Montagna Magica
17 November 2022
Matthew Eakin was an experienced aussie climber. He died, while descending from K2 after having stood on the summit. His body, spotted around ABC, was covered by a small avalanche while a team was trying to recover him. Now a GoFundme is raised for giving him a dignified burial . MONTAGNAMAGICA support this goal. PLEASE,DEAR FOLLOWERS OF THIS PAGE, CONSIDER DONING TO HELP REALISE THIS !
When my dear friend Louis Rousseau (*), respected and experienced climber, photographer,contacted me about the story of his friend Matthew Eakin , asking me to share the GoFundMe raised by friends&family , I wasn’t surprised to learn that he share the goal of financing a Winter Expedition aimed to recover Matt body and give him a dignified burial. He told me that it wasn’t important write his name - he’s an incredible humble man, a kind and emphatic human , with a bucket of life’s and climbing’s values that I share with him and my respect and trust for him is total.
16 May 2022
The context : Nims incredible feats, press about him, the records
When Nirmal Purja, then an unkown climber to the community, declared his intention to climb all 14 8000ers peaks within a year, initial reactions from public, other climbers and media was rather incredulous. I include myself in the early critics . Then, the former gurkha and SAS soldier, showed to the World his strength, his sharp focus and his incredible leadership. He climbed the 14x8000 in about six month, and the last one was K2, in Winter - the last 8000ers never climbed in the cold Karakorum season.
10 March 2022
Tribute to Yiannis Torelli
written by Panos Athanasiadis
When ultra-experienced and careful alpinists like Emilio Comici, Renato Casarotto and Korra Pesce die unexpectedly in accidents that should not have happened, some people are tempted to think that there exists a thing called destiny. Yet, a synonym of fate is fortune, and even in the ancient Greek drama destiny and chance are inextricably linked together. We have all taken our chances on the mountains, and we understand what it means to cross roads with the devil…
25 January 2022
Soon to be published on CLIMBING MAGAZINE !
22 October 2021
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12 March 2021
story of a hidden Karakorum valley surrounded by beautiful granite walls
by Matteo Bedendo - photographer, climber / edit Federico Bernardi (c) MontagnaMagica
The Karakorum, in the collective imagination is often associated with the great peaks that rise along the Baltoro Glacier, the scene of epic expeditions and climbs since the early 1900s.
K2, Gasherbrums, Broad Peak, Chogolisa and Trango Towers, Laila Peak: the mountains that bring to mind great challenges of the past and present.
16 December 2020
29 October 2020
After K6 Central climbed for the first time by Jeff and Priti Wright, a French duo , *Symon Welfringer e Pierrick Fine ,*bagged another great first ascent of the Sani Pakkush South Face
“Revers gagnant”
Fine Pierrick
Welfringer Symon
2500m / 90° / M4+ / WI4+
16-20/10/2020
Symon Welfringer e Pierrick Fine
Arrived in the beginning of October on the Toltar glacier we acclimatized around our basecamp situated at the base of the massive South face of Sani Pakkush which remained unclimbed.
After two weeks we were ready to give a try in this big piece of alpinism. Poor weather conditions made us wait fax days more but the sun was expected to shine for almost one week which made us allow to give a proper try in the face.
After an early start at 2am form our basecamp on the first day, we met the first difficulties at an altitude of 5000m at the very beginning of the face, with some sustain ice pitches. Then follow some more easy terrains of snow and mixed climb. At around 5600m we made one of the hardest pitches of M4+/M5 to find a little platform and make an uncomfortable bivy.
On the second day we managed to get high up on the face and made two awesome pitches of pure ice. At around 6200m we look for a desperate bivy sport but never find it. Finally we wait for the sun to come back sited on a rock.
On the third day, we were really exhausted after two bad bivys. We decided to put our tent at an altitude of 6400m on the summit ridge where we find a nice and comfortable crevasse to have a proper rest.
On October the 19th, we decided to make a summit with almost no gear. We let our bivy in place and went for the last 500m on the snowy summit ridge. With a constantly changing quality, it was harder and harder to go up the summit but after 7 hours of hard work sometimes digging into powder snow. We arrived at 14pm completely exhausted on the Sani Pakkush summit at 6953m.
We spend our last day going down this massive face of 2500m, switching between rappelling (20-25) and downclimbing. On the late afternoon of October 20th, we made it safely back to basecamp empty of all our energy and lots of emotions in our minds.
09 September 2020
08 July 2020
Spantik Base Camp (c) Graham Wyllie
“Least difficult” 7000ers ?
I**n August 2019 I followed and then read the story of a climb to Spantik, a 7027mt mountain in the Hunza Valley in Pakistan; Spantik is a rather common destination for those approaching high altitudes, due to its relative absence of great technical difficulties along the normal route, however not at all easy for the very long development and some technical sections.
13 May 2020
Matteo “Berna” Bernasconi, born in 1982, Ragno di Lecco since 2003, mountain guide since 2011, died yesterday 12 May 2020, swept away by an avalanche in the Malgina Colouir in Valtellina.
Matteo Bernasconi (born in Lecco in 1982, Ragno di Lecco in 2003, mountain guide since 2011) - 2006 new icefall route on the SE face of the Baratro in Val di Mello with Giovanni Ongaro - 2006 with Hervé Barmasse, Lorenzo Lanfranchi and Giovanni Ongaro he opened a new route on the then untouched north face of San Lorenzo (Patagonia) - 2008 with Fabio Salini completes the first Italian - and seventh overall - repeat of the legendary via dei Ragni on Cerro Torre (Patagonia) - between 2010 and 2013 three attempts to climb the last great wall still untouched in the Cerro Torre massif, or the West of the Torre Egger, finally resolved by comrades Matteo della Bordella and Luca Schiera in March 2013 a few days after returning to Italy by Bernasconi for work commitments. - 2017 in Patagonia with Matteo Della Bordella and David Bacci opens a new route on the east face of Cerro Murallon - 2020 (February) in Patagonia with Matteo Della Bordella and Matteo Pasquetto he opened The die is taken on the north of the Aguja Standhardt, just before repeating the Via del 40esimo dei Ragni di Lecco on the north face of the Aguja Poincenot.
02 March 2020
I don’t like the Mountains: I’ve lost too many friends, up there
Denis Urubko - Translation Federico Bernardi with the collaboration of .. some Russian friends
Denis for russianclimb.com
I’d seen a lot of speculation in recent times, lot of people talked about me … “blah blah blah” ; they do it to promote themselves.
11 February 2020
Corrado “Korra” Pesce, born in Italy in1981, from Novara ; living in Chamonix since over a decade, he is a very strong climber; now more “transalpine french” than italian, as he himself feels, he has become an Alpine Guide in France, he got a family on the French side of Mont Blanc. He likes difficult and technical routes ; has climbed a lot in the Alps and in Patagonia. He has just published a nice, very interesting story of his latest climb on Cerro Torre on Instagram that we copied here. It is really interesting for having a look at the current and future prospective of Patagonian climbing. It should be remembered that for the whole month of January the weather was bad, therefore the window of good weather caused ….
17 December 2019
THE PERFECT ROUTE
The book : Review
“The Perfect Way / Nanga Parbat : Mummery Spur” is the posthumous book by Daniele Nardi, written with Alessandra Carati (writer, editor and screenwriter) released in November 2019 for Einaudi , available only in italian edition.
The tragic death of the italian mountaineer and his English partner Tom Ballard at the end of February 2019 on the Mummery Spur of Nanga Parbat, has transformed what was to be the story of a long journey towards a dream, into an intimate autobiography, full of self-criticism, sincere and conscious, raw in the contradictions and bitter in the narrative of conflicts and recriminations with others ; at the same time, full of an unstoppable passion, full of love for his wife, friendship, esteem and respect towards the mountaineers with whom Daniele Nardi shared challenging climbs, successes and failures. A story full of falls and subsequent redemptions, against adversity far more fearsome than some Himalayan wall : diseases, both physical as psychic. All of this, narrated between mountaineering feats of increasing thickness, maybe not outstanding but often in remote environments, with real exploration, especially on less famous but iconic and difficult peaks between 6000 or 7000 meters, both in Karakorum as in Himalaya.
27 November 2019
This article was first published in English for Rock And Ice Magazine :
https://rockandice.com/climbing-news/nims-purja-and-the-kuwaiti-flag-on-ama-dablam/
15 April 2019
An ambitious acclimatization goal
Adam Bielecki e Felix Berg aim to establish a new route on Annapurna NW Face .
The polish/german duo is well known also for the very 1st route up Gasherbrum II West Face, in 2018.
Adam just released this statement, regarding their acclimatization goal :
“At last we can see our first goal - Langtang Lirung 7227 m. The local people, when they hear we want to climb it, react with laughter or disbelief . When we talk with them we slowly realize how serious our aclimatisation summit is. [..] the last ascent took place on 1995. The owner of our hotel promised that if we climb it we can drink for free all the alcohol he has in his restaurant "
01 April 2019
Jannu: and yet they move!
It’s April 1st.
Dmitry Golovchenko and Sergey Nilov, a couple of extraordinary Russian mountaineers - already winners of the Piolet D’Or in 2017 for the incredible new route opened on the north face of the Thalay Sagar, “Moveable Feast”, a plumb line - are on the Jannu (7710mt) since 16 days.
They succeeded in the extraordinary feat of climbing the inviolated East wall, after which they then top out on the SE ridge at about 7400 meters and began the descent 11 very tiring days, of which the last 4 passed over 7000 meters under very heavy snowfall that forced them to stop for a long time.
20 February 2019
K2: a Fort for Txikon, reinforcements for the Russians and the wait for good weather
The two expedition on the K2 do not have any kind of human contact or technical exchange. A pity but it was predictable.
The abysmal differences in strategy, as well as cultural and personal ones, have become widely manifest in the last 20 days, when the action on the mountain has been reduced to the minimum due to the continuous bad weather.
28 January 2019
K2
As expected and written in the previous update, Alex Txikon’s team has moved on the Abruzzi Spur route, where is already in action the Russian-Kyrgyz-Kazakh team .
Although Txikon had clearly written that he would have return to check the East wall (and the way of the Americans), the day after the facts showed that he had already decided not to return there, and suddenly the Basque declared “that the mountain was discharging all the avalanches on that side [East, ndR] and that the traverse [to rejoin the Abruzzi, above 7500,ndR] was too dangerous “.
14 January 2019
Nanga Parbat : Mummery Spur, a brief history
Albert Frederick Mummery, defined by Hermann Buhl (who became the first giant of the 8000 Pakistani 8000), “one of the greatest alpinists of all time”, was perhaps too far ahead of his time: his attempt, the first ever, to climb an 8000, occurred in the Summer 1895, along with 3 other British alpinists and 2 carriers. A small team, “by fair means” (with loyal means), a forerunner of the alpine style. Mummery first attempted to climb along that central Spur, apparently reaching the 6100 meters, and then disappearing forever, together with the porters, in an attempt to transfer along the Rakhiot slope, to look for another access to the mountain.
04 December 2018
Antarctica
italian adventurer and explorer, was born in a little village of the North East Alpine Region Friuli.
28 November 2018
Content not available in English, sorry
13 November 2018
Patagonia
A great start for climbing season in Patagonia, with the feat of the French Martín Elías, Jérome Sullivan and François Poncet who have opened a new path, “La Mariposa” (1200 mt, A3, M7, 6a) between 18 and 19 October on the inviolate spire of the South Pillar of Cerro San Lorenzo, called “El Faro” (3150 mt)
South Pillar Cerro San Lorenzo
“We started climbing at 10 in the morning, the forecast gave good conditions of high pressure until the next night, so we had 48 hours. First a part of technical climbing on mixed terrain and good rock, after we reached a ramp of snow and ice that we had identified during the previous exploration. From here, untied we quickly climbed the ramp of over 500 meters, with access to the steepest part of the wall. We climbed quickly and this made us hope to be able to sleep on the hill - but when we reached the end of the ramp, we realized that the bad conditions of the snow, the rock and the lack of ice would have created many problems and slowed down. When the night reached us I was climbing the first 30 meters of what would become the key section of the whole street: a vertical 80-meter chimney covered in snow, which I miss the words to describe the ugly quality of the rock. “Loose” is not suitable. “An asco” as the locals say! “
06 November 2018
Himalaya
Pumori , October 25 2018
The Romanian trio made up of alpinists Romeo Popa, Zsolt Torok and Teofil Vlad has opened a new route on the South East wall of the Pumori, the iconic 7161 meter peak that overlooks the Everest Circus.
new route - pumori SE ( Romica Popa, Zsolt Torok and Teofil Vlad )
The new route, very cool for logic and sustained difficulty, is mainly on ice with some mixed climbing difficult to protect; it run for 1100 meters, reaching the summit ridge at 6700. 5 necessary bivouacs, three of which on the wall and the last two on the ridge; a day of rest the first, then the second day the final attack, which occurred facing winds up to 100 kmh.
21 September 2018
marco and 3 cime of lavaredo,dolomites
Marco Milanese, from Friuli, born in 1987, studied at the Liceo Scientifico and at the same time carried out professional experience as a rugby player. He started Forestry Sciences, then the mountain “called” him : he then became an Alpine Mountain Guide since 2011, slackliner from 2013, base jumper, wing pilot and speedflyer since 2014.
Marco is getting noticed, since a couple of years, for his very interesting adventures that have had a good echo on social media: he’s not like a compulsive video poster, but in its adventures it is always present a character of experimentation or exploration in the broadest sense, such as the base jump from the Bell Tower of Val Montanaia, the speedflying of a volcano, a trip to Turkey with many base and wingsuit jumps and highlines ; his most recent feat, realized in late August was the freesolo climb of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo in Dolomites, with descent through base and wingsuit base jump from all three peaks.
The following is an interview that has kindly released us - and hopefully will make you understand more deeply the path, the motivations, the emotions that Marco Milanese puts into play in his intense life between Earth and Heaven, looking for a Equilibrium.
Marco : Your progression, your path in balance between climbing and jumping, is something really impressive. By reading your resumé, I have the idea of a kind of monk, because the extensive and fast training in the individual disciplines you have faced, considering the complexity and hardness in managing each one of them. Is that it? Do you have a common methodical approach on all your projects? And if so, what are your greatest difficulties, the limits that you recognize ?
19 July 2018
The exceptional images of the drone piloted by Bartek Bargiel, brother of mountaineer Andzrej (engaged in the attempt to climb the K2 and subsequent descent with ski), which show Rick Allen on Broad Peak, reported missing and probably died as a result of non-return from his solitary summit attempt.
Rick Allen, a very tough Scottish hide, had fallen for a few hundred meters, fortunately without serious injuries, but had found himself out.
Thanks to the help of the drone (and the cook of the expedition, the first to have spotted his backpack with the Camp Base telescope) the rescuers happily met and helped get off Rick, then evacuated by helicopter.
bartek bargiel, pilot of drone
02 February 2018
OFFICIAL Medical Statement released by LUDOVIC GIAMBIASI, MANAGER OF ELIZABETH REVOL
After talking with Elisabeth here is my opinion about the pathology probably responsible for the death of Tomek.
He had been ill for a few days, his digestive troubles, like any other health problem, even minimal, were enough to impact the body’s ability to acclimatize.
Elisabeth evokes very well the big fatique that Tomek presented when arriving under the summit with the rise … “he had a lot of trouble advanced”.
31 January 2018
The brutality of the events on the Nanga Parbat, the frenetic development of the Rescue Mission, solidarity and crowdfunding on Social and the contemporary wave of controversy over the meanings of these expedition, the accusations and poisoned doubts, about everything, from rescue bills, to rescue strategy, helicopter flights , corrupted governments and so on.
The Epic of Survival and the tragic choices, the extraordinary nature of human and mountaineering performances, the emotion and the joy for an incredible rescue.
31 May 2017
28 October 2016
Between the end of summer and the first month of Autumn 2016, the high altitude mountaineering has experienced a withering period of extraordinary climbing in Nepal, India and China.
The common characteristics of very different climbs are small teams,alpine style, the search for aesthetic lines, in difficult mixed terrain, with a style and an ethic that recall the golden age (thanks to Stefano Lovison for this happy synthesis) of the 80s and ‘90, a new route vision on steep and technical lines.
Among the expeditions that have achieved extraordinary feats, we have choosen these pair, which we consider particularly significant:
23 May 2016
1976: “the Eagles” of San Martino , Trentino, Italia
The italian Guides “Eagles of San Martino” and the Sherpas
On February,23th 1976 italian expedition of the Eagles of San Martino and Primiero left from Milan to Kathmandu, as follows: Renzo Debertolis expedition leader, Francesco Santon deputy, the Eagles Camillo De Paoli, Gian Paolo De Paoli, Luciano Gadenz, Gian Pietro Scalet, Silvio Simoni, Giampaolo Zortea, Edward Zagonel, mountaineers Sergio Martini and Luigi Henry, Poluzzi Achille medic and writer Alfonso Bernardi assistant and author of the chronicle of those moments in the book “Trentini on Dhaulagiri 8172 m.”
02 April 2016
December, 1975: Alfonso Bernardi shots Dhaulagiri North flanks, NW ridge and buttress from a Pilatus Porter , as a member of next Italian Expedition Aquile del Trentino, 1976
01 April 2016
1958 : Cassin and Bonatti Revenge
The Gasherbrum IV italian team, lead by Cassin with Walter Bonatti, Carlo Mauri, Toni Gobbi, Giuseppe Oberto, Bepi De Francesch and Fosco Maraini as photo video operator and writer.
These pics are related to the training on Combe Maudite, Mont Blanc Massif.
Primary Link | Secondary Link
Mauri,Gobbi,Oberto,Cassin,Bonatti and Fosco Maraini
10 March 2016
Kelly Cordes (c) Cerro Torre
“with full respect to the current rate of progression and the next-level skills of today’s top climbers, I think it’s fair to say that the single biggest change in the history of Patagonian climbing occurred far from the mountains, circa 2005.”
continue reading the original Kelly Cordes article on his website
07 March 2016
This is a preview of a series of pictures, dated late 1975; an aerial reconnaissance of the mountain before the italian expedition of Aquile del Trentino , spring 1976. The Author was a member of that expedition as Scientific Director and Writer
Dhaulagiri ,North East Buttress. Approx 5000 mt., Pilatus Porter - aerial reconnaissance by Alfonso Bernardi
06 March 2016
Leonard Carrel 1871-1940
Son of Jean-Antoine , “il Bersagliere”, “THE Matterhorn Guide”, an extraordinary career and a Guide of strong ethical values
Carriera
- 56 Matterhorn Ascents
- 40 years as an alpine guide
- first ascents on various Mte Rosa routes
- ascents on Pennine Alps and Bern Alps
LEONARD CARREL
Son of the illustrious Jean-Antoine, “the Matterhorn Guide” par excellence; appointed bearer May 20, 1894, and guide June 19, 1899, carried out his mountaineering activities up to 1939, climbing the Matterhorn fifty-six times, and making ascents in the Monte Rosa massif and the highest peaks of the Pennine and Bernese Alps. On April 10 1904, with mountaineer Gabriel De Bottini and the other guide Valtournanche Abel Pession, he did make the first ascent of Mont Avi or Au (3,006 meters, Valle d’Aosta) to the south ridge; in 1938, at sixty-seven, yet he made the ascent of the Breithorn (4165 meters). He died in Cervinia on December 24 1940.
05 March 2016
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Appena trovato negli archivi di Alfonso Bernardi, alpinista, scrittore, sociologo : sua ispezione fotografica aerea del…
Pubblicato da Montagna Magica su Sabato 5 marzo 2016
21 February 2016
Cerro Torre rockfall (c) Lauri Hmlinen
“The extreme heat of the last few summers, and the heat of the five summer weeks we had this year, without a doubt have an impact on the permafrost, making the mountains more unstable”
Rolando Garibotti
THE LONG AND HOT PATAGONIC SUMMER
The amazing series of ascents along the Patagonic granite towers, a continuous flow of lines repeated in speed, in free climb for the first time, the traverse crossing record achieved by “Captain Safety” Colin Haley along with Alex Honnold - btw we’ll must talk about what this duo, a perfect merge of very different styles, had been able to show : the vitality and the purest form of alpinism - seems to have no end, because of a long good weather window that lasted a month and a half of good and hot weather. Rolando Garibotti, guardian, mentor and singer of all Patagonic ascents and sensitive, ethical and environment “guru”, writes the downside of this extraordinary hot patagonic summer, caused by increasing climate changes , on his Facebook page Patagonia Vertical.
