|
|
A Sun rise on Himalaya for Mountain Madness legends
May 24, 2004 04: 38 EST
Published May 17, 2004 18: 07 EST
In 1996, Mount Everest took American climber Scott Fisher's life. The expedition leader remained on the mountain, initially sitting down on the climbing trail just above camp 4.
Scott's climbing leader in 1996 was Russian Anatoli Boukreev. Anatoli was the only climber who left camp 4 to search for Scott and the other missing climbers. He was later criticized by Krakauer, who in turn, on his way down from South Summit, passed a climber in need without helping him down.
The following year on Everest, Anatoli gently laid Scott's body down in the snow to rest. That same year, Anatoli died on Annapurna in an avalanche.
Krakauer became world famous with his book "Into Thin Air" about the 1996 Everest tragedy. Academy Award winner Stephen Daldry along with the producer, Jonathon Finn are to make a movie based on the events. And so this morning, Co-producer and second unit director David Breashears (was on the mountain filming the IMAX "Everest" in 1996), Ed Viesturs, Veikka Gustafsson, Jimmy Chin and others were on an Everest summit push to film for "Everest", to be released worldwide by Universal Pictures.
Yesterday morning, the young Russian Denis Urubko, began his summit attempt on Annapurna's North Face in Anatoli's honor.
Mountain Madness 2004 Everest Summit
Scott Fisher founded "Mountain Madness" in 1984, and tonight, 20 years later, Mountain Madness American climbers passed very close to him, as they went in his footsteps to the summit of Mount Everest.
Willie Benegas was leading the team of Murray Rice, Gene Rehfeld, and Gary Ponder.
Murray Rice has taken part on expeditions to K2 and Everest, and been on a number Denali expeditions. This is Murray's first expedition with Mountain Madness.
Gene Rehfeld is a cream cheese dealer from Denver, Colorado who completed his fourth of the seven summits this past winter when he summited Vinson with Mountain Madness.
Gary Ponder isn’t a stranger to Everest’s South Side. Back in 2002 he made an attempt with Mountain Madness. Unfortunately he severely twisted his knee in the Khumbu Ice Fall and had to be evacuated from Base Camp. He had surgery soon and vowed to return in 2004.
But tonight, Gary Ponder again had to turn away from Mount Everest summit.
Mountain Madness history is almost as remarkable as Everest itself. After Scott's death, the outfit went to Christine Boskoff and her husband Keith Boskoff. When her husband died unexpectedly a few years later, the widow found herself alone with the high altitude mountaineering operation. Today, Christine is one of the worlds top female climbers, with six 8000ers - a feat only accomplished by three other women: Polish climber Wanda Rutkiewicz (8), French climber Chantal Mauduit (6) and Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban (6). Only Christine and Edurne are alive, both Wanda and Chantal lost their lives to the mountains.
Willie Benegas is leading Mountain Madness on Everest. Willie is an Everest veteran and last spring he climbed a new route on Nuptse’s West Face. This morning, he reached the summit of Everest his fourth time. After Everest, Willie (Guillermo) and his brother Damian, are off to find the solution to one of the most famous problems; to climb the North Ridge of Latok I (7145 m), often dubbed as ‘The Walker Spur of the Karakorum’.
Image of a sunrise over Everest, ExplorersWeb files.
|
|
Feature Stories |
|
Latest News |
more news |
 |
Everest Supercouloir: "What is a summit compared to a friend's lif
Full Story
|
 |
Mystery Chopper's Utopia summit - VIDEO
Full Story
|
 |
Annapurna South: "It was such a great climb"
Full Story
|
 |
ExWeb Special report: The Ropes and Summit Push on Everest...
Full Story
|
 |
Real men
Full Story
|
 |
Christian Kuntner - a mountaineering legend is gone
Full Story
|
 |
14 x 8000: Ed Viesturs joins the world's most exclusive...
Full Story
|
 |
ExWeb Special: Ed Viesturs "I still have peaks that I want...
Full Story
|
|
|
| Andrew Lock on Annapurna tragedy: "I wanted to keep on climbing" Jun 6, 2005 | | Gabriel Filippi and Sean Egan's soul, together on the summit of Everest Jun 6, 2005 | | "Supermom" Monica Kalozdi update: Everest Summit and hard descent Jun 5, 2005 | | Robert Milne dies during summit push Everest South Jun 5, 2005 | | Grania Willis summits Everest this morning Jun 5, 2005 | | ExplorersWeb Week-In-Review Jun 5, 2005 | | Himex summit - Update from climber Jun 4, 2005 | | No Mountain top too high, my Love Jun 4, 2005 | | Jagged Globe team summits again! Jun 4, 2005 | | More summits for DCXP/Project Himalaya this morning Jun 4, 2005 |
| | End of season... Jun 4, 2005 | | Ranulph Fiennes turns back on Everest Jun 3, 2005 |
|
|
|
|
2004
BEST of EXPLORERSWEB
|
|
|
|
