Thanks to Bill Thomson for the following pics. He, Rich and Al MacColl are just back from a 2 week guided climbing trip to the Bugaboos in Canada – more pics/report soon…
Category Archives: Expeditions
Jon Bracey new routing in Alaska
Just a quickie on Jons trip to the Ruth Gorge in Alaska with Matt Helliker – the boys enjoyed good stable weather and icy conditions, allowing them to put up two major new routes on Mt Grosvenor and Mt Church.
Meltdown, 1300m ED3, Mt Grosvenor - Alaska
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- Matt on Meltdown, Mt Grosvenor
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- Jon on the crux of Meltdown, Mt Grosvenor
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- For Whom The Bell Tolls, 1100m ED2, Mt Church – Alaska
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- Meltdown, 1300m ED2, Mt Grosvenor – Alaska
Greenland Ski Expedition 2008
Just back from our Greenland Ski Expedition and my head’s still buzzing with a thousand images of ice, snow, amazing skiing and lots of dogs. Thanks guys for such a memorable trip – and I hope no one’s suffering too much from post traumatic sledge disorder after the final 65k all night journey back to the airport (read Freezing, with a capital F..!)
No amount of words can do justice to such an incredible arctic wilderness and the people who live there – the few photos below give a flavour & I’ll get some more up soon. Spent the whole of the flight home planning the next trip – I just can’t wait to get back…
Taxi! – our primary mode of transport during the trip.
We travelling 65km across the frozen sea on the first day.
Great weather, great snow – and not another skier in sight…
The mountain hut – comfortable base for the 1st part of the trip.
Our remote glacier camp – ideally placed for exploration..
Tony Graham bags another fine first descent.
Back to the hut at last - for the trifle eating contest!
Pharilapche West – 1st Ascent
We’ve just had word from Nepal that Nick Bullock and Jon Bracey have made the first ascent of Pharilapche West (6017m) by major new line on the North Face. The 1000m route, following a narrow ice gully enclosed by impending rock walls, was climbed in a remarkably fast 2 day round trip from base to the table top sized summit and back again.
Incredibly, they also reached the summit just seven days after arriving in the Khumbu via a flight into Lukla (though having climbed with both Nick and Jon, they are both seemingly immune to acclimatisation problems so maybe its not so surprising!) The boys graded it ED+ WI5+ M5+ ie nails… We hope to have 1st ascent photos soon, when the team get home (they’re currently getting up to no good in Kathmandu..) UPDATE – see 1st Ascent Photos Here.
Jon Morgan on Cho Oyo
Jon Morgan has just returned from the Himalaya, where he’s been guiding on a UK expedition carrying out high altitude medical rescearch.
The team summited successfully on this popular 8000m peak and even managed to carry out a range of experiments on the summit, so all round the trip was declared a great success.
