Solo New Route on Aconcagua South Face

American Chad Kellogg has soloed a dangerous new line on the famed south face of Aconcagua (6,962m/22,841').

Kellogg traveled to Argentina with Rory Stark, aiming to acclimatize on the normal route on Aconcagua's north side and then attempt a line on the south face. Kellogg also wanted to try a one-day round trip on the normal route.

As planned, Kellogg summited via the normal route on December 17, but Stark was stricken with altitude sickness high on the mountain. With the help of some fellow Americans, they descended all the way to base camp that day, but Stark remained severely ill and had to be helicoptered to town for treatment; he eventually returned to his home in Alaska and recovered...

Taken from: Climbing Magazine.

Steck Solos Ginat in 2:08

Ueli Steck, the talented and speedy Swiss mountaineer, has soloed the Ginat route (ED: V M4+ 85 degrees, 1000m), the classic north-face line on Les Droites (4001m) in the French Alps above Chamonix. Though the ice route has been solo climbed numerous times, Steck made the ascent on January 19 in what may be record time: 2 hours and 8 minutes...

Taken from: Alpinist Magazine.

Gadd and Emmett Suggest WI10

Years ago, Will Gadd saw a photo and heard a rumor online about the potential for a futuristic ice route on an incredibly steep wall behind Helmcken Falls, in Wells Grey Provincial Park, British Columbia. Though the idea intrigued Gadd, he didn't believe the cave would be so tall—460 feet. Nor did he think that a line of pure ice could form on such a steep wall—overhanging 45 degrees.

But last week Gadd, along with partner Tim Emmett, found the impossible to be true. After rappelling into the amphitheater behind Helmcken Falls, they discovered the very back of the cave, the bottom fifth or so, was coated in strange globules of frozen spray. On his blog, Gadd said they were "the most insane ice formations I've ever seen"...

Taken from: Alpinist Magazine.

More snow

Once again, the mountain trilogy climb we had planed for this weekend didn't took place for different reasons. Nevertheless, yesterday my friends (Gil, Serch, Loco, Arturo, Lucio) and I enjoyed another amazing day at the snowy Iztaccíhuatl.

Each of us climbed at a different pace. I made the summit alone after 5 hours 13 minutes of climbing. Those who know me (or read this blog) will know that this wasn't one of my best times, but it was good enough if we take into account the amount of snow currently in the mountain.

I spent 2 hours at the summit, waiting for any of my friends to arrive but that didn't happen. Instead I climbed down and met them along the route.

After a quick lunch at Ayoloco hut, we continued the descent during a beautiful sunset and until the night caught us. We enjoyed a clear sky, a waxing gibbous moon and lots of stars for the rest of the adventure :)

All photos are here.

UTMB!

I just got confirmation that I'm accepted for running the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc in August. I'm so psyched since this is one of my dream runs. Time to start the hard training! :)

A different kind of mountain

So our plans for making a mountain trilogy climb (Pico de Orizaba, Iztaccíhuatl & Nevado de Toluca) the previous weekend were postponed for 2 more weeks. Nevertheless, this weekend Gil and I managed to do a 24km/10-hour/deep-snow "tune-up" climb attempt at Iztaccíhuatl.

The mountain hasn't been this frozen in about 15 years. Full winter conditions made a it totally different kind of mountain. I wasn't able to reach the summit due to timing (had to hike from Paso de Cortéz and back) and the deep snow all along the Ayoloco route. I buried myself to the waist level more than a couple of times!

This is how mountain climbs should be done: long approach hikes in real mountain conditions. Lets see how it goes for the next weekend, I'm looking forward to it... :)

Rest of the pictures are here.

First week

This has been my first week at my new job. I'm part of the Video Asset Management (VAM) team and I'll be working on a video processing/storage platform for multiple clients.

So far this week I've been reading lots of documentation, learning about HMAC1, XSD, and creating test units with Test::Class and Test::More. Exciting times ahead! :)