RIP, Joe Puryear.
The Seattle-based Mount Rainier climbing ranger reportedly fell 1,500 feet to his death earlier this week on the 24,170-foot Labuche Kang in the Himalayas. His blog has yet to be updated.
The Seattle Times article says Puryear, who was 37, had been hooked on climbing since the early ’90s, and that he’s written several guidebooks as well. Details of the fall have yet to emerge, other than this passage from Puryear’s wife:
On Wednesday October 27, David and Joe started their route on LaBouche Kang. It was finally a clear and beautiful day. Joe was very excited about the climb as he and David set out. Early on in the climb they were ascending a knife edge ridge and Joe went ahead to scout the route. David said Joe was smiling and kept looking back giving the thumbs up. Joe went around a rock outcropping and disappeared from sight. David following came around the corner and what appeared to be a continuation of the ridge, had given way and revealed a cornice. Joe had apparently stepped out onto the snow, which gave way and he fell 700 feet to his death. David was able to repel down to Joe’s body. David reported that Joe died on impact and did not suffer. He was able to retrieve the SAT phone and call. David is devastated, but strong and in good health. He has returned to base camp and is awaiting help from Global Rescue.
The discrepancies in how far he fell have yet to be sorted out.
Puryear spent his life, up to his final moment, doing what he loved. Our thoughts are with his friends and family. Trust details, and a letter from Puryear’s wife, can be viewed here.
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A study has just come out confirming what many climbers already know: summiting mountains as high as Africa’s Mt. Kilimanjaro involves a high risk of acute mountain sickness, and steady acclimatization before the final ascent is the best guard against it.
The study appears in the current issue of High Altitude Medicine & Biology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) and Muhimbili University College of Health Science (Tanzania) evaluated the incidence of AMS among trekkers of Africa’s highest peak by comparing the effects of three increasingly difficult and rapid ascent routes, the option of a single rest day during the climb, and use by a sub-group of climbers of prophylactic acetazolamide.
The authors reported a similar rate of AMS among climbers regardless of drug use, a finding most climbers already know anecdotally. More surprising is that a mid-climb rest day did not seem to have an affect on AMS, although we’d argue it has an affect on physical and mental stamina. The only way the researchers found to protect against AMS, given the risk of it is so high, is to acclimatize before final ascent, which is precisely why it’s so important to take things one day at a time.
In the report, the researchers found: At 2743
m 3% of the 177 climbers recruited at this altitude had AMS. Following headache, the commonest symptom reported on LLS sheets was fatigue (38%). At 4730m, sleep disturbance was the commonest symptom described (82%). 47% of the 189 climbers on all itineraries were AMS positive.
Climbing Kilimanjaro is no joke. Slow and steady definitely wins the race.
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In January 2010, artists and adventurers Renan Ozturk and Corey Richards packed up their bags and headed to the Khumbu region of Nepal to tackle Tawoche, a 21,463 foot peak that stands in the shadow of Ama Dablam.
But they decided to send their own dispatches, with their own footage, writing, edits, and production, literally as their journey happened, instead of relying on experts back home to take all their footage and compile it into a third-person narrative months after the action.
The result is stunning and intimate, not to mention all the more thrilling knowing that even they do not know what will happen next. Check out the compiled mini dispatches below. It’s well worth the 16 minutes.
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Over the weekend, travel writer Shawn Donley featured Embark Adventures in The Oregonian as the best way for Portlanders to find a local guide up Mt. Kilimanjaro. He has this to say of Embark founder Donovan Pacholl:
The Tanzanian government requires all climbs to be guided and supported. If you’re looking for a local option, I doubt you’ll find anyone in Oregon who knows Kilimanjaro as well as Donovan Pacholl. He spent several years living at the base of the mountain and in 2003 helped establish the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project. He now runs Embark Adventures (www.embarkadventures.com), which specializes in climbs up the beautiful Lemosho route.
Props also to Donley’s second local pick, Nicole Apelian’s Trackers International. She leads nature lovers on trips to Botswana’s Okavango Delta.
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Courtesy of PeakFreaks.com
It’s that time of year on Everest, that little window of opportunity as climbers launch their final bids for the summit.
And while the media go all-out to cover these bids, and the teams themselves boast ever-shinier blogs and self-reportage, little is said about the sherpas who are so key to every one of these missions as they help mountaineers navigate the world’s highest peak. But let it be known that, while we await the “first summits” of 2010, which some set out for this morning, a group of nine sherpas actually made the year’s first summit yesterday, along with a Himex guide. Western climbers are not allowed join this first group of sherpas even if they want to, but still, the sherpas’ purpose was not glory or news coverage but finishing fixing the lines to the top so that the glory can go to others.
We at Embark applaud the sherpas, porters, medical crew, and all who help any expedition team safely reach the summits of mountains worldwide. We could not do what we do without them, and their bravery, work ethic, and mountaineering skills are second to none.
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Italy’s Reinhold Messner became the first person to climb all 14 of the world’s 8,000-plus-meter peaks back in 1986, and has since been renowned as one of the world’s best (if not the best) mountaineers. A quarter century later, two climbers, Edurne Pasaban (above) and Oh Eun-sun, are vying to become the first woman to do the same.
Pasaban, of Spain, conquered the 8,091-meter Annapurna last Saturday, and has already left for Tibet to make her way up her final peak, the 8,027-meter Shishapangma.
Meanwhile rival Eun-sun of Korea is already on the slopes of her final challenge, Annapurna, where she is currently acclimatizing at Base Camp Two. Stay tuned this Saturday, April 24, when she makes what could become an historic bid for the top.
In a new twist, rumors are flying that Eun-sun did not actually reach the top of Kangchenjunga (the world’s third-highest mountain) last year in the absence of a summit photo, adding a dimension to the final days of this decade-long race that has left the world on edge to see what transpires this weekend.
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