By Brad Brandewie
Sep 4, 2008
| I am having a hard time deciding how I feel about their climb.
On one hand, it was obviously a significant accomplishment.
10 days of effort
A5 climbing over 20,000 ft
Final three days with NO food!
Burly stuff by any standard.
On the other hand, they left over 3000 feet of fixed rope on the mountain when they left.
What do you think?
Does leaving that much crap on the mountain make you think that it was a bad climb overall?
Should they be praised for their ascent?
Should they be chastised for the litter they left?
Both?
Cheers,
Brad |  |
By Scott M. Mossman
Sep 4, 2008
| Did they leave it because they were in survival mode (no food for 3 days makes me think they might have been), or did they plan to do that? I'm not saying it's good under any circumstances, just that there may be some part of the story missing here. | |
By Beagle
Sep 4, 2008
| If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it make a sound? Well then, If you leave 1,000m of rope on a high alpine face and nobody is ever going to see it, is it littering? | |
By Evan Sloane
From Boulder
Sep 4, 2008
| Beagle wrote: If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it make a sound? Well then, If you leave 1,000m of rope on a high alpine face and nobody is ever going to see it, is it littering?
Yes and yes. That being said, the article in Climbing says "With worsening weather, they were unable to remove all of the fixed ropes from the lower face, managing to clean a bit less than half of the lines they had fixed." Sounds like they had the proper intentions of cleaning up their toys, but couldn't manage it. Some rope litter is not worth dying to clean up. Ideally they should have cleaned up, but it doesn't seem to me like that should detract much from a very impressive accomplishment. | |
By mike mullendore
From columbia, md
Sep 4, 2008
| It sounds like a nasty ascent and I give them credit. The russian ascent of Jannu's N. face saw the same criticism with the amount of fixed rope left on the mountain. However given the difficulty of said face I could see where that much fixed rope would be necessary. The face is still there waiting for someone to do it in better style.
For the Koreans, it seems as if they just fixed the lower less technical portion of the route as it would expedite the lower portion and have them fresh for the meat. They did try to remove what they could. So I think it is a great ascent.
Although like Jannu, this face is still waiting for someone to do it in better style. That is the future of himalayan alpinism, repeating extreme routes such as these in better style. My 2 cents for what it is worth. | |
By John J. Glime
From Salt Lake City, UT
Sep 4, 2008
| Are you kidding me?
If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, it does NOT make a sound. Jesus, that is like 6th grade stuff.
In regards to the climb, fuck, they deserve a big thumbs up. I wouldn't take anything away from their ascent. You do what you can, and you do what you have to... from the sounds of it, they did both. I would have said fuck the rope too. And if anyone bitched, I would say kiss my ass.
Anyway, it is officially desert season Brad, let's climb something together this fall. | |
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