Friday, October 10, 2008

Himalaya Update: Focus Shifts To Shisha


Heading into the weekend, ExWeb has a fresh update on what's happening in the Himalaya. It seems that despite the Chinese restrictions, there will be some action on Shisha Pangma this fall, with teams already on the move to base camp.

ExWeb is reporting that Italian Climbers Andrea Zambaldi and Andrea Montolli topped out on Shisha Pangma last week, after arriving on the mountain on Sept. 10th. The pair climbed along the northwest route, with bad weather making things difficult until Zambaldi reached the summit on the 2nd of October, and his partner went up on the 3rd.

The season isn't over on Shisha however, as reportedly Edurne Pasaban and her team, fresh off a successful summit on Manaslu, is not making her way to Tibet to make a bid on her 12th 8000m peak. If successful, the climb would put her out in front in the race to become the first woman to nab all the 8-thousanders.

Kazakh climbing legend Vassily Pivtsov added another mountain to his resume earlier in the week, successfully reaching the summit of Manaslu himself. It is being reported that Vassily topped out last Friday, and if confirmed, he'll have claimed the first summit of year on that mountain, and will have notched his 11th 8000m peak.

There is more news on the tragic death of Miha Valic on Cho Oyu last weekend. One of the climbers on the Spanish team that found him. When they approached, Miha was hanging upside down in the ropes, not breathing. They spun him around and got him level, after removing some of his gear, and proceeded to give him CPR, to no avail. Realizing that he had passed, the climbers then lowered him 30 more meters down the mountain, where they buried him. Later, it was learned that the strong, experienced Slovenian climber was racing another teammate to the summit. The two had not had much, if anything, to eat or drink in three days, and on the descent, it finally caught up with him.

Finally, on Pumori, the Peak Freaks are now approaching BC, after spending two nights to acclimatize in Dingboche. They hope to reach camp by Monday in time to celebrate the Canadian Thanksgiving.

Seems like there is still plenty going on in the Himalaya.

No comments:

Post a Comment