UKC

Andy Kirkpatrick and Ian Parnell had intentions to attempt the first winter ascent of Torre Egger by Titanic (ED+: VI 5.10b A2 90 degrees, 950m, Giarolli-Orlandi, 1987). However deteriorating weather may lead them to change their objective to Cerro Standhart, writes Alastair Lee

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

In reply to UKC News:

wimps? I think not!

In reply to JonC:
since when was bad weather news...?

In reply to minimike: sorry, but just a general comment. why do we need to know all this? cant they just go on holiday and if they do a route tell us when they get home.

In reply to ourkid:

Why not just f*ck off? I know I'm drunk but I doubt I'll feel much different in the morning. The fact is I, and many others, are interested in what others are doing, its what climbing is about, people out there doing great things, even failing on things. Its all inspirng and all worth reading about for us armchair voyeurs. It may be their holiday but I'd rather read about their holiday than virtualy anything else that gets posted on this site. I'm guessing that no one has a gun to your head making you read these news items so if they are not of any interest to you why waste time and effort posting your purile comments?

In reply to Tyler:

I was drunk and I don't feel any different this morning (apart from a little hung over!) but I do feel bad about the viciousness of my opening sentence so sorry for the swearing.

In reply to Tyler: Got back to Chalten last night after a big effort on Standhardt so I thought I would post here direct. If Mick you want to post this as news then great, if not I guess is like a blog, ha way it will hopefully keep the whingers happy. I´l post this now to test as email is powered by steam down here and this keyboard is so knackered its like a torture device to use

In reply to Ian in Patagonia:

Nice one Ian.

Weather crap here..floods etc in Wales, lovely for the moment here in Sheffield, but clouds assemble.

Be safe.

Mick

In reply to Ian in Patagonia: OK it worked so an update.

Weather very chaotic here. Made the 20+ km walk back in poor conditions to snowhole. Weather improvin as we arrived so kept going round to camp inside bergshrund at base of Standhardt. That night v windy so got covered in spindrift and sleeping bags like sodden paper bags. Started up route in dark, morning brought sunshine, cold and high winds. Could hear them up high like a roaring river. At notch despite wearing all clothes inc duvet jackets Andy thought might be getting frostbite. Climbed 500m (350m) height gain to foot of Exocet ce chimneys. Weather properley crapping out by now a elevator of rushing spindrift up followed by torrent of ice chunks down. With WI6 ice and then sumitt ridge in dark to follow, decided to run away. Hard descent to snowhole in dark. Next morning snowhole buried and not enough oxygen for stove so bailed into the now full on storm. Indescribable, Andy felt his eyes were bleeding but did great effort to navigate crevasses im whiteout, at times couldn´t stand at others felt hard to breathe. Kept going all the way into night to make it back here to regain sanity and muster up the cajons for another go.

In reply to Ian in Patagonia:

Bleedin eck!

Topo here; http://ktml.freeservers.com/Standhardt.htm

In reply to ourkid: Hope Ian's post will interest you more now otherwise follow Tyler's first comment.

Keep safe Ian (and Andy) and good luck for when the cajones grow for the next attempt.

In reply to Ian in Patagonia:

That night v windy so got covered in spindrift and sleeping bags like sodden paper bags.

I know it is too late, but if you had asked for a recommendation on how to keep your sleeping bag dry on the UKC's Climbing Gear forum, you would not have wet sleeping bags. Some other websites are not as reliable as UKC.

In reply to Glyn Jones: i appreciate that this is not the post for discussing the merits of the venture. which is why i started another post "do we need to know this". in this post tyler got very upset. i have apologised. i can only apologise to you aswell. i agree good luck to them and i hope they return safe.

In reply to ourkid: ha,ha no worries. Made me laugh theres nothing like being the other side of the world amongst the thick of it to put the minutie of UKC caht into perspective.

Thanks for the advice Norrie, supposedly my bag had a waterproof outer and I was saving weight with no bivi bag. Thweather here is such a funny changeable mix so much harder to plan for than say the Himalaya or Scotland. Weve a cunning plan for the return match. So we´ll see what happens, what can be certain is that something unexpected will no doubt turn up and well just have to improvise our way round that. All part of the fun of winter alpinism.

by the way noted that someone mentioned that we´re not doing cutting edge stuff that may be so. exocet has been climbed in winter by Alex Huber and Toni orlandi, two amazing climbers Im very glad to have an attempt on following. The fact that Dave has climbed E11 and winter XI doesn´t make me not want to hear about new E8-9s and winter IXs? It would be a funny world where all we are interested in is alinear progression of numbers? As for the cutting edge nature of winter ascents of Maestri´s joke compressor route thats another discussion.

In reply to Ian in Patagonia:

Hardcore man. How you can resist all that argentinian beef, falkland bouldering, and exciting sailing round the cape makes is beyond me. Maybe there's even better conditions to be had in antarctica . Stick at it.

In reply to Ian:

Ian, where are you staying in Chalten? Just interested. Is anyone staying in Madsen over the winter?

In reply to Ian in Patagonia: yes. good luck hope all goes well. your right the compressor route is for another discussion... i look forward to it.

In reply to Ian in Patagonia:

I'm sure it was Andy years ago who told us to keep some googles in our helmet!

You're nutters, you two. Why don't you just go to the Costa Blanca for some nice bolted 6a+s?