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ExplorersWeb Week in Review
The
accident came following days of hard snow fall on Everest. Three
Sherpas died and at least four people were injured at around 7:30 am
Friday morning. This is the largest accident in the Everest icefall
since 1982. Image showing climbers returning to BC Thursday, descending
through a snow packed icefall, courtesy of Jagged Globe (click to
enlarge).
About
150,000 demonstrators defied the Government’s imposed curfew and
marched through town, demanding a return to Democracy – the army
repelling protesters with violence, causing at least three dead. Image
courtesy of Mercantile Communications Ltd. / Nepal News (click to
enlarge).
All
of Himalaya Everest was covered in white, while the streets of
Kathmandu were stained in red. Live image of Everest north side over
Contact 4.0, courtesy of Everest Peace Project (click to enlarge).
The
rules of unsupported expeditions are brutal and unforgiving. Image of
Cecilie Skog at the beginning of her current expedition, courtesy of
Matty McNair / North Winds.
Remember
Idlewild? Father and son crew Ben and Brad Gray are out on an
expedition of their lifetime: 16 months sailing 60.000 km around the
world, through the NW passage. These days, the crew is reporting on
Indonesian pirates instead of ice. Image courtesy of Idlewild.
Now
picture they are weightless... and where is Mecca anyway? Preparing
food according to Islamic standards in space is another issue to be
discussed at a conference organized by Angkasa, Malaysia’s National
Space Agency Tuesday. Image courtesy of ghanaweb.com.
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01:03 pm EST Apr 23, 2006
The
worst snowstorm veterans have seen since 1996 wrapped Everest last
week. Strong winds howled on the north side, while heavy snow fall
buried the Khumbu icefall on the south: Climbers were stuck in C1, some
in C2. In Kathmandu meanwhile, hundreds of thousands pressed towards
the city and its spooked King - hiding out in the Royal Palace. Friday,
the overloaded Everest icefall collapsed and killed three Sherpas in
the biggest ice fall tragedy since 1982. Only hours later, Nepal's King
caved in to his peoples' demands for democracy. Or did he?
Live from Kathmandu: Bloody Thursday "Huge rally on now:
150,000 demonstrators surrounded the city on the Ring road, started to
push into the main city, against the curfew," a desperate climber
reported to ExWeb Thursday. "This is going to get very ugly. There are
reports of 3 dead so far - only in first few minutes of the
demonstrations."
“Hidden away in his palace in the midst of a city in chaos,
King Gyanendra of Nepal appeared desperate to cling to power,” reported
NZ Herald late Thursday night. “Gyanendra does not just believe in the
divine right of kings. He believes he is a living god himself - the
incarnation of Vishnu.” The NZ Herald even doubted the King’s
controversial access to the throne, after most members of the royal
family were murdered, reportedly by the Crown heir, who then shot
himself. “On the streets of Kathmandu the people have always believed
that Gyanendra somehow orchestrated the massacre to win the throne for
himself - a belief that has been fuelled by the fact that almost the
only male survivors were Gyanendra and his son, Paras.”
King Gyanendra has returned the power to Nepal’s people
Addressing the nation Friday evening, the King said he has handed
executive powers to the people. The King called the seven-party
alliance to recommend the name of a consensus Prime Minister as soon as
possible. Sunday however, a new curfew - following Saturday's clashes
as protesters, opposition leaders and Maoist insurgents rejected King
Gyanendra’s offer.
Everest South side: Tragedy in the Khumbu icefall "On a
section known as 'the Popcorn', two gigantic towers collapsed, smashing
against another wall of ice, and raining literally tons of debris down
onto the helpless victims below," reported Luis Benitez. The accident
came following days of hard snow fall on Everest. Three Sherpas died
and at least four people were injured at around 7:30 am Friday morning.
This is the largest accident in the icefall since 1982. August 31 that
year, Sherpas too were the main victims - 3 died when a large section
of the icefall called the "Football field" collapsed.
“Phinjo was our oldest Sherpa (50) and one of our very best
Sherpa friends," reported Eric Simonson of IMG. He was a kind and
gracious man, and we will miss him. He went on his first 8000 meter
peak in 1973 — this was his 49th 8000 meter expedition.” Ang Phinjo
Sherpa, aged 50, of Khunjung VDC ward # 9 Phortse, Solu Khumbu Nepal,
Lhakkpa Tseri Sherpa of Mende, Dawa Temba Sherpa of Thamo are presumed
dead. Ang Phinjo Sherpa was hired by IMG, Lhakpa Tseri and Dawa Temba
were employed by Asian Trekking on an Expedition listed as led by
Douglas Tumminello & Apa Sherpa (Team No Limit).
South Africans: “Safest icefall” “It has been said that, at
present, the Khumbu Icefall is the safest it has been for years,” the
South Africans reported only days before the accident.
Polish expedition without oxygen Six members of the
Polish-Russian team were stuck due to the bad weather in C1. Before
they left to go up, the Poles attended an expedition leader meeting
organized by IMG. Cover girl Martyna Wojciechowska was the only woman
there: "I felt out of place, considering many were veterans and me a
newbie!" confessed Martyna. "Our team is quite small for Everest
conditions; we have only 3 climbing Sherpas on 8 climbing members. But
we are highly motivated to fight."
Philippines: Romi Garduce in C1 already last Saturday A
report from his home team to ExWeb stated that Romi reached camp 1
already last Saturday: He says he stayed there for two days before
returning to BC Monday - just before the weather turned bad. A Filipino
news team will be documenting Romi's climb from base camp.
Everest North side: Sky-skier Tomas Olson - Skiing above 6000m
As everyone ran for shelter in the snow storm, the Vikings instead
figured it was a fine day for skiing: “We climbed a peak close to BC, a
fore summit to the 6622 meter high Shuguang Feng. Although we only
planned to climb some 1000 vertical meters, time flies by in the
Everest-region. As we finally approached the snow, it turned out to be
mostly glacial ice, and the sun was about to set. Nevertheless we found
the skiing to our liking. The gear works fine, just as it is supposed
to. Skiing under such demanding conditions built our confidence.”
7Sumits/7Summits-club: Watching Thomas’ sight Harry is
monitoring his client Thomas Weber’s vision – Thomas is visually
challenged and his sight gets worse with altitude. “His vision is
slowly deteriorating; he cannot read the small fonts anymore at this
time, but he is happy with the current situation, it is still better
than expected. Fortunately the ‘Himalayan Hamster’ Thomas encountered
in the toilet is so big, it would have been spotted by Stevie Wonder
wearing sunglasses.”
The two Bahrainis Adnan Alqassab and Faraj Al Qassimi, who
hope to become the first Bahrainis to summit Mount Everest and set a
new world record for the fastest ascent up the mountain, were back in
Kathmandu last week to cure a bout of altitude sickness they had
acquired at ABC. This in spite of the Nepal Mountaineering Training
course they reportedly took shortly before the climb, to learn how to
"survive in the outdoors, climb mountains, what to wear, what to do in
cases of emergency, and breathing techniques for surviving in areas
with high altitude" according to Bahrain media. The climbers planned to
return to Everest Monday.
"Gagarin's engineer" Russian team: BC before luggage
Nickolay Totmjanin, Boris Korshunov, Serguey Surmonin, and Alexey
Bolotov hope to set a new Everest age record by climbing from the North
classic route, without Sherpas. They arrived to BC yesterday so fast;
they now have to wait for most of the expedition’s cargo.
Byron Smith sues American Alpine Club Canadian car dealer
Byron Smith filed a lawsuit Monday against the American Alpine Club. He
wants the club to remove the footnote "disputed" on his May 2000 Mount
Everest climb in the Himalayan database, claiming he lost car sales
because of it.
ExWeb interview: Billi Bierling - Miss Hawley's mobile unit
After four decades of tracking Himalayan expeditions, the legendary
American chronicler Elizabeth Hawley missed the beginning of the
current season: At 83, she had to undergo surgery in Thailand. Yet if
climbers thought now was their chance to sneak out of Kathmandu
un-noticed, they were wrong: German ex-pat Billi Bierling swiftly
stepped in as Miss Hawley's 'mobile unit'. Racing across town on her
bicycle, Billie feared no bandhs or speeding tuk-tuks, chasing down
climbing expeditions one after the other. ExWeb caught up with Billi
for a 2-part interview. "Pleasing Miss Hawley is the hardest part of my
job," Billi said.
Cho Oyu: SUMMIT PUSH Piotr's hometeam sent over a message to ExWeb Sunday stating the expedition will try to reach the summit tomorrow!
Carlos Pauner: A world of lies and disappointments Carlos,
Raquel, Wily and Nacho were acclimatizing up the Khumbu valley, before
heading for Dhaulagiri. Carlos couldn't wait to get out to the mountain
though, “to leave behind a world of lies and disappointments,” he
dispatched. This season, Carlos had to give up his long time dream to
open a new route on Manaslu. He needed climbers to form a strong team
but none would bite. Carlos was thus surprised to learn that some
members in the international team currently on Manaslu had the same
idea, but never told him or invited him to join.
Dhaulagiri: White BC “We flew in on two choppers, each
loaded with 1400kg of gear on April 15 after our porters refused to
continue due to deep snow and bad weather. The Italian six-member team
was already in BC,” veteran Carlos Soria told ExplorersWeb. Two days
later, other climbers arrived - in choppers too: Carlos Pauner and his
team, Nacho Orviz, Colombian Camilo López and three Iranians. Carlos
Pauner dispatched, "the tents we pitched yesterday are half buried in
50 cm of snow. Nives’ team tried to reach C1, but was rejected by
incoming bad weather and snow.”
Kangchenjunga The Swiss guided team led by Norbert Joos
reached BC on April 13. Ecuadorian Iván Vallejo and Colombian Fernando
González-Rubio reached BC (5500m at the SE side of Kangchenjunga) on
April 14. The Basque team for Yalung Kang (led by Juan Oiarzabal) was
already there. Slightly behind Ivan and Norbert’s team arrived the
Portuguese, Ralf’s team and Andrew Lock. Once in BC, the climbers split
up in two groups, according to a Portuguese journalist traveling with
Joao Garcia and Antonio Coelho: “Joao, Antonio and Australian Andrew
Locke will go for a classic climb, in Himalayan style. They plan to be
ready for a summit bid by the end of May. The second group, comprised
of Ralf Dujmovits, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Hirotaka Takeuchi, and
Veikka Gustafsson, will go alpine style. Thus they are acclimatizing on
some nearby peaks. From these neighboring summits they will also study
the routes and conditions on Kangchenjunga.”
Shisha Pangma “This is the first time I attempt Shisha in
spring, and everything looks different. The walls are covered in ice,
and there is snow in BC. Weather conditions are variable now, with a
bitter cold wind blowing,” reported Gnaro. Sunday, word reached ExWeb
that a Latvian expedition is also on the mountain, "it is 4th Latvian
Himalaya expedition and participants are: Atis Plakans, Kaspars
Klapkalns, Liga Plakane and Andris Malasevskis. Our team is using Asian
Trekking Ltd. logistic services," read the message.
Dhaulagiri Hesitant to hire a chopper to BC, Maxut and
Vassilyi are approaching the mountain on snow-covered paths. The two
Kazakhs are marching in front of the porters, breaking trail in deep
snow. Meanwhile, Camilo Lopez dispatched from BC, "The heli flight was
great - it only took 45 minutes to get here from Kathmandu. This base
camp is different from the base camps of the other peaks I have climbed
in the Himalayas. There are only four expeditions and a total of about
25 people here.” The other teams, Spaniards and Dutch, now all wait for
the snow to settle.
Makalu Anna and Jerzi reached Makalu’s BC by chopper last weekend. Since then, they’ve moved up to ABC.
Manaslu Denis and Serguey are headed towards C1 - and
beyond, if possible: “I'm not so sure we can make it; there’s too much
fresh snow,” dispatched Serguey Bogomolov.
American Alpine Club 2006 Lyman Spitzer Grants go to...
Four teams in 2006 will split $12,000 in cash and $10,000 worth of
equipment donated by Cascade Designs. Mike Schaefer, Micah Dash and
Eric Decaria will make an alpine-style attempt on the direct east face
of Uli Biaho in Pakistan; Josh Wharton and Kelly Cordes will tackle the
5,000-foot north ridge of Pakistan¹s Shingu Charpa; Mike and Andy
Libecki will explore and climb in remote valleys of Uzbekistan; Will
Mayo and Canadian Maxime Turgeon will attempt an unclimbed line on the
south face of Mt. Foraker in Alaska.
Adrian's solo non-stop longitual circumnavigation: Second laptop down
Adrian is making steady progress towards Hawaii, however his back-up
computer seems to have now all but given up. A Satcom phone is now
responsible for almost 100% of the skipper's communication.
Tough Easter for Ocean surfer Raphaela A bad attack of
gastritis currently slows the lady surfer down in addition to the
seasickness; she can't keep food down and is tired, "I had to stop very
early today because the wind was getting up. I didn't feel I could face
it," she said. Hitting the trade wind route Raphaela reported to her
home team, "'everything is changing, the color of the sky, the state of
the sea, everything is unpredictable, but what is certain is that I am
in the Great Ocean."
Alex Bellini: Rowing an ocean is a busy task Solo
trans-oceanic rowing is supposed to be a lonely task, but Italian Alex
Bellini is having more guests than he'd invited. Earlier this week, he
ran from his cabin to the oars, alerted by the smell of smoke, when he
spotted a huge oil tanker, aimed straight towards him. Alex had to row
for his life to escape a collision - yet only a day later, a huge whale
emerged starboard and sprayed water all over Alex. "Maybe not the
largest whale in the ocean, but its 17/18 meters from head to tail was
more than enough for me,” dispatched the poor solo rower.
Idlewild: Cruising pirate infested waters in Indonesia
Remember Idlewild? Father and son crew Ben and Brad Gray are out on an
expedition of their lifetime: 16 months sailing 60.000 km around the
world, through the NW passage which they crossed September 13 last
year. Mid November, Idlewild crossed the Tropic of Cancer and these
days, the crew is in Palau - reporting on Indonesian pirates instead of
ice. "We felt they had definite intentions to bully us at the least and
board us at the worst but when they saw we were challenging them and
also, many people have commented that our boat has a distinct military
look, they decided to continue their course."
Arctic wrap-up: Unsupported teams late but still moving All
expeditions are still moving steady towards their goal; a promising and
rare situation in recent years. Richard and Conrad are experiencing a
drawback to snowshoes instead of skis - forced to major detours
searching for thick enough ice they’re now running against time and
have increased their daily travel to 15 hours. Both they and the Finns
must be out of the ice by the end of April. The Finns took a last rest
day before the final countdown: They’ve got 10 days to cover 288 km to
the North Pole.
Arctic wrap-up: Final steps for a Norwegian lady trooper The
Norwegians are speeding up, with less than 200 km to go. Among them a
lady skier - only the second woman in history to manage an unsupported
North Pole trip without resupplies. If Cecilie makes it, she'll also
become one of only two women (the other being Czech/Swedish Tina
Sjogren) to have climbed Everest and walked to both poles. And like
Tina - Cecilie will have made both poles unsupported and back-to-back!
It's a scary final push though: Anything can happen still - broken skis
or a sprained ankle - and a year long quest is over. The rules of
unsupported expeditions are brutal and unforgiving.
Arctic Wrap-up: Supported teams also behind schedule Bettina
and JG are 237 km away from the North Pole; Top of the World reported
they are behind schedule too. Both are attempting supported, partial
Arctic crossings (they were initially airlifted and use air resupplies)
and have been out for 50 days already. Whilst all expeditions race to
the finish line, the Canadian Arctic Holidays team has just started –
from the North Pole. This team is going in the opposite direction;
towards the Canadian coast.
PolarQuest: Tech plug for HumanEdgeTech! "Sledge hauling
continues to take its toll, with some of the team experiencing
blisters, groin rash and back aches," reported the British Navy team.
(Ed note: All the team members are either Royal Marines or Serving
members of the Royal Navy - that makes this a Royal Navy Expedition and
not an Army expedition as we previously wrote). "One area that we are
more advanced in than our Naval ancestors is communications. We use
Human Edge Technology and Iridium to provide up to the minute near live
progress reports and tracking information. In the old days explorers
would build a cabin, depositing letters inside, in the hope that one
day a passing ship would retrieve them."
One World expedition: Bear defenders Lonnie Dupre and Eric
Larsen will leave May 1 “to protect what could become a victim of
global warming, the polar bear,” according to the press release. “Last
year I came face to face with a polar bear and while I was scared, I
also felt a deep respect for the fact that I was in this bear’s
territory and that it was global warming that was forcing this
magnificent creature toward the brink of extinction. I knew at that
moment that I had to come back next year,” Dupre told media. Lonnie and
Eric’s way to help bears is to raise awareness on global warming
through their upcoming expedition.
Lanex Greenland climbing expedition German climbers
Franziska and Gerd Dönhuber will attempt a first climb on the 800m-long
SW pillar of Nalumasortoq, a peak by the Tasermiut Fjord, Greenland.
Gerd and Franzi will reach the base of the wall from Narsarsuaq by
paddling sea kayaks 300km each way, loaded with all gear, food and gas.
Alaska Traverse complete At 5.30 p.m. on April 20, Ario
reached the shores of Barter Island on the Arctic Ocean, at the end of
his journey (begun on december 12, 2005 from Glenallenn) across Alaska.
Explore New Worlds in Los Angeles: Conference details For
the first time, the Planetary Society and The National Space Society
have joined hands for the 25th annual NSS Space Conference. Sponsored
by NASA, the event kicks off on Space Day and the opening day, May 4,
will be proclaimed 'Space Venturing Day' in Los Angeles. And just like
on Oscar's night; everyone will be there! The highlight of the
conference - the ORBIT Awards Dinner - will bring together leaders of
suborbital and orbital space tourism for the first time in history.
Confirmed are Dennis Tito, Greg Olsen, Burt Rutan, Buzz Aldrin, Will
Whitehorn, Eric Anderson, Elon Musk, Peter Diamandis, George French and
Rick Homans, among others.
Space conference: How will Muslims pray in space? How do you
kneel when you're weightless? And how do you stay in the direction of
Mecca when you are orbiting earth at breakneck speed? Figuring out how
to pray in space has become a burning issue as two Malaysia astronauts
soon will be sent to the International Space Station by Russia. In a
two-day Islam and Life in Space seminar beginning Tuesday, Malaysia’s
National Space Agency will bring together 150 scientists, astronauts,
religious scholars and academics to discuss the problem.
Read these stories - and much more! - at ExplorersWeb.com
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