Autumn 2006 newsletter
| Autumn 2006 newsletter |
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Welcome to The Mountain Company’s Autumn 2006 newsletter! The aim of this newsletter is to- 1) Let you know of any new and interesting treks that we intend to run in 2007 2) Tell you what has been happening at The Mountain Company 3) Update you on mountaineering news from the Himalayas and Karakoram This newsletter is packed full of information as we have lots to tell you since our last newsletter way back in January.......
1) The Mountain Company program of western led treks for 2007 We have our largest ever program of western led treks running throughout next year. Our panel of western leaders includes some of the most experienced Himalayan mountaineers and travelers around, for more information on their background and experience click here
** Everest advanced basecamp and North Col expedition (7,000m), Tibet ** April 29th to May 24th '07, £3950 incl Ktm to Lhasa flight, led by Roland The trip starts in Kathmandu followed by a flight to Lhasa, after a few days acclimatising we start the journey across Tibet with visits to the famous Buddhist monasteries along the way. At basecamp we will join the other Everest expeditions. Over the next few weeks we trek to advanced basecamp followed by the climb to the North Col at 7,000m. Roland climbed Everest on this route in 2001 and also led the North Col trip for The Mountain Company in 2006. For more information on the Everest North Col expedition, click here
** Stok Kangri expedition and Ladakh trek, India ** July 8th to 28th '07, £1450 incl. Delhi-Leh-Delhi flight, led by Paul Walters Paul is one of our most experienced leaders having climbed five 8,000m peaks in the Himalayas so you will be in good hands! Roland led the Stok expedition for The Mountain Company in 2006 so will be able to answer any questions you might have on the route. This would be a great objective for someone looking to climb their first Himalayan peak. It is a similar level of difficulty to the popular trekking peaks in Nepal like Island or Mera Peak. For more information on the Stok Kangri expedition, click here
** K2 & Gondogoro la, Pakistan ** After our successful K2 trek in 2006 we have two departures for 2007, July 4th to 26th and July 29th to August 20th. the July 29th departure is already guaranteed to run. £1495 incl. flight from Skardu to Islamabad. This trek has rightly been named as one of the Top 5 mountain walks in the world! Roland will be leading both departures over the summer. For more information on the K2 trek, click here
** Manaslu Circuit, Nepal ** October 25th to November 18th '07, £1695, led by Gary Pfisterer Gary is a very experienced expedition leader having organised many 8000m trips including a successful K2 expedition in 2000. The Manaslu Circuit is a superb trek around the huge massif of Manaslu and crossing a high pass. It is similar to the Annapurna Circuit but without the crowds and the road construction that is currently going on there! For more information on the Manaslu Circuit, click here
** Lunana Snowman, Bhutan ** September 30th to November 3rd '07, £3850 incl. Calcutta to Paro flight, led by Roland Hunter More people have climbed Everest than completed the Lunana Snowman trek! It is known as one of the most difficult treks in the whole Himalaya. This is an epic trek across the remote north of Bhutan along the Tibetan border. For more information on the Snowman trek, click here
** Laya Gasa trek, Bhutan** September 20th to October 20th '07, £2895 incl. Calcutta to Paro flight, led by Roland Hunter If you do not have the time to complete the full Snowman trek then you can join that trek for 19 days until Laya. From there you will you will head south and back to Paro while the Snowman trek wll carry on to Bumthang. For more information on the Laya Gasa trek, click here
If you are interested in any of these treks and would like more information, go to the trek page on our website and download the Trip Dossier. Or please give us a call anytime on 0207 4980953.
2) News from The Mountain Company Firstly, we apologise for the delay in getting this newsletter out! Our last one was way back in January.... We have been busy leading treks in the Himalayas and exploring new areas for our program in 2007 and beyond! In the last 6 months Roland has visited every country in the Himalayas and Karakoram- Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, India and Pakistan. You might be interested in reading the feedback from our recent trekking groups, click here It was very interesting to see, during the K2 & Gondogoro la trek this summer, the aftermath of the Pakistan earthquake and the various NGOs and charities still operating along the KKH. The Mountain Company organised a UK wide project to collect equipment for the earthquake victims in conjunction with Cotswold Outdoor. For more information click here Roland was caught up in the political problems in Nepal in March & April. In spite of the portrayal of the situation in the media it was still possible to visit the country and trek, in fact Roland led a group around the Annapurna Circuit during the height of the problems. It was a fantastic time to go as there was virtually no-one on the trails (it would usually have been quite crowded at this time of year). One point worth bringing to your attention is the significant amount of road construction currently going on both sides of the Thorong La. The pros and cons of road building are complex suffice to say that if you are thinking of doing the Circuit it might be a good idea to do it now. Soon there will be a road almost the whole around the Circuit apart from the high pass of course. If you are interested in trekking around the Annapurna Circuit you might like to consider doing the Manaslu Circuit instead. The Manaslu Circuit is quieter and more remote with similar terrain as one walks from the middle hills to Buddhist highlands and then over a high pass. October/November 2007 would be a good time to do this trek as Gary Pfisterer is leading it for The Mountain Company. The situation in Nepal is looking very promising at the moment and most people in Nepal are confident this will hold for the post monsoon trekking period. If you would like to discuss the situation please call Roland, he was in Nepal for 3 months earlier in the year so is up to date on what is happening over there. We are often asked if there is a trek for people looking to stay in good hotel type accommodation. You might be interested to know that we have two luxury lodge treks in Nepal, one in the Annapurna region and the other in the Khumbu/Everest region. We even have a honeymoon couple joining us in October for one of these treks! For more information on the Annapurna Luxury Lodges trek, click here For more information on the Everest Luxury Lodges trek, click here Roland heads out again to the Himalayas in mid October so if you would like to chat with him about a trip, it would be best to do so before he leaves the UK. He will be able to pick up emails throughout the period while he is away and there will always be someone taking calls in at The Mountain Company office. Please get in touch if you would like to chat about any of our trips! Happy trekking! The Mountain Company team
3) News from the Himalayas Kanchenjunga As is often the case the more interesting climbs on the harder mountains did not get much, if any, coverage from the mainstream media! One of the most impressive summits on the 8000m peaks this season was the climb of Kanchenjunga by a strong international team via the south west face (first ascent route by George Band and Joe Brown in 1953). The group were Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Ralf Dumovits, Hirotaka Takeuchi, Veikka Gustafsson, Andrew Lock and Norbert Joos. The climb was described by Gerlinde as "surely the most exhausting and challenging 8000m summit". She should know as she has climbed 9 of the 8000m mountains (which makes her the women with the most summits). The team did not place any fixed ropes above Camp 3 and found there was more rock climbing on the route to the summit than expected. They had to downclimb from the summit and finally got back to camp a few hours before night fall. Ralf fell into a crevasse just before reaching camp but luckily managed to get out unscathed. The Mountain Company leaders Roland, Paul and Gary attempted to climb Kanchenjunga by this route in 2003 so know the route well! To read more about this expedition have a look at the following links: http://www.expedblog.com Everest It was another controversial year on Everest with hundreds of summits but also 10 deaths.....in terms of fatalities this year was second only to 1996 when 12 people died. The media attention was sparked off when around 40 climbers walked passed a dying British climber, David Sharp, on their way to the summit. Roland was leading a trek to the North Col of Everest at the same time as this incident happened. The British Army attempted the West Ridge of Everest with a large team. They made its best efforts to publicise the expedition in the UK via news reporters at base camp, a state of the art multi media website and adverts on TV. In the end it was decided that the conditions on the summit slopes were too dangerous and the expedition was called off! Take a look at their website by clicking here Another interesting expedition was the Everest Peace Project organised by Lance Turnbull. The idea was to get climbers from the main world religions together to summit Everest in a show of cooperation and understanding. 10 members of the team got to the summit. To watch an interesting video and to find out more about this project, click here The Mountain Company's North Col team met several of these climbers as we trekked to Everest advance base camp (6,400m). The title for the youngest British climbers to summit Everest as taken by James Hooper and Rob Gauntlet at the ages of 19. Last year Jake Meyer became the youngest Brit taking the title from Bear Grylls who had held it since 1999. For more information on their summit, click here Another record was broken by Rhys Jones when he reached the top of Everest on May 17th to become the youngest Briton to climb the highest mountains of each of the world's seven continents. For more information click here
** Summer climbing in the Karakoram (Pakistan) ** Not long after the climbing season winds down in Nepal then it is time for the 8000m peaks in Pakistan to kick off! The main climbing and trekking season in northern Pakistan is from June to September. The Karakoram mountain range is normally not affected by the monsoon that covers the Himalaya in cloud and heavy rain during this period. Pakistan has five 8000m mountains- Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II, Broad Peak and of course! It is possible to see all of these mountains from the K2 & Gondogoro la trek. Gasherbrum II By far the most popular mountain this year was GII. This mountain is a realistic objective for a first 8000m peak and has a higher success rate than Broad Peak. 2006 was the 50th anniversary of the first ascent. There were many summit of GII over the summer including Dutchman Frits Vrijlandt. Frits was a member on Roland's Broad Peak expedition in 2004. Roland met up with Frits at Ali Camp this summer when leading The Mountain Company's K2 & Gondogoro la trek. K2 In 2006 K2 continued its reputation as the hardest and most dangerous of all the 8000m peaks. There were only 4 summits this summer. 23 year old Japanese woman Yuka Komatsu reached the top via the Cesen route (SSE spur) on August 1 with he even younger climbing partner Tatsuya Aoki. At 21 years old Tatsuya became the youngest K2 summiteer ever! Tragedy struck later in August when 3 Russian climbers were killed in an avalanche at 8350m, just above the Bottle Neck only a few hours climb from the summit.
There were several summits of Nanga Parbat- Venezuelan climber Jose Antonio Delgado, South Korean Koo Eun Soo and the Bulgarian Doychin Boyanov and Nikolay Petkov. Sadly Jose died on his descent after being delayed by bad weather for six days in Camp 4.
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