K2 North Pillar Summit by Vassily Pivtsov and Maxut Zumayev

Photo by David Falt of Vassily Pivtsov at 5000 meters under the North Face of Kwangde, winter 2010


Why is not Vassily Pivtsov and Maxut Zumayev getting any head lines? Well they are low profile no spray climbers from a remote country only known for Borat to the masses. Having been on a winter trip to Nepal with assily Pivtsov trying a small peak I can only say he is truly a world class alpinist. Vassily Pivtsov and Maxut Zumayev has completed the 14 x 8000 meter peak quest in a style few can compare to.

In order to do Everest in the best possible style avoiding crowds they arrived at the North side 4 weeks ahead of the crowds and was descending from the summit as Sherpas was fixing ropes to the North Col. They had a close call as it was cold as fuck that early in the season and dehydration was sever after 3 day above 8000.

I have huge respect for Vassily Pivtsov and Maxut Zumayev. If I'm right this was there 8th try on K2 and I think they have been over 8000m on all 7 previous attempts. Thats a record in its self!!!! Out of the 7 tries in the past they have been to the North side before as well as an attempt in winter.

I also think they are among the fastest to finish of the 14 X 8000 meter quest.

Chapeau!!!!!

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Join The American Alpine Club!

The Swedish Climbing Federation (SKF) is a pile of shit and sadly not of much of a benefit if you are a climber looking for an organization who will benefit your interests and provide a valid insurance outside the beaten track. SKF has fallen victim of its own ambition to please the feeding hand of governmental subsidises provided from Riksidrotts Forbundet. Tax funding for sports might be great but when the sports organization starts to divert all there focus to maximizing funding and not attending to the individual needs for its members you know its time to move on.

SKF is an umbrella organization where all forms of climbing is represented. This is bad for Swedish climbing as none of the different climbing activities is getting enough funding to do any thing that will benefit the development of Swedish climbing. The competition climbers complain they don't have enough funding for there activities but they travel, have an organization and team outfits...

The vast majority of the rapidly shrinking number of members are devote to climbing outdoors. So one would think its a no brainer to focus on there problems but thats not the case. Sadly vast amounts of the funding is funneled in to kids climbing on plastic and not doing that good on an international level (there is one or two exceptions). Not bad I just think that competition climbing can be better managed by the big climbing gyms and a specialized organization.

The Expedition funding SKF can provide is limited to about 2350 USD. So any one looking for a grant to go and explore a peak in the Himalayas or in Patagonia might get lucky with a 300 USD grant or unlucky and get zip.

After looking in to the services and offers a member of the American Alpine Club benefit from it was a no brainer to join. I was not sure if all benefits such as GLOBAL rescue insurance would apply to non US residents but swift a response from AAC assured me thats the case. On top of that I get discount on magazine subscriptions and with a number of retailers. But best of all I get the yearly American Alpine Journal. And I can browse it online so I wont where my hard copy out...

Nicolas Favresse: The hit machine!

Nicolas Favresse and Adam Pustelnik has repeated what has been claimed to be the worlds hardest Big Wall route, set up by the Pou brothers in 2009. What is so impressive is how Nicolas Favresse seams to keep producing world class climbing in the true spirit of having fun and climbing hard. His free climb of the East Face of Fitz Roy via El Corazon was mind blowing. Watching them rapping off Royal Flush as we had bailed on the North Pillar was truly cool. The oOnions VS the Royals!

http://www.kairn.com/news_escalade_76198.orbayu-8c-9a-repetee.html

http://www.nicolasfavresse.com/spip.php?rubrique=12&id_article=102

http://www.planetmountain.com/english/News/shownews1.lasso?keyid=37987

Right now the best web cam in the world!

Photo from Cima Grande a few weeks ago

http://www.umbriameteo.com/trecime/

Giving in

Ok I have never done any specific training to improve my sport climbing abilities but if I'm to get any better I think I need to start with that as well as lose a few kg:s... Being fat and week is not a great combination...

http://www.moonclimbing.com/fingerboard-training-plan-c-334_353.html