UKC

In a media extravaganza and with all the associated Hollywood hype, The Altitude Everest Expedition 2007 team got its two leaders on the summit of Everest this morning at 7am.

From the press release,

"Early this morning the expedition team removed the ladder which was bolted to t...

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: So mallory (or was it Irvine) climbed E9?

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
Have I understood that they have removed the ladder and not put it back? Which means no-one else will be able to get up from that side unless they climb it?

If they're not putting the ladder back, is there any moral difference between this and removing Maestri's bolts?

In reply to Colin Henderson:

Updated: http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Someone's spelled Jerry's name wrong.

In reply to ADC:

http://www.ueverest.com/team.html

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Ah, my bad. Apologies.

In reply to ADC: And there was me thinking he was just a blodderer...

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

But this still doesn't prove that Mallory and Irvine reached the summit, does it? Or am I missing something?

In reply to Masood:

No you aren't. This is just a (not very good) publicity stunt imo. As mentioned it's been done before anyway.

Yawn.

Oh and should this not be in the Expedition & Alpine forum as I fail to see what it has to do with rock climbing.......

In reply to seagull: Mike Parsons is seriously interested in proving that it would have been possible for M & I to reach the summit in the clothing of the day, so it's disappointing to see that Anker and Houlding used modern clothing to reach the summit.

Of course if A & H had reached the summit in the replica clothing that would not have proved that M & I reached the summit, but it would have rebutted the argument that they could not have reached the summit in the clothing of the day.

In reply to John2:

I thought they did use replica clothing?

Did they have oxygen tanks? M&I would have been carrying the extra weight of tanks - although gaining the benefit of the oxygen.

In reply to Philip: Read Mick's news item in full.

In reply to Philip: They didn't use replica clothing, despite articles in newspapers saying they did. The clothes they used have nothing to do with the Mike Parsons Project, done with the Mountain Heritage Trust and various universities. And according to the film production company backing the climb, they went to the summit in modern clothes anyway. The ladder was supposed to be put back. Part of me wants to see it removed permanently, as the bolt ladder on Cerro Torre should be, but part of me wants to see the Sherpas and Tibetans still having jobs to go to.

Ed

In reply to John2:

As Anker and Holding are lucratively sponsored by leading anorak manufacturers that would be somewhat of an own goal.

In reply to Masood:

They bagged it all right.

Oddell last saw them on the north ridge disappearing benind a rock formation then re-appearing on top of it. ( thats when clouds came in and blocked any further contact)

Obviously wasnt the 2nd step from this discription, they were passed that point, so must have been the 3rd step.

In reply to ADC:

Someone has spelt Jerry's name wrong!!!!

In reply to Carpe Diem:

I think we need Woolsack here for the definitive interpretation.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Regarding the debate about M+I getting to the top, last years Boardman Tasker Award winning book is excellent. The background notes which make up 1/3 of the book are fascinating -

'An Afterclap of Fate - Mallory on Everest' by Charles Lind, The Ernest Press
ISBN 0 948153 84 9

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

So I guess they wont be seeking sponsership from the ladder company.

However, if anybody fancies teaming up we could nip up there now with a ladder....sponsership permitting and put it back.

Any takers?

C

In reply to John2:

Rebutted the arguement, do you know Leo or Keffer ?

I am in a bad mood so do not try and slag off our two best climbers !!!!!!

In reply to GrahamD:

Woolsack?

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
i fail to understand why there should be any debate about whether or not mallory/irving could have reached the summit in clothing of the day.
fact - In 1924 Norton and Sommerville reached a height of more than 28,000 feet while trying a route that traveressed across the north face. they returned safely from less than 1000 feet from the summit.
mallory /irving were seen very high up before they disappeared. their camp 6 was situated at approximately 26,800 feet.
the 1933 expedition reached over 28,000 feet.
i personally feel that the clothing used in 1924 would have adequately sufficed for reaching the summit.
whether they got there.......

In reply to Calvi: I wasn't slagging them off at all. I was just disappointed because I assumed from the apparently erroneous Daily Telegraph report that they were indeed attempting to go to the summit in replica 1920s clothing.

In reply to John2:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070614/sc_nm/nepal_everest_dc

Seems that they are still claiming the First Free Ascent!!!


Climbers staging Mallory Everest bid get cold feet

By Gopal Sharma Thu Jun 14, 9:05 AM ET

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Two climbers who aimed to recreate British mountaineer George Mallory's pioneering attempt to climb Everest using only 1920s gear ended up wearing modern clothes due to the cold, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.



American climber Conrad Anker, who in 1999 discovered Mallory's frozen body about 2,030 feet below the summit, wanted to see if it was possible, as some believe, for Mallory to have reached Mount Everest's summit in 1924.

Anker, 44, along with his 27-year-old British climbing mate Leo Houlding, set off to retrace Mallory's route up the Chinese face this week.

But in the end they decided it was too cold to shun modern hi-tech textiles in favor of replicas of the clothes worn by Mallory and his climbing mate, Andrew Irvine, who also never returned from the mountain and whose body has never been found.

"They decided it would be unsafe," said Kate Fraser, a spokeswoman for Altitude Films, a London-based firm who filmed Anker's and Houlding's ascent.

However, they successfully free-climbed the Second Step after removing a ladder fixed to the treacherous 100-foot rock wall near the summit, and reached the peak of the world's highest mountain on Thursday, said Fraser.

They were the first to free-climb that stretch since a Chinese expedition in 1960, said climbing historian Elizabeth Hawley.

"In this way the climbers confronted the Second Step very much as Mallory and Irvine might have done 83 years ago," Fraser said in an e-mail.

"Their success at the summit, without the use of the ladder, adds weight to the theory that George Mallory and Sandy Irvine may have made it to the summit in 1924, 29 years before Hillary and Tenzing," she added.

In 1953, New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa became the first to successfully climb the mountain, almost 30 years after Mallory's pioneering attempt.

"That was hard," Anker was quoted as saying on his Web site after his own climb.

At least 514 people climbed Mount Everest this year -- a record number for the peak season, triggering debate about the commercialization of the mountain that lures even inexperienced climbers.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:


and


So you could argue that it makes it less likely, not more likely, if two very competent modern climbers with all their back up declined the challenge to do it in the attire of Mallory and Irving.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: true, but there is clear evidence that climbers in the 1920's reached heights of 28000 ft and above. some did return and some did not.
the only way to find out would be to do the climb without the back up of modern technology.

In reply to martin mandel:

Team safely down too. Whilst at Stanage yesterday Kevin Thaw called me from Everest Base camp and said everyone was fine and will be heading home next week.

Mick