Setting hard goals and working towards them often defines part of human existence. Two of my friends did just that this week. Jim Davidson summited Cho Oyu and John Little his first 14er. I am so proud of both of my friends. In Jim’s blog he wrote: “I began to wonder what climbing to such great heights would be like, how one got to go on such an adventure, and, dare I say it, if even I might be able to go someday. A dream was born.”
Looks like Cho Oyu is being nice this season with over 30 climbers already on the summit and down safely. IMG reports their team put 7 climbers and 5 Sherpa on top yesterday and Jagged Globe has 12 members on top with Sherpa support. Also a Maltese team had 3 summits. I am especially proud for my friend, Jim Davidson, with this being his first 8000m climb. You can read the details on Jim’s blog.
More summits are expected from Adventure Consultants, Alpine Ascents, Amical, Mountain Madness and Summit Climb over the next few days. The weather looks good through the 27th.
I will be climbing an old friend this week – Mt. Belford and the neighbor, Mt. Oxford. They are in the Sawatch range in Central Colorado and I climbed them both in 2005. These are not particularly difficult climbs but this will be special for an entirely different reason.
In an already crowded market, Hanesbrand today introduced a new line of high performance clothing for climbers. It will be showcased on Everest next spring by Canadian climber, Jamie Clarke. Everest seems to have become a PR tool for so any causes. I am part of this in my Memories are Everything: The 7 Summits for Alzheimer’s effort. Eddie Bauer used the 2009 Everest season to showcase their First Ascent line and now Hanesbrand. The new clothing line is not for sale yet and the announcement is more targeted to showcase their R&D but I expect the line to be continue reading
I just returned from a 4 day climb of three 14ers in the Sangre de Cristo range in southern Colorado. I summited two of the three but turned back on Little Bear due to extreme veriglass on the summit gully. You can read all about it in the trip report. Turning back from any climb – whether a 14er or Everest is a complex decision. I have done both. For me, the decision becomes a fact based decision, not an emotional one. On Everest, it was a factor of my climbing speed or declining health or weather conditions. On Little continue reading
It has been a good summer for climbing my beloved 14ers – I have 8 new climbs with a few repeats. My goal is to climb the 58 peaks above 14,000′ however more importantly I am working on various aspects of my climbing skills for the upcoming 7 Summits journey to raise $1M for Alzheimer’s research. This week, I will be traveling to southern Colorado to climb 3 peaks in the Sangre de Cristo Range: Blanca Peak, Ellingwood Point and Little Bear Peak. My regular partners, Patrick and Robert will join me for two of these. These are not difficult continue reading
The Fall 2009 Himalayan season continues with teams on Cho Oyu, Manaslu, Shishapangma and Everest. It is still early in most team’s acclimatization schedules. For example, IMG’s Cho Oyu team has spent only one night at Camp 1 and Altitude Junkies have just reached base camp on Manaslu. I believe there are only two teams on Everest is Fall, a Basque and an Indo Tibetan Border Police team who is attempting to ski down from the summit.
A full trip report is now on the site but here is a teaser for now. I summited Capital around 11:00 AM on September 10, 2009. I was solo all the way and then joined by father, son team Scott and John Scott on the summit. John took this video of my return across the Knife Edge on the summit ridge. I found Capital to be one of the top 3 toughest Colorado 14ers. Please read the full trip report for more details on a great climb. Climb On! Alan
After last week’s mixed results – summited Snowmass but tweaked a knee stopping my bid on Capital; I will try again on Thursday. This time I am watching the weather carefully. September in the Colorado mountains is a dicey time. It can be sunny and warm one minute and harshly cold with snow the next. A cold front is passing through today (Tuesday) and the lows are around freezing at 12,000′. I expect some icy conditions at 14,000 near the summit. Capital is known as one fo the more difficult 14ers since the standard route involves traversing a knife-edge ridge continue reading
Some very encouraging news was recently announced that scientist identified new genes that are associated with late stage Alzheimer’s. While other researchers have identified over 70 genes thus far (see link), this helps the understanding of the disease and will help all researchers. This from the National Institute of Health: In the largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) reported to date involving Alzheimer’s disease, scientists have identified two new possible genetic risk factors for late-onset Alzheimer’s, the most common form of the disease. The study, which pooled DNA samples from a number of European and U.S. groups, not only associated variations continue reading
My grand plan was to knock off a quick climb of Snowmass Mountain then backpack later that day to climb Capital Peak, one of the more difficult Colorado 14ers. Well I accomplished half my goal. You can read about my climb of the 14, 092 Colorado mountain on my trip report. During that climb, my 53 year-old knees kind of said “enough”. That is not too much of a surprise since it happened half way down a 2,000 gully that was covered with small pebbles or scree – kind of like ice without the cold. You see back in 1979, continue reading
Colorado has 58 mountains over 14,000 feet (4,266 meters) in height but only 53 are noted as ’14ers’. To qualify as a 14er the peak must be 300 feet higher than saddle of an adjacent peak.
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