Amazing panoramic gigapixel photo of Everest, Lhotse, base camp, and the Khumbu Icefall: http://www.glacierworks.org/the-glaciers/pumori-spring-2012/
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 15 December 2012 03:54 (eleven years ago) link
HFS, I just zoomed in on that photo and saw just how small base camp and the climbers are in comparison to the mtn
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 15 December 2012 05:01 (eleven years ago) link
what is this? a base camp for ants?
― how's life, Saturday, 15 December 2012 11:14 (eleven years ago) link
http://theadventureblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/first-8000-meter-summiteer-maurice.html
Sad news from France today, where we've received word that Maurice Herzog has passed away at the ripe old age of 93. If his name is familiar, it is because he was the first man, along with climbing partner Louis Lachenal, to successfully summit an 8000 meter peak.Herzog and Lachenal climbed their way into the history books back on June 3, 1950 when they made the first successful attempt up Annapurna, the tenth highest peak in the world at 8091 meters (26,545 ft). Even more remarkable, considering the time, they actually made the ascent without the use of supplemental oxygen. The climb was not an easy one by any stretch of the imagination however, as the summit team, along with two companions, spend a night camped out in a crevasse on the descent. They had one sleeping bag between the four men and as a result, they suffered severe frostbite. Herzog himself had lost his gloves on the way to the summit and ended up having all of his toes and several fingers amputated in the field.Ironically, Annapurna was the first of the 8000 meter peaks to be summited, but is now considered to be amongst the most challenging of those 14 mountains to climb. It wouldn't be successfully conquered again until 1970.After his harrowing climb, Herzog published a book about the adventure entitled Annapurna: The First Conquest of an 8000-Meter Peak, which has gone on to be one of the best selling mountaineering books of all time. The book has been translated into 40 languages and has sold over 12 million copes across the globe, inspiring generations of mountaineers that followed. He also served as the Commissioner of Youth and Sport in France and was the mayor of Chamonix from 1968-1977.
Herzog and Lachenal climbed their way into the history books back on June 3, 1950 when they made the first successful attempt up Annapurna, the tenth highest peak in the world at 8091 meters (26,545 ft). Even more remarkable, considering the time, they actually made the ascent without the use of supplemental oxygen. The climb was not an easy one by any stretch of the imagination however, as the summit team, along with two companions, spend a night camped out in a crevasse on the descent. They had one sleeping bag between the four men and as a result, they suffered severe frostbite. Herzog himself had lost his gloves on the way to the summit and ended up having all of his toes and several fingers amputated in the field.
Ironically, Annapurna was the first of the 8000 meter peaks to be summited, but is now considered to be amongst the most challenging of those 14 mountains to climb. It wouldn't be successfully conquered again until 1970.
After his harrowing climb, Herzog published a book about the adventure entitled Annapurna: The First Conquest of an 8000-Meter Peak, which has gone on to be one of the best selling mountaineering books of all time. The book has been translated into 40 languages and has sold over 12 million copes across the globe, inspiring generations of mountaineers that followed. He also served as the Commissioner of Youth and Sport in France and was the mayor of Chamonix from 1968-1977.
(his book is one of my all-time faves)
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 15 December 2012 21:39 (eleven years ago) link
putting that on my to read list
― flag this post and die (roxymuzak), Wednesday, 19 December 2012 20:56 (eleven years ago) link
Man Makes History by Climbing 1,500-Foot El Sendero Luminoso with No Net
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX_rh8Qugt0
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 12 February 2014 03:26 (ten years ago) link
honnold is nuts
― gbx, Wednesday, 12 February 2014 04:13 (ten years ago) link
no thank you and good day sir
― 1 P.3. Eternal (roxymuzak), Wednesday, 12 February 2014 04:24 (ten years ago) link
Off my comprehensibility scale. Gbx, in what sense does the yds rating only go to 5.13? Whats the disti ction being drawn there vs 5.14s or more?
― miserable pissy riot (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 12 February 2014 04:31 (ten years ago) link
Wow, no, 15 seconds into that, I'm going to be sick.
― "righteous indignation shit" (Branwell Bell), Wednesday, 12 February 2014 08:24 (ten years ago) link
o_O
hoping that's like old Batman films and he's just crawling around the floor with the camera at a funny angle
― I am a 'music' fan. Revolutionary, isn't it? (onimo), Wednesday, 12 February 2014 16:12 (ten years ago) link
Cool video from an airplane flying around Everest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HziXPKFpLu4
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 22 February 2014 07:23 (ten years ago) link
I just finished reading the book about the 1999 expedition that found the body of George Mallory, Ghosts of Everest. I knew the expedition leader way back in my college days. Incredibly, when the climbers first reached the area where they intended to search, they located Mallory's body in less than 1.5 hours. At ~8000m you can't walk very far in that time.
― Aimless, Saturday, 22 February 2014 18:46 (ten years ago) link
Searching on -name of mountain- + gopro turns up some great videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW_6eO6VMpk
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 13 February 2015 10:12 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKq-3H04SkQ
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 13 February 2015 10:14 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUMHPnV8qz0
― gbx, Saturday, 14 February 2015 02:53 (nine years ago) link
ueli steck is the greatest living human
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjRGHGV_MVI
― gbx, Saturday, 14 February 2015 02:54 (nine years ago) link
not like as a kind giving loving human, but as a specimen, aliens would harvest him
― gbx, Saturday, 14 February 2015 02:55 (nine years ago) link
Let's climb the most insane route on the most notorious climb ever - the Eiger North Face.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MELPIlqCU74
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 12:29 (seven years ago) link
RIP royal robbins
― jason waterfalls (gbx), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 12:33 (seven years ago) link
what a handsome man
https://www.royalrobbins.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/05-Royal-Portrait1.jpg
― marcos, Wednesday, 15 March 2017 13:28 (seven years ago) link
^^ People who are (barely) not River Wolf
― the world's little sunbeam (in orbit), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 15:24 (seven years ago) link
i saw rw recently and id say that's more than a bit generous
― jason waterfalls (gbx), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 19:40 (seven years ago) link
but im sure he appreciates it
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/features/athletes/alex-honnold/most-dangerous-free-solo-climb-yosemite-national-park-el-capitan/
Renowned rock climber Alex Honnold on Saturday became the first person to scale the iconic nearly 3,000-foot granite wall known as El Capitan without using ropes or other safety gear, completing what may be the greatest feat of pure rock climbing in the history of the sport.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 5 June 2017 20:48 (seven years ago) link
instant legend status
i'll be amazed if he makes it past 40yo
― jason waterfalls (gbx), Monday, 5 June 2017 21:03 (seven years ago) link
i don't think i can ever watch footage of what he did. reading that article made me sweat
― -_- (jim in vancouver), Monday, 5 June 2017 21:08 (seven years ago) link
can't wait to watch it tbh
― imago, Monday, 5 June 2017 21:17 (seven years ago) link
Climbers have been speculating for years about a possible free solo of El Capitan, but there have only been two other people who have publicly said they seriously considered it. One was Michael Reardon, a free soloist who drowned in 2007 after being swept from a ledge below a sea cliff in Ireland. The other was Dean Potter, who died in a base jumping accident in Yosemite in 2015.John Bachar, the greatest free soloist of the 1970s, who died while climbing un-roped in 2009 at age 52, never considered it. When Bachar was in his prime, El Capitan had still never been free climbed. Peter Croft, 58, who completed the landmark free solo of the 1980s—Yosemite’s 1,000-foot Astroman—never seriously contemplated El Capitan, but he knew somebody would eventually do it.“It was always the obvious next step,” says Croft. “But after this, I really don’t see what’s next. This is the big classic jump.”
John Bachar, the greatest free soloist of the 1970s, who died while climbing un-roped in 2009 at age 52, never considered it. When Bachar was in his prime, El Capitan had still never been free climbed. Peter Croft, 58, who completed the landmark free solo of the 1980s—Yosemite’s 1,000-foot Astroman—never seriously contemplated El Capitan, but he knew somebody would eventually do it.
“It was always the obvious next step,” says Croft. “But after this, I really don’t see what’s next. This is the big classic jump.”
reardon's death was kind of a bizarre accident iirc, but worth noting that croft (a hero of mine as a teen) is one of the only prolific soloists who got out alive, and i think that's because he stopped trying to push technical standards while free soloing. i think he continued to do it (and may still, even in his dotage), but i'm not sure he did anything harder/more bold than Astroman.
as he says, there's not really much left available to honnold that doesn't involve more technical difficulty (which greatly increases the already astounding risk of human error) or more objective hazard (like some kind of remote alpine wall, like the trango tower or mt thor on baffin island).
xp i too am pretty excited to watch, though i will probably have sweaty palms the whole time
― jason waterfalls (gbx), Monday, 5 June 2017 21:26 (seven years ago) link
he doesn't seem to have much reason to stop. not much close family, lives in a van, lives for climbing
― imago, Monday, 5 June 2017 21:35 (seven years ago) link
and i don't expect he will, tbh -- i suppose he could try to free solo the dawn wall but, from a technical pov, that's like an order of magnitude harder
― jason waterfalls (gbx), Monday, 5 June 2017 21:41 (seven years ago) link
if it's been free climbed, it can be free soloed, would be his outlook i'd imagine
― imago, Monday, 5 June 2017 21:43 (seven years ago) link
his life insurance is presumably a bag of chips and a sausage roll for whoever scrapes him off the valley floor
― imago, Monday, 5 June 2017 21:45 (seven years ago) link
nice
went to a mountaineering event at caltech a while ago and was impressed by some of the video footage of some dudes
― i n f i n i t y (∞), Monday, 5 June 2017 21:46 (seven years ago) link
dear ilx: please see Free Solo (documentary about Alex Honnold, who free soloed El Capitan last year)
it isn't just a bro'd out depiction of what (imho) is one of if not the singular athletic accomplishment of the last oh hundred years, it's a pretty intriguing portrait of the person that did it
also it'll make your palms sweat
― gbx, Wednesday, 17 October 2018 02:21 (five years ago) link
i really want to see this
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 02:56 (five years ago) link
it's very good!
― gbx, Wednesday, 17 October 2018 03:08 (five years ago) link
even if you don't care about or even hate rock climbing/mountaineering as a selfish dangerous pursuit
― gbx, Wednesday, 17 October 2018 03:09 (five years ago) link
I'll try to see that. Honnold is pretty amazing.
― jmm, Wednesday, 17 October 2018 03:17 (five years ago) link
definitely looking forward to this
― Dan S, Wednesday, 17 October 2018 03:19 (five years ago) link
i don't have an issue with rock climbing being selfish or dangerous, i just find the personalities of climbers to be annoyingly alpha
― macropuente (map), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 03:26 (five years ago) link
over the past 5 years or so i’ve discovered that mountain climbing docs are one of my favorite things. i love watching ppl do stuff i would never in my life even attempt.
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 03:36 (five years ago) link
i love imagining myself running them over with my car.
*shrugs*
― macropuente (map), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 03:47 (five years ago) link
:(
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 03:56 (five years ago) link
lol sorry, i have feelings about climbers as i'm living in one of their meccas right now and i guess this thread at this moment gets to receive them. i feel like i get what makes climbers tick and i just don't care about witnessing their increasing degrees of fearlessness; nonetheless, the spotlight is always turned on them and the same old story of physical triumph over nature.
― macropuente (map), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 04:03 (five years ago) link
Funny, nature never understands that it has been subdued or conquered. It just keeps on being nature in the same old way.
― A is for (Aimless), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 04:13 (five years ago) link
also it'll make your palms sweatfirst theater I've seen with chalk marks all over the seat arms. Xp
Re what makes ppl tick - I get your point, and it relates to a phenomenon I call "venue toxicity". I get it when trapped in any super intensive sports environment esp. med/long course tri dorks hang gravity riders. but it can be non sporting, like jam bands. after like 8 consecutive hours I'm was way done. bluegrass? pretty instantaneous for me.
living in Moab tho? so many offsets.
― Hunt3r, Wednesday, 17 October 2018 04:17 (five years ago) link
not hang, "and"
― Hunt3r, Wednesday, 17 October 2018 04:19 (five years ago) link
map! i agree that climbers can be aggressively self-aggrandizing w/r/t their accomplishments ("accomplishments") and certainly with how they turn the camera on themselves (cf conquistadors of the useless)
also: climbing is so fucking fun i actually don't care
anyway if/when i get to moab i'll buy you a beer if you let me
― gbx, Wednesday, 17 October 2018 04:31 (five years ago) link
I like the close-ups in climbing movies to the extent that they show spots that are so impossible to see irl: high in the Himalayas, etc. The Meru film, for instance. I can take or leave the actual climbing and alphaness. Freeskiing movies are even worse. The accomplishments are generally not as impressive and the skiers are just blasting through the terrain. Best part of big-mountain ski movies tend to be the slow ascent shots imo. When I watch one I often wonder why/how they get made. Who is financing this stuff and why?I love skiing and find climbing insanely hard and not so much fun, fwiw.
― tobo73, Wednesday, 17 October 2018 13:51 (five years ago) link