Adventurist Digest: Climbing News Round-up, November 18, 2008
November 19, 2008
Adam Ondra has made the second ascent of Alexander Huber’s Open Air. The route was first established in 1996 by Huber and given a route rating of F9a. After Ondra’s successful second ascent, the route is now laying the groundwork to be named the first F9a+ in existance. Adam Ondra took 5 days and 9 attempts to master what could become the world’s toughest climbing route. Open Air is found in Austria’s Schleier Wasserfall. Adam Ondra, with the second ascent of Open Air, has just showed the world why at 15 years-old, he could be the world’s strongest climber. Congrats, Adam!
Dean Potter has made the first solo-climb of Alien Roof on the Rostrum in Yosemite National Park. His free-solo attempt included the use of a BASE parachute for safety purposes, but was not needed on this amazing climb. Base-Jumping in National Parks is illegal, but Yosemite does allow the gear for free-solo climbing on the parks legendary big walls. Dean Potter recently completed a sucessful BASEsolo of Deep Blue Sea on the Eiger’s North Face. Perhaps this is the way of free-soloing in the future?
Speaking of Yosemite, the final issue of Alpinist magazine, Alpinist #25, features a cover photo of Warren “Batio” Harding on Yosemite. Harding was the first person to climb El Capitan. It seems ironic that Harding would also become the last person to grace the cover of an Alpinist magazine. Checkout this piece from Fun Climbs Around The World…
Two Mt. Rainier climbing rangers have captured the first ascent of Kang Nachugo. This Himalayan peak tops out at 6,735 meters and is found in the Himalayan valley of Rolwaling. David Gottlieb and Joe Puryear finally topped out on the peak on October 25th, but the news has been slow to trickle down the information superhighway. Congrats go out to both of these guys, as well.
ExplorersWeb is currently reporting that teams are heading for the summit of Ama Dablam. There are currently three teams on the mountain: FTA, Jagged Globe, and Mountain Madness. All three teams have made it to Camps 2 & 3 and are looking to make a fast push to the summit. This could be as early as today. Let’s wish them luck and a safe climb. You can follow along with the live updates by clicking on the Expedition company’s links that I included above.
To date, no 8,000 meter peak in Pakistan has been summited in winter. That could change with the recent announcement of a team heading for Broad Peak. Artur Hajzer, Robert Szymczak, and Canadian Don Bowie will try their luck at picking off the first Karakorum winter summit. A couple of these guys should seem familiar to you. Robert Szymczak and Don Bowie were both involved in the infutile efforts to save Inaki Ochoa on Annapurna. Unfortunately, Inaki died just as help arrived. Let’s hope that these climbers can gain a little peace with a winter summit of Broad Peak!!
That should wrap-up the latest headlines in the climbing world. If you have a few extra moments today, stop by and and say ‘hi’ to DSD who runs the Summit Stones & Adventure Musings blog. There is a nice look at what it means to Find Your Strength as an adventurer. That is something all of us could use a little more of. Thanks for the great piece, DSD!
Photo Credit: Yosemite’s Half Dome by Alaskan Dude, by way of a Creative Commons License on Flickr.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,From The Adventurist Vault:
Written by Jason A. Hendricks · Filed Under Adventurist Digest |
About the Dean Potter ascent,
great ascent, no doubt about it… but can this be considered as a free-solo?
Well, those are my thoughts, as well. Granted, there are no safety harnesses during the actual climbing, nor ropes involved…I think it is riding a fine line.
I would love to hear more input on this from some of you climbers. We all agree that this is a great feat and Dean Potter is one of the best climbers in the world. How do you feel about the use of base jumping setups? Should this be looked upon, much like a crash pad for boulderers? These really don’t make the climbs any less significant, but they do add in a patented safety measure-
I am all for safety. Even with a parachute, there is still a big risk involved on the big wall free-solos. Thoughts?