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.…
Enjoying Odin (Review)
I hate cold! I love alpine climbing! Quite hard to reconcile the two and quite a lot of misery to have been through to do what I love. That until recently… Everything about going to climb in Alaska sounded exciting and fascinating. Everything in pictures looked cool and inviting. Everything but the dreadful ‘it’ll be cold as hell’ (well, if hell would be in reverse, but you get the point….). Arriving at home in two big boxes an Odin sleeping bag, a Sirius jacket, booties and mitts put a massive smile on my face. The warm sunrays of a beautiful spring day looked like the best omen. The Odin began its business as soon as ten days after being born, and it was a busy month. For thirty straight days it lay, literally, in between the cold and me. The bag weighs 1836g and packs incredibly small. Changing the original…