Karakorum
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
