UKC

A Russian expedition has completed the 8,500-foot-high West Face of K2 after more than 10 weeks of effort. Andrew Mariev and Vadim Popovich reached the top of the 28,251-foot (8611m) peak at around 1 p.m. on August 21. Several other climbers are in high camps and may make their own possible summit b...

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

In reply to UKC News:

Awesome effort! An unclimbed 8000m+ face with no supplemental oxygen. Hardcore!

In reply to UKC News: inspirational! well done

In reply to UKC News:

Now this really is news ! I'm almost tempted to dig out the Bonners SW face of Everest book for a re-read.

Can we drop the sensationalist "conquer", though, please ? no one conquers a mountain.

In reply to UKC News:
Im not sure i would call fixing a whole face inspirationsal, but still pretty impressive.

In reply to neal crampton:

I chose the verb "conquer" deliberately in the headline for my story at Climbing.com. Although the Russian ascent is indeed extremely impressive (and, in fact, the rest of the team summited today), their 10-week assault and use of fixed rope on nearly the entire face struck me as a form of "conquest."

Dougald

In reply to dougald:
I'd agree with conquest, I suspect oil roubles and newly emergent nationalism has made funding these climbs easier than is used to be.

these russians are just an incredibly tough team. We can claim style has moved on but the last 5 years or so has seen them climb so many phenomenal (sp) routes. They also seem to have brought back allmost all their climbers as well which is awesome.

In reply to alasdair19: almost?!?

In reply to dougald:

K2 isn't actually conquered, is it ? if someone decided to repeat this route next year the mountain could decide it wasn't going to 'cooperate' that season !

"Sieged" is probably more accurate.

In reply to UKC News:
If it wasn't alpine style, with no fixed camps and no oxygen, I refuse to recognise it. What have they ever done on grit anyway?

In reply to GrahamD:

>> "Sieged" is probably more accurate.

Sieged eh; you'd have opted for a better style?

In reply to Scott_M@c:

Me ? I wouldn't have gone within a thousand miles of it !

Its a siege though. There is nothing wrong in that on something of this difficulty.

In reply to GrahamD:

They did 'climb' it though! That must count for something.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

They certainly did and it certainly does !

In reply to GrahamD:

Spending 10 weeks on that bad Boy and geting to the top and off again is hell of a thing to do.

Conquer is an apt word to use.

imho

In reply to Carpe Diem:

Putting up a new route does not conquer a mountain, no matter how hard (and I guess this WAS hard).

To say conquered implies defeated. I don't think K2 is in any way defeated ! Its a term journalists only seem to use for mountaineering - any other new climb is just that - a new climb.

In reply to UKC News:
Now that sounds like a big route.

Thanks for the informative and detailed report Dougald.

Thanks for linking it and bringing it to our attention Mick.

I for one am appreciating the time and effort taken to link to all these world climbing reports. It's great to have them all listed on UKC.

Well done to the Russian team. And good luck to the team from Kazakhstan on their Alpine style attempt on the North Face.

In reply to GrahamD:

Oh for shags sake. Button it doofus.

In reply to UKC News:

I agree with Graham D wholeheartedly. 'Conquered' is complete bollox. 'Successfully solved that particular difficult and dangerous climbing problem, in those particular conditions,' is somewhere near the exact truth.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Sorry - 'successfully solved' an appalling tautology.

In reply to UKC News: The ruskies are tough buggers. Have you i.e. UKC noted that the word "direct" infront of a route is usually a Russian/CZH or Slovenian route.

In reply to UKC News: K2 eh? how much nitro did they take?