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R.I.P Oscar Perez

Photo from Oscar Perez' & Alvaro Novellon

Oscar will always be a hero to me all though I never meet him and did not know him.  I know we shared a passion for and thats enough for me to care about his tragic loss.  The Latok has been a long lasting love of mine. It started wen I first saw the pictures from the Jeff Lowe attempt on on Latok and since then it has captivated me. The Latok group has what other mountain ranges in Pakistan lack, pure virginity to explore. Oscars died doing what you need to in order to move boundaries. He pushed beyond the mountain and sadly paid the ultimate price. 

Its not easy to let go and when a line or an object is stuck in your head, its hard to find inner peace with out going there and try the line and see if it possible. I hope Oscar now has found some peace. 

I hope I will encounter your spirit on Latok one day Oscar. 

R.I.P

Latok II Rescue

One can only pray that the ongoing rescue attempt on Latok 2 to bring down Oscar will end in a success rather than and epic for the guys lead by Fabrizio from FTA and every one else involved.  This is an unprecedented effort to bring down a fellow alpinist and climber who is stranded since a week ago with minimal supplies  and a broken leg and other injury's above 6300 meters. I know we are many who have offered our assistance in order to get this resolved in the best possible way and to night Fabrizio will push up on this unclimbed route with 8 haps in order to try and reach Oscar. 

Keep updated on http://www.mounteverest.net

STEVE HOUSE NEW BOOK!!!!!!

I have written a review of Beyond The Mountain by Steve House that I'm really happy with. The book is Beyond Good! I hope the review will be published on www.mounteverest.net soon and then I will post it.

Buy it @:

http://www.patagonia.com/web/us/product/Beyond_the_Mountain_Book?p=BK205-0-000
 

This one is a nice one

There is always a next one and that one will be a pure winter one and I think I will opt for Kwangde in Nepal. The North Face of Kwangde is classic ground and the summit is just shy of 6200 meters with some superb ice lines finding its way up the face.

The routes in the picture are: (purple line) Extra-Blue Ciel (ED2, Sam Beaugey, Christophe Profit, Andre Rhem, Jerome Ruby, 1995); (green line) Breashears-Lowe Route, 1982; (red line) Normal Routes Have Nothing Extraordinary (ED2 WI 5+, Stéphane Benoist, Frédéric Gottardi, 2006). Source and picture from http://www.climbing.com. There is a few more routes on the face not shown in this picture.

Ines Pappert did a new route last winter that share exit wit the Profit route. I think we will opt for the Lowe or Profit route but who knows where the ice is best formed. At the end of the day that will be the deciding factor. It is defiantly possible to do new routes on the face but again conditions have to be good as well as time to scout so I don't think thats an option for this winter expedition.

Our aim is to do a pure winter accent so we have to arrive in BC after December 21st and top out before March 23rd. I think there is a winter definition according to the Nepal standards that is starting in mid December but Simone Moro and other winter climbers are pushing hard for the UIAA definition and I think they are spot on. Well this is early plans and they depend on my knee recovery but I really want to get some thing done in Himalaya during 2009/2110 so this would be an ideal target as I think Kwangde is a perfect winter mountain.