Climbing

Mount Rainier and then onto Alaska

/ Andrew Szalay / Leave a comment

I’ve got an exciting announcement to share with you. Over the next few months I am going to do a series of posts on all things Mount Rainier. Later I will focus on Mount McKinley and then expand to the broader Alaska Range. I will continue to provide insight on alpine and hiking events, trends and news periodically as I always have.

I am going to start by covering Mount Rainier from its climbing history, the guides, the routes, the Wonderland Trail, Paradise, Camp Muir, and maybe even some of the speculations about what would happen if it ever blew its snow cone!

After that, I am going to discuss climbing Denali and later broaden out to the greater Alaska Range, including Mount Foraker, Mooses Tooth, Little Switzerland, the air services, guides and even romantic Talkeetna.

My idea for this comes from what I thought I would do once I completed college, started my career and had some income. I would have climbed Rainier on a long weekend, maybe moved to Seattle, then traveled every chance I could to climb in Alaska. Well, let’s say things did work out that way and it’s not heading that way. But I will share the knowledge I have and will be finding as I review some new information and pull on some old stuff.

If you’re interested in following these posts, please consider getting updates from me on the Suburban Mountaineer on Facebook or Twitter. There, you’ll also get news and other interesting mountain life and adventure news and information as I come across it.

Here we go!

Free Wi-Fi Now at Mount Everest

/ Andrew Szalay / Leave a comment

Well, it’s not exactly free and it isn’t Wi-Fi. As you may have heard the Mount Everest area has been wired with the 3G network since last fall as part of an expensive undertaking. Earlier this week, Kenton Cool, a British climber, sent the first Tweet via Twitter from the Summit, according to PlanetMountain.com.

I’ve said this before on this and some other subjects: We cannot stop progress, but we can resent it, no?

There is clearly enough demand and commerce happening (in the form of client paid expeditions) along the Khumbu Valley and Everest base camp to justify the dedicated service. Maybe that is part of my problem. While I sincerely respect the challenge of climbing Everest, it continues to lose its cache among progressive alpinists. Not that I am a progressive alpinist, but I value their accomplishments more.

However, because of the accessibility to the mountain thanks to numerous international guiding services, the new wireless connection and constant media attention on the climbing season, it remains a reliable challenge to make headlines and bring attention to causes and promote brands and climbers. It’s also a solid challenge for part-time mountaineers that work 50 weeks a year just to climb the other two, thanks to the professional guide services! But I think even those guides can provide expeditions that are more unique and potentially more satisfying.

I won’t go on record to say that Everest is becoming just another slag heap and is the new Mount Rainier, like some have implied. No offense to Rainier, but I do understand where these concerned people are coming from.

That being said, now that the Everest Resort has upgraded some of it’s amenities including the Internet access, I am going to see if work will permit me a few weeks to work remotely from there.

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The Eiger Solo Challenge

/ Andrew Szalay / Leave a comment

The infamous Eiger North Face (Jo in Riederalp 2007)

The Eiger (13,025 ft./3,970 m.) in the Bernese Alps is legendary in alpine mountaineering because of the impressive size of its largest wall, the North Face or Nordwand, which rises approximately 5,000 ft./1,524 m. from its base. It’s also legendary because of the area’s weather conditions, the stories of the struggles of climbing it and the list of climbers that have climbed and even attempted it is like a who’s who list of mountaineering. Interestingly, it is the solo accomplishments that are front and center lately.

Substantively, the Nordwand has been in the news again recently for Swiss alpnist Dani Arnold’s new speed record up the wall in two-and-a-half hours on April 20, 2011, which beat the previous time record by Ueli Steck, also from Switzerland, from February 13, 2008, by 19 minutes. People are also watching the videos — which are excellent quality — of Steck climbing the Eiger at his extraordinary clip and unroped: Check this one out by clicking here, then come back and continue reading.

It’s also worth noting that several sources are explaining that while Arnold bested Steck’s time, their accomplishments both stand on their own unique merits. This is because while Arnold clearly holds the best time, Steck climbed in the true winter and free climbed the Hinterstoisser Tower — a pillar on the lower third of the mountain that has fixed ropes and is deemed virtually unclimbable, and certainly only free climbable in winter. Some purists would argue that Arnold’s climb was of a lesser quality, or at most that the style was not worth the speed he attained.

Climbing this mountain is hard enough with a team than when going it alone. The Eiger was first summited in 1858 by Charles Barrington, Christian Almer and Peter Bohren by the West Flank — not the Nordwand. The northwest face wasn’t climbed until 1938 by Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vorg, Fritz Amatter and Heinrich Harrer (you’ll remember him as Brad Pitt in Seven Years in Tibet). Several attempts, including the 1935 climb that named the notorious “Death Bivouac,” demonstrated the near futility of getting up the Nordwand. The first direct route up the Eiger wasn’t established until 1966 by Dougal Haston, Sigi Hupfauer, Jorg Lehne and Roland Votteler.

The first successful solo attempt came in August 1963, up the 1938 route, by Swiss climber Michel Darbellay. Half those that tried to go alone died trying. Even the great English alpinist Walter Bonatti had turned around the day before Darbellay went up! This shows Darbellay for his strength and courage, as well as how climbing the Eiger can be so fickle. Darbellay climbed the peak within two days time — including only 18 hours of climbing (which seems a reasonable pace compared to the speed climbing going on, in my opinion.)

The mountain’s size and the hundreds of stories about its climbs have permeated all kinds of literature and media — even Readers Digest. But the trend of and interest in speed and style trump anyone’s own personal accomplishments lately. So the question is, will Arnold’s record to beat? Will Steck’s time and style record be improved upon? I’ll let you know when I find out…

Well, thanks again for visiting. If you enjoyed this post, please consider following the Suburban Mountaineer on Facebook or Twitter.

Mountain Rescues and the Amazing Race

/ Andrew Szalay / Leave a comment

If Zev and Justin were rescuing me from an avalanche I would have died. Let me explain…

On Sunday, May 1, 2011, on the Amazing Race, the American CBS television show where teams of two race around the world and compete in various tasks unique to their destinations, had the remaining contestants perform one of two tasks before they could advance: Search for an avalanche victim or rescue a fallen climber in a crevasse.

Two teams got to work on the crevasse rescue and three others, including Zev and Justin, searched and dug among avalanche debris. Or at least that’s the way it seemed. The tasks illustrated the general idea of what needs to be done, but in the real world… well… training is different from real life. Generally speaking, people entering areas with these real life dangers of crevasses and avalanches are well aware of the dangers and risks. Here’s the basics:

Crevasse Rescues 

Crevasses are fissures like deep cracks in glaciers created by their gradual movement. They move several feet a day and if the glacier were shown at fast speed over days or months would look like a roaring river.

Mountaineers and hikers don’t usually fall into open crevasses; it is the one’s they don’t see, covered by snow bridges that are really dangerous. It might appear the field or slope ahead is reasonably even and smooth, but underneath are the fissures you saw the contestants being lowered into to rescue a fallen climber. This is why rope teams are important. Some solo climbers have even employed using over-sized snowshoes or a long ladder strapped around their waist in hopes of preventing a fall into a crevasse where no one would find them.

Rescuing someone in real life is usually more complicated than what the show demonstrated. For example, the struts for the winch system typically are not in place unless a rescue team from down in the valley are equipped with one and the edges of the crevasse can support such an apparatus. This means the climbers must use the gear they have with them. While a pulley would be ideal, the rescuers may not have one and must use what is on hand, like slings or figure eights or other belay devices. Also, the rescue could take several hours to accomplish.

Not to be overly morbid, but when people die in crevasse falls they tend to do so from internal injuries from the fall or from starvation if they cannot escape by themselves; crevasses can be enormously dark caves with overhanging walls, and without the right equipment, cannot be ascended.

Searching Avalanches debris

First of all, to make the task on the show a challenge, the mannequin they searched for was buried about four feet deep in a gently sloping plain of snow in what appeared to be a col. Avalanches can happen on virtually any slope when a layer of the accumulated snow loses its grip on the layer below it. Snow has dozens of varying consistencies, which means some bond together better than others.

It helps if the avalanche victim is wearing an avalanche beacon and the rescuers have them too. Climbers involved in the search and rescue (SAR) effort can turn the device to receive in order to find the victim. If beacons were not used by the climbing party then rescuers have to resort to more traditional, low-tech avalanche probes — long, narrow poles to poke the snow in hopes of finding the missing climber. Today, these are often special dual-use trekking poles.

Under normal circumstances, the victim does not have a lot of time. The weight of the snow, and often the inability to determine which way is up, make it difficult or impossible to help oneself. Victims usually perish from asphyxiation. Some climbers and backcountry skiers have used the Ava Lung from Black Diamond Equipment, which helps buy an avalanche victim more time by helping the victim displace CO2 from fresh air.

Bottom line in avalanche recovery is to know how to search and work quickly. Best of all, both as rescuer and climber: Be prepared!

At the rate Zev and Justin worked I don’t think I would have made it, even with an Ava Lung.

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The 2011 Piolets d’Or and Where We Go Next

/ Andrew Szalay / Leave a comment

You’ve probably heard about the winners of the 2011 Piolet d’Or by now. Two expeditions received the Golden Ice Axe: One team of climbers from various nations sailed around Greenland’s coast and climbed almost a dozen of its big walls and another team, a Japanese duo, ascended an unclimbed wall on Mount Logan (19,551 ft./5,959 m.) The award has been given annually since the early 1990s “to publicise the greatest ascents achieved in the mountains the world over, and given recognition to climbers of all nationalities for their individual or team ventures.”

The award is presented by the mountaineering organization Groupe de Haute Montagne (GHM), the publishing house of Montagnes Magazine and Vertical and the Regional Authority of the Aosta Valley. In analyzing their selection, they have emphasized style and approach above much else. Specifically, they highly valued the ability to climb cleanly, without bolts or pitons, and to traverse the massifs once atop.

Greenland Big Walls Sailing Expedition

The Greenland Sailing expedition is inspiring for the carefree nature these climbers took even along the way to excelling at climbing alpine style. Much has been published on this expedition, thanks largely to Patagonia’s production crews. Patagonia projects the carefree vagabond adventure that in the videos that it is well known for in its catalog. The journey borders on the whimsical, and combined with the credible climbing accomplished, is why this team won a Piolet d’Or this year.

First Ascent of Southeast Face of Mount Logan

The other group that also won the 2011 award has been less heralded. In May 2010, members of the so-called Giri-Giri boys, Yasushi Okada and Katsutaka “Jumbo” Yokoyama, from Japan sended a new line to the top of Mount Logan. Because this line was previously unclimbed on a major peak — the highest mountain in Canada and the second highest in North America — the route was referred to as one of the last (and possibly final) great problem.

These climbers did not get up this wall in one massive 48 hour push like Mark Twight or Barry Blanchard are known for on other ascents, mainly because the conditions and the challenge were so severe. The southeast face is a massive, steep slope of snow, ice and rock, 8,200 ft./2,500 m. high. They climbed alpine-style en route to the summit crest, reached the East Summit (19,357 ft./5,900 m.) and descended by the East Ridge.

This ascent was deserving a 2011 Piolet d’Or. The route had been attempted in the past couple of decades, including two attempts by Alaskan mountaineering specialist Jack Tackle, who is the 2009-11 Treasurer of the American Alpine Club and according to the American Alpine Journal has 28 Alaskan expeditions on his resume. This climb was significant for reasons of the size of the challenge, the clean climbing they employed and, probably, a little bit of sentimentality for new routes on the bigger mountains (which doesn’t diminish the accomplishment or its status.)

There are some decent photos from the ascent on this webpage.

What’s Next in Climbing?

From here, the feats of mountaineering only get more interesting, not less. The next round of great climbs will be all about refining the ascents and first in categories, such as the first ascent by a woman or by other nationalities of alpinists. It will also be about style and approach.

Well, thanks again for visiting. I’ll get back to posting at least twice per week just as soon as I get settled into my new position at my day job. In the mean time, I will try to complete the two posts suggested by some of you, my readers, soon as well.

Lastly, if you enjoyed this post, please consider following the Suburban Mountaineer on Facebook or Twitter.

Ueli Steck’s New Record in the Himalayas

/ Andrew Szalay / Leave a comment

You know Ueli Steck is a phenomenon when you get emails or Facebook posts about Ueli Steck from friends that know nothing about mountaineering. Youtube and vimeo are largely to blame because they have impressive films of Steck climbing in the Alps to some popular soundtracks. Frivolous popularity and hype aside, Steck deserves the homage.

Steck, the Swiss alpinist that turns 35 years old in October, climbed Shishapangma (26,289 ft./8,013 m.) on Palm Sunday, April 17, 2011 in an astounding ten-and-a-half hours. That is ten-and-a-half hours from advanced base camp to summit and back again on the world’s fourteenth highest mountain. According to PlanetMountain.com, Steck combined three routes to achieve this record, including the original southwest face route, Krzysztof Wielicki’s 1993 solo route and the 1995 Spanish route.

While the appreciation by non-climbers is a tribute to his inspiring courage and accomplishments, mountaineers and even non-technical hikers can appreciate his lifelong commitment to the mountains and his chosen approach to his craft. After all, climbing as Steck does is thanks to his experience and skill that he started accumulating when he was a teenager. He learned the fundamentals and elevated what he was comfortable with in the mountains — essentially raising the bar for what was considered comfortable and what required courage.

Steck also embraced alpine style climbing wholeheartedly, used the “fast and light” approach that I associate with Steve House, Barry Blanchard and Mark Twight, and transformed “fast” into “acceleration.” In this way, he takes just what he needs in his pack, doesn’t use fixed ropes or camps (often not using ropes or camps at all), has a minimalist mentality in terms of gear in order to travel quickly, and then he runs… kicks steps, swings the axe and repeats, probably forgetting the last move as soon as he starts the next one.

Steck’s style is admirable and has some pros and cons. For slow pokes like me, I would argue that Steck climbs his routes so quickly he barely notices that he is in a beautiful location; the experience is hardly a memorable one since he probably doesn’t forgets placing his crampons or axe as soon as he kicks or swings for the next hold. He doesn’t ever pause to enjoy the roses, if any grew up there.

However, Steck’s approach appears to be a balancing act of safety and risk, not unlike other more traditional climbing styles, but has it’s own rewards and dangers. He often climbs unroped, with minimal gear, and moves at a rapid pace through dangerous places. As Peter Bernstein says in Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, the chances something will go wrong are related to how many opportunities for failure can occur during the given time. In other words, the less time Steck takes to climb, the less can go wrong.

Well, thanks again for visiting. If you enjoyed this post, please consider following the Suburban Mountaineer on Facebook or Twitter.