Russian Central North Face expedition - Completed 

The Everest Central North Face direct (The Russian NF Direttissima), opened May 30th, is the most significant new route on Everest, and one of the most significant routes on any 8000 meter mountain. It also marked the twenty year anniversary of the last new, clean route on Everest; the Great Couloir 1984.

May 30th at 10 a.m. Pavel Shabalin, Iliyas Tukhvatullin and Andrey Mariev summited. May 31st 9:15am Petr Kuznetsov, Gleb Sokolov and Evgueny Vinogradsky summited. June 1st 9:20 Viktor Volodin and Viktor Bobok summited.

The guys worked the route relentlessly through all weather and difficulties. They even survived oxygen bottles thrown at them. The final crux was unexpected. They hit 6 grade rock at 8600 m. This forced them to spend three days and two (!) nights at 8600 meters (camp 5), without sleepingbags, with only 2 os bottles each for survival. That is absolutely outstanding.

RussianClimb.com
Mountain.ru

California/Armenia for Norton - Aborted

Ray Yeritsian aborted his summit push of Cho Oyu in May and did not go for Everest as he had planned. Ray, an Armenian born Californian, announced that he would be attempting the 1924 Norton line with variations on Everest this spring, unsupported, solo, and without supplemental oxygen. Ray's previous are Aconcagua , Mt.McKinley, 2000 Everest, South East Ridge (aborted due to an injury), 2001 Lhotse, West Face, attempted unsupported (aborted due to bad weather).

Everest/K2 Triple Expedition -  Everest section completed

Claudio Bastrentaz, Alessandro Mario Busca, Karl Unterkircher and Mario Merelli reached the summit on May 24th. Sherpas Lapa, Tashi and the young Lhaki reached the summit on May 23rd.

Everest expedition members(18): Claudio Bastrentaz, Daniele Bernasconi, Alessandro Mario Busca, Michele Compagnoni, Marco Confortola, Soro Dorotei, Marco Forcatura, Giampaolo Gioia, Adriano Greco, Adam Holzknecht, Giulio Maggioni, Mario Merelli, Sergio Minoggio, Silvio (Gnaro) Mondinelli, Hubert Moroder, Mario Panzeri, Nadia Tiraboschi, and Karl Unterkircher .

Expedition leader; Agostino Da Polenza

montagna.org                                                      

The Italian Everest/K2 team reported that two Catalan girls, Nuria and Mayte, from the ‘Dones al Everest’ expedition who summited May 19th began suffering from AMS symptoms while descending the North side. Silvio "Gnaro" Mondinelli, Giulio Maggioni and Michele Compagnoni staged the rescue.

doneseverest2004.com                                         
 

Russian Adventure Team -  Completed 

Alexander Abramov (Everest "Extreme Chef") summited on May 24th. Dave D’Angelo, Marshall Ulrich and Pemba Sherpa summited on May 25th.

Last year these guys were one of the favorites - they spoke candidly about the mountain, stuck it out and summited at the very end of the season, and also slaughtered and cooked their own food. In the true Russian spirit! Dave D'Angelo, from team ExWeb and Marshall Ulrich was with them as well. Dave has shot over several  live videos from the mountain (check WebTV) and some of the best stories along with them (check links).

Ludmila "Ludi" Koshelenko, the teams BC chef (who bought aprons and over sleeves for the BC cooks in China) is Yuri Koshelenko's wife, and coming with the team to Base Camp to be with her husband. Yuri is climbed the new route on the Everest North Face with the Russian National team

Expedition leader: Russian - Alexander Abramov
Expedition members: 10 climbers, mixed - Russian, American, UK

Everest10000.com                                                 
Teamstraydogs.com                                              

Petko Totev and Tendi Sherpa summited on May 19th. Hristo Hristov, Nikolay Petkov and Doychin Boyanov summited on May 20th. Hristo, at 26 the youngest member of the team, was later reported missing and was declared dead some days later. Mariana Maslarova, who went missing May 24, was declared dead May 29th, she is the niece of Bulgaria's first Everest conqueror Hristo Prodanov, who also died in the mountain.

This North side expedition was organized by the Federation of Bulgarian Alpine Clubs to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the first Bulgarian ascent on Everest, when four of the climbers succeeded in making the second traverse of Everest by climbing up the West Ridge of the peak and down the southeast. Three of the summiteers return 20 years later, to attempt Everest from the North side and without oxygen. Leader is Metodi Savov who lost parts of his legs during the 1984 Everest climb. The other returning summiteers are Nikolay Petkov, who later also scaled Dhaulagiri in 1997 and Ivan Valchev (also Makalu 1998 without oxygen).
 

Novinite - Bulgarian News
FBAC Web site
Nikolay’s Home Page
 

Paraglide Everest - Completed without paraglide

Wilco reached the summit May 20th. Ron and Rex both turned back due to health reasons.

Dutch climbers Wilco van Rooijen, Rex Snelder and Ron Doorakkers went for an oxygenless attempt on the Everest’s North side where Wilco hoped to paraglide off from the summit. He has previously reached both the North and South Poles and turned back on Everest in 2002.

Expedition members: Wilco van Rooijen, Rex Snelder, and Ron Doorakkers

www.everest2004.nl

Gods and Olives on Everest - Completed

The first Greek stood on the top of Everest South Side after 9.5 hours of climbing Saturday May 15th. George Voutiropoulos raised the Greek flag as well as the flag of the Olympics on top of the world, along with a picture of a fellow Greek climber who lost his life on Cho Oyu last fall, in preparation for Everest. Antonis Antonopoulos was next, followed by Mike Styllas, Panagiotis Kotronaros and Pavlos Tsiantos

The Greeks went to Everest this year, from both sides. And in honor of the summer games that will be held Athens, the teams brought the Olympic flag with them. They are representing the, “Hellenic Mountaineering and Climbing Federation and are fully financed by Pavlos Angelatos, a Greek resident of Canada.” There was another Greek who did summit Everest in ’99 - Constantine Niarchos. He was officially listed as a Swiss climber though. Constantine was the son of Stavro, one of Onassis’ biggest rivals, and died shortly after climbing Everest.

Expedition leaders: Konstantinos Tsivelekas and Panagiotis Kotronaros.

HellasEverest                                                       

 

Randi Skaug reached the summit of Everest the 20th of May. Cecilie Skog reached the summit May 23rd. They are the first Norwegian females to ever reach the top of Everest.  In 1996 the Norwegian, Liv Arnesen, also the first woman to reach the South Pole solo and unsupported, made an attempt on Everest, but was stopped short of the peak.

Randi, 44, is part of a team of four Norwegians and two sherpas. She has climbed Denali and Kili. Cecilie, 29, has climbed Blanc, Aconcagua, Denali, Elbrus, Kili, and Cho Oyu, among others.

Randi's website
Cecilie's website
Norwegian adventure news

Everest gets formal -  Completed, but not on Everest

7 members of the team reached the summit of Lhakpa Ri (7,045m) and followed up with a formal dinner at a world-record-breaking altitude of 6,805m. The Guinness Book of World Records has been very specific as to what constitutes a formal dinner at altitude - they must have six people to dinner, carry all the challenge related equipment, be seated on a formal chair at a formal table, have a three course meal, wear formal appropriate clothes, remove all uneaten food, the furniture and other equipment from the peak once finished. The previous record was on Mount Huascarán, Peru, 6,758 m (22,204 ft) high, on the 28th June 1989.

Dinner website

Team endeavor Dan Lochner and Dan Meggitt -  Completed 

Dan Lochner and Dan Meggitt summited Everest along with Ang Migma Sherpa and Mingma Dorje Sherpa on May 19th.

Dan Lochner, who turned 22 on May 12th, needs only Vinson to become the youngest person to make the seven summits. But he's got to be quick and go for Vinson this year because Britton Keeshan, 22 and a half years old, summited Everest, and his seventh summit, on May 24th.

Dan's website Oath7.com
 

www.paesieimmagini.it
 

May 23; Julian Hazard, Cecilie Skog, Mark Woodward, Dale Darling, Kiek Stem, Derek Chin, Dean Staples, Harry Reeves, Thimo Sommerfeld, Hiroyuki Kuraoka, Shokichi Saito, Toshiko Tamura, + 11 Sherpas

May 24; Rob Giambi, Joanne Giambi, Barry Roberts, Andrew Marquis, Bill Crouse, + 5 Sherpas

On the 21st May, Himalayan Experience sherpas rescued the missing Italian climber from another expedition. He was found alive at the top camp, Camp 4 (8300m). HimEx sherpas found the missing Mexican climber from another expedition at Camp 3. He was alive. 11 Sherpas had been part of the 23rd May summit team, but 3 were re-assigned to the recovery of a dead Korean climber from the Korean Expedition.

www.himex.com
www.taitvseverest.com

with Nawang Sherpa - Completed 

It’s not so rare to have a sherpa among the first teams to make the season's first summit push, but this guy is different. Nawang Sherpa is climbing Everest South with a prosthetic leg. A motorcycle wreck in summer 2000 left Nawang Sherpa, an aspiring high-altitude guide in Nepal, an amputee. He got a new "climbing leg" in 2002 thanks to the High Exposure foundation, a nonprofit launched by Ed Hommer, who lost his own legs on Denali and hoped to scale Everest one day together with Nawang. Ed's own Everest dream however ended in tragedy a few months later when a rock struck and killed him on Mount Rainier Sep 23, 2003.

This year Tom McMillan, a California climber, stepped in to make Nawang's dream to scale Mount Everest a reality. The Friendship Beyond Borders Expedition arrived at the summit at 7:55 AM Nepal time Sunday May 16th. This is represents a first ascent of Mount Everest by a trans-tibial amputee and a first ascent by a disabled Nepali citizen.

Team website
 

Mexican/Canadian Everest 2004 - Completed 

The Mexican/Canadian team went out with an ambitious goal; Canada's first ascent without O's and a Mexican ascent without O's. In the end the team had three climbers summit; choosing to use oxygen support when they reached Camp 4. The other four climbers, going without oxygen, did not make the summit; Juan Pablo because of damage to his eye, Richard turned around at the Hillary step, and Andres and Tom descended together when several climbers decided that Tom was suffering from AMS related symptoms.

On May 16th Martin Boileau, Alejandro Ochoa and Luis Espinoza summited Everest accompanied by Namgya Sherpa. Luis ran out of oxygen descending the south summit and was assisted down by members of the Discovery team.

www.everest2004.ca
www.nuvalp.com

Expedition Members: Liz Pace, Malta, Joe Hughes, USA. Leaders: Jeff Justman, Lhawang Dhondup.

www.mountain-link.com
Sedonafitness.com
 

RAF Ted Atkins - Completed  

Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant and mountaineer Ted Atkins made the Everest summit on his third attempt in the early hours of May 16 2004. Ted first attempted Everest via the West Ridge in 1988, a route he called a “logistical nightmare.” Ted reached to within 800 yards of the summit, where he'd earlier placed a cache with sleeping bag and camp stuff, but now the bag was gone. Ted tried grabbing some sleep in his rucksack, but by morning, his feet were nearly frozen and he gave up the attempt.

In 2001, Ted returned, leading the large, successful RAF expedition up the North side. Two members of the team summited, however his bid ended at 8300m in deteriorating weather.

This year, Ted is simply joined a permit to make his own attempt on the South Col route.

www.rafmarham.co.uk

Irish Everest 2004 Expedition - Completed  

On Tuesday 18th May, 33 year old, Dr Clare O'Leary from Bandon, Co Cork became the first ever Irish woman to reach the summit of Everest. Clare summited with veteran Cork mountaineer, Pat Falvey, who became the first Irish person to summit Everest from both the Nepal and Tibetan approaches. Four weeks earlier, team member John Joyce from Tuam Co Galway was forced to abandon the climb due to exhaustion and altitude sickness.

Clare was a part of Pat’s expedition last year and reached the Lhotse Face (7500m). Another climber on Pat's team last year was Hannah Shields, from Northern Ireland, who reached the South Summit (8750m).

Pat Falvey summited from the North side in 1995, and reached to within 160 feet of the summit from the south last year. On May 22nd, two climbers from Pat's Irish Everest 2003 reached the summit, Mick Murphy and Gerard McDonnell. The Irish team was one of the most popular teams down in base camp that year. Other expeditions said that their presence there lifted other climbers spirits.
 

www.irisheverest2004.com
 

Star Struck on Everest - Completed  

At around 12:15pm local time on May 15th Annabelle Bond became one of the first to reach the summit this season. She also joined the very exclusive group of less than 100 female summiteers compared to the over 2,000 total summits.

It was almost 70 years ago and a generation away that Annabelle’s Grandmother Christine was trekking in the high altitudes of Nepal, one of the first western women to do so.

Team members include: Chileans Ernesto Olivares Miranda (Makalu), Andrónico Luksic Craig, Misael Alvial Cid (K2 and Aconcagua), Sherpa Alden, Sherpa Angi, Sherpa Rama, Sherpa Shulding, Kiko, Annabelle Bond.


Bond website
 

On May 18th Giorgos Tsjanos became the first Greek to summit Everest from the North side.

The Greeks went to Everest this year, from both sides. And in honor of the summer games that will be held Athens, the teams brought the Olympic flag with them. They are representing the, “Hellenic Mountaineering and Climbing Federation and are fully financed by Pavlos Angelatos, a Greek resident of Canada.” There was another Greek who did summit Everest in ’99 - Constantine Niarchos. He was officially listed as a Swiss climber though. Constantine was the son of Stavro, one of Onassis’ biggest rivals, and died shortly after climbing Everest.

Expedition leaders: Konstantinos Tsivelekas and Panagiotis Kotronaros.

HellasEverest
 

Alpine Ascents International - Completed

10 members of the 2004 AAI Everest Expedition reached the summit of  Everest on May 24th. The first ones arrived at the top at about 9:00 am. Nepal time, with the last ones coming in about 45 minutes later. Summiteers were Vernon Tejas, Dave Morton and Jim Williams, and to members Mills Davis, Justin Adams, Haruisha Watanabe, Scott Graham, Jeff Dossett, Holt Hunter, and Britton Keeshan. Jim Williams turned around the prior  night

Britton, the Grandson of "Captain Kangaroo" has become the youngest Seven Summits climber. Vernon Tejas, has done the Seven Summits three times and is on his fourth round! And Lakpa Rita Sherpa, who was the world's first Sherpa to summit Mount Vinson at Antarctica, is now a six time Everest summiteer.

Expedition leaders: Lakpa Rita Sherpa (recently 1st sherpa on Vinson), Vernon Tejas, Dave Morton.

http://www.alpineascents.com
 

Adventure Consultants - Completed  

Beginning at 10:15 on May 27th, Adventure Consultants summits were; Ang Dorje (his 10th summit!), Anthony Baldry (completion of the 7-summits), Samantha O'Carroll (2nd Irish woman), Phu Tashi (4th summit), John Rost and Lhakpa Tarkey, Luis Benitez (4th Everest summit in 4 years), Passang Tenzing (4th summit) and Nuru Gyalzen. Urszula Tokarska and Ed Bradley turned around with Mike Roberts.

Adventure Consultants, one of the worlds leading outfits founded by the legendary mountain guide Rob Hall fielded a commercial expedition on the South Side of Everest this spring. They plan on having 3 guides and a maximum of 9 clients. Two of the guides are Mike Roberts and Luis Benitez. Mike Roberts is an Everest summiter and has led expeditions to Aconcagua in South America, McKinley in Alaska, Vinson Massif in Antarctica, Gasherbrum I & II in Pakistan, Cho Oyu in Tibet and Muztagh Ata in Western China. Luis Benitez has also guided around the world and is a 3-time Everest summiter.

www.adventureconsultants.co.nz
 

Jagged Globe - Completed  

Kenton Cool, Clive Jones, Pema Tshiring Sherpa and Pema Nurbu Sherpa reached the summit on May 15th, some of the first climbers to summit this season.

Gene Rehfeld, Murray Rice, Willie Benegas, Undi Sherpa, and Mingma Sherpa made it to the top of the world at 8:40 am May 17th. Also on the team was Gary Ponder who  was forced back from the summit.

The Seattle-based company was founded by Scott Fischer who lost his life on Everest in 1996. The company was purchased by Christine and the late Keith Boskoff. Christine continues the operation under the same name providing guided expeditions and climbing instruction.

Leading the crew was Willie Benegas. Willie is an Everest veteran and last spring climbed a new route on Nuptse’s West Face.

www.mountainmadness.com

Over Everest - Completed      

At about 8:15 the summit of Everest was reached. A group of climbers were on the summit when Richard flew over and there were several others very near the summit. They waved at each other! Richard returned safely in the microlight to advance base camp at Syangboche at about 9 am. Angelo was missing for two hours but we have received news that he is safe at Lobuche quite a way up the Khumbu valley and will be recovered by Helicopter tomorrow morning.

The pilot of the Microlight was Richard Meredith-Hardy, from the UK. Sicilian Angelo D’Arrigo was the man in tow; Richard has previously pulled him on other flights. This Everest expedition also involved a study of the migratory route of the Steppe Eagles (Aquila Nealensis).

www.flymicro.com
 

Ed Viesturs/Veikka Gustafsson double header - Completed  

Ed Viesturs, Veikka Gustafsson, David Breashears, Robert Schauer, Jimmy Chin and Amy Bullard along with seven climbing Sherpas summited Everest at 6:15 am Monday, May 17, 2004 Nepal time. The team was making a film for Working Title Films and Universal Pictures.

For Ed that was his 6th summit, David Breashears, that was his 5th. For Robert and Veikka, both of them that was their third ascent.

Into Thin Air - The movie 

In May of 1996, 10 climbers (including Scott Fisher and Rob Hall) died after being caught in a storm. While there have been many accidents in mountaineering history with higher death tolls, this one broke over internet and was watched by millions."Everest", is to be released worldwide by Universal Pictures. Academy Award winner Stephen Daldry is the film’s director and he’ll be going as high as Base Camp along with the producer, Jonathon Finn.

Ed Viesturs (left) and David Breashears (Right) at Everest Base Camp handing over $1000 each to Guy Cotter (center) the sole remaining member of Everest Anonymous. Not pictured is Veikka Gustafsson who also contributed his $1000 penalty to Guy. The penalties paid by all were based on a vow made while on Everest in 1997. Thus the formation of the support group known as Everest Anonymous. This spring Breashears, Gustafsson and Viesturs broke under pressure and climbed Everest again; the 5th  summit for Breashears, 3rd for Gustafsson and 6th for Viesturs. Guy Cotter was at Base Camp and so the 3 paid their penalty to him directly.

www.edviesturs.com
www.veikka.com

Berg Adventures Fall Everest

Fall of 2005, Wally will be leading a guided climb of the South Side of Mount Everest. Wally is a 4 time Everest summiteer and has recently taken a liking to the fall Everest season. Last year he ran the only South Side Everest expedition in the fall and loved having the mountain all to himself .This fall, Berg Adventures International will operate a Western Cwm trip. The team will go through the Khumbu Icefall and establish a Camp II in the Western Cwn to give prospective Everest climbers a feel for what the lower mountain will involve.

www.bergadventures.com

After going for Chogolisa (7665m) in Pakistan this July, 7Summits.com's Harry Kikstra will be joining the team.

The team: Werner de Jong, Marc Streefkerk, Mark Thijssen, Boris Krielen, Harry Kikstra, Sander Arens en Ruby Arens-Halfschepel.

www.ice-x.nl
7summits.com
www.123mkb.nl/summit

Expedition postponed from this spring to fall 2004 or spring 2005.

www.4everest.org

Lhotse - 8501m

http://www.edviesturs.com
www.veikka.com
 

Simone Moro and Denis Urubko Annapurna/Baruntse - Completed 

The Italian/Kazakh combo Simone Moro and Denis Urubko climbed the North Wall on Baruntse, 7129m this Spring. They reached the Kali Himal (Black Summit), also known as the North Summit at 7014m via a new route up the North Face, later named after Patrick Berhault who passed away this year in the Alps. The true summit of Baruntse was left untouched due to hard wind.

Next, Simone and Denis moved to Annapurna’s North Face. Difficulties along the way forced the duo to head over the the French route and later turned Simone back just before the summit.

www.simonemoro.com
 

Amical Alpin Annapurna/Shisha Pangma - Completed

Gerlinde, Ralf and Hirotaka summited Annapurna on May 28th. Ace female climber, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner has summited Cho Oyu, Makalu, Manaslu, Nanga Parbat and most recently Annapurna - thus making 5 8,000ers. She is considered one of the top female high altitude climbers and is the 6th women to ever reach Anna's summit.

Ralf Dujmovits is the leader of Amical Alpin and has summited Dhaulagiri, Everest, K2, Cho Oyu twice, Shisha Pangma, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum II, Nanga Parbat in 2001 and Annapurna. He now has 9 8,000ers, putting him up there on the big mountain list with the likes of Boukreev who lost his life to Anna in 1997.

Japanese climber Hirotaka has summited Makalu, Everest, K2, Nanga Parbat in 2001 and most recently Annapurna. He summited Everest and K2 back to back in 1996 and became the youngest ever to summit the world's two highest mountains at the age of 25. He now has 5 8,000ers.

Pre Annapurna, the trio got their feet wet on Shisha Pangma’s South Face, where a kamikaze rock the size of a softball slammed into Ralf's leg. This nearly ruined the team's plans for Annapurna and came close to taking Ralf's life.


www.amical.de

Dhaulagiri – Argentina  Expedition in memory of 1954 - Completed

The Argentinean-Spanish expedition reached the summit of Dhaulagiri  on May 14th. The summiteers are Argentinean Víctor Hugo Aryan Herrera and Catalán Xavier Arias. Other climbers in the team turned back earlier due to the bad weather conditions.

 Expedition homepage

With this summit, Inaki Ochoa de Olza has reached his 8th 8.000 meter peak. He made Cho Oyu twice (1993 and 2001), GI (1996), GII (1996), Lhotse (1999), Everest (2001), Nanga Parbat (2003), Broad Peak (2003) and now Makalu (2004). He also has Shisha Pangma Central (1995).

His next project is K2.

www.navarra8000.com

Expedition members: Yuri Gorbunov, Damir Molgachev, Vassily Pivtsov, Maxut Zhumayev, Dmitry Chumakov, Artjom Skopin, Alexander Rudakov, Agey Skopin, Yuri Abakumov, Serguey Brodsky, Artjom Rychkov and Denis Grinevitch. Many of the climbers are veterans from last year's 3 in 1 Karakorum attempt. They reached the summit of Nanga Parbat and Broad Peak, but did not make K2.

The West pillar (or buttress or in the lower part "ridge") sometimes is called the "Paragot ridge" after
the leader of the successful French expedition in 1971, Robert Paragot. The first ascenders were Bernard Mellet and Yannick Seigneur in 1971. The first time without OS was with John Roskelley (US) in 1980. The last time it was climbed was by Loretan and Troillet (both Swiss) Manu Badiola and Carles Valles (both Spain) in 1991. All of these last ascents were without OS..

 russianclimb.com

www.friluftsliv.no

www.makalu2004.com

Christian Trommsdorff, Patrick Wagnon, and Yannick Grazziani original plan was to attempt a first ascent on the Eastern side of Makalu (Tibetan side). A feat only once before attempted. After deciding against the the Eastern route they were climbing along the same route that the British services team.

Expedition website
 

montagna.org

The team will try K2 in 2005. The GMAM intends to summit all fourteen 8,000m peaks and has previously scaled five, including Everest in 1992 and Nanga Parbat by moonlight in 1987.

Expedition members: Jorge Palop (doctor), Fernando Yarto, Faustus Blanco, Juan San Juan, Fermín Peñarroya, Raul Martinez, Felix Criado, Carlos Calvo, and Francisco Borja Alvarez.

www.ejercito.mde.es

www.monterosa-nepal.com
 

Maximo and Marek summited Shishapangma Middle 8,013m on May 7th, 2004 at 3:05pm Nepal time.

Marek Wencel, a Polish immigrant currently living in Seattle, and Maximo Henostroza, a friend he met by chance down in Peru. The duo climbed the normal route up Shisha from the North side. Maximo is an Everest veteran from 2001 and has even been up to 7500m on Shish before. Marek has climbed Denali, Aconcagua, and reached 7100m on Cho Oyu.

http://www.shishapangma.com

Norwegian Shisha Pangma 2004 

Norwegian, Cecilie Skog’s (Everest 2004) boyfriend, Rolf Bae (29) and his climbing partner Trym Atle Sæland (28) will be a couple mountains away on Shisha Pangma mapping out a new route. Rolf also has Cho Oyu under his belt, which he climbed with Cecilie in 2003.

Rolf and partner, Eirik Sonneland, made a quite a spectacular Antarctic traverse in December 2000. After wintering in Queen Maud Land, Rolf and Eirik headed all the way to Scott Base, 3,800 km. Though they had planned and prepared for the traverse, very few people knew about it. Rolf and Eirik became two out of only five people to have crossed Antarctica without resupplies.

www.friluftsliv.no
 

Shisha Pangma Winter Expedition 2003-2004 - Aborted

Brutal cold of -52C finally ended the expedition at 7700m. Simone reports "Had we continued to climb I'm sure we would have reached the summit. But we would have had to make a bivy in extreme conditions, risking to die or to lose our feet and hands. The decision to stop so close to the summit, with the route looking so easy ahead, has been a very difficult and extreme experience... "

Simone and Piotr did however become the first to climb the South Face of Shisha Pangma in winter and to do the first repetition of the Figueras route.

http://www.simonemoro.com
 

www.monterosa-nepal.com

On April 28th, 12:30pm, Greg Nieuwenhuys of the Netherlands and the sherpas Pasang and Ang Pemba summited.  Greg skied down about 100m from the summit but switched over to crampons when the weather began to deteriorate. Joost Schreve developed a high altitude retinal hemorage and had to abort his summit attempt. 29 year old medical doctor, Herman Frima, supported the team from BC.

ski8000.com/nl

IMG Cho Oyu  

IMG will be conducting their 13th Cho Oyu expedition. This year  IMG will have both guided and non-guided members. Expedition leader: Mike Hamill (US)

Mountainguides.com

 

Amical Alpin Cho Oyu Spring/Fall   

Ralf Dujmovits German outfit Amical Alpin is planning two expeditions to Cho Oyu in 2004, with the first to head up this spring and another going in the fall.

Expedition leader: Spring 2004, Andreas Bucher. Autumn 2004,Hermann Berie and Rainer Pircher .

http://www.amical.de (German)

Project Himalaya - Completed   

Jamie McGuinness and Catherine Pye summitted around 12:15 on May 14th. Jamie (NZ) led an 8-member team on a guided climb of Cho Oyu. Sherpas Dawa Gyalgen, Namgyal also summited.
 

http://www.project-himalaya.com

Arun Treks & Expeditions   

Arun Treks & Expeditions, Gary Guller’s US-based outfit that caters to independent climbers as well as commercial expeditions is leading a guided expedition to Cho Oyu in late summer this year. August 27 - October 15

http://www.aruntrekexpedition.com

Jagged Globe Cho Oyu Spring/Fall   

UK-based Jagged Globe is also scheduling two or three expeditions o Cho Oyu this year, the first will depart this spring and the others in the fall. The company’s most recent expedition was last year’s successful trip to Everest in commemoration of 50th Anniversary Golden Jubilee. The outfit offers to take care off all logistics including one high altitude Sherpa assigned to each climber, but is “unguided” - i.e. climbers make their own climbing decisions.

http://www.jagged-globe.co.uk

Russian Jannu North Face - Completed 

On May 26th Alexander Ruchkin and Dmitry Pavlenko summited the nearly unclimbable North Face of Jannu. A day later teammates Nick Totmyanin, Sergey Borisov and Gena Kirievsky summited as well. This is simply a classic climbing story; inching up a vertical wall in horrendous weather, broken ribs and split heads, falls, fears, and triumph over an impossible task.

In the autumn of the last year the Russian climbers managed to reach the record altitude - 7200 meters on Jannu’s North Face. Recalling their trip through the ice-fall last year, Alexander Odintsov, the team leader, said, “It was terribly terrible. It is indescribable! Every time, you had to force yourself to move. You reached the safe part on the serac, and there was something to the right and to the left of you. The seracs were really hanging above you, above your head, here - just about ready to fall… And the most interesting thing is that they were falling with certain regularity. There were 15 collapses a day as Ivan Samoylenko counted.”
 

russianclimb.com