Hardwear Sessions

By Ueli Steck

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

It's a good week since Simon and I arrived at the Annapurna base camp. On Thursday, May 8, we went up to install the ABC at about 5100m. We left the necessary equipment there, which we would need for our ascent. Then we went back to the base camp. The weather conditions and the forecast were still too bad. Back at the camp a fragrant dinner was waiting for us. For dessert we had apple pie.

Already at the Thengkampoche base camp I stood whenever possible with Kaji, our cook, together in the camp kitchen. No doubt: Kaji is a great cook. But like in alpinism, details are important in the kitchen, too. And working with him, I tried to improve exactly these details. The "Italian Pizza", for instance, with the mushrooms picked by my father, or the one with "prosciutto" ham from Cervinio is getting better and better. Last but not least we baked a carrot cake.

We have to watch out a little bit. Each pound of weight too much, not only in our backpacks but also on our bodies, which we have to carry up the mountain, will decide our success or failure.

Something seems to happen also in the "weather kitchen": the forecast for the following days and for the next few weeks seem to be promising. Simon and I have decided: tomorrow we will start for our next project: the Annapurna Southface.

Continue reading "Culinary Delights and Upcoming Plans" »

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By Ben Clark

May 14, 2008, intermediate camp

Today was hard. Short, pumpy and physical. The snow and weather is deteriorating on Annapurna IV's north ridge--and we are in the middle of it--but safe.

Josh and I climbed out of camp 1 at 6AM, it was beginning to cloud up below As I lead a block of pitches of snow, rock and ice scrambling out of camp, we were getting happy about moving--things were frozen--our greatest wish. As I neared 18,000' it became a struggle like a pebble versus a stream, I could not win swimming through consistent hip deep rotten snow. It was mind blowing--even for a climber who spends all summer wading through it in Colorado's San Juan mountains.

Continue reading "Safe at Intermediate Camp" »

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By Ben Clark

May 13, 2008

Himalayan climbing is challenging, pioneering in this great range is an even more daunting proposition. The mountain has spoken to us, it is all around us, it is inside of us as we melt and drink it to sustain ourselves. This is the awareness and connection I come here for. It is not what everyone wants and feels.

It has been a few days since the last e-mail dispatch and we are alive and better than ever, without the summit. The three of us made a deliberate and exhausting foray onto the upper flanks of the mountain reaching deep within ourselves and high onto the peak. Sometimes the rewards of climbing mountains are reached well below the summit and for our enthusiastic teammate Tim Clarke, this is the case.

Continue reading "Carrots and Sticks" »

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More photographs

By Ueli Steck

With a beer Simon and I celebrated out first ascent of Tengkampoche Northface when we got back the same night of April 24, to Tengkampoche basecamp. For more, we were too exhausted and the following morning we were already on the way back to Kathmandu. In the capital we just stayed to get the permit for Annapurna Southface. Now we are in Pokhara trying to get some rest. Several porters are already on the way to the Annapurna basecamp with all our equipment.

Continue reading "On the way to Annapurna Base Camp" »

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By Cynthia Houng

Illustration from James M. Hutchings's 1888 book, In the Heart of the Sierras.

When the snow begins to melt, a strange, brilliant red plant makes its appearance. Growing in singles or clusters, with fleshy, sword-shaped stalks like an asparagus, the snow plant forms a dazzling contrast to the drab brown leaf litter.

Without chlorophyll for photosynthesis, the snow plant is a saprophyte--it feeds on decomposing leaf litter, much like a mushroom or other fungus. The plant's botanical name, Sarcodes sanguinea, means "the blood red flesh eater," an apt description for this unusual saprophyte. Snow plants below to the heath family, but most heath plants make an honest living through photosynthesis.

At maturity, a snow plant ranges between 12 and 20 inches in height. After flowering, the plant sets seed and the stalk slowly dries to a dark reddish-brown. The snow plant was first described in English in 1851 by John Torrey, from a specimen collected by John C. Fremont.

Native to the western United States, the snow plant is distributed between the Siskiyou Mountains (Oregon) and the Sierra San Pedro Martir (Baja California). In the Sierras, snow plants appear in early spring, and bloom from May through July. Broadly distributed in California, they are often found growing in communities dominated by yellow pines, red firs, or lodgepole pines, and are most common between 4,000 and 8,000 feet. Snow plants appear to form symbiotic relationships with the mychorrhizal fungi that occur in pine forests.

Today, the snow plant is uncommon and should not be disturbed. In California, Sarcodes sanguinea is a protected species, and seed and plant collection are both prohibited by law.

Have you encountered this plant--or something similar--on your hikes? Leave us a comment and tell us about your find.

Continue reading "The Snow Plant" »

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By Kenton Cool

May 9, 2008

Well by now you probably have heard the news. The Chinese have finally summit Everest from the North with the Olympic Torch. This means that all the climbing restrictions that had been in place on the south side have now been lifted. In short we are allowed to go and climb the mountain WOOHOO.

It was about 6am yesterday that I woke to the drone of a small jet circling the mountain. Now this is not normal so at once we knew some thing was happening. The plane circled the mountain for around 2hrs and then the news came through. At 9.16am China had got the Olympic torch as well as 21 climbers to the summit. The news was greeted with relief here at base camp; one could see the climbers visible perk up after an enforced period of rest due to the restrictions imposed by the Chinese.

So where does that leave us now??

Continue reading "No More Waiting Games: The Chinese Summit Everest" »

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More Photographs

By Robert Jasper and Stefan Glowacz

May 6-7, 2008

These days, nothing much is happening. We just move the PortaLedge up the wall. The next few meters are crucial and we must free climb them. In technical climbing, only the most difficult routes are not possible. Only after over 10 meters do we find some relatively reliable protection. Yet between the bitter cold and the storm it is difficult to imagine free climbing further. We can still wait, for now. We're still on schedule.

Continue reading "Waiting" »

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View the photographs

By Will Meinen

Growing up on a farm meant every spring the entire family would spend a day getting the garden ready for fruits and vegetables that would be ready to eat throughout the summer months. Back in those days we never talked about organic or sustainable. I guess it was just understood to be the smart thing to do.

When I moved to the city I was astounded at the poor quality and high prices I found at the grocery store, so I continue the family tradition and plant my own urban garden. It's not quite a big as the one on the farm, and it's been tricky dealing with the short growing season here in Calgary, but it still yields a great little crop and saves me a bunch of money.

If anyone else has ever thought of planting their own fruit and vegetable garden, I encourage you to try. It's quite easy to be honest. Here is my advice to anyone who wants to grow their own food.

Continue reading "Gardening 101" »

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On Baffin island, Robert Jasper and Stefan Glowacz are busy pioneering new routes on a beautiful, massive piece of rock. Their photographer, Klaus Fengler, took some beautiful photographs and we'd like to share them with you.

View the Photo set.

Continue reading "Photographs from Baffin Island" »

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By Ben Clark

May 7, 2008

Twisting wisps of wind dance along the solemn northwest ridgeline of Annapurna IV. Playfully the dance has drawn us in forcing us to question, will the jet stream push away these little snow devils and surge the ridgeline with the power of a hurricane or will we enter a window of opportunity? We will be there to see, we begin the ascent tomorrow.

Basecamp is slowly drying day be day as summer's short season approaches. Today, as the mountain emerged from it's cloudy blanket, the wind and snow dissipated while we racked our gear, dried our boots and prepared our packs for the altitude above. We are going light,by necessity, and are prepared for a single push effort to the summit that will ideally take 4 days.

Continue reading "Go Time" »

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By Robert Jasper and Stefan Glowacz

May 3, 2008, Baffin Island

Free climbing from 9 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon. Then until 10 pm, technical climbing in a bitterly cold, though grand, landscape. Robert, Mariusz, and Klaus got about four rope lengths up. Tomorrow it will be Holger, Klaus, and myself in the line-up. We are under great time pressure. The latest that we can stay is May 20th, and then we must return through the marsh to the Clyde River. Besides, the ice threatens to break before our approach. We are under enormous stress. We've also come into contact with polar bears. So this is how we planned our vacation... A hungry polar bear passed within meters of our camp, frightening us, before wandering away. It is a wild, stirring land. But for inconceivable reasons we would want it no other way...

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This year, access to Everest is severely restricted. The Chinese hope to run the Olympic torch up to the summit today, but in the meantime, the Nepalese side is heavily monitored, and the Tibetan side is "closed."

Listen to Dave Breashears talk about the Everest situation and its implications for the 2008 climbing season.

Read the Alpinist's coverage.

Meanwhile, Kenton, Sir Ran, and the rest of the crew hang out at Everest and play "the waiting game." Here's Kenton's latest dispatch:

"Just keeping you in the loop by saying that not much is happening. As you know China is trying to get the Olympic torch to the summit of Everest, and as such they have imposed a few restrictions on the south side. We are currently all sitting at BC waiting for the green light to climb higher."

Continue reading "Everest: The Waiting Game" »

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May 4, 2008:

A long storm pattern is blanketing Annapurna IV with snow. Each hour we hear thundering avalanches ripping down the North face. Eerily we wake in the middle of the night as if a dumptruck just pulled into camp. Annapurna IV is a dynamic mass, the same gravity that pulls at it's slopes is the same force that is our ticket to fun!

We have now spent 5 nights and four days beneath the massive North ridge of Annapurna IV. When the sun is out it is an awe inspiring vision, fractured where it's convexity breaks toward earth and elegant as marble where the jet stream touches it. Elements are at play constantly sculpting it to it's present form. When one enters the Himalayan high country, it is evident in some rare form that earth is so puzzling sometimes it is better to just look and breathe before you taste.

Sprinkles of snow dot our tent fabric every few hours throughout the day. It sounds like sand blasting against a tarp when the mighty winds plunge to our altitude. Sometimes we are numb to the sound, the laughter of each other and the ruckus of long bouts of gambling in the cook tent distract us. If nothing else, we have "discovered" a 40 minute loop of what we liken to be the Talking Heads of Nepal. I don't know what their call and response is saying but...it's growing on us. Pasang and Dorje our cooks are really into it.

Continue reading "Below Annapurna IV" »

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By Kenton Cool

May 2, 2008

Well it's been a wee while since the last update; this is due to a bad case of base camp lassitude. Its day 4 of resting today, and most of us have washed all our clothes, shaved, played cards, visited friends, been to the bakery here (awesome apple pie) listened to all their music on their iPods, read all the books in camp and are still a little bored. Its not that bad really in fact I'm really enjoying the down time.

I suppose I better start at the beginning for you all to get a better picture. The team (Rob, Ran , Dave and myself) left BC around a week ago with the plan to climb to camp 2 spend some time there and come down (not too surprising the come down bit really). We left around 6am and had a great run through the icefall up to camp 1. It was all straight fwd and the team did a great job. The afternoon was spent drinking tea and listening to some very funny stories from Ran. The following morning saw us all move up to camp 2. This year the route goes really close to Nupste which makes it a little threatened by stone fall but boy is it quick this year. A mere 2 hrs saw Ran and myself sipping tea at camp 2.

Camp 2 is sat under the awesome SW face of Everest, the face made famous by Chris Bonnington in 1975 and his huge expedition that climbed this "last great Himalayan problem". For teams on the Nepal side of Everest this is our important stage post camp. There are cooks and mess tents here and teams spend days here acclimisatizing in a modest degree of comfort. The views are limited due to the towering walls of Everest, Lhotse and Nupste that hem the camp in, but boy it's an amazing setting.

Continue reading "Downtime at Camp" »

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Read Andrew's trip report.

Continue reading "Andrew's Alaska Trip Report" »

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By Kenton Cool

By Ben Clark

April 30, 2008

Annapurna IV is a striking peak cutting the cobalt sky and breaking the jet stream. A long technical shoulder leads its lofty summit, this will be our path. We now sit below this shoulder at 15,500'. Distant echoes of glaciers calving are now drowned out by thunder. Thunder.

Continue reading "Thunder over Annapurna" »

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Ueli Steck and Simon Anthamatten summitted the North Face of Tengkangpoche. Here are some photographs from their climb:

Click here to view the photo set.

View the route.

Continue reading "Tengkangpoche Photos" »

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Yesterday, AAC announced the 2008 winners of the Lyman Spitzer and McNeill-Nott Awards. Micah Dash and Jonny Copp received a Spitzer Award for their upcoming expedition to Southeastern Tibet, to attempt unclimbed Dojitsenga (ca. 5,700m).

The McNeill-Nott award holds a special significance for Mountain Hardwear, as Karen McNeill and Sue Nott were a part of the MHW family. This year, the award goes to two recipients: Alex Alexiades and Althea Rogers. Alex will explore the Suches Valley, on the border of Bolivia and Peru, and search for new routes. Althea will attempt new free climbs in southeast Alaska's Wood River Range.

Congratulations to all!

And now it's time for a quick audience poll.

If you applied for an AAC grant, what would be your dream project?

Continue reading "American Alpine Club Grants" »

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A few weeks ago, we highlighted KQED's report on mercury in the San Francisco Bay. This week, KQED follows with a report on mercury consumption. Should you eat that fish? This report might help you figure things out.

Go to KQED and learn more.

Continue reading "Should I Eat that Fish?" »

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