Looking For Climbers Who Have Been To High Altitude After Vision Correction Surgery
As a public service announcement, I’m passing on this invitation to participate in research for climbers who have had refractive eye surgery, such as LASIK or PRK.
Year: 2021
Autumn 2021 Himalayan Season: More Summits across the Himalaya
More summits on Manaslu (true) plus fore summits, and over 30 on Dhaulagiri and soon on Kangchenjunga. And a difficult summit on one of the 2nd Seven Summits.
Autumn 2021 Himalayan Season: Who Really Summited Manaslu this Year?
As we get near the end of the Manaslu season, there are more summits piling up, well over 150 now, and sadly one death, but controversy abounds over who really summited. The weather took a turn for the worse holding some teams at C3 or C4 but they are pushing back up now. Also the push is on at Dhaulagiri and soon on Kangchenjunga.
Autumn 2021 Himalayan Season: Death on Manaslu – Update
An American female has reportedly died between Camps 4 and 3 on Manaslu on September 29, 2021.
Autumn 2021 Himalayan Season: Manaslu Summits, Elbrus Deaths
Climbers are summiting Manaslu daily with no issues reported. Meanwhile tragic news from the highest peak in Europe with multiple deaths on Elbrus last week.
Autumn 2021 Himalayan Season: Preparing for the Summit
With teams well acclimatized on Manaslu, Dhaulagiri, and Kangchenjunga, they are now in weather watch mode for a suitable weather window. Some are expecting September 27/28 on Manaslu. Here’s an overview of the action.
Video Interview with The First All Black American Team to Attempt Everest in 2022
It was an honor to do this video interview with three of the nine members, seven male, and two female, of the Full Circle Everest team. They hope to make history as the first Black climbing team to attempt to summit Everest. As of late 2021, there have been 10,184 summits but only eight Black climbers have stood on the top. I spoke today with Phil, Rosemary, and Dom about the expedition. We discussed their “why”, who they are trying to reach and of course, all things Everest including their acclimatization and training efforts.
Video Interview with Jost Kobusch’s Winter 2021/22 Everest West Ridge Attempt
I caught up with German Alpinist Jost Kobuschh, who now lives in Chamonix, France to discuss his upcoming 2021/22 winter, no O’s, solo attempt of Everest’s West Ridge. This exact style and the route had never been attempted.
Climbing As You Grow Older
I recently turned 65. Yeah, I know! But before you stop reading, this is a tale for the young and, well, the not-so-young. The question is, “When do you stop climbing?”
Does age even matter in climbing? Yuichiro Miura and Tamae Watanabe hold the Everest age records at 80 and 78 for males and females, respectively. Bill Burke began his quest of the Seven Summits at age 60 and got his second summit of Everest at age 72. And Art Muri recently made Everest at 75. Then there are the 13-year-old Everest summiteers Jordan Romero and Malavath Poorna. And let’s not leave out eight-year-old Roxy Getter on Kilimanjaro, not that I think that’s a great idea. By the way, the sweet spot to summit Everest, and most 8000ers, is age 35.
I started climbing at age 38, kind of a late bloomer in the climbing world. I never lived out of my car, was never in the “dirt-bagger,” club or did anything other than work. But then I discovered climbing. Mont Blanc was my first respectable climb. Much to the disgust of my French guide, I didn’t even know how to attach the strap-on Camp crampons that I had just bought in Chamonix. He scoffed, sighed, said something I didn’t understand in French that I’m pretty sure wasn’t a compliment as he strapped them onto my new climbing boots. So yea, I was a novice who didn’t know what I didn’t know and didn’t even know what to ask. But I loved the day, fell in love with climbing, and got my first of several summits on this historic Hill.
Autumn 2021 Himalayan Season: Manaslu and More!
The autumn climbing and trekking season has begun in Nepal. It remains to been seen if it’s business as usual or a rerun of the spring debacle on Everest, Dhaulagiri, and Annapurna. Early signs suggest the latter.
Guests of Nepal have been encouraged to return and be generous with their money to give aid to an impoverished tourism sector, especially in the rural areas such as the Lamjung District for the Annapurna Circuit or the Solukhumbu for the famous trek to Everest Base Camp or for the so-called trekking peaks of Island, Mera, Lobuche East and more serious efforts on Ama Dablam, Cholatse and of course the 8000ers Manaslu, Dhaulagiri and perhaps a couple more.