June - July news

30 July, 2009 K2: All, who can take a gun, will go to the summit bid in the beginning of August. Today in the Base Camp an unanimous agreement have reached on the meeting of all climbers, who're still remain on K2.Kazakhs Max and Vassiliy, Russian Serguey, Austrians Gerlinde, Gerfried and Sepp, Canadian Louis, Ecuadorian Santiago – as well as Korean, Japanese and probably American climbers, gathered in BC today to unveil the latest message from the current K2 oracle: Karl Gabel’s forecast, just emailed from Innsbruck. “The first days of August may be good for a K2 summit attempt,” Max told home team Andrei Verkhovod after the meeting. “The wind is expected to drop down to 50km/h, even to 35 km/h on August 4th – which should thus be appointed as summit day (Tuesday). Therefore, all participants have agreed to join forces for the assault.” As for Gerlinde, she reported on her decision right after the meeting. “Ralf and the others have gone – I must confess I miss them so much,” she wrote. “David is heading home as well. However, I want to try once more if I’m given the chance.” (www.mount.kz)

27 July, 2009 K2: Serguey Bogomolov, Maxut Zhumayev, Vassily Pivtsov and Yang Chun Feng (chineese climber) and HAP Ibrahim returned to BC Jul, 24 after reaching C3 (7400 m) - the snow was very deep on the route. But next day, Jul, 25 they began new push, because the weather window was announced for the weekend. So, Jul, 25 they ascended to C2.

27 July, 2009 K2: summit push is over. Avalanche risk at the Shoulder has forced the Abruzzi team back(Gerfried Goschl and all his team, and also Jorge, Joelle, Martin, Louis, Quintero and his porter Qurben), while Gerlinde and David attempted to reach the peak’s summit by climbing a variation route left of the (too dangerous in the current conditions) Bottleneck – they eventually retreated though, due to the late hour. (www.k2climb.net)

27 July, 2009 Gasherbrum II. Spanish cllimber Luis M. Barbero missed on the route not far from the top during a summit push. All searching/rescue attempts have been thwarted by bad weather and high avalanche risks

26 July, 2009 Everest. Basque team Alberto Inurrategi, Miguel Zabalza and Juan Vallejo are going to Everest to climb Horbein couloir in alpine style. THe expedition is onder the patronage of Culture Department. (www.desnivel.com)

26 July, 2009 Gasherbrum II: Veikka Gustafsson climbed his 14th 8000-er! Congrats! Yesterday at 8-00 am Veikka and Kazya Hiraide stood on the top of GII and took pleasure from great Karakorum views. (www.k2climb.net)

22 July, 2009 K2: Jorge Egocheaga summited K2 July, 19 on 7-30 - K2 became his 10th 8000er. After the summit he returned to C3, where mates were waiting, and then they all descended to BC. (www.k2climb.net).

20 July, 2009 Lenin peak, the avalanche July, 13, 1990. The special expedition, launched by St. Petersburg Mountaineering Federation and led by V. Leonov, has found the Sign "Mountain rescuer" N 9262. This sign belonged to Vladimir Golubev. He lived in Leningrad, borned in 1959.

20 July, 2009 Broad peak. Italian climber Cristina Castagna fell to her death on July, 18, while descending back to BC together with mate Giampaolo Casarotto.

"We were descending from C4,” Casarotto told Il Giornale di Vicenza. “She was walking 10 meters ahead of me. Suddenly, she slipped down, hit some rocks and then fell in a crevasse. When I reached her, she was gone – there was nothing I could do but crying.”
Photo: www.elgrio.net

14 July, 2009 K2: Serguey Bogomolov set C1 and C2 and returned to BC for the rest July, 9

14 July, 2009 Gasherbrum II. Swiss Ueli Steck summited Gasherbrum II on July 9th. It was his first 8000-er. He's using the current GII expedition as high-altitude practice for a Makalu solo attempt in fall. (www.k2climb.net)

14 July, 2009 Nanga Parbat . Korean climber Miss Go Mi-Sun lost on the descent after the summit. Joao Garcia summits Nanga Parbat - bags his 13th 8000er. Gerfried Goschl, Louis Rousseau, Herbert Schutter, Sepp Bachmair and Hans Goger climbed new route on Nanga, but their friend Wolfgang Koblinger (he was part of the group who attempted the summit from the Kinshoffer route) disappeared on the descent not far fronm the summit. Miss Oh Eun-Sun summited Nanga July, 10 - it's her 12th 8000-er

7 July, 2009 Russia Mountaineering Championship (rocky class) started July, 5 in Siberia (Ergaki). 25 men and 15 women will take part in it. First part - "school" will held July 7-10, and then will be the second (main) part - the climbs, July 12-27. International mountaineering competition (rocky class also) are included in the festival program.

7 July, 2009 Austrian speedclimber Christian Stangl back to K2 this year - for the speed climb record on Abruzzi route.

29 June, 2009 Swiss climber Stephan Siegrist has made the first successful redpoint ascent of "Magic Mushroom" up the North Face of the Eiger.

The route had been established in 2007 by Roger Schali and Christoph Hainz and leads up the 3219 metres high mushroom in 21 pitches and now goes free at 7c+. On the summit Stephan exchanged his harness for a parachute and BASE jumped back down to valley. Stephan explains: "The combination of climbing and base jumping on the Eiger was something I had dreamt about for a long time but after the death of my good friend Xavier Bongard in Lauterbrunnen in 1994, base jumping had become a kind of ‘taboo’. I don't really see it as an evolution of alpinism, but I think it's a successful combination of a difficult route on the Eiger (the only one which ends on the mushroom) with a BASE jump - especially since I did it in a clean style, bringing the rig up with me." (www.planetmountain.com)

27 June, 2009 K2: Italian Michele Fait fell to his death while skiing down from K2's C2 on Cesen route. Michele was a skier with a curriculum of high class descents, such as Shisha Pangma 7900m, Gasherbrum II from 7800m and from some 6000m peaks in Peru.

Photo: Planetmountain.com
Together with mate Fredrik Ericsson, Fait was on his second partial descent down K2's slopes, when he suddenly fell, witnesses in BC reported. Ericsson was skiing lower down the slopes and after he had seen Fait falling, began to haul upwards to get to him. The leader Fabrizio headed out back up the middle of the glacier. Ericsson and Fabrizio reached Fait’s limp body 20 minutes later and began to lower him down to the base of the route. Fait’s recovery was interrupted later that day due to high avalanche risk. The day later His remains have been wrapped and buried. Michele Fait, from Trentino, hoped to climb K2 without supplementay O2 and then ski down from the summit, teaming up with Swedish Fredrik Ericsson. He had previously summited GII and Shisha Pangma, and had attempted K2 for the first time back in 2004.

23 June, 2009 K2: the fourth attempt to climb the Queen Mount will do Serguey Bogomolov , Maxut Zhumayev and Vassily Pivtsov. Some foreign climbers will teaming with them. Today climbers fly to Islamabad. The previous attempt was in 2007, when they ascended via North-West ridge (Japanese route) till 7800 m, then climbed till 8400 via new terrain along the upper part of the ridge and spent 3 nights there, waiting the weather improvement. They hoped to reach the summit, but the nature won that time. All of them have 12 8000-ers now.

8 June, 2009 Two days ago Denis Urubko and Simone Moro wonthe Eiger Award 2009 - for their great first Winter Makalu climb in February. The award had been given to Simone from Chris Bonington in Grindelwald (CH). Denis was not at the ceremony due the short time to arrange visa. Photos

3 June, 2009 The 8th Rock Junior will take place at Arco (Garda Trentino, Italy) on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2009. This great European climbing festival for young climbers is organised for the 8th year running by the Rock Master association.

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