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Deep in Jungle, Brazilians Climb New Tepui Route

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:41:00 +0000

Monte Roraima, on the border of Venezuela and Guyana, was first scaled in the 1800s, and tales from the adventure inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to pen The Lost World. Even two centuries later, when Eliseu Frechou first approached Monte Roraima by helicopter, his pilot got scared two kilometers from the wall and refused to continue.

Monte Roraima is the largest of the Pakaraima tepuis, huge plateaus that rise from the dense jungles of Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana...

Taken from: Alpinist Magazine.

Americans Climb New Route in Chile

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:37:00 +0000

Ian Nicholson and Graham Zimmerman have climbed the east face of Los Gemelos in the Torres del Paine area of Chilean Patagonia, likely making the third ascent of the mountain. The Slash (IV+ 5.10b A2) diagonals across the lower of the twin peaks and then up the southeast ridge of the higher peak...

Taken from: Climbing Magazine.

Winter Routes Erupt Across Europe

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:34:00 +0000

From Norway and Scotland to Italy and Spain, ice-climbing conditions have been prime this month. Numerous hard winter lines and notable repeats have been climbed in February, and the momentum for new routes seems only to be growing.

After establishing Spray On, the controversial route documented in the February 1, 2010 NewsWire, Will Gadd headed to Norway with Andreas Spak. Spending February 9-15 in Eidfjord in central Norway, the two, along with photographer Christian Pondella, climbed three big waterfalls. The team believes they were first to climb Skykkjedalsfossen (WI5+ R, 400m) and two challenging falls they left ungraded: Fun Fossen (300m) and Skrikjofossen (500m)...

Taken from: Alpinist Magazine.

Famous Falls Freeze in Norway

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:53:00 +0000

In Norway, seven adjacent waterfalls famously drop into Geirangerfjord, a fjord so impressive that it has been included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Seven Sisters (De syv sostre as they're called in Norwegian), stream over the fjord's 400-meter walls and are a popular attraction in summer months.

In winter, The Seven Sisters flow as usual, the sea-level temperatures warm enough that the falls infrequently solidify. But this year, an extreme and sustained arctic snap convinced four Norwegians to scout the waterfalls in hopes of finding them frozen. Bjarte Bo, Henki Flatlandsmo, Eiliv Ruud and Sindre Saether rented a boat on February 1 and found two obvious, beautiful ice lines. After controlling their excitement, they decided they would split into two rope teams but climb the main icefall, on the left...

Taken from: Alpinist Magazine.

Pit of Zombies

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:43:00 +0000

What could have been better to complete a great Saturday? Attending a death metal gig, of course! After coming down from the mountain, Octavio, Odi and I headbanged at a looong & aggressive setlist of Cannibal Corpse's brutal music :)

The Mexican Alps?

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:34:00 +0000

Sometimes a few pictures are better than a bunch of words...

On Saturday morning I made a direct climb of Nevado de Toluca in its current alpine conditions. I believe most of the mountain's couloirs and arêtes haven't been so snowed (and icy) for 15 years at least. My time from car to summit: 3 hours 44 minutes, 6 hours 12 minutes for the full roundtrip.

I made a brief stop for a quick lunch at the crater's lip after coming down from the summit. The weather was perfect, the day beautiful and the views awesome! I felt like I was having a day out in the French Alps but, fortunately, this was Mexico :)

All photos can be seen here.

Eleven First Ascents in Antarctica

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:26:00 +0000

Over three weeks in November and December of 2009, Austrians Christoph Hobenreich, Paul Koller and Karl Pichler explored three areas east of the Ulvetanna Group—Holtedahlfjella, Kurzefjella and Conradfjella—in Antarctica's Queen Maud Land. The trio summited 15 peaks and nunataks, including the already-established Tungespissen (2277m), Mundlauga (2455m) and Sandneshatten (2280 m); they believe 11 of their climbs were first ascents...

Taken from: Alpinist Magazine.

Solo New Route on Aconcagua South Face

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:12:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:03:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:35:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:55:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:43:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:16:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:44:00 +0000

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! :)

A lesson of ultrarunning mastery

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:11:00 +0000

Last weekend was all about running and having fun. The 1st edition of the Valenciana 100 ultramarathon took place in the Northwestern sierra of Guanajuato. The 100 (and 50) mile race was organized by Hans-Dieter Weisshaar, a veteran in the ultrarunning world who some of us met at some races in the US (Leadville, Rocky Raccoon).

Octavio and I traveled to Guanajuato on Friday's morning in order to arrive to Valenciana in the afternoon. After checking in at the hotel, we walked towards Hans' place, just in time for the pre-race briefing. There we met the rest of the runners (Edith, Cinthia, Rubén, Brooke, Jean-Jacques & Hans) and the race crew (Jessi, Ana, Dick, Martha & Susi).

After Hans' welcome speech, he explained the course and rules of the race, then we enjoyed a delicious carbo-load dinner made by Susi (Hans' wife), consisting of lots of pasta with bolognese sauce, a green salad and chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream for dessert. After some chat, all of us went to bed around 7 p.m., hoping to catch a good rest before the early wake up at 5:30 a.m.

Around 6:30 a.m. all of us were back to Hans' place for having some strong coffee and cereal as breakfast, then we gathered in the patio for the start of the race. At 7:10 Hans started the chronometer and the race begun. 8 runners embarked into an all-day adventure, 4 of us going for 100 miles and the rest for 50 miles.

We ran in small packs, Octavio and I in the middle, having some chat and enjoying the chilly weather which would supposedly last for most of the day. After a couple of miles we crossed the little town of Santa Ana and a few ravines before getting to the 1st aid station, Hans' camping bus. We got some fluids in as well as a little bit of food, then continued the climb to the nearby forest.

One of the course's remarks was that its dirt road passed along or nearby to most of the mines in the Northwest of Guanajuato. Octavio and I agreed that the race could be easily dubbed "La ruta de las minas". After a few more climbs we got out of the forest and went down to the hills towards the Mineral de la Luz area.

We arrived to one of the little stores at Sangre de Cristo, where the 2nd aid station was located. We drank a bottle of cold mandarin-flavored water and registered our split times. Cerro del Cubilete looked so much closer now and we increased our pace while enjoying the views. Before arriving to the next aid station we met Edith, who was coming back from it. She was running at an amazing pace and looked very strong and happy. We cheered her up and said goodbye for the moment.

The 3rd aid station was located at Cubilete's parking lot, Rodrigo was taking care of all the supplies there. I grabbed a turkey & cheese sandwich and a bottle of Pepsi, then headed towards the nasty rocky road that climbs around the mountain to its summit. We arrived to the summit in almost no time, meeting Cinthia and Rubén along the way and talking about the weather which started to get more windy and a little bit rainy.

After shooting a couple of pics below the giant Christ we met Jean-Jacques, he had increased his pace in the last miles and reached us in a very determined way. He touched one of the church's pillars and quickly headed down the mountain, Octavio and I followed closely. A couple of minutes later the 3 of us got back to Rodrigo's aid station. We tasted some more delicious food like burritos, chips, cookies and fruits. I put on a light rain jacket and a pair of gloves and we all headed back to Sangre de Cristo.

We followed the same course on the whole way back to Valenciana, passing through the same aid stations in the opposite order. Our feet started to ache a little bit, confirming the toughness of running on a rocky dirt road. After almost 4 hours we got back to Hans' place, registered our time, drank some electrolytes and headed out again towards Presa La Esperanza.

This part of the course consisted of a short 2.5 km loop along the dam's shore, the only single trail section in the whole course. At the turnaround point, each of us had to take page from a book written in German. The page would serve as proof that we got to the farthest point in this short loop. This system reminded me of the Barkley ultramarathon, which implements it along the whole course but in an extremely difficult terrain.

We met Hans on our way back to the start, he had been running closely behind us for most of the time. We exchanged smiles and continued our way, a hot meal was waiting for us.

I was really hungry when we arrived to Hans' home. I ate plenty of food, including hot soup, sandwiches, burritos, cookies, fruits and coffee. After refilling our water bladders we headed out again towards Cerro del Cubilete, the weather didn't seem promising.

The first couple of miles passed by without major highlights, except that we continued to have lots of fun while running and talking. The rain started to pour more consistently and we could get a feel of how cold the weather would get later in the evening. After some hours we arrived to the 1st aid station, completely wet but full of smiles (and hungry of course!).

As soon as we left the camping bus I started to realize that I wasn't enjoying the course anymore. It wasn't the pain in my feet, nor the coldness of being soaking wet, it was the monotony of the dirt road. It suddenly drained my desire of completing the 100 miles.

I also realized that it was my ego who put me into the idyllic pursuit of completing the very first 100 mile organized race in Mexico. I wasn't doing it because of the beauty of the place or the friendliness of the people running with me, it was because I secretly wanted something to brag about later. My stupid ego trips! In the end I decided to get rid of my ego and finish still strong with 50 miles. I could run (and enjoy) 100 miles at any other day.

On our way down to Mineral de la Luz we saw Cinthia and Rubén. They already made the turnaround for the 50 miles and were happily jogging back to Valenciana. I shared with them my decision of making the turnaround as well and promised to meet soon at Hans' place for having dinner together.

The turnaround point appeared after some hills. Both Octavio and I were happy of reaching it, but then came Hans after us... I'll never forget his face when I turned back and told him that I was bailing. He simply told me 2 words in strong German accent: "Two weeks!", meaning that he would wait for me to come back in a couple of weeks for running the Capulin 100 with him. I stood with my mouth shut while I witnessed the strong man jogging downhill with an umbrella in his hand, his focus set on Cerro del Cubilete.

Running back to Valenciana was a total joy. We didn't care of how much it could take us, we simply enjoyed the fact that it was going to be the last stretch. After a cup of coffee on our final stop at the camping bus aid station, we ran as fast as our sore bodies could to finish the 50 mile adventure. We arrived to Hans' house at around 7:45 p.m. with a big grin on our faces. Octavio finished his first 50 miler (and first run longer than 26 km!) and I officially DNF'd the 100 miler at 50 miles.

We were greeted by Susi, Martha, Dick, Cinthia and Rubén. A giant dinner was served to us and we ate as if we had been castaway for days. Edith arrived in the meantime, she completed the 2nd lap of the 100 mile course. She was leading the race but had to bail from completing it due to safety reasons. We all know that this country isn't very safe for being alone in the outdoors, specially if you are a woman. We chatted for some time, then each of us took a shower and changed clothes, I continued eating afterwards :)

Brooke finished the 50 miler at around 10:30 p.m. and had dinner too, then everybody went to bed after some time. Only Susi, Octavio and myself remained awake to wait for Jean-Jacques and Hans to come back from their 2nd lap in the 100 miler.

We were in the middle of a great conversation with Susi when Jean-Jacques arrived, he was wet and tired but focused on going for the short loop at the dam's shore, which he did. Hans arrived in the meantime, barely 30 minutes behind his friend. He also went out immediately for the short loop.

Jean-Jacques returned shortly after, he had dinner, changed clothes, checked his gear and went out for his 3rd (and last) long lap towards Cerro del Cubilete. Hans also came back and did the same, still around 30 minutes behind. "What a pair of strong and men!" I said to myself, I was being lectured on determination. We enjoyed it for a bit, then went to the hotel to catch some sleep.

Next morning all of us went back to the house, we wanted to welcome our 2 friends. Around noon Jean-Jacques appeared at the house's door, he looked still strong and willing to go for the last short loop, so he did. Hans arrived in the meantime, about 20 minutes behind. He also went out immediately for the last loop.

Jean-Jacques finished the 100 miles after 28 hours 55 minutes. He was the 1st place of a 2 men race. He looked tired but very satisfied. Hans arrived at 29 hours 12 minutes. Both men shook hands and congratulated each other. The rest of us were really impressed of both old men (70 and 69 years old respectively).

We celebrated everyone's successes (and failures) with some beer and food. We had a little "family" party in which we talked about future races and dream runs, everything was peace and happiness. In the afternoon we departed to Mexico City, completely satisfied of the experience and of having met such great people. Until the next one... :)

Rest of the pictures are here.

2009 in brief

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:46:00 +0000

This has been a tough but great year for me. Here's a brief summary of it:

January: I got back into serious running after a long hiatus due to taking care of young Mokka. I climbed Iztaccíhuatl a couple of times too. The much awaited 1.6.0 version of BioPerl was finally released.
February: I got 31 years young, bought a beautiful 5-string bass guitar and continued the hard training. Odi and I started hanging out.
March: Had an epic weekend while climbing Iztaccíhuatl with friends. Introduced Octavio and Sergio to the world of trail running and shaved minutes to my speed solo time for climbing Iztaccíhuatl. Mokka got 1 year old and we celebrated with longer runs in the forest. By the end of the month I ran my first "short" ultra of the year and enjoyed 2 nights of Opeth's progressive death metal. Oh, and I was also accepted to run the Leadville Trail 100!
April: Odi and I had our first kiss! Got a serious injury in my lower back which put me into bed for a week. A week later I was "taking it easy" with recovery by trail running, rock climbing and breaking speed climbing records at Nevado de Toluca and Iztaccíhuatl. Odi and I had our first multi-pitch climbing adventure in Bernal. I also had some nice sport climbing with Beto. At the end of the month Yahoo! announced another major reorganization and I was laid-off along with my colleagues from the Canadian Engineering and Product teams.
May: Had a great weekend camping at Morelia with Odi and my friends. Enjoyed for a 2nd time a night of Amon Amarth's viking death metal and Anathema's doom & alternative metal.
June: Ran a beautiful 3-day stage ultra and attended one of Metallica's gigs with Odi. I also enjoyed the beginning of summer by climbing Iztaccíhuatl.
July: Odi and I became a couple after an intense weekend of climbing and attempting a self-supported single-push run of the 3-day stage ultra from the previous month. Ran a trail race and climbed Bernal in a single day. Made another speed solo climb of Iztaccíhuatl and logged my best time to date.
August: Enjoyed a week-long trip to the Huasteca and the illness I got while at it. Ran, enjoyed and finished the Leadville Trail 100, my 2nd 100 miler to date.
September: Finished reading my signed copy of Beyond The Mountain by Steve House. Had laughter and suffering at the Mexico City marathon and said goodbye to my job at Yahoo!
October: Had fun while running Largo y Sinuoso Camino and attended the Banff Mountain Film Festival. Also wished luck to Beto at his new adventure in Morelia.
November: Burned my quadriceps while running up La Malinche. Odi and I rocked hard at AC/DC's gig.
December: Took Odi to her first experience with snow & ice at an unbelievably frozen Iztaccíhuatl. Ran 70 km at the 1st 12-hour Trailsport Ultramarathon. Celebrated the end of the year's racing circuit with the always-tough skymarathon at Iztaccíhuatl.

Yeah, you could say that I was very busy during 2009. 2010 looks very exciting; with a new job to start, new people to meet, projects to plan, goals to achieve and unexpected things to solve along the way. My best wishes to all of you for the new year! :)

Bold Ascents in High Tatras

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:38:00 +0000

The rugged High Tatras mountains are east of the Alps, on the border between Poland and Slovakia. Though the Tatras’ high point is only 2,655 meters (8,711'), and though many North Americans have never even heard of the range, top eastern European climbers trained on these rugged peaks for decades while their travel was restricted. Slovakian Dodo Kopold has no such problems, but he still loves the High Tatras...

Taken from: Climbing Magazine.

New Route on Poincenot in Patagonia

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:36:00 +0000

The Italian-Swiss team of Simon Gietl and Roger Schäli have climbed a difficult new route on the east face of Aguja Poincenot (3,002m/9,849') in Argentinean Patagonia. The two climbers spent four days on the route, climbing alpine-style, in wintry weather. One 20-meter slab required 15 hours of difficult aid climbing to overcome. Their route, Fühl dich stark aber nicht unsterblich (“Feel Strong, but Not Immortal”), went at 6c A3+ M5...

Taken from: Climbing Magazine.

Italians Swarm Unclimbed Faces in Nepal

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:22:00 +0000

Having completed a 40-day expedition to the Khumbu region of Nepal, three Italian alpinists—Enrico Bonino, Nicolas Meli and Francesco Cantu—have established new ground on three massive alpine faces.

The first was an incomplete line up the north face of Hama Yomjuma (5970m), just above Lungden Village. The next was a new route on the previously unclimbed Peak 5850m near Dawa Peak. Most recently, they climbed to the summit ridge of Kyajo Ri (6186m) via its northeast face. Bonino believes that all three lines were climbed on faces with no recorded routes...

Taken from: Alpinist Magazine.

Busted legs

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:41:00 +0000

Yesterday I managed to increase 17 minutes to my previous time for the Skymarathon Iztaccíhuatl. Seems like running a 12-hour ultramarathon a week ago and a 10K night race on Saturday weren't the best recipe for a great performance at the mountain race...

I did well for most of the race, passing Omar, Sergio and Octavio by the turnaround point and racing down the mountain as I'm used to do. But once I got back to La Joya my legs stopped working, they felt extremely tired and unable to continue. I had to shuffle between power-walking 500 meters and jogging other 500, the same routine over and over until getting to the finish line. Of course, Octavio and Sergio were able to reach me at barely 2 km from the finish line, passing me with a little bit of amazement.

I arrived to the finish line after 4:40:06, feeling completely wasted but happy to have finished the 2009 Solo Para Salvajes racing circuit. We celebrated with some beers and a bunch of quesadillas before coming back to the city. Now it's time to give the legs a short break for recovering before attempting Valenciana 100 at the beginning of 2010 :)

Moonwalk: A Kilometer of Austrian Ice

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:20:00 +0000

After monitoring ice and snow on a big objective in Austria's Zillertal Alps for more than a year, Albert Leichtfried and Benedikt Purner found ideal conditions last week. The result was Moonwalk (WI6 M7, 1000m), the longest icefall climbed to date in Austria according to Leichtfried...

Taken from: Alpinist Magazine.

Running in circles

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:51:00 +0000

The 1st edition of the Trailsport 12-hour Ultramarathon took place yesterday morning. Luis had the idea of organizing this race since a little more than a month ago. For this edition, the plan was to invite his closest running friends to endure 12 hours of running along the 2km course of El Sope in Chapultepec.

The race began at 12 a.m. and we enjoyed a beautiful night sky with a bright moon. I ran a conservative amount of kilometers by completing 35 laps (70 km) in 9 hours 58 minutes, taking 2 hours 2 minutes to stretch, eat and rest. Other crazy people ran a lot more, with Luis finishing at the 1st place with 54 laps (108 km) under his feet.

All I can say is that the event was amazing. It was really great to run this unique kind of (mental-torture-fest) ultra with the good friends :)

All race pictures can be seen here.

A freezing welcome

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:18:00 +0000

Odi, Mokka and I had an amazing time yesterday hiking at Iztaccíhuatl. During the week we were able to see the volcanoes covered with snow so it was a good opportunity for Odi to see it for the 1st time.

My original plan was to hike towards Ayoloco hut but it was so cloudy that it would have been be impossible to see the glacier. Instead we followed the normal route to República de Chile hut and endured some fierce winds (80+ km/hr) on the West sides of the mountain. We found a decent amount of snow and were impressed by all the ice-covered rocks due to the strong chilly winds.

Total time for the hike, car to car, was: 5 hours, 31 minutes. We had a blast! :)

The rest of the pictures can be seen here.

Dutchmen Rack Up Virgin Summits in Greenland

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:48:00 +0000

This August, four Dutch climbers established basecamp on the Ren Land peninsula of Greenland with hopes of climbing new routes, particularly an alpine-style ascent of The Cenotaph and a big-wall ascent of Shark Tooth, both unclimbed. Though impassable rivers kept them from Shark Tooth, the team established numerous lines throughout the region and nabbed what they believe to be three virgin summits: The Cenotaph, McDonnell Peak and Small Lion...

Taken from: Alpinist Magazine.

Nakamura Travels 4800km to Document More Unclimbed Peaks

noreply@blogger.com (Mauricio) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:47:00 +0000

Japanese explorer Tamotsu Nakamura recently returned from another trip to the Nyainqentanglha East and Kangri Garpo West regions of Tibet, where he has been documenting unclimbed peaks and glaciers for nearly two decades.

Nakamura spent five weeks in October and November traveling 4800 kilometers south and west of Qamdo, the launching point for his expedition. The massive clockwise loop allowed him to access and photograph four untouched valleys: Dangchu in Kangri Garpo West, then three more to the northwest—Botoi Tsangpo, Niwu Qu and Jingling—in Nyainqentanglha East. Foreigners had not reconnoitered two of these valleys for nearly a century, Nakamura believes, and another valley was completely virgin to foreign eyes...

Taken from: Alpinist Magazine.