Spring 2012 news

24 May, 2012 Georgian Gia Tortladze summited Everest May, 19.

24 May, 2012 Everest. Israeli Nadav Ben-Yehuda (24) was climbing up from the South Col. At 300 m way from the summmit he saw the body of his friend from the base camp, Aydin Irmak (46), sprawled lifelessly on the icy ridges. Ben-Yehuda carried his Turkish friend alongside his Sherpa guide for about eight hours back down to Camp IV – without gloves, as they made the rescue process too challenging – and without oxygen, as his mask had already broken. During the breathless march downward, the group passed by a Malaysian climber, also prostrate and semi-conscious. Unable to carry a second person, Ben-Yehuda said he luckily soon crossed paths with a British climbing team, who were able to bring the Malaysian man oxygen and revitalize him. The negative 40-degree Celsius temperatures left both men with severe burns all over their faces, and Ben-Yehuda’s ungloved hand is blackened to a crisp, some of which may need to be amputated, he explained. But eventually, the men made it back to Camp IV, where a helicopter came to their rescue – allowing both of them to live.

22 May, 2012 Shivling (India) Valery Rozov and Alexander Ruchkin with Turkish climbers are going the route, The goal: Rozov's base jump.

21 May, 2012 Everest. Donbass (Ukraine) Expedition. Vitaly Kutny summited today on 6 a.m.

Tamae Watanabe reached the summit in 73! It's the women age record on Everest. may, 19 (or 20) on 7 a.m. (Nepal time) assisted by Noriyuki Muraguchi с Mingma Sherpa, Phura Nuru Sherpa and Phurba Sherpa. It's her second Everest climb, the first was in 2002.

German climber Eberhard Schaaf died on normal route May, 19. High Altitude Cerebral Edema.

Ueli Steck and Tenzing summited May, 18 without using oxygen.

The climbers from "7 summits" Club Ljudmila Korobeshko, Ivan Dusharin, Max Shakirov summited via the north normal route May, 20 on 1-30 a.m. Fjodor Konjukhov topped out on 5 am Tibet time that day too.

19 May, 2012 Everest. The first climbers reached the top this season: 10 Sherpas and the Chilean expedition: Rodrigo Jordan, Philip Olea, Juan Jos Varela, Pedro Vidal, Ernesto Olivares, Sebastian Varela, Sebastian, Irarrazaval, Gabriel Becker, Paulo Grandy and Christopher Hurtado. They summited May, 18 on 13-50.

19 May, 2012 Mario Panzeri summited Dhaulagiri and completed 14 eight thousanders program no oxygen. Congrats, Mario! The Italian became the 27th climber in the world to complete Q14, and only the 16th to do so without supplementary oxygen.

18 May, 2012 Not Sveta but Alexey... The unique operation has been completed today in Himalaya...Respect Italian pilots...

17 May, 2012 Simone Moro found the body of Russian climber Svetlana Gutsalo on TengKampoche Face. He tries to airlift the body.

8 May, 2012 Andrew Puchinin (Kazakhstan) and Serguey Seliverstov (Kyrgyzstan) summited Cho Oyu.

22 April, 2012 Trio for unclimbed Nuptse east ridge. Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Ralf Dujmovits and David Goettler are going to climb Nuptse East ridge.

18 April, 2012 Andrew Puchinin and Serguey Seliverstov are ready for Cho Oyu speed climb. Now they are going to BC from Kathmandu. The record belongs to American Jobu Ogwin (2004) from Lake camp 2900 to the top - 8 hrs. Inaki Ochoa had the best time from ABC (2700) to the top in 2004 - 11 hrs 16 min. Andrew and Serguey hope to show the new record.

5 April, 2012 Everest. Donbass Expedition will start to Nepal April, 7. The members are: Serguey Kovalev (the leader), Vitaly Kutnyi and Oleg Palyi. The goal is to lift the Donbass coal to the top. Serguey Kutnyi, who works as miner during 20 years, has to do it. Also the team hope to lift the soccer ball to the top as a support of the Ukrainian team in the Championship Euro-2012.

16 March, 2012
Helicopter flies on Gasherbrum I - No signs of Missing Mountaineers Expedition decides to abandon further Search efforts.

photo source: www.expeditionsnews.ch


After clearing of weather in the upper Baltoro glacier area of District Skardu, Army Aviation flew helicopter sortie to the Base Camp of 8,068 metre high Gasherbrum I today ie, Thursday 15th March at about noon. The helicopters flew high and closer to Gasherbrum I attaining an altitude of 7,000 metres to survey any trace of the missing mountaineers Austrian Gerfried Goschl, Swiss Cedric Hahlen and famous Pakistani mountaineer Nisar Hussain Sadpara. Although it was partial cloudy in the area but the visibility was good upto about 3 kms. The pilots accompanied by famous Pakistani mountaineer Mr Hassan Asad Sadpara conducted aerial survey of both North and South sides of the mountain, especially the route followed by the summit team led by Gerfried Goschl. No trace whatsoever of the missing mountaineers could be found on the mountain. After flying along all possible flanks, and failing to spot any sign, the pilots decided to finish their search mission.

Later the helicopters landed at the Gasherbrums located at a height of 5,200 metres and evacuated the three frostbitten Polish climbers to Skardu.

According to experienced mountaineers it is presumed that the three climbers were probably blown off the sharp ridge near the summit by strong winds. It may be noted that the near vertical Southern face of the mountain is thousands of metres deep and is located in the Chinese territory.

After discussing the situation with Wolfgang Goschl brother of Mr Gerfried Goschl who reached Skardu today, Mr Artur Hajzer of the Polish expedition has decided to abandon any further search mission for the lost mountaineers and has decided to close down the base camp. The Expedition now prepares for their return back to Skardu.

Lt Col Manzoor Hussain (Retd) President of the Alpine Club of Pakistan in a condolence message has expressed his deepest shock over tragic loss of the three par excellence mountaineers in an unfortunate accident. He said that Pakistani mountaineering community is shattered over this irreparable loss especially that of Nisar Hussain Sadpara. It may be mentioned that Nisar Hussain was one of the three Pakistani professional mountaineers who had climbed all the five high mountains of Pakistan rising above eight thousand metres. He has also condoled with the bereaved families of the lost climbers especially that of Nisar Hassan Sadpara.

Alpine Club of Pakistan will hold a press conference for the Polish expedition which made the first winter ascent of Gasherbrum I along with condolence reference for the lost mountaineers in Islamabad on return of the Expedition. A similar condolence reference will also be held at Skardu for these mountaineers.

Source: Karrar Haidri, Media Coordinator Alpine Club of Pakistan

9 March, 2012 Gasherbrum I First winter climb: today on 8-30 local time Poles Janusz Golab and Adam Bielecki summited this Karakorum peak. Congratulations!

4 March, 2012 Elbrus rescue. 6-30 p.m. Maria's body was found at 4700 today by rescuers. other climber, Denis Lisov ws not found yet, rescue continues...

2 p.m. two days ago Maria Khitrikova (Ukraine) and two climbers missed on Elbrus. They lost their way in the bad weather when descended from the top. There were no visibility, strong wind and -20C. Masha sent SMS to rescuers with her GPS coordinates in 8-30 p.m. Next day one of that trio was found by rescuers at 4100 m not far from Rescuers rocks (between Priut 11 and Pastukhov rocks). Roman Kutsiy from Kharkov (Ukraine) was evacuated to the hospital. No signs of other two climbers... Roman said that they fell in the evening three times during the descent on the icy steep part of the route. He lost other two after the third sliding... Then he decided to stay and to wait rescuers, and was found in the late moning after the cold night outdoors.

Maria is an experienced mountaineer, she knows Elbrus well, when she was 19 became a Champion of International Elbrus Race in 2009, summited both Gasherbrums last summer.

Now, March 4, 30 professional rescuers and some groups of volunteers (Maria's father Vladimir Khitrikov is between them) work on Elbrus. The weather's bad, poor visibility, so helicopters can't fly in search of missing climbers. Elbrus is very dangerous in bad weather!!!