Best of ExplorersWeb 2009 Awards: the 14x8000ers.

In 2005 Ed Viesturs became only the fifth man in the world to summit all 14, 8000ers without oxygen. In 2007, Silvio ‘Gnaro’ Mondinelli became number 6, followed by Ivan Vallejo last year as number 7, and number 14 overall (with or w/o O2) on the list.

This year we had a jackpot, with no less than four climbers entering the list, and two without supplementary oxygen: Denis Urubko and Veikka Gustafsson.

Even counting those using artificial oxygen, the number of people who have stood on top of all the highest mountains on earth (above 8000 meters tall) would not fill a room.

Gnaro’s quest took 14 hard years, Ed’s took 20. Done after only 11 years, Vallejo was fast. Faster even was Urubko, still requiring 9 years.

Ed and Christian Kuntner received a joint ExWeb award for the achievement – the latter post mortem: Christian died on his peak no 14, Annapurna. The number of mountaineers perished on the 8000ers while hoping for this success are staggering. This year we lost a woman, one of only five currently qualifying for the list.

If facts such as statistics, time and obituaries count for anything; then this is a human quest in a league of its own. The men and women aspiring for the experience need no numbers to know though; “I’ve been so lucky to survive this long,” Lock told Aussie home media.

Lock; one more mountain. Veikka; moving on.

Ralf Dujmovits and Andrew Lock both used oxygen albeit only on Everest. Planning to repeat Everest next year without oxygen, “I need to finish 8,000 metre climbing soon because I’ve been so lucky to survive this long,” Lock said. “That’s why I say, ‘this one more climb’ – then it’s time to hang up the boots.”

Andrew finished his project in style; he and British mate Neil Ward were the only to reach Shisha’s Main summit this fall, after climbing from the north side via a variation of Iñaki’s route.

On July 26th in a very thin year of summits, together with Japanese Kazuya Veikka Gustafsson stood at the top of Gasherbrum I, becoming the 9th climber in the world to summit all 8000ers without bottled oxygen.

Except for Cho Oyu, the Finn has done the first absolute ascent of all 8000ers for his country. On his record, 17 main 8000ers (repetitions on DH and 2x EV), and conquests on several continents, including first ascents on some Antarctic peaks in the 90´s.

Wrote Veikka afterwards: “Just said to Kazuya, that now this mountain has been climbed, it’s done and over. 17 years of freezing wind and glacier conditions – now that’s done and finished. It’s time to move on.”

Climbers who have reached the summit of all 14 eight-thousanders

Field 0₂ lists people who have peaked all 14 without bottled oxygen.

Order accomplished	All without O2 (order)	Name	Period	born	at age	Nationality
1	1	Reinhold Messner	1970-1986	1944	42	Italian
2		Jerzy Kukuczka	1979-1987	1948	39	Polish
3	2	Erhard Loretan	1982-1995	1959	36	Swiss
4		Carlos Carsolio	1985-1996	1962	33	Mexican
5		Krzysztof Wielicki	1980-1996	1950	46	Polish
6	3	Juanito Oiarzabal	1985-1999	1956	43	Spanish
7		Sergio Martini	1983-2000	1949	51	Italian
8		Young Seok Park	1993-2001	1963	38	Korean
9		Hong Gil Um	1988-2001	1960[6]	40	Korean
10	4	Alberto Iñurrategi	1991-2002[7]	1968	33	Spanish
11		Wang Yong Han	1994-2003	1966	37	Korean
12	5[8]	Ed Viesturs	1989-2005	1959	46	American
13	6[9][10][11]	Silvio Mondinelli	1993-2007	1958	49	Italian
14	7[12]	Ivan Vallejo	1997-2008	1959	49	Ecuador
15	8 [13]	Denis Urubko	2000-2009	1973	35	Kazakhstan
16		Ralf Dujmovits	1990-2009	1961[14]	47	German
17	9	Veikka Gustafsson	1993-2009	1968	41	Finnish
18	10	Andrew Lock	1993-2009	1961	48	Australia

* Special mentions:

– Good guys leaving too early: Tomaz, Piotr, Serguey, Martin, Oscar, Roby…
– GIII/GIV attempt and rescue.
– Nives Meroi, fame for love.
– North Pole-Greenland crossing and polar records.

Related story: StatCrunch: 8000er mountaineers with 6 summits or more, updated.

Related story: K2 & Karakoram 2009 Season´s end Chronicle.

Related story: Shisha Pangma TRUE summit report: and the winner is…

Related story: GI summits – Veikka Gustafsson completes the 14x8000ers list!

Related story: Andrew Lock completes the 14×8000ers list!

* Previous story :

–   Best of ExplorersWeb 2009 Awards: Altitude Junkies and FTA – corporate compassion.

–   Best of ExplorersWeb 2009 Awards – Special mention.

–   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Farewell to friends.

–   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Polar adventures.

–   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Significant climbs.

–   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: The Oceans.

–   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Mount Everest.

–   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Controversies.

–   ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Technology and Space.

–   Tragedy in the Himalaya, 2009 climbing season.

Exweb Week-In-Review is sponsored by HumanEdgeTech the world’s premier supplier of expedition technology. Our team helps you find ultra light expedition tech that works globally.

e-mail or call +1 212 966 1928

* Read these stories – and more! – at ExplorersWeb.com

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Oh Eun-sun summits GI, her 13th 8000er. Oh Eun-sun zdobyła 13 ośmiotysięcznik!

(K2Climb.net/Madrid) “Miss Oh Eun-sun summited GI at 1:16 pm, local time Aug 03, 2009.

The South Korean lady climber has now just Annapurna left to complete the 14x8000ers list.

Miss Oh departed C3 (at 7,200m) at 01:15am,” Black Yak stated. “She topped out after 12 hours climbing without supplementary O2.”

GI (Hidden Peak) is Miss Oh’s fourth 8000er summited only this year – after Kangchenjunga, Dhaulagiri and Nanga Parbat.

In an amazingly fast progression, the South Korean climber is now on top of the female 14x8000ers race ranking, with only Annapurna to tick off the list.

Oh Eun-sun has become the first woman to reach the summit of 13 mountains of 8,000 metres or more. Austria’s Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, 38, Spain’s Edurne Pasaban, 36, and Italia’s Nives Meroi, 48, have climbed 12 of the 14 highest peaks.

Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, currently on a summit push on K2 (Aug 03, 2009), might equal the score in a few hours though. After K2, she has Mount Everest left.

* see : –  Veikka Gustafsson completes the 14×8000ers list!

Koreanka Oh Eun-sun zdobyła 13 ośmiotysięcznik!

Kobieca rywalizacja o Koronę Himalajów wchodzi w końcową fazę. Niespodziewanie na czoło wysunęła się koreańska alpinistka Oh Eun-sun, która 3 sierpnia o godz. 13.16 czasu miejscowego weszła na Gasherbrum I (8080 m).

Gasherbrum I (8080 m)

To już piąty ośmiotysięcznik zdobyty przez nią w ciągu ostatnich paru miesięcy: po Makalu (1 maja 2009), Kangchendzöndze (18 maja), Dhaulagiri (9 czerwca) i Nanga Parbat (10 lipca). Tempo doprawdy imponujące! Koreance do zdobycia Korony brakuje już “tylko” Annapurny, najgroźniejszego z ośmiotysięczników. Dotychczas za liderki tego “wyścigu” uważane były Baskijka Edurne Pasaban i Austriaczka Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, mające na koncie po 12 szczytów ośmiotysięcznych.

Autorzy statystyk przez dłuższy czas nie zauważali osiągnięć Oh Eun-sun, podobnie jak i innej Koreanki Go Mi-sun, która 10 lipca 2009 zginęła schodząc z Nanga Parbat – swojego jedenastego ośmiotysięcznika.

Od lewej: Siergiej Bogomołow, Wasilij Piwcow, Maxut Żumajew
i Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner w bazie pod K2 (fot.mounteverest.net)

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner ma jeszcze szansę na wyrównanie osiągnięcia swojej koreańskiej koleżanki – wciąż walczy o wejście na K2, ale dotychczas próby wejścia nie udają się.

Jak donosi portal mounteverest.net, w dniu wczorajszym (4.08) Gerlinde, wraz z Kazachami Bogomołowem, Piwcowem i Żumajewem, wycofała się z wysokości 8300 m z powodu głębokiego śniegu. Gerlinde postanowiła zejść do bazy, podczas gdy jej towarzysze będą jeszcze raz próbować szturmu.

Z osiągnięć brzydszej połowy społeczności alpinistycznej, warto odnotować fakt skompletowania wszystkich ośmiotysięczników przez Fina Veikkę Gustaffsona, który zakończył zdobywanie Korony Himalajów wejściem 26 lipca na Gasherbrum I. Na ten ostatni szczyt – tego samego dnia, co Oh Eun-sun – wszedł również 70-letni hiszpański weteran Carlos Soria.

– zobacz :  Veikka Gustafsson completes the 14×8000ers list!

* Previous story  : – http://himalman.wordpress.com/category/karakoram/

** Read these stories – and more! – at ExplorersWeb.com

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Himalaya 2009 climbing season, Karakoram and Himalaya wrap-up /27/ – Week in Review.

Very few victories with two fatalities only in the past two weeks attest to the unceasing seriousness of Pakistan 8000+ mountaineering. This weekend all eyes or on K2 where a huge, last ditch summit push is on. Check a detailed latest report below.

In other news: Veikka Gustafsson completed the 14x8000ers list; Devon McDiarmid, Derek Crowe and Adrian Hayes arrived after 67 days of kite-skiing across Greenland; Sarah Outen is closing in on the end of her historic Indian Ocean row; and two teenagers sailing around the world prove that age is just a number.

Side note: following an avalanche of false victory claims in later years, unclear summits are now openly questioned by climbers. While difficult and not always just; the ongoing battle for fairness will hopefully benefit all in the end.

K2: Bad conditions at the Shoulder and around the Bottleneck forced all climbers back from summit push last week. However, a sharp drop in the wind forecasted for Tuesday got most to decide on another shot. Kazakh Max and Vassiliy, Russian Serguey, Austrians Gerlinde, Gerfried and Sepp, Canadian Louis, Ecuadorian Santiago, Field Touring’s Jake Meyer, Fabrizio Zangrilli and other international climbers, speed climber Christian Stangl are among those who will join hands for what is probably a last attempt this season. Korean Hong-Bin Kim (6, 8000ers) is attempting the peak in spite of losing all his fingers to frostbite on McKinley in 1991, ExWeb’s Korean sources stated.

For technical reasons the alternative route proposed last year has turned a no-go so the push will go over the usual Cesen and Abruzzi lines. Gerfried’s team reported that the Americans, Kazakhs and Russians started ascending the Abruzzi on Friday. Santiago, Kim and his Sherpas, Gerlinde and Americans started ascending Cesen yesterday. Gerfried, Louis, Sepp and Christian started out last and went straight to camp 2, which they reached today. Gerlinde, Maxut, Serguey, Vasily, Santiago, Fabrizio, Kim, Pemba, Mingma, Dave, George and Ali all plan to meet and climb together from the Bottleneck, fixing the route along the way. This is an experienced bunch, Gerfried pointed out, sharing about 75, 8000er summits between them.

Summit question marks: Spanish Jorge Egocheaga reportedly summited K2, his 10th 8000er, on July 19 via the Abruzzi Spur route. Late Iñaki Ochoa’s regular climbing mate, the independent Egocheaga is known for fast and light ascents in small teams. The climber decided on a solo attempt with a break in the weather. He topped-out at 7.30 am local time; and returned to C3 in 3.5 hours. His summit claim was however questioned by a number of climbers in BC. Five Iranian members of the Tehran and Sarab expeditions were reported to have reached GII’s summit in high winds. The statement was however pushed back by climbers in BC, who reported that the mountaineers said they had turned around 50 meters shy from the real top. On Broad Peak: two Swiss, one German, and Cleo Weidlich reportedly summited on the morning of July 20th at 8:17 am. This statement has been disputed by Dutch expedition leader Eelco Jansen who states that this year nobody reached the main Summit of Broad Peak (yet – a team remains on the SW side). 11 mountaineers made it to the Fore Summit also known as the Rocky Summit (8035 m). AdventureStats will contact all disputed climbers for summit pictures and/or other evidence.

Broad Peak: Cristina Castagna, 31, lost on descent from C4 Nicknamed “El Grio” (the cricket) Cristina reportedly slipped and fell into a crevasse while descending with mate Giampaolo Casarotto. She had previously summited Shisha’s central summit (2004), GII (2005), Dhaulagiri (2007) and Makalu (2008). This season, she and Renato hoped to summit Broad Peak and then give GI a shot.

– Tragedy on Broad Peak, 2009 climbing season – Cristina Castagna lost on descent from C4.

Broad Peak’s SW side: 29 days after arriving in BC, Iran’s Arash Mountaineers team is still trying to reach C3,” IMZ news reported. “They’ve fixed 2,050 meters of rope between 4900m and 6500m.”

Gasherbrum II: fatality Climbing behind the Iranian team with Polish mate Jacek Teler; Spanish mountaineer Luis M. Barbero was last seen near the summit and was reported lost some days later by his team mates down in BC.

GI summits – Veikka Gustafsson completes the 14x8000ers list! Following a 16-year long quest, Finnish climber Veikka Gustafsson is now one of the very few men in the world to have climbed all the 14x8000ers without supplementary O2. The victory came on July 26, when Veikka and his climbing mate Kazuya Hiraide (Japan) reached the summit of Gasherbrum 1 together with Bulgarian mountaineers Nikolay Petkov, Doychin Boyanov, Boyan Petrov, and Nikolay Valkov.

G1 summit push Polish Jacek Teler, Carlos Soria’s team are on a summit push at the time of this publishing while FTA hopes a summit attempt on Tuesday. Korean Oh Eun-sun and her team hope for summit today, Sunday, Black Yak told ExWeb correspondent Kyu Dam Lee. Oh will shoot for the top straight from C3 in order to take advantage of the weather window.

Latok I Oscar Perez and Alvaro Novellon are attempting the unclimbed north face of Latok 1 in alpine style. “Should everything go well, we’ll spend about seven or eight days on the wall,” they told their home team from BC. “That is just an approximate amount of time – since no one has climbed the face completely, we have no references.”

Exweb Week-In-Review is sponsored by HumanEdgeTech the world’s premier supplier of expedition technology. Our team helps you find ultra light expedition tech that works globally.

e-mail or call +1 212 966 1928

* Read these stories – and more! – at ExplorersWeb.com

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Veikka Gustafsson completes the 14x8000ers list!

Jul 26, 2009
(K2Climb.net/Madrid) “The world is great! – the weather is perfect, there is no wind at the top. You can see all the Karakoram below.” Such were Veikka Gustafsson’s comments from GI’s summit – the Finnish climber has now bagged all 14x8000ers without supplementary O2.

“Veikka and Kazuya set off from at 00:30 am and They reached the summit at around 8 :00 am, local time, after working together with the Bulgarian team,” Tammisuo added. “Noy the guys have a long way back to BC ahead.”

News is expected soon on wether the Bulgarian climbers summited as well.

Veikka made northern European mountain climbing history as he reached the summits of all 14 giants without supplementary oxygen. He joins the prestige group of mountain climbing elite in the world. He is the all-time 9th person in the world to climb all eight-thousanders without bottled oxygen.

Climbers who have reached the summit of all 14 eight-thousanders

Field 0₂ lists people who have peaked all 14 without bottled oxygen.

Order accomplished	All without O2 (order)	Name	Period	born	at age	Nationality
1	1	Reinhold Messner	1970-1986	1944	42	Italian
2		Jerzy Kukuczka	1979-1987	1948	39	Polish
3	2	Erhard Loretan	1982-1995	1959	36	Swiss
4		Carlos Carsolio	1985-1996	1962	33	Mexican
5		Krzysztof Wielicki	1980-1996	1950	46	Polish
6	3	Juanito Oiarzabal	1985-1999	1956	43	Spanish
7		Sergio Martini	1983-2000	1949	51	Italian
8		Young Seok Park	1993-2001	1963	38	Korean
9		Hong Gil Um	1988-2001	1960[6]	40	Korean
10	4	Alberto Iñurrategi	1991-2002[7]	1968	33	Spanish
11		Wang Yong Han	1994-2003	1966	37	Korean
12	5[8]	Ed Viesturs	1989-2005	1959	46	American
13	6[9][10][11]	Silvio Mondinelli	1993-2007	1958	49	Italian
14	7[12]	Ivan Vallejo	1997-2008	1959	49	Ecuador
15	8 [13]	Denis Urubko	2000-2009	1973	35	Kazakhstan
16		Ralf Dujmovits	1990-2009	1961[14]	47	German
17	9	Veikka Gustafsson	1993-2009	1968	41	Finnish

* Veikka’s posts on Jukka Tammisuo’s website

* Previous story  : – http://himalman.wordpress.com/category/karakoram/

** Read these stories – and more! – at ExplorersWeb.com

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