Zoran

This is the reason why many alpinists recently turned to Italian side of the Mont Blanc looking for place where you can still do something. And that something is stil far away from Megalodon Ridge or climbs Wayne112 or Colin does. :-) It's a sad thing. Looks to me like degradation of the summit. I feel sorry for all climbers who will go climbing and thinking that Mont Blanc is walk in the park. Hey, they had a jacczzy there last week! Many people getting killed there because of misinterpretation of similar events like this. Zoran

http://www.jaccuzzi.ch/

Sorry to hear you were sick. I heard from people at UBC that Robert took 6 months off work to go there. How much climbing he did?

Thank you for this info about fred (and your climb). I didn't know about this documentary. Pictures are fantastic. Can't wait to see the final product.

I was impressed with this:

Great report. That homestead looks like Rolland's place close to Nemaiah Valley. Zoran

Excellent! Congratulations on this climb. Couple of years ago we climbed Tzil's North West Face but I quit after the West ridge of Rex pillar and return to lakes through glacier. I was not able to finish it. You are very strong. Our plan was to climb Joffre after Matier to complete the Enchainment. You did it in a day which is outstanding. Good work. Z

Be careful and do the climb. Please read this: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/pstory.html?id=7ea1da08-2378-4e36-9aff-f66086b27632&k=54004 It's one of the greatest climbing areas in SW BC. Good luck! And post the short note when you are back. Regards, Zoran

I am just kidding!

A lot of people who came first got early bird prize: Arcteryx grocery bag (Goretex XCR body and Shoeller Dynamic handles) MSP $250 CAD

On line From 24th to 30th (20-50%) !0 years of the Cloudveil existence. Maybe shipping is free for lower 48? Cheers, Zoran

JP is not kidding! Almost all sale will go to people who walking dogs on Kitsilano Beach or to ones who like to be dry while pumping gas in brand new Lexus in poor weather conditions. At the same time in Vancouver, Squamish or Whistler you can meet guys after hard climbing dressed in Sport Junkies line of clothes. Anyway, don't be fooled with 70% off ad. Stuff is still expensive but very good as you already know. Location is here: http://www.arcteryx.com/head-office.aspx

June 22nd noon-8pm June 23rd 9am-6pm June 24th 9am-6pm I am not sure how good anymore is this for you, our lovely American friends? Maybe you should pass this time and come next year when CAD is 50C US?

I forgot to mention that Pozini's comment about summit pyramide climb will be appreciated to. He is outstanding climber and frequent leader. At the same time, his opinion will be based on his skills to access capabilities of the group, not only can he climb that or not. It is very important to have skills like that and give appropriate advice to others.

Hut is very often visited by people who go there to drink and socialize smoking pot. I know, nothing is wrong with that but sometimes they check out your gear too. :-) Two years ago we lost some stuff (small stove, thermarest and miniature alarm clock). Our mistake. We started at 2AM from hut to climb Garibaldi and didn't even anticipated someone will steal anything. One time ranger arrested guys trying to steal gas from my friends truck. We smelled gas around truck and my friend worried he damaged reservoir on the way up. Latter, police call him at home and informed him about accident. Regarding climbing Garibaldi I would really like if Dru, PaulB or Jordo can comment the climb itself. They are better climbers than I am. Notch is enough big for 2 to 3 tents.It's not perfectly flat but when snow covered, platform could be made and bivy will be perfect. I have never slept there (we had lunch twice) but I can imagine drinking tea and watching sunset and sunrise. I would like to hear from you about that after you come back. Approach is long but trip will be something you won't easily forget. If you like to bag a peak go to Brohm, if you like to have memorable trip do Elfin approach. For more info about route you should look into bivouac database.

If you pick Elfin approach and day trip from the hut (very good idea!), don't leave anything in the hut. Bring stuff up higher and hide it. Bivy notch (from Alpine Select" book) is absolutely outstanding place. Climbing peak will be challenge for novice climbers but maybe Dru and Jordo disagree. Z

Hi Wayne, Here is ad from bivouac. I am not sure is he still looking for partners. Ad is there for a long time. Frank is from Portland and in bivouac his contact is not listed. Maybe Don can hook you up with someone. Cheers, Zoran Waddington (10 days) Update StartDate: 2007.07.28 We are looking organizing transport into the waddington-combatant col during these dates. Flight in and out is 550 per person. Many alpine snow, ice and rock routes are easily accessible from this staging area. Contact Frank Heimerdinger if at all interested.

WHISTLER A 34-year-old missing skier who was last seen on Blackcomb Mountain Thursday, was found dead by searchers on Sunday. He is not BC resident and looks like he died from hypothermia.

Author : Marko Prezelj, Kamnik, Slovenia

Avalanches kill four ski mountaineers Four peple have been killed in three separate incidents in the French Alps and Pyrenees today. The first avalanche occurred around 13h00 in the Pelvoux range at 2400 meters altitude. An Italian skier in his 60s was caught in the slide. Rescued by members of his group he was pronounced dead by a doctor brought to the scene by the CRS helicopter from Briançon. he avalanche risk was Considerable (3/5) with a strong wind from the north to north-east. The 50cm of fresh snow in the Pelvoux had formed many unstable slabs under the action of south then northerly winds. A young couple were caught by an avalanche at 16h00 on the west face of the Grand Mont d’Arêches (2686m) in Beaufortain range in the Savoie. The victims were Coralie Molliet, ski instructor with the ESF and Loïs Maurin also a ski instructor and competitor in last year’s gruelling Pierra-Menta ski mountaineering competition. Both were natives of the ski resort of Arêches and well known in the area. The accident has come as a shock to the alpine village. The Meteo France avalanche bulletin gave the risk as considerable above 1700 meters in the Beaufortain. The bulletin warned of new soft and hard slabs formed under the action of a strong north wind as well as older slabs still present under the fresh snow and said that they were poorly bonded to the freeze-thaw crust or were resting on a weak facetted snow layer. These slabs could be triggered by the passage of a single skier. At Porté Puymorens in the Pyrenees three climbers triggered a slab avalanche on the east face of the Pic de la Mine. Two of the climbers were suffered multiple fractures during a fall of 200 meters. One was able to alert the fire service in Andorra by mobile phone and they were joined by specialists from the French CRS. A third climber, aged 37 year old Spanish national, resident of Barcelona, was recovered in a serious condition but died while being taken to hospital in Andorre-la-Vieille by helicopter. The avalanche risk was Moderate (2/5) at the time. The bulletin noted some slabs formed by the recent light snowfall and strong winds, largely on steep north to east facing slopes.

Babelfish is not perfect for Chinese translation. 简体中文版 is suppose to mean: Would you like to learn Chinese? I have software for you.

简体中文版

The first ascent of Chomo Lhari’s 6,000-foot Northwest Pillar by Slovenians Boris Lorencic and Marko Prezelj won the 16th Piolet d’Or. In this particular climb Marko led all the pitches. (Dru mentioned previously about some of the MP's climbs with Steve House when he led the hardest ones).

I think Slovenians are great climbers. Very small country but producing amazing climbers. Whole country is small replica of British Columbia. Janez Jeglic was one of the instructors I had long time ago in Tamar valley. I met there Maria Frantar too. She died in Himalayas and once was the leading female high altitude climber in the World. Marko Prezelj, Tomaz Humar, Silvo Karo and less known (for North America) climbers are amazing (Rok Zalokar, Ales Kozelj, Aljaz Anderle, Grmovsek etc.) Slovenia was hit in last 10 years (or more) very badly and they lost several outstanding alpinists due to accidents. Personally I think Russia is the world climbing leader now. They have extraordinary base for success. For example here is the list of Russian alpine instructors. Please review and comment if you like: www.bced.gov.bc.ca/sat_survey/access.htm Another impressive list is list of Russian Snow Leopards http://www.summitpost.org/list/235234/the-snow-leopards.html Would you like to see it? Here you go! It's the list of all with the year when is achieved (starting at 1961 to 2005) ... So in 1970 officially there were 15 climbers who had 5, 7000m peaks in resume. If country was open like Italy or Germany they could rule in the Himalayas.