the last great climb [#3]

 

the last great climb [#2]

 

the last great climb

Last week, I got a “spam” from Posing Productions (‘climbing film fanatics’, whose dvd’s I particularly appreciate!) about their latest wallpapers. They are indeed superb and ‘Og’s readers may have to cope with a few of them in the coming week. First, here is one of the Ulvetanna climb by Leo Houlding and his team, a magnificent big wall in the Fenriskjeften Range,  in Antarctica…

thumbleweed [local] news

It has been about a week since I left the hospital and went back home, trying to get back in shape by resting, eating (to gain back some of the lost kg’s), sharing with my family and exercising… I foolishly tried to get back to the university once and ended the day as a wreck (esp. as I had to walk the two k’s of avenue Foch, the Line 2 métro being out of order!). Anyway, I read a lot, went back to my favourite bakery in Sceaux, had chats with neighbours, got reunited with the stray cat, and enjoyed the May sunshine while it lasted. I want to take this opportunity to give my warmest thanks to all of you who sent me greetings and good wishes, who visited me at the hospital or sent me goodies—read all the books, ate most of the macaroons and chocolates! A very special thanks to my friends in the Statistics department at BYU, for their unbelievable support! And to my mom, who came every single day… As reported in the earlier post, the thumb is gone and the wound is slowly healing, although it will require several weeks before the dressings are off for good. (Which gives me a good reason to skip washing dishes!) I dearly hope I will get the green light from the surgeon (tomorrow) for attending the i-like workshop next Wednesday!

Himalayan fight

“Today,  Everest is too much of a business and there are too many heroes.” Simone Moro

I was reading in Le Monde yesterday about an ugly fight occurring between a team of alpine-style climbers Ueli Steck, Simone Moro, and Jonathan Griffith) and the team of sherpas installing fixed ropes on the normal route to Everest in preparation for the hundreds of clients waiting at Base Camp. The sherpas apparently did not accept the parallel  and faster climb of the three independent climbers to their tent at Camp 3, as well as resented these climbers having completed the fixed rope equipment in a gesture of good will (?). When the latter came down to Camp 2 they were faced by a mob of 100 angry sherpas ready to lynch them and had to be evacuated… Obviously, I have no further details than those I read in various interviews, from Ueli Steck‘s, to Simone Moro‘s, to the sherpas’. So I cannot judge of the responsibility of either side. However, facts are such that the team of three came closed to being stoned to death and that it had to leave Base Camp under a death threat.

This awful story reflects very badly on how much money has perverted mountaineering on Everest: while Steck and his team-mates were working on a genuine mountaineering feat by climbing a new route on a three person team, alpine-style, with no sherpa backup, the sherpas were working for half a dozen commercial companies and the millions of dollars behind (rates range from $50,000 to $100,000 per client!). Preventing climbers from climbing nearby (as long as they do not endanger anyone on the route) goes against the #1 mountaineering rule that mountains (and routes) do not belong to anyone, not even locals, and that faster teams should get priority. As shown in the book Into Thin Air, commercial expeditions have already demonstrated not caring about the #2 rule that one should bring assistance to anyone in danger: helping a perfect stranger down safely rather than bringing a $100,000 client to the top does not seem part of their equation. To be fair, Simone Moro also has commercial interests in the Himalayas through his helicopter rescue company, but I do not think this had anything to do with the current fight, besides being for the general “good—this is arguable, though, given that it gives a false sense of safety to people who should not be there…

Just a note on why I was shocked by this story: Ueli Steck is an amazing Swiss climber of Messner-ian class, who opened new routes in the Alps, Himalayas and Patagonia, often climbing them solo. (See Messner’s interview on Steck’s website, where he states that independent climbers are now perceived as parasites by sherpas.) One of his greatest feats so far is soloing the Heckmair route (the ultimate mountain climb in my opinion, see e.g. Joe Simpson’s missed attempt) on the Eiger Nordwand in 2 hours 47 minutes (it took Heckmair and his team three days in 1937).