Walk in Wild Places

06/04/2023

Every day is different... Platberg. Magic.












 











https://walkinwildplaces.com/

07/12/2022

Water, yes, water! carved these paths through the desert! And, for a while, every once in a while, these pools sparkle with crystal clear water. Frogs abound. Grasses and flowers adorn their banks. Birds come to quench their thirst...

Next confirmed trip:
Fri 17 to Sun 26 February 2023.

















 













https://walkinwildplaces.com/

08/11/2022

Ötzi's story evolves...

Ötzi is the star of glacial archaeology. Incredibly, the ice mummy and his artefacts were only preserved by a string of lucky coincidences. Really?

04/10/2022

Born on this day, 1976.10.04; Ueli Steck, Swiss climber, who ascended Gasherbrum II East in 2006, Gasherbrum II and Makalu in 2009, Sh**ha Pangma and Cho Oyu in 2011, in 2012 and Annapurna I in 2013. He died in 2017 by a fall on Nuptse, aged 40.

Ueli Steck (4 October 1976 – 30 April 2017) was a Swiss rock climber and mountaineer. He was the first to climb Annapurna solo, and set speed records on the North Face trilogy in the Alps. He won two Piolet d'Or awards, in 2009 and 2014. Having previously summited Mount Everest, Steck died on 30 April 2017 after falling during an acclimatizing climb for an attempt on the Hornbein route on the West Ridge of Everest without supplementary oxygen.

At the age of 17, Steck achieved the 9th difficulty rating (UIAA) in climbing. As an 18-year-old he climbed the North Face of the Eiger and the Bonatti Pillar in the Mont Blanc massif. In June 2004, he and Stephan Siegrist climbed the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau within 25 hours. Another success was the so-called "Khumbu-Express Expedition" in 2005, for which the climbing magazine Climb named him one of the three best alpinists in Europe. The project consisted of the first solo climb of the north wall of Cholatse (6,440 m) and the east wall of Taboche (6505 m).

Steck set his first speed record on the North Face of the Eiger in 2007, climbing it in 3 hours and 54 minutes. The record was lowered by Steck himself to 2 hours 47 minutes 33 seconds the following year.

In May 2008, climbing Annapurna, he broke off his ascent due to an avalanche threat, but the next week climbed to assist Spanish climber Iñaki Ochoa de Olza, who had collapsed. Medical help was slow in coming and the Spanish climber died despite Steck's help.
In 2008, Steck was the first recipient of the Eiger Award for his mountaineering achievements.

In April 2013, Steck and two other mountaineers, Simone Moro and Jonathan Griffith, were involved in an incident with several Sherpas who were fixing ropes for commercial expeditions on the Lhotse face above camp 2 on the Mount Everest South Col route which subsequently escalated into a dangerous confrontation with many Sherpas after Steck and his companions returned to camp 2, and became an international media event.

On 8 and 9 October 2013 Steck soloed the Lafaille route on the South Face of Annapurna. on the main and highest part of the face; this was his third attempt on the route and has been called "one of the most impressive Himalayan climbs in history", with Steck taking 28 hours to make the trip from Base Camp to summit and back again. Steck's was the first solo ascent of Annapurna, which won him his second Piolet d'Or.

In the winter of 2014/15, Steck and Michael Wohlleben linked up the three north faces of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo/Drei Zinnen in 16 hours. In the summer of 2015, he climbed all 82 summits in the Alps higher than 4000 meters in 62 days without the use of motorized travel. Two days slower than the 60-day record, his time included a period when Steck had suspended the tour on July 22, after his climbing partner on the Aiguille de Rochefort, Martijn Seuren, had fallen to his death on this final peak to make him the first Dutch person to climb all 82 4000ers. Later that year Steck set a new record for the North Face of the Eiger, soloing it in 2 hours 22 minutes and 50 seconds.

In April 2016, Steck and his German mountaineering partner, David Göttler, found the bodies of Alex Lowe and paraglider David Bridges. Lowe and Bridges were killed in an avalanche in 1999 while searching for a route up Sh**hapangma to attempt the first ski descent.

Steck was born as the third son to a copper smith in the town of Langnau in the Emmental valley in Switzerland. As a child he played hockey and joined his father on ski tours. He was a carpenter by training and in adulthood lived in Ringgenberg near Interlaken, Switzerland.

Steck died on 30 April 2017 while acclimatizing for an attempt of the Hornbein route on the West Ridge of Everest without supplementary oxygen. This route had been climbed only a few times, the last of which was in 1991. His plan was to climb the Hornbein Couloir to the summit, then proceed with a traverse to the peak of Lhotse, the world's fourth-highest mountain. This combination had not been achieved.

On April 16, during preparations for the attempt, his climbing partner, Tenji Sherpa, suffered frostbite, which would take some weeks to heal. Steck carried on with scouting and acclimatization, climbing up to Everest's Camp 2, en route to the South Col. On April 29, he changed his plans, texting Tenji that he was about to instead climb the nearby peak of Nuptse, and did not respond to a follow-up question.

On April 30, he began climbing around 4:30 AM, accompanied initially by French climber Yannick Graziani. Approximately 300 meters (980 ft) below the summit, he fell an estimated 1,000 metres (3,300 ft), seen by several Sherpas and expedition members around the valley. It is not known what caused the fall. His body was found in the Western Cwm, between camps 1 and 2, and transported back to Kathmandu where memorial services were held. Steck was survived by his wife Nicole.

Info: https://buff.ly/3UTsagV, https://buff.ly/3C0pp4G. Photo Credit: PatitucciPhoto

02/10/2022

The 24th September marked 47 years since Doug Scott and Dougal Haston stepped on to the roof of the world.
Doug wrote in Up and About-The Hard Road to Everest,
“At 6 p.m., we found ourselves walking side by side on to the summit. Dougal, usually a reticent fellow, had a huge smile on his face and then he gave me a hug. After so much effort, and on a perfect late summer evening, we were there.”
It was an incredible achievement. It was a truly remarkable team effort which changed the lives of all the team, especially me.

17/09/2022

Born on this day, 1944.09.17; Reinhold Messner, THE GREATEST! Messner is the FIRST PERSON, to have climbed all the fourteen eight-thousanders WITHOUT USING BOTTLED OXYGEN. And he’s alive to tell all about it. Many happy one Reinhold!🙏

Photo ©: Roberto Carnevali.

20/08/2022

On this day, 20 August in 1980, South Tyrolian (Italian) climber Reinhold Messner became the FIRST-EVER person to have climbed to the summit of Mt (8848.86 m) SOLO WITHOUT BOTTLED OXYGEN. Photo ©: Reinhold Messner Archives.

07/07/2022

Cadini di Misurina and Tre Cime di Lavaredo behind it, seen from Rifugio Vandelli












 












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official

21/05/2022

On Sunday the 15th of May, Pierre Carter took off from the South Col of the slopes of Mount Everest. The last leg of the journey was pretty touch and go. After arriving at Camp 2 a week before, Pierre caught a horrible virus. Trying to overcome an illness at 7 000 metres is near impossible, and Pier...

13/05/2022

A team of black Americans scripted history by scaling the world highest peak this morning, according to the expedition organiser.

11/05/2022

Barbara and I set off on a four-day trek in the Sahara desert. The experience we had and the discoveries we made will stay with us forever!

11/05/2022

Gone on this day, 1996.05.11; Rob Hall, Kiwi climber, who ascended Everest five times (1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1996), Lhotse and K2 in 1994, Cho Oyu twice (1994 and 1995) and Makalu in 1995. He finished the Kosciuszko version of the Seven Summits in late 1990 and the Carstensz version in 1994. He died on descent OTD after his last Everest ascent in 1996, aged 35.

Info: https://buff.ly/2uyqgrg. Photo: https://bit.ly/3bB02e2.

09/05/2022

Gone on this day, 1986.05.09; Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, Nepali pioneer, who was one of the first two individuals (along with Edmund Hillary) to have reached the summit of Mt Everest (8848 m) on 29 May, 1953, died, aged 71.

Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, (late May 1914 – 9 May 1986) born Namgyal Wangdi was among the most famous mountain climbers in history, being one of the first two individuals (along with Edmund Hillary) to have reached the summit of Mount Everest on 29 May, 1953. He was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

Tenzing Norgay was born in Tshechu, presently in Tibet Autonomous Region, China. He grew up in peasant family in Khumbu in Nepal. His exact date of birth is not known but it is believed that he was born in late May and later on he decided to celebrate May 29 as his birthday, as this was the date he climbed Everest. Tenzing Norgay's original name was Namgyal Wangdi, but as a child his name was changed on the advice of a lama. Norgay means fortunate. Tenzing Norgay ran away to Kathmandu twice as a boy, and eventually settled in the Sherpa community in Too Song Bhusti in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India.

Tenzing got his first opportunity to join an Everest expedition when in 1935 he was employed by Eric Shipton, leader of the British expedition. Later, Tenzing took part as a high-altitude porter in three official British attempts to climb Everest from the northern Tibetan side in the 1930s. He also took part in other climbs in various parts of the Indian subcontinent, and for a time in the early 1940s he lived in what is now Pakistan, in the Princely State of Chitral. During this period, he scaled Nanda Devi, which he described as the most difficult climb he ever took. In 1947, he took part in an unsuccessful summit attempt of Everest but it ended when a strong storm at 22,000 ft (6,700 m) pounded them. In 1952, he took part in two Swiss expeditions led by Raymond Lambert, the first serious attempts to climb Everest from the southern (Nepali) side, during which he and Lambert reached the then-record height of 28,215 ft (8,599 m).

In 1953, he took part in John Hunt's British expedition, his own seventh expedition to Everest. After failure of first pair on 26 May which had reached the South Summit, coming within 300 vertical feet (91 m) of the summit, Hunt directed Tenzing and Hillary to go for the summit. Snow and wind held the pair up at the South Col for two days. They set out on 28 May and pitched a tent at 27,900 feet (8,500 m). On 29 May, they reached Everest's 29,028 ft (8,848 m) summit, the highest point on Earth, at 11:30 a.m. They spent only about fifteen minutes at the summit. Hillary took the famous photo of Tenzing posing with his ice-axe, but since Tenzing had never used a camera, Hillary's ascent went unrecorded.

Hillary and Hunt were knighted by Queen Elizabeth, while Tenzing received the George Medal from the British Government. In 1953, King Tribhuvan of Nepal also presented the Order of the Star of Nepal, 1st Class. In 1959, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award of India.

Tenzing joined the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling since its inception and later became director of field training. In 1978, he founded Tenzing Norgay Adventures, a company providing trekking adventures in the Himalayas. The company is now run by his son Jamling Tenzing Norgay, who himself reached the summit of Everest in 1996. In 1978, the Government of India created the Tenzing Norgay Award in his honour.

Tenzing died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India, in 1986, at age 71. He was cremated in Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling, his favorite haunt. In January 2008, Lukla Airport was renamed Tenzing-Hillary Airport in honour of the pair and their achievement.

https://buff.ly/2LHtmQW, https://buff.ly/3w69ZZy.

08/05/2022

Romanian Horia Colibasanu (45) successfully scaled Kangchenjunga (8586 m) without using supplementary oxygen at around 02:45 NPT this afternoon. His companions 🇷🇴 Marius Gane and 🇸🇰 Peter Hámor had to turn around from the few hundred meters below summit, reason unknown.

Photo/Archive: Horia Colibășanu/Facebook.

08/05/2022

JUST IN: Renowned Nepali mountaineer Kami Rita Sherpa has successfully scaled Mt (8848.86 m) for a record 26th time. CONGRATULATIONS!

Photo Courtesy: Seven Summit Treks.

28/04/2022

JUST IN: Taiwan's Grace Tseng (29) successfully scaled Annapurna I (8091 m) without using supplementary oxygen at 12:00 NPT this noon. Grace was accompanied by Nepali climbers Nima Gyalzen Sherpa and Ningma Dorje Tamang. Photo/Archive: Grace Tseng/Facebook.

27/01/2022

Four years ago today, 27.01.2018; Four Polish climbers flown off K2 BC to Naga Parbat, to rescue Tomek Mackiewicz and Elisabeth Revol. The day, probably the most daring rescue in mountaineering history happened.

Graphic ©: Paweł Storoż/ TVISION.pl.

09/11/2021

01/10/2021

29/09/2021

The Swiss alpinist has, at one time or another, held the speed record for all of the six great North Faces in the Alps.

23/08/2021

Our new Sahara trek taking us to Erg Chegaga and M'Hamid via the Faïja Plateau, and with stops in Marrakech, Aït Benhaddou, and Todra Gorge

https://mountain-paths.com/sahara-trek-to-erg-chegaga-and-mhamid

We trek through the fascinating and vibrant Sahara desert. Camping at oases, meeting nomads, and climbing the dunes at Chegaga and Bourgan