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.
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.
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! “
