Monkey business in the Karnak gorge
Words: Cosmin Andron Photography: Cristina Pogacean, Jonathan Parker, Cosmin Andron Ladakh 2017 We arrived in Delhi mid-August, hopeful and with loads of luggage. Cristina and Nasim (her partner) were aiming for H17 in the Zanskar valley, an unclimbed granite monolith. I was to join them as logistical support but I also had plans of my own: last year, during our T16 expedition, I noticed, on a side valley, a stunning mixed couloir that I wanted to attempt once the girls were up on their wall and if conditions were allowing. A day later we were in Leh where we spent half a week running after supplies, getting the luggage overland from Delhi (thank you Jaggi, Prerna and Gopal) trying to organise transport (with the help of our Ladakhi friends) and getting ready for departure. When Nasim arrived in Leh we were ready and we set off…
EPIC TV clip on fall factors and ropes breaking
Some discussion erupted on youtube about this video. I’d like to point out a few things here, on my website: first of all the series is aimed at the general public and it has to condense in 3 minutes practical information easy to absorb by audience with little technical knowledge. The contentious point was my saying “factor 1 falls are normal”. Probably saying “fall factors of 1 or less” would have been better and then “fall factor 2 or more” etc “BUT the general public operates with two concepts: Fall 1 factor and fall 2 factor. It was clearer and easier to point out the “good” one as opposed to the “bad” one by using the two already familiar concepts. The accompanying point, however, is linked and it states that when falling (in a normal sport climbing scenario for example) we are always closer to factor 1 fall than we…
Tendon Orbix: helmet review
Well, how much can one talk about a “lid” without sounding silly… Not much, I can assure you. However, what I discovered, is that it is inversely proportional to the amount of time one spends choosing a good one. I started climbing in a time and culture where helmets were used only for motorbiking and were slowly transitioning from the road to the rock. The major impact I noticed then was an acute stiffening and possible long term strengthening of the neck muscles so I promptly gave up on wearing a helmet. Lucky there was, at the time, no other major impact… I got converted again, in the late ’90s, to the plastic bowl with a brim. It was much lighter and still ugly as hell. What I remember most about my helmet then was the habit in vogue at the time to stash in the mesh the survival blanket and a dry pack…
T16, South summit, Zanskar, India “Supercouloir” ED – first ascent
I In the winter of 2016 I received a request from a free-lance journalist, Maya K. Prabhu, asking for opinions on the alpinism scene in India for a piece she was preparing for the USA based magazine ‘Alpinist’. (Since then the article has appeared in issue nr 54 / summer 2016 under the title Notes from the Frontier). Following the conversation with Maya I felt like I somehow left a rather pessimistic pronouncement regarding the young ‘alpine-style’ aspiring mountaineers in India and, through my involvement in the first Climbathon organized by the IMF in 2013, I knew quite a few of them… That’s not to say I have not been honest about my appraisal, but I felt somehow I was also a bit too harsh… Cristina and I were looking for a project for 2016 and, probably more than ever, not finding the project was the problem but how to finance it.…
Tendon Master 7.8 half rope
Tendon Master 7.8 half rope – a somewhat long winded rope review – Disclaimer: I am brand ambassador for Tendon ropes. However, in relation to all equipment sponsors I had or have, I have never endorsed to guided clients, friends or in articles a product I would have not paid full retail price for. Ropes: every climbers has an opinion on them, has favourites and good and bad stories. However, funny enough, a lot of discussion on ropes nowadays is carried on purely on specs. The other day, on a climbing forum, a beginner climber was asking a simple yet very complicated question: “I’d like to buy a rope and I have narrowed down my choice to two models from two brands. I’ll be using the rope mainly for…. What do you suggest I should choose?” The answers poured from several posters but, of course, as on…
Rope-care: washing the rope.
Whether I have received it or paid for it full retail price I like to take care of my gear. It’s not only a show of respect for the trade’s tool but also a common-sense thing to do. A waterproof jacket thrown in the booth of the car and forgotten under wrenches for ages is anything but waterproof when you need-it, a rope trampled on and turned into a bird’s nest has a very short life-span if you value your own, some smelly climbing shoes dumped at the bottom of the backpack and used for seasons at end will guarantee you a room under the stars on grounds on personal hygiene. The list can go on but surely you got the point. I know quite a lot of people who after purchasing a new rope scream murder if a leaf ends up on it at the crag but after one…
Tendon Master 8.9 Rope (Review)
Tendon Master 8.9 – Rope review The specs tell by themselves a story but an incomplete one by far: At 8.9mm diameter and weighting 52g/m, the Tendon Master 8.9 is rated as single rope (it can be used by itself including on bolted / sport routes), as half rope (for example on trad or alpine routes together with a half rope) and as a twin rope (together with another twin rope on water-ice climbs for example). Nevertheless I do not believe that the option of using it as a twin rope bears any practical purpose in this case as for the given scenario I’d rather carry a 6mm tag-line in my backpack. Nevertheless, what the climber not too fussed with genuine statistics or gear factoids can learn from these are a few basic points: it’s light, it’s strong, it’s stretchy. In other words that means: it’s easy to carry,…