Interesting

Category: Climbing (Page 2 of 6)

Don French, 62, is the first person to complete New Zealand’s 100 Peak Challenge

New Zealand Alpine Club »

With his ascent of Unicorn (2557m) on February 21st, Don French has ticked off the last peak of the 100 Peaks Challenge, becoming the first person to complete the list and succeed in a challenge 30 years in the making.

The original list of 100 peaks was conceived by Ross Cullen, then president of the club, as part of the NZAC centennial celebrations in 1991. After consulting with prominent climbers of the day, the list was put forward as a challenge and way of encouraging climbers to get out and attempt some summits off the beaten track. The list was designed to address the aspirations of climbers at all levels and genres. Hence there were relatively easy peaks, very hard and steep peaks, and a number of very remote peaks included.

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Mark Horrell has 10 facts about Everest summits and death rates

The excellent Mark Horrell looks at recent scientific research on success and death rates on the world’s highest mountain »

Once a year (except this year, obviously), there is an Everest feeding frenzy as traditional and social media sink their teeth into the latest Everest season, producing an avalanche of opinion about how overcrowded and easy Everest is to climb these days.

Barring a few lone voices, such as the excellent Alan Arnette whose annual Everest coverage has become the unrivalled source of contemporary Everest history and commentary, rarely does anyone delve into the data to try to connect opinion with reality.

Which is why I was very excited to see a paper entitled Mountaineers on Mount Everest: Effects of age, sex, experience, and crowding on rates of success and death published on the open-access scientific journal PLOS ONE last week. …

Here are some of the things we now understand better »

  1. Summit success is becoming more likely
  2. Women are more likely to summit and less likely to die
  3. Success rates plummet after age 40
  4. Previous experience at high altitude counts
  5. Experience matters less now than it used to
  6. Everest is becoming safer

Climb higher into the Mark Horrel’s post.

Video » Were Sandy Irvine and George Mallory the first to summit Everest in 1924? » 12 year old Archie Price Siddiqui looks at the evidence


Note: Clicking the above image will load and play the video from YouTube.

This short video was produced and presented by Archie Price Siddiqui for a school project.

Officially speaking, the first successful Everest climbers were Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

Archie had a some help from Terry Abraham, the Mountain Heritage Trust, the BMC, the Alpine Club, Leo Houlding, Julie Summers and Dave Hahn (US Mountain Guide, journalist & Lecturer).

Filmed by Terry Abraham.

Film » On The Verge in British Columbia

As the last stands of old-growth trees come under threat of logging, climbers in Powell River, British Columbia face an uncertain future of the place that has come to define their lives and legacies.


Note: Clicking the above image will load and play the video from YouTube.

Presented by Arc’teryx, June 2020

Confronted with the decision to fight for these last ancient trees and potentially lose access or look away as the valley is stripped for timber, On The Verge is a snapshot of outdoors culture in British Columbia. The way we reconcile industries that give us access to the wilderness with the destruction they cause. The desire to protect our backyard but keep it for ourselves at the same time. The importance of these places to the people who have shaped them and been shaped by them in return.

Film » Speak to Me Softly

Winner – Best Short Mountain Film,  2019 Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival


Note: Clicking the above image will load and play the video from YouTube.

(Canada, 2019, 6 min)
Director: Henna Taylor
Producer: Matthew Hood

This short film takes an honest and intimate look at the headspace of climber Jenny Abegg as she ascends Moonlight Buttress while fighting self-criticism and doubt.

 

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