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Welcome to The Mountain Company’s New Year 2006 newsletter! The aim of The Mountain Company newsletters is to update you on any news and events from the Himalayas, new and interesting treks we intend to run and generally what we have been up to over the last few months! If you know of anyone who would like to be included on the distribution list please let us know by email at
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Mountaineering news It was a busy summer in Pakistan although there were no summits on K2 and only two people got to Broad Peak’s summit, so it was Nanga Parbat which scooped the most summits this year! Nanga Parbat It was the dramatic rescue of the renowned climber Tomaz Humar from Nanga Parbat that generated the most media attention. Tomaz was rescued by a Pakistani military helicopter after being stuck on a narrow ice ledge for six days high on the Rupal face, for BBC article click here The first ascent of the vast Rupal face in alpine style was then pulled off in early September by the American Steve House and Slovenian Marko Prezejl. This was an amazing achievement with the summit “day” lasting 24 hours and the total climb taking 8 days. Alpine style means that no fixed ropes, fixed camps, high-altitude porters, or oxygen are used during the climb! K2 and Broad Peak The Karakoram experienced unstable weather this year and as a result there were very few summits, just two Kazakhs climbed Broad Peak and no-one got up K2. The Kazakhs, Denis Urubko and Serguey Samoilov, made the first successful ascent of the South West face of Broad Peak. This is an entirely unclimbed face of Broad Peak which has turned back many strong expeditions in the past. They climbed it alpine style and on sight. Their line went up 2,300m of the face and had sheer rock and ice from 5500m to 7,800m. An incredible achievement. Mick Parker, who was on Roland’s Broad Peak expedition in 2004, reached the season’s high point on K2 at 8,100m along with Terence 'Banjo' Bannon of the Irish K2 expedition. For more information on their expedition click here The Mountain Company will be returning to Pakistan in July/August 2006 where Roland will be leading the K2 base camp and Gondogorola trek. There are still spaces on this trek, so please get in touch if you are interested. The Mountain Company news and updates - The Mountain Company coordinates the collection of over 4,000 items for the Pakistan earthquake relief
The Mountain Company started a UK wide initiative to collect second hand sleeping bags, tents and warm clothes for the people affected by the earthquake in Pakistan. We partnered with Cotswold Outdoor who kindly allowed their 17 stores from London to Glasgow to be used as drop off points. A massive thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of the project! The amount of items collected exceeded all of our expectations. For more information on the Cotswold Outdoor website click here or The Mountain Company website click here
- The Mountain Company enters a partnership with UIAGM guide Nick Parks and his company Mountaintracks
The Mountain Company is now working in partnership with Nick Parks- he is a well respected British UIAGM qualified mountain guide based in Chamonix. Nick can help out with organising courses in the Alps prior to joining one of our expeditions, a great way of polishing up on those technical skills!
- The Mountain Company enters into partnership with Max Travel
If you need flights for your holiday then give Edward Jospe at Max Travel a call! Max Travel is an ATOL bonded independent travel agent specialising in arranging international flights. Check out their website Max Travel. The Mountain Company is working with Max Travel in order to provide a comprehensive service for your holiday.
- The Mountain Company publishes articles on Planetfear.com- two part series on climbing 8000m mountains
Roland wrote two articles for the Planetfear.com website with advice and tips on climbing 8000m mountains, if you would like to read the articles click on links below: Article one- climbing 8000m peaks Article two- climbing 8000m peaks - The Mountain Company has joined the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Know Before You Go campaign
The aim of the campaign is to make sure travellers are properly prepared before travelling overseas. The best way to get the FCO latest advice is to visit their website
- The Mountain Company enters into partnership with The Altitude Centre
The Altitude Centre can help you pre-acclimatise before departing for a high altitude trip or test yourself in order to predict how you will cope while on the mountain. They are located in Covent Garden in Central London, ask for Richard Pulan. For more information click here
- Charity Challenges- do you know a charity that would like to raise £65,000?
The Mountain Company is now working with a number of charities for fundraising challenges in October 2006 and April 2007- if you know of any charities which would like to raise £65,000 (based in 25 trekkers to Everest base camp) then point them in our direction! There is a section on our website with comprehensive information, please click here
We have now finished writing Trip Dossiers for all of our treks. They are detailed documents with photos, day by day itineraries and all sort of other useful information based on our first hand experience of these treks! It is easy to download the Trip Dossiers- just go to the relevant trek page and click on the “Download Trip Dossier” link (below the three blue boxes under the photo). If you would like a hardcopy of the Trip Dossier please let us know and we will post it to you.
The Mountain Company special trips for 2006 - Everest north col April/May
Roland is looking forward to returning to the northside of Everest, the last time was in 2001 when he summitted Everest from this route. The group includes some north col climbers and also some support trekkers for the Everest Freestyle Expedition. There are still spaces so please get in touch if you are interested, for more information click here
- Everest luxury lodges October 1st to 14th
We have a group booked for this trip for the above dates, if you are interested in joining them please let us know! For more information click here
- K2 and Gondogoro la July 23rd to August 15th
Roland is leading this trek for the above dates, he did this trek in 2004 when leading the International Broad Peak expedition and again is looking forward to returning to this incredible mountain range! For more information click here
- Everest basecamp and sherpa villages November 12th to 30th
We have a group booked for this trip for the above dates, if you are interested in joining them please let us know! For more information click here If you have any questions about our trips or would like to chat to us please get in touch, we have been to all the areas so will give you comprehensive advice based on first hand experience. All the best for 2006! The Mountain Company team
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