and then they had rest March 19.

18 March, 2003 Valery Babanov and Vladimir Suviga interview before the expedition.

17 March 2003 Nuptse East (7804 m) Valery Babanov and Vladimir Suviga set the Base Camp at 5200 m on March 16

13 March, 2003 Jannu - North Face: Russian team led by Alexander Odintsov is going to solve the main Himalaya problem - to ascend by the unrelentingly steep North Face of Jannu (aka Kumbhakarna). (7710 m), which remained unclimbed yet despite numerous attempts by some of the world's best climbers. The expedition is planning in Autumn 2003, in post monsoon season as a part of the project "Big Walls - Russian routes". The other team from Saint Petersburg, led by Alexey Paskhin, plans to make the first ascent to the unclimbed 7-thousander in Himalaya in Kangchenjunga Himal. Mountaineers are preparing now, and will climb Peak Lenin (7134 m) to acclimatize in Summer. .

8 March, 2003 Today Ice-climbing World Championship in Kirov starts.

7 March, 2003 Nuptse East (7804 m) Valery Babanov wants to climb again by the East Ridge, South Face this Spring. Now he'll climb with Vladimir Suviga from Almaty (Kazakhstan). They will flight to Nepal March 8, Saturday. Last attempt was in Autumn 2002, solo. Valery climbed till 6300.

3 Murch , 2003 NETIA K2 POLISH WINTER EXPEDITION: The new strongest hurricane rages on K2 and under it. The team has the problem how to save all things in the BC and find the refuge... - the letter from Monika Rogozinska.

1 Murch, 2003 The team from Saint Petersburg climbed two difficult routes on Ak Kaya Massiff (Caucasus) Feb. 27. Congratulations! One of theese routes hasn't been climbed sinse 1979 (Golden medals on USSR Mountaineering Championship), other - the first climb (6a/Russian grade appr.)