UKC

Photographer and alpinist, Ian Parnell, fresh from his success on the Eiger with Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Kenton Cool this morning, reports on the forums at UKClimbing.com.

Read more at the news page of UKClimbing.com here...http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Congratulations to Sir Ran

He is a tough cookie, not only a distinguished list of exploration achievements, but he competed in marathons in every continent following a near fatal heart attack and a double by-pass heart surgery in 2003.

I've great admiration for the bloke.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Yep, a great effort

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

What a great achievement indeed for a 61-year old, esp. after double bypass surgery; and a great guiding achievement by Kenton C ad Ian P.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Congratulations - great stuff.

SK

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: Great Effort from Ian and Kenton to get him up there. Well done!

In reply to JoeL 90:

Saturday March 17: 10.30m

Ranulph Fiennes said

It felt pretty good to reach the summit. We started yesterday with the Traverse of the Gods. Had I known that 'it' was part of the thing, and that it was, I won't use a rude word, but bloody difficult. I don't think I would have done it. Not even for Marie Curie.

I knew it was going to be a difficult climb. But I thought it would be more like the practise climbs I have been doing with Kenton around Chamonix and the Alps .. just a more difficult version of that. Not the nightmarish thing that it actually was.

So, much as I am very pleased that we succeeded in getting to the top, and I am really hoping for big money for our charity, to be honest it is more than I would have wanted to have taken on.

I think I will have nightmares for a long time over the Traverse for the Gods. My policy of not looking down just wasn't possible. There was nowhere but down. I had to look down to find the next foothold because it is so totally vertical.



The next section, Quartz Crack, was extremely difficult then we came upon the Exit Crack, that was difficult and very long.

All of a sudden I heard a yelp, Ian was falling down, he had slipped as I was still feeding his rope and so hadn't realised. As soon as we did realise we quickly stopped him on the rope - but he fell about 12ft.

Now I'm heading back to the hotel for a bath. If I smell half as bad as the other two..

Ian Parnell said: "I think the whole think went incredibly well. We were lucky with the weather. Well, when I say lucky it was planned that way. The forecast has panned out exactly as they said giving us a five-day window to ascend.

Just as we were about to be picked up from the summit by the helicopter the clouds moved in and we weren't sure if we were going to be picked up or not. So we just timed it right.

I think Ran did amazingly .. we had an awful night. There was no mobile reception so we couldn't communicate with anybody or do our live broadcast. Then I dropped the ITN camera over the edge - but we so knackered and it was so cold.

Yesterday we had some hard pitches. One called the Quartz Crack and the Exit Corners, those were the toughest pitches. Then we crossed some relatively difficult terrain that you just had to plod on towards the ridge where we knew we would be able to dig out a good bivouac site.

We knew if we didn't reach the bivouac site we would be in trouble. But we did make it and were able to drop over onto the south side of the mountain, out of the wind. We even got some sun this morning, we haven't had much of that being on the north face!

It was a spectacular ridge to the summit, so it was a really nice finish. I'm pretty proud of what we had did. Particularly for Ran. It is quite inspirational for someone, who when he was first interested in the project two years or so ago, you wouldn't call a climber in any way. And for him to then do a route like the north face of the Eiger, which by any climbers reckoning is one of the big tough routes of the climbing world, it's impressive."

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.controlcenter&Mytoken...

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: "helicopter the clouds moved in and we weren't sure if we were going to be picked up or not". What? going up is only half of it. I must say the style this was done in wasn't exactly Alpine, it doesn't really count as an ascent if you don't find your way down again, imagine if a top alpinist went up a new route only to be airlifted up the top the ascent wouldn't be recorded or would at least be hugely controversial. the descents only AD youd think it wouldn't pose too much problem for someone whod just done ED or ED2?

Now obviously i couldn't get up the 1938 route or any other route on the Eiger, for that matter but if i were to ever be in a position to (i hope i will be) this would include the ability to do it alpine style and descend AD.

In reply to JoeL 90:


You think that doesn't happen? Amazing achievment

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: An amazing effort by Ranulph, but also a job well done by Ian and Kenton. We also climbed the 'Eiger' for Marie Curie, albeit at the Leeds Wall! We also encountered cold, spinning holds and the odd fall, Seriously it's a charity worthy of contribution...every little helps...Well done to all the groups that day that raised money, and once again well done Ranulph.

In reply to JoeL 90: There is a long list of top alpinists involved in 'last great challenges' of enchainements or winter ascents who've been airlifted off by their team... it seems far less acceptable if it's a British team though...

In reply to Dee: im not saying rescue is not allowed it just means you have failed at your route as you were unable to acheive it with your and your partners skill.

In reply to nigel baker:

Hahaha... Good effort! Some encouraging new developments in cancer treatment going on, btw. A bit hindered currently by the fact that some new medications are not available to patent, and therefore not of much interest to drug companies due to lack of profit incentive. China looks set to be the leader in the field at the moment. Very sad that the profits of Big Pharma can determine the development of life-saving medication, but that's the reality of the market.

In reply to Tyler:

If you are climbing a mountain, then I can see the arguement for having to get back down again also (I don't agree with it like - and frankly as long as you are doing what makes you happy who cares). But if you are climbing a face, or specific route then it certainly doesn't matter - should he have to climb back down the North Face? If he is allowed to descend by the West Flank, why not by helicoptor.

He aimed to climb the Nordwand, not to climb the Nordwand and then descend the West Flank.

In reply to The Bantam: exactly! All depends on what you set out to do... Ran achieved his goal in his chosen style - welldone!

After all we all enjoy doing routes on the Aig du Midi where we can get the 'phreque down instead of crunching our knees!

Anyway, shouldn't somebody be lauding the publicity for 'real' climbing over theusual publicity for high altitude 'plodding'? (sorry- couldn't resist -its sunday afternoon afterall...)

In reply to guywillett: Yep congratulations are in order, particularly for Kenton and Ian, bet it was nice getting a lift off the top, I certainly wouldn't turn one down.

In reply to JoeL 90: Fine achievement by Ran. I wish Ian and Kenton would 'guide' *me* up the Eiger! Though, like you, there's a part of my mountaineering soul that is niggled by the helicopter descent (always hate it when Polar 'explorers' are met by their families at the Pole and drink champagne, before being airlifted back home - bet old Scott would have loved that!).

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: Yes many congrats to Sir Ran; very fine effort indeed.

In reply to Marc C:

Well Marc, just pay Ian and Kenton enough money (just as Ran did) and they'll drag you up there. I'm really annoyed with all the hype about the ascent. I bet the guy didn't lead a single pitch and was probably pulled through the hard moves (mind you its Grade 6 pretty sure that a novice can't climb that....). Also doesn't suprise me at all that he got helicoptered out. That's just crap and the whole thing isn't mountaineering but headline grabbing to get some more money for the charity.

Philip

In reply to PhilE:

It isn't supposed to be mountaineering. It is supposed to be headline grabbing to get some more money for a charity.

Why do people insist on getting annoyed at RF's mountaineering credentials on this? He wanted to face his vertigo, not try and get his acheivements classified as something he doesn't think it is, by a bunch of random punters on the internet.

In reply to PhilE:

To quote Ian Parnell:

'I think Ran did amazingly.'

That'll do for me, certainly more that the bollocks you have just posted.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

More photos of Sir Ranulph Fiennes on the Eiger at his blog at myspace.com

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=1494...

In reply to PhilE:
tsk. what a disgraceful goal.

Personally I think even if he did have guides to lead and a chopper to lift him off the top, its still a pretty impressive effort for a 61 year old man with no fingers on one hand.

In reply to PhilE: Dear oh dear...
I've stayed off these threads thus far, largely due to getting annoyed with Al Evans carping. Al's way better than I'll never be, but come on.
This was launched as a non climber raising money for Marie Curie charity. That's it. No more.
They did it, and raised millions.
More than I can say!

So a hearty "WELL DONE!" to ALL concerned , especially a guy over 60, who hates looking down. Who's name and fame got the publicity to raise the money.

Personally, I could care less if Ran led 1", he actually got up the thing. Contrast and compare with young Osborne climbing in Yos? I don;t hear much comment on how much money HE raised for good causes?

TTG