Hardwear Sessions

Last week, Telluride, Colorado's Plum TV aired an interview with Ben Clark. On the interview, Ben discusses his recent trip to Annapurnia IV.

Watch the interview.

In January 2008, Mountain Hardwear athlete Neil Gresham set out to Iceland with a small team of British climbers to investigate rumours of sea cliffs with ice climbing potential. They were blown away by what they found. The cliffs of Kaldakin in the North West turned out to be an ice climber's paradise and the team climbed several new routes, including a freestanding WI 6 pillar, that was set dramatically against a backdrop of the crashing ocean. There were no other visitors to the cliffs during the duration of their trip. The short video attached shows what happened.

This lovely silent movie was produced by Neil Gresham, with additional help from Ian Parnell.

By Kit Herrod

The metaphor for cancer research is complete. There are more unclimbed mountains to challenge.

Late on Saturday, our team of Farmer, Dawn, Kevin and Bayard on the Big Expedition for Cancer Research determined that they had reached the safe limits of their attempt to climb one of Alaska's unclimbed peaks. For 9 hours, they battled unstable snow, ice and rock to move within 500 vertical feet of the summit of Peak 8290 in Glacier Bay's Fairweather Range. The two rope teams huddled at the high point and called an end to their attempt of the unclimbed mountain in the inaugural Big Expedition for Cancer Research.

Lee Hartwell, president and director of the Hutchinson Center, when receiving the news said ""The climbers are to be congratulated for going so far under trying conditions but especially for putting safety first. It is a true reflection of a principle that governs the research we do in each of our clinical trials. We are proud of the team for their successful challenge of this unclimbed mountain."

"Extremely hazardous" were the first two words out of Farmer's mouth when he made the sat phone call back from base camp to Seattle. "We gave this mountain everything we had within the boundaries of safe, rational mountaineering standards. Sometimes the mountain sets the limits and we have to accept them," he said.

By Kit Herrod

The Big Expedition, up in lights over NYC's Times Square.

On Monday, June 16, the four mountaineers on the Big Expedition for Cancer Research were on the Brady Icefield and picking up their pace toward base camp. Via satellite phone, Matt Farmer, who likes to be called Farmer, said that the team was in good shape and moving toward the Southeast corner of the icefield where they will get their first look at Peak 8290 from the ground.

Since arriving at Reid Inlet on Saturday, the team has had two good days for travel. On Saturday, they moved all their gear approximately 1.5 miles up to the top of Reid Glacier. The terrain was too steep to use their sleds so they each had to make three round trips with only their packs to reach their first overnight camp.

Not 5 minutes after they brought their last load to the campsite, the "Visitor" appeared.

The Baffin 2008 team returned safely to civilization on June 2, 2008. Even with the kite skis, the team experienced a long slow journey across the snow and ice.

View photographs from their trip.

By Cynthia Houng

This spring, 3 Mountain Hardwear-sponsored teams headed to the Himalayas. Two teams chose to tackle Annapurna (Ueli Steck and Simon Anthmatten went for Annapurna's notoriously treacherous South Face, while Ben Clark and his crew were aiming for the first ski descent of Annapurna IV), while the 3rd team, composed of Kenton Cool, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, and Rob Casserley, were Everest-bound.

The 2008 season ended with a mixture of triumph and heartbreak.

View more photographs

Original German text by Edi Estermann, first published in the "Schweizer Illustrierte", Issue No. 23, June 2, 2008.

Translated by Patricia Bamert, with assistance from Cynthia Houng

Big stories begin with small coincidences. A coincidence that Ueli Steck switches on his phone once again on that evening, just before he gets into his sleeping bag.

Base camp, Annapurna South, Nepal, 4200m above sea level: It's Monday, May 19, 7pm. It is snowing slightly at the foot of this 3000 meter tall wall of granite. Ueli Steck, 31, from Ringgenberg (Canton of Bern) and Simon Anthamatten, 24, from Zermatt, (Canton of Valais), came to climb this wall. In the following days the climbing will start. Both are very fit and highly motivated. Dry meat and cheese for dinner - perfect. The chocolate cake is ready. But today there will be no dessert.

"One missed call," reads Ueli's Handy display. Horia Colibasanu, a 31 year old dentist from Rumania, tried to call him. At that moment Horia is up at Camp 4 on the ridge of the Annapurna at 7400 m. On Friday Horia, Inaki Ochoa de Olza, 40 (Spain), and Alexey Bolotov, 45 (Russia), climb over the east ridge towards the Annapurna Summit (8091m).

Andrew Lock, the Australian mountaineer and Mountain Hardwear athlete, summited Mt. Makalu ("8479 meters, world's 5th highest mountain, and the 13th summit in [Andrew's] quest to climb all 14 of the world's '8000ers') on May 21, 2008.

A steep, massive peak on the border between Tibet and Nepal, Makalu is considered a challenging climb. Only 5 of the first 16 attempts to summit Makalu were successful. In 1955, Jean Couzy and Lionel Terray claimed Makalu's first ascent.

Read about Andrew's 2008 expedition to Makalu Shisha Pangma on his blog.

By Ueli Steck

Ringgenberg, Monday, June 2, 2008

Simon and I are back in Switzerland and we will try in the next days and weeks to get some rest and we hope that we will work up the happenings of the past weeks.

When we received the distress call form the Romanian [climber] Horia Colibasanu, it was clear for us that we would go up and help them. For us it was just obvious. We didn't hesitate one second. At the same time we knew that afterwards the expedition would be over.

Annapurna will be watching over the valley of the Modi Khola forever. We as human beings, we will have only one life to live for. I have been at the Annapurna twice. But I can go there another 20 times, if I wish to do so. But both of us, Simon and I, we would have never been able to live with the fact, that we didn't go up and help our friends in need.

We did our best. Unfortunately our help came too late.

But Inaki was never alone. Horia was near him all the time, helping him until he had to go down himself. When I reached Camp 4 I hoped Inaki would make it. But all the Dexamethason I gave him, all my efforts to keep him alive, failed. Inaki didn't have to die alone. This gives me consolation.

By Kenton Cool

Kathmandu:

I hope you know by now team Marie Curie summated Mount Everest at 6.30am Nepalese Time. It was a hard fought summit this time and the only bad news was that Ran wasn't with Rob and myself.

It all started from the South Col, Ran had put in an amazing effort to get from camp 3 at 7300m to camp 4 (South Col) at 7950m in a startling quick 6hrs. Getting to the South Col early means that there is time to recover before the final summit push. In the time we have, we all try to drink and eat as much as possible but ones body loses the want to eat. Ran however seemed to have a healthy appetite and was wolfing down litres of drink and a whole meal, he also seemed to be in great sprits. After a few hours at the Col Ran asked if it would be possible to stay an extra day in order to let him recover that little bit more. Now i'ts not something I would normally do, as resting at 8000m is not really resting, in fact the body would normally just deteriorate, however we had everything in place so that this would be possible if the situation arose. As all this was going on Rob had been talking to a friend from IMG who had indicated the forecast wasn't looking good for a stay at the Col. A quick Radio call to BC confirmed this and I broke the news to Ran. He took it well and put his head back into his sleeping bag to get the most out of the few hours we had left.

At 6pm we had a live broadcast to do for ITN. Rob did a great job struggling out of his sleeping bag to put the laptop and Bgan together before contacting London. The broadcast went really well and by 6.20pm we had finished what quite possibly was the highest ever 2 way broadcast. With this finished, we knew we only had a couple of hours left before lift off so it was heads down to melting water and trying to sort our stuff out.

8.30pm and we burst from the tent, ready to go. We clipped on crampons and checked pressure on O2 bottles. This was it, time to go, 8months of preparation at home and 6 weeks on the mountain boils down to this..... the final push to the top of the world.

Four new photos from Robert Jasper and the Baffin team:

On Monday, May 26, 2008, we received this dispatch from Ueli Steck's office in Switzerland:

"Ueli and Simon started today their way back to Kathmandu. Both are tired and happy to go back home as soon as possible. After this tremendous effort, they would need at least a couple of days to get physically and mentally fully recovered in order to go for another attempt for Annapurna South face. Also, the monsoon season starts very soon, that's why they decided not to try once more an attempt on Annapurna South Face. We are all happy that both are doing fine and hopefully they might get another chance to go for this project sometime in the future."

Ueli and Simon were both involved in the rescue effort on Annapurna. It was a physically and emotionally taxing endeavor, and we are grateful for their safe return.

By Ben Clark

May 27, 2008, Hong Kong:

We have arrived at the trail's end and are on the road home.

The morning of 5/23 we boarded a plane in Jomosom, a tiny Nepali airstrip located between the Annapurna and Dhauligiri ranges. The airline, Gorkha: "Fly with us the gallant way." What? Six expeditions here and I never really knew how to define something such as flying as "gallant."

As poor weather delayed our flight for 2 hours we pondered our position. The upper hand was always in our favor as we were done walking and food was available everywhere. Flying was almost wishful thinking. The weather this year has been relentless, when the call came the crowd spread like rats.

The pilot boarded the plane-towel around his neck and fingerless gloves tougher than Chuck Norris. As we darted forward in the tiny caravan we thrust upward at the last minute, our stomachs lighter than a plastic bag. The pilot had no room for error, the runway ends abruptly with almost a kicker or tiny raised lip to push us over the edge and into the upper valley. Wingtip to wingtip soaring again, the "gallant" way?

By the same afternoon we were on the hunt for adventure again. An old friend, David Riggs, met us in Pokhara. He is on his post graduation trip from Thunderbird where he just received his MBA. He formerly ran an import/export business in Nepal between his undergrad and Thunderbird. When Riggs joined us for our last few days things really got fun.

"Motorcycles, Clark" Riggs threw out, "We have to get some."

By Pat Deavoll

As a sequel to last year's great fun but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to make the first ascent of Beka Brakkai Chhok (6940m) in the Baltar Glacier region, Northern Pakistan, I'm heading off on May 31 to have another go at the mountain, thanks in part to some very generous sponsorship form Mountain Hardwear.

To fill you in on the background .....last year (2007) Lydia Bradey (of first-woman-to-climb-Everest-without-oxygen fame ) and I were lucky enough to secure a rather large financial grant from 'Sport and Recreation New Zealand' allowing us to organise a two woman assault on Beka Brakkai Chhok (BBC).

I won't go into too much detail on the in and outs of the expedition, other than to say we came to a halt at 6000m but had an awesome time and ended up making a first ascent of a smaller mountain we called Wahine (5800m) with two gorgeous Italian men (Giampi and Lorenzo Corona) who had also failed on their chosen peak. What more can two girls ask for!

You can read an amusing account of the trip Lydia wrote for the New Zealand Alpine Club Annual Bulletin on my blog site, www.patdeavoll.co.nz ,and an essay I did on the experience in the 'Essays and Reflections' section of Hardwear Sessions.

This year I'm attempting BBC with Malcolm Bass from England. Malcolm is a great mate and really talented climber and bastard 'ard! On the mountain he hardly wears any clothes and never feels the cold! We met in Alaska in '02, again in '03, then organised an expedition together to the Indian Gharwal in 2004, then last met up in Western China in October 2006 to make the much coveted first ascent of Haizi Shan. I think we were the eleventh expedition to try the peak! You can read both of our climbing resumes on my blog.

Anyway, a bit about our mountain of the moment...Beka Brakkai Chhok (6940m)

View more photos

By Freddie Wilkinson

"There they are! She's almost to the second ice band.... wow! Is today their fifth or sixth day on the climb?"

If being an alpine paparazzi is your thing, it's hard to beat hanging out at basecamp on the Southeast fork of the Kahiltna glacier in Alaska. The SE fork is the starting point for virtually all ascents of the Alaska Range's big three: Denali, Mount Foraker, and Mount Hunter. On a busy evening in mid-May, one finds plane loads of guided West Buttress expeditions with their matching tents, private groups of gumbies trying to figure out how to light their stoves, and brooding alpinists sulking around "waiting for the forecast to improve". Basecamp is to Alaskan climbing what Ellis Island was to American immigrants: a snowbound customs house where the journey ends and the climbing begins. It all makes for excellent people watching.

And nobody gets more scrutiny then those attempting the North Buttress of Mount Hunter, a gleaming turret of ice and rock only two miles from basecamp.Through the National Park Service's high-powered spotting scope, you can sit back and watch a team's every move.

When Ben Gilmore, Max Turgeon and I arrived there two weeks ago, I immediately noticed a group of folks lurking around the scope and knew: somebody was up on the Moonflower.

The New York Times recently covered the Fred Hutchinson Center's Climb for Cancer. The Climb includes Mountain Hardwear athletes Kevin Mahoney and Dawn Glanc. The Climb is intended to increase public awareness of cancer.

The four climbers (Kevin, Dawn, Matt Farmer and Bayard Russell) are currently on a "dry run" on Mount Rainier. In June, the group will head to Alaska to climb an unclimbed peak in the Fairweather Range.

By Ben Clark

May 20, 2008, Manang:

Warm Tuborg beer from a dusty brown bottle flowed through my lips while the howling winds of the Marsyangdi valley pelted the windows with sand and dust. I sat there shivering in the calm air after taking my first shower in about a month. We are now on the Annapurna Circuit, a popular route for travelers to Nepal.

View More Photographs from Everest

By Kenton Cool

ITS ON!!!!!!! We have just got the latest weather in 10minutes ago. Finally after an age of waiting the weather forecast looks like its good for the 24th. This means we leave early tomorrow morning on a push to camp 2. Keep fingers and toes crossed for us all as we battle our way to the summit

While you're waiting to hear more from Kenton, Rob, and Ran, read a little about life at base camp:

Many people ask what a standard day at base camp is like, so here is a short piece explaining a typical day.

On a rest day there is no alarm call so I generally wake naturally at around 6.30 and simply lounge in my sleeping bag until the sun hits the tent at 6.45. If it's not cloudy the tent warms so quickly that by 7 I'm dressed and outside. It's quite a tricky path from my tent to the kitchen area and my smashed ankles take a little while to warm up over the boulders but its not so far and there is the prize of a cup of tea at the end.

By Ben Clark

May 18, 2008

Tossing and turning throughout the night, my eyes scoured tiny visions of darkness through the slit between my fleece hat and draft collar on my sleeping bag. Where was morning? A frozen water bottle held my watch around its mouth, inches from my ear but an eternity from the base of the mountain. It was a long cold night waiting for the alarm to sound and preparing for the edgiest descent of my life.

Josh and I have towed the line on three expeditions in remote areas of the world. Most notably we have been pioneering routes in Sichuan, on the Eastern Alp like Himalaya. Our goals always process the same way-light,2 man teams for big technical mountains-climbed alone and leaving no trace. Of course,the devil is always in the details and until you are living and breathing the adventure the spirit of this style does not come alive. Here it pulsated like Chernobyl, resin of the experience now peels from my face in the form of one of over 20 layers of sunscreen. I feel intensely alive at the core.

Stefan, Robert, and the rest of the team successfully summited their route. Spring has come to Baffin Island, and the team will set out for Clyde River tomorrow.

View more photographs from Baffin.

Annapurna base camp, Friday, May 16 2008

We are back at the base camp. Simon and I decided to go back. The avalanches came down already at 9 pm. The weather and the wall conditions made it impossible to climb further up. To dangerous. Just now the weather clears up and we see the wall. From our secure place at the bc, the whole avalanche-scenario looks simply impressive. We still have 22 days before the expedition comes to its end. We do hope that more stable weather will come in and that we get the chance to go up the Annapurna Southface. We don't give up!

By Ben Clark

May 16, 2008 -- Camp 3, Annapurna IV

Well, the time is here...up or down? It is an easy decision. We worked the weather window and conditions and now that is what is working us. We get to ski tomorrow!

When we elected not to leave camp this morning it was a good decision. Now that we have had steady westerly winds and drifts of over a foot in camp it is clear what to do. We're going down. That will be sketchy enough.

By Ben Clark

May 15, 2008--Camp 3, Annapurna IV

We arrived in camp 3 today at 3 PM. We are now in the high Himalaya at 20,000' and as wide eyed and ready as ever. For what? Everything a mountain can throw at you.

We awoke at 6:30 this morning, ready to meet the daily slush of Annapurna IV, but today was different-we no longer wanted to fight the snow. Josh took the first three hours of moderate and steep wet slogging up 45-50 degree slopes before handing me the crux. It was a hot day again but when we arrived at the technical difficulties, both our heads cooled down.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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??

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.

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.

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.

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...

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."

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.