{"id":28130,"date":"2017-11-10T10:59:07","date_gmt":"2017-11-10T17:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=28130"},"modified":"2017-11-10T10:59:07","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T17:59:07","slug":"himalayan-autumn-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/10\/himalayan-autumn-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"Himalayan Autumn Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Autumn continues to be exciting in the climbing world with the 2017\u00a0Piolet d’Or awards, new routes on very remote and technical peaks plus valiant efforts on 8000er.<\/p>\n

First up are the 8000ers, and its not good news on any of them.<\/p>\n

Lhotse – Waiting but not hopeful<\/h3>\n

South Korean, Sung-Taek Hong<\/a> and Spanish climber Jorge Egocheaga<\/a>\u00a0are attempting Lhotse’s South Face. They posted an\u00a0update<\/a>\u00a0saying they had established\u00a0Camp 3 (7,800m) on Oct 17th \u00a0and Camp 4 (8,250m) on Oct 18th and then\u00a0made a summit attempt at the end of October. They established a Camp 4 \u00a0at\u00a08250 meters (27,066 ft) \u00a0before turning back due to poor conditions. This is the same story as in previous years. I’m told by Mingma Sherpa they are back in base camp considering another try.<\/p>\n

The only time this route has been climbed was in October 1990 by Russian climbers Serguey Bershov and Vladimir Karataev according to the Himalayan Database. Sung has attempted it in 2013, 2014 and 2015.<\/p>\n

Annapurna – Over<\/h3>\n

Slovenian duo Luka Stra\u017ear and Nejc Mar\u010di\u010d have given up after suffering frostbite. They were climbing the normal route on the West Face of Annapurna in alpine style. They are posted this update on their site<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Annapurna (8091 m) said no to Luka Stra\u017ear and Nejc Marcic. Frostbites forced our Slovenian guys – that won the Piolet d’Or for their ascent on K7 West – to abandon their alpine style dream on the extremely difficult west face of the 10th peak of the world. In the last months Luka and Nejc trained and worked a lot for realizing this huge project, so they are now really disappointed. But they are also more experienced and ready to start new great adventures, as Luka explains in his interesting report.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can read the full report at their site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Manaslu – A Lot of Snow<\/h3>\n

Hans Kammerlander<\/a>\u00a0on Manaslu and\u00a0posted<\/a> an update basically saying nothing had changed. They are still at base camp waiting for the new snow to settle and unsure about conditions up high. I assume they will give it a go before abandoning their effort all together.<\/p>\n

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6000 and 7000 Meter Peaks<\/h3>\n

Some serious technical climbing is happening all through the world with a first and second ascents of 6000 meter peaks.<\/p>\n

Phungi Peak – First Ascent<\/h3>\n

Yury Koshelenko<\/a> and Aleksei Lonchinskii<\/a>\u00a0did first ascent\u00a0of Phungi Peak (6538) in Nepal – SE face direct. It is west of Manaslu in Nepal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pandra Peak – Second Ascent<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Located near Kanchenjunga, Pandra at\u00a06,700 meter<\/span>\u00a0Mathieu D\u00e9trie, Pierre Labbre and Benjamin V\u00e9drines climbed the northeast face Peine plancher, a technical route that combines stretches of corridors with sections of ice. Though it is\u00a0same wall, they took a new \u00a0line than the one followed by the Japanese in their attempt of 2016. source:\u00a0desnivel.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Mt Edgar<\/h3>\n

Mt. Edgar at\u00a0<\/strong>6618 m was summited by a six meter Italian team on two different routes. It is in the\u00a0Chinese province of Sichuan. Once again, Desnivel<\/a> has all the details.<\/span><\/p>\n

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2017\u00a0Piolet d’Or<\/h3>\n

The annual “Academy Awards for climbing” – the\u00a0Piolet d’Or occurred in Grenoble France on 8 November 2017.<\/p>\n

There were two “Golden Axes” presented. The first to\u00a0Britons Paul Ramsden and Nick Bullock<\/a>\u00a0for their first ascent of \u00a0Nyainqentangla South East at 7046m in Tibet. They climbed via the North Face. Take a read from the link of Nick’s report – it’s fascinating.<\/p>\n

\"Nyainqentangla\"<\/a>
The North Buttress of Nyainqentangla South East first ascent by Paul Ramsden\/Nick Bullock. 1600m. ED+
Descent via the East Ridge into the South Valley. October 2nd and back into the valley, 8th.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second\u00a0Piolet d’Or was awarded to Russian climbers\u00a0Dmitry Golovchenko, Dmitry Grigoriev and Sergey Nilov for a direct route on the north buttress of Thalay Sagar in the Indian Himalaya at 6904m. This was a first ascent. Turn up the volume on your computer (or mute it if at work and enjoy this video!!) Thanks to Stefan Nestler<\/a> for the story.<\/p>\n