Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Messages 1 - 30 of total 30 in this topic |
micronut
Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
|
 |
Aug 13, 2018 - 03:28pm PT
|
I want photo evidence.
I want video proof.
I want DNA samples, realtime MaxVO2 readings, personal daily journals from each climber, core ice samples from the upper cornices, photos from basecamp and GO-Pro footage from the summit. We cannot take this kind of claim lightly! That line is sacred and they better be ready to pony up some hardcore evidence with a claim like that!
Slovenians and Brits teaming up! When it comes to toughness, bad weather climbing and gnar I'd go all in on that alpine combo every time. Well done lads. Well done.
|
|
Stewart Johnson
Mountain climber
lake forest
|
 |
Aug 13, 2018 - 05:19pm PT
|
proper!
|
|
WanderlustMD
Trad climber
New England
|
 |
Aug 13, 2018 - 08:33pm PT
|
How does this not have more comments?!
Mega!
|
|
Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
 |
Aug 13, 2018 - 08:36pm PT
|
But?????
Did Donini & his crew make it to Latok I in time to visit with the folks that finally climbed it?
We may have to wait a few weeks for an answer.
|
|
Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
|
 |
Aug 13, 2018 - 09:29pm PT
|
I think Jim and a few others were going to the base camp after the trek which they are in the middle of now. Was Huber going to climb the North route? Is it the same base camp?
|
|
Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
|
 |
Aug 13, 2018 - 09:31pm PT
|
Nice hike!
|
|
Inner City
Trad climber
Portland, OR
|
 |
Aug 13, 2018 - 10:06pm PT
|
Is this true!? wow, what a thing to do...
it turns out...People are Awesome..despite all the evidence to the contrary
|
|
skywalker1
Trad climber
co
|
 |
Aug 13, 2018 - 10:41pm PT
|
So much in life is fleeting. To do an accent like this must be arriving at base camp after a car crash or not easy anyway. I look forward to discussion but hope all involved some food and rest. Congrats!!!
S...
|
|
norm larson
climber
wilson, wyoming
|
 |
Aug 14, 2018 - 05:19am PT
|
I'll bet those guys are pretty happy campers right now. The holy grail right?
|
|
Bad Climber
Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
|
 |
Aug 14, 2018 - 09:22am PT
|
Stunning. I was going to happen. It's astonishing that it took so long, a testament to the difficulty of the mountain and the brilliance of both the Donini, Lowe, Kennedy attempt and these new blokes. Well done!
BAd
|
|
Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
|
 |
Aug 14, 2018 - 09:42am PT
|
Awesome badass achievement and lucky to be back alive...
Did they see any crows up there?
|
|
Jim Clipper
climber
|
 |
Aug 14, 2018 - 09:43am PT
|
Perhaps a pitch, a perch, or some part in memory. Risky game. No words.
Given the climate, glad it was an international team.
|
|
Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
|
 |
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 14, 2018 - 09:51am PT
|
To think that it took 40 years and how many attempts!
As I said in the other thread, the proliferation of bail anchors no doubt made the ascent easier because they didn't have to carry as many.
|
|
micronut
Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
|
 |
Aug 14, 2018 - 10:31am PT
|
As I said in the other thread, the proliferation of bail anchors no doubt made the ascent easier because they didn't have to carry as many.
Yeah right. I'm sure they saved a ton of weight and time planning to rap off old gnarly windbleached tat that had been there for 40 years!
#gamechanger
|
|
i-b-goB
Social climber
Nutty
|
 |
Aug 14, 2018 - 10:40am PT
|
Cheers to Tom Livingstone, Aleš Česen and Luka Stražar outstanding climb!
|
|
Don Paul
Social climber
Washington DC
|
 |
Aug 14, 2018 - 11:10am PT
|
I can't help but think all this activity resulted from the slide show. I wish Donini would say something about impeachment being the holy grail of presidential politics, lol.
|
|
phylp
Trad climber
Upland, CA
|
 |
Aug 14, 2018 - 11:31am PT
|
Very exciting! And I am happy for their safe return to basecamp.
|
|
micronut
Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
|
 |
Aug 14, 2018 - 03:27pm PT
|
|
|
BigB
Trad climber
Red Rock
|
 |
Aug 14, 2018 - 03:35pm PT
|
I'm a punter so my opinion on this matters zilch... but that line^ looks like they bailed to the right, right when it was getting real. and is that the true summit? from the photo it looks like the point to the left is higher
|
|
Yury
Mountain climber
T.O.
|
 |
Aug 14, 2018 - 04:19pm PT
|
Marlow:
So Gukov and Glazunov may have been the first up the North Ridge. According to risk.ru Glazunov was leading the last pitch.
He riched the top of the rocky part of a climb.
Then he did not like snow laden horizontal ridge leading to the summit (it was too dangerous) and retreated.
According to this account he was the first to reach the top of the North Ridge
At the same time he has not reached the summit.
|
|
EdwardT
Trad climber
Retired
|
 |
Aug 15, 2018 - 06:49am PT
|
Here's a write up of the '78 expedition
BESIDES the 8000-meter giants, the Karakoram contains countless attractive smaller peaks. Though much lower, they often make up in difficulty what they lack in altitude. On the northern edge of the Biafo Glacier rise the Ogre (Baintha Brakk) and the Latok peaks.
Our expedition attempted Latok I (23,440 feet), the highest unclimbed peak in the group and only some 500 feet lower than the Ogre. There had been three previous expeditions to Latok I, two Japanese and one Italian. All three had gone to the southern side and all had been repulsed low on the mountain by avalanche danger.
There is no easy way up the precipitous, ice-encrusted walls of this imposing mountain. The easiest route would present the technical challenge of the hardest peaks in North America. We planned a route from the north, a fine direct ridge that sweeps 8000 feet up rock and ice. The climbing would be difficult but it appeared to be perhaps the only route free of objective danger. The weather would be variable and the mountain was high and remote. We intended to climb alpine-style.
George Lowe, his cousin Jeff Lowe, Jim Donini and I were the climbing team. We were accompanied to Base Camp by two doctors, Dr. George Lowe Sr. and Dr. Ralph Richards.
After the Pakistani government gave us final permission in early March, preparations began in earnest. All our equipment and most of our food was brought from the United States, but we bought staple items such as sugar, flour, tea, rice and powdered milk overseas. We arrived in Rawalpindi on June 10 but had to wait for six days for lost baggage, customs clearance, bureaucratic formalities and the purchase of additional supplies. We had a five-day wait after our flight to Skardu until our baggage finally arrived. Such delays may seem long, but they were really minimal for Pakistan.
We traveled the first 50 miles from Skardu by jeep. Then began the long, hot walk to Base Camp. The first four nights of the approach were spent in villages, nestled in green oases along the Braldu River gorge in this harsh, precipitous desert. It was so hot during the day that we started at three A.M. to be able to sleep away the torrid afternoon hours. Beyond Askole we left human habitation and ascended the Panmah and Choktoi glaciers.
We took three days in Base Camp at 15,500 feet to rest and sort out food and gear for the climb. Steep, narrow and icy, the north ridge of Latok I dominated the skyline, its base a mile and a half away. We gave ourselves only a 50-50 chance of success. Seventeen days of food was largely freeze-dried with generous additions of nuts, cheese, dried meat and fruit, peanut butter and candy. When this was added to full winter clothing, sleeping gear, tents, stoves, fuel, eight ropes, 60 rock pitons and 30 ice screws, it amounted to 350 pounds.
Each day one pair led, leaving ropes fixed behind. The other two ascended with Jümars, carrying the loads. For the first few days this pair had to make several trips up the ropes before pulling them up, but finally we ate enough to lighten the loads. The next day we switched. It was scarier to lead, but easier than jümaring with a 60-pound pack.
Although the climbing on the first day was not too difficult, we made only 800 feet. We hadn’t yet figured out how to deal with all the weight and the heat was merciless. On the second day we got to 17,500 feet with the same problems of heat and weight and more difficult climbing. Since the altitude was beginning to bother and because we were tired, we rested on the third day. A six-day storm broke on the fourth. Though we managed to climb some during this period, we were still immobilized at 18,500 feet for three days, surviving on half-rations and hope.
When the storm finally did end, we had an extended period of perfect weather. The climbing remained difficult, though never desperate. Yet it just never let up. Each step required caution, and we stayed roped even when sleeping.
The higher we got, the worse the campsites became. We slept three nights out in the open above 21,000 feet, sitting on tiny ledges hacked out of the ice. The altitude took its toll. We always needed two hours each morning to get started, and even minor tasks took a major effort. We had to drink endless cups of hot tea to keep some semblance of hydration and that took hours of melting snow and boiling water. Carrying loads was agonizing until we found the proper pace: one step, one breath, with a pause every ten paces for a proper rest.
It wasn’t all grim. The scenery was gorgeous. We had the exhilaration of 7000 feet of exposure down to the glacier below. We had been on the climb so long that it seemed as if it was the only thing we had ever known. Memories faded into the distant past. Each day was routine: get up, put on a brew, eat, boots on, dress against the cold, pack the gear, climb, haul loads, hack out a platform, eat, sleep—the details were all the same, the days were alike, blurred into a simple ritual of the climb.
On our 19th day we took what little food remained—about three days’ worth—and a minimum of equipment and made a push for the summit. At 22,700 feet the snow was finally deep enough to dig a snow cave. We fixed two ropes above the cave over the final difficulties to reach easy snow-and-ice slopes leading to the summit ridge. It was still some 700 feet to the top, but the going was much easier. We huddled anxiously together in the snow cave as another massive front moved in from the northeast.
The 20th day crept slowly by. A foot of new snow had fallen overnight, and we put off our summit attempt in hopes of better weather. That night it snowed another foot, but food was low and so we tried for the top anyhow. We turned back perhaps 300 feet from the summit ridge and 500 feet from the top in the face of wind, spindrift and cold. Now there was another complication. Jeff had been somewhat sick since we had arrived at the snow cave and the summit try had really put him under. He became very ill, so ill that we feared for his life. Almost out of food and fuel in the continuing storm, we knew that we would have to spend one, or perhaps two nights out in the open on the descent. Could Jeff survive it?
After five nights in the cave, we had no choice but to go down. We divided up Jeff’s gear. The storm continued unabated. Feet and hands froze, and nearly three feet of new snow slowed progress. Our prolonged stay at that altitude had weakened us. Even when we had all our clothing on, the cold cut right through. Frostbite was a constant threat and forced us into frequent halts to warm extremities.
We descended 1500 feet in fourteen hours to the first of our miserable bivouacs. Jeff seemed somewhat better, but I had removed my sun glasses that day and was suffering from snow blindness.
The storm continued the next day. Although Jeff was better, he was still weak and nauseous. We had next to nothing to eat, but we knew that there was a day’s food at the midpoint of the route, 2000 feet lower. Mercifully, we made it. There was room to set up tents, and the night was almost comfortable.
The sun was out on the last day of the descent. The rappels were all straight down and not diagonal. Even our hunger could not dampen our spirits. We chatted happily about our good fortune of being there. Had the storm really been that bad? Could we have made it to the top? But what we really cared about was getting down, alive, and going home.
We got back to Base Camp at dark, twenty-six days after leaving. We ate until our bellies ached—and that they did all night. After a rest and packing day, we started walking out. It was a hard trip on swollen feet, but that is a whole other story.
Summary of Statistics:
Area: Biafo Karakoram.
Attempted Ascent: Latok I, 23,440 feet, via north ridge; high point about 22,950 feet, July, 1978.
Personnel: James Donini, Michael Kennedy, George Lowe, Jeff Lowe.
http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12197902400/Latok-1
|
|
AP
Trad climber
Calgary
|
 |
Aug 23, 2018 - 09:41am PT
|
Finished or unfinished? There seem to be conflicting reports.
What does Jim think?
|
|
Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
 |
Aug 23, 2018 - 05:17pm PT
|
I note that Donini's wife Angela reported making it back to Skardu today. As I recall, Donini & some others were staying longer to do some climbing.
|
|
JLP
Social climber
The internet
|
 |
Aug 23, 2018 - 06:28pm PT
|
What a gong show.
|
|
BryanE
climber
Minnesota
|
 |
Aug 24, 2018 - 05:51pm PT
|
Robert, thanks for posting that quote from Tom Livingstone. I was going to do that if somebody else hadn't already. Definitely sheds some new light on the Russian incident. Grim stuff...
|
|
donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
|
 |
Just arrived in Skardu after thirty days in tbe Karakoram, including fifteen in the Latok/Ogre cirque. The Russians and Slovenians were already gone when I arrived but Thimas Huber is now in place.
I have been devoid of any but the barest news but it appears that, strictly.speaking, Latok 1 is still awaitng a complete ascent from the north side.
|
|
Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
|
 |
Berg Heil a happy camper i hope?
Glad to hear from the way out there
|
|
Messages 1 - 30 of total 30 in this topic |
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|