Have another like there pal for the day that’s in it.
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A ’ nice post’ in this climate is a prize to cherish
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They make life a bit more bearable.
Sure where would you be without them
Interview with Jason Black on Off The Ball at the moment
It’s more about the clean-up than the bodies.
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very bad year for mountaineering, the worst I can remember
Mrs Lawless gave birth to a baby boy yesterday. I had completely forgotten about this whole episode until I was told this. What a bittersweet moment.
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with a team of fellow Sherpas.
He never got the chance. Yesterday, almost 68 years later, 10 Nepali climbers — including one from Hampshire — fulfilled his dream, claiming the greatest prize left in mountaineering: the first winter ascent of the “savage mountain”.
Shortly before sunset, at 5pm, Nimsdai Purja, a former member of the Special Boat Service, Mingma Gyalje and eight Sherpas stepped on to the 28,251ft summit, the second highest in the world. All 10 had halted 30ft below the summit so they could take the final steps together. The team sang the Nepali national anthem and Purja said: “History made for mankind. History made for Nepal!”
Nimsdai Purja, who lives in Hampshire, has been a climber for only nine years
Mick Conefrey, author of The Ghosts of K2 , said: “There’s no politics involved in this. Nobody’s going to say, this is the developing world showing its superiority over Europe. What it does show is that Sherpas have gone from being the essential support staff to actually being the leaders.”
Tenzing found it hard to adjust to his fame, but Conefrey said Purja, who in 2019 shattered the record for climbing all 14 of the world’s peaks standing five miles or higher, had emerged as a star who could win backing for his exploits.
The first winter ascent of Everest was in 1980, as climbers tested themselves in much harsher conditions than the pre-monsoon lull in May favoured by commercial expeditions. But K2, on the border of Pakistan and China, remained the only one of the world’s highest peaks to repel all attempts, with six winter failures since the 1980s. Its massive pyramid is as big as 41 Matterhorns and, unlike Everest, it has almost no flat sections. Descending it claimed the life of the British climber Alison Hargreaves, 33, in August 1995.
Purja suffered setbacks. Last week he had to abandon one attempt when his team reached camp two to find a “wreckage site”, their tents, sleeping bags, cooking gear and heated shoe insoles swept away. He had consent to paraglide from the summit, but the equipment was lost.
The 28,251ft summit of K2 is the world’s second highest
EPA
Two rival teams of Nepalese climbers joined forces on Tuesday, taking advantage of a weather window when wind speeds dropped to an unheard-of 10mph. Alan Arnette, who has climbed K2 in summer, said: “They worked as a unified team to get the camps and fixed line in early, they got lucky with the weather … they were able to stay healthy and avoid the objective dangers of avalanche and rockfall, they had a strong support team on supplemental oxygen breaking trail and fixing the lines and finally led by Mingma G [Gyalje] and Nimsdai, they were determined to show the world that Nepali climbers were amongst the best.”
Purja, 38, only came to mountaineering at 29, and discovered he could take 70 steps at high altitude while others could take only a few before pausing for breath. The son of a Gurkha, Purja is not a Sherpa: he was born in the lowlands of Nepal. He now lives with his wife, Suchi, in Eastleigh, Hampshire.
Aleister Crowley, the British occultist, joined the first attempt on K2 in 1902. Italian climbers were first to the top in 1954.
Bernadette McDonald, author of Winter 8000 , said: “The first winter ascent of K2 closes one chapter in the history of winter climbing in the Himalayas. But there will always be another chapter.”
Amazing. I can appreciate the lure of a challenge like that.
Sounds like they were doing it in more summer type conditions. It was only a matter of time with climate change. Some effort though. It’s fitting that Sherpas did it.
The White Spider is a great book, which gives an idea of what the lads were up against back in the day.
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Heated insoles!! For fucks sake Edmund Hilary barely had socks I’d say
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Reading the Shackleton book they were get icicles forming on the end of their nose and when they were snapped off the skin from the nose would go with it. Their clothes were pretty much permanently soaked wet. How the explorers back then is phenomenal.
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One lad tried to climb the north face of the Eiger wearing seven nightshirts as he couldn’t afford a coat.
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The documentary on the disaster on K2 in 2008 is very good
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I met Banjo McDonnell about 15 years ago. A great guy. He had just climbed Everest and was heading to k2 next, not the mission that killed him. He was living in Alaska and loved it.
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Through a mutual friend, I was emailing him in 07. I was in Alaska, but too far away to go meet him. He seemed very sound. He didn’t know me from Adam, but said there was a bed in Anchorage for me if I ever made it up there. He said he was planning something big the following year. He had just pulled out of an Antarctic expedition, due to lack of sponsorship.
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Any good books to recommend on this sort of thing?
