The National Geographic Adventure Travel blog interviews the First Ascent team about the technology behind their Everest filmmaking.

weather permitting, mountaineers Ed Viesturs, Peter Whittaker, and other members of the First Ascent team will take on the summit of Everest. And even though we have not yet donned our down jackets, we’ve been there every step of the way—through the avalanches, illnesses, and one of the largest storms of the season. This is thanks to the daily, three-minute video dispatches produced right from the world’s tallest mountain. The carefully choreographed process begins with the video getting back up on an Apple MacBook Pro from high on the mountain. It’s then carried on solid state memory cards down to Base Camp. Once there, the footage is loaded on to another MacBook Pro and edited for public viewing in Final Cut Pro

(via TUAW)

Rehearse the climb. If you’re trying do a winter ascent of a line that climbs a summer route then climb the route in summer at least once. Getting off route in winter will waste time and saps your momentum. I’ve failed more than once after a slowing of upward movement turned into full blown retreat.

In what is truly a great example of using new media tools for expedition reporting, Andy Kirkpatrick is blogging and posting updates to Twitter on his solo ascent of the North Face of the Eiger.

Unfortunately, as of yesterday, it looks like he is retreating:

Starting this morning I put my solo belay device upside down. I didn’t even have the energy to sort my rack and in my mind the eiger stretched on to heaven.
Trying to solo the eiger has required all the skills and tricks i have. But finally it comes down to knowing when you’re beat. Its time to bail.

Regardless, thanks Andy for sharing your adventure with us. I hope we can look forward to more climbers using innovative ways of keeping us posted and engaged from a distance.

(via @tysontitensor)

What better way is there to climb a fantastic peak and help kids at the same time?

You can join Climbing For Kids and kill two birds with one stone. You can
climb your choice of one of the 5 greatest peaks in North America and give
inner-city kids the chance to go camping in the outdoors. On top of that, you
will also receive $1,500 worth of FREE, brand-new gear. Our 2009 season will
take climbers on life-changing ascents up your choice of peak: Rainier,
Whitney, Shasta, the Grand Teton, or Mexico’s Pico de Orizaba. In return,
climbers agree to fundraise on behalf of the Bay Area Wilderness Training
(BAWT), helping us raise more than $200,000.

BAWT’s mission is to provide Bay Area youth service organizations with
professional wilderness leadership training and access to free, quality outdoor
equipment, thus helping these adult leaders safely lead youth in exploring the
power and beauty of California’s wilderness. Since 1999, BAWT has served
more than 7,000 youth, and every youth leader we train takes an average of 17
youth into the wilderness. Last year alone over 2,500 kids went on trips
thanks to BAWT programs.

You can find all the details at Climbing For Kids.

Good coverage and insight can be found at The Adventure Blog and The New York Times.

A full schedule of classes include beginning through advanced ice climbing, snowshoe mountaineering, and avalanche fundamentals.

The Boys of Everest: Chris Bonington and the Tragedy of Climbing’s Greatest Generation is a story of tremendous courage, staggering achievement, and heart-breaking loss. Bonington’s inner circle—they came to be known as Bonington’s Boys—included a dozen of mountaineering’s legendary figures and gave birth to a new brand of climbing. They took increasingly grave risks on expeditions to the world’s most difficult peaks. And they paid an enormous price for their achievements. Most of them died in the mountains, leaving behind the hardest question of all: Was it worth it?

The Boys of Everest, based on extensive interviews with surviving climbers and other individuals as well as five decades of journals, films, photographs, expedition accounts, and letters, provides the closest thing to an answer that we’ll ever have. It offers riveting descriptions of what Bonington and his comrades found in the mountains—as well as an understanding of what they lost there. 

From the sample chapter (pdf) you can download on the site, The Boys of Everest looks to be a good read. More info can be found on the book’s website.

Viesturs isn’t done climbing mountains — just mountains above 8,000 meters. He doesn’t have anything scheduled, but he’s looking at some mountains in India and Tibet. And he may even be back on Everest, a mountain he has climbed six times, although he won’t be shooting for the summit this time.

Ed Viesturs is on hold at 23,000 feet in the Himalayas on his current attempt at Annapurna. The world’s 10th-highest peak is the last on the list for Viesturs’ attempt to become the first American to climb all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks.

Viesturs, climbing with photographer Jimmy Chin, reached high camp Monday and had hoped to summit Tuesday.

They awoke at 1:30 a.m. Nepal time and, after conferring with a group of Italians they climbed with Monday, decided conditions were not safe for a summit attempt. In a posting on the Web site documenting the record attempt, firstandbest.msn.com, Viesturs said he hopes to get a shot at the summit today.

“We’ll stay here for a few days if we need to,” he said. “It’s not easy hanging out here in these tiny little accommodations with ice covering everything, but we’ll stick it out if we need to.”

Though scaling Everest has become a lucrative adventure sport, Apa and other Sherpas, many of whom use their ethnic group as a last name, say they are not getting their fair share of the income. Since commercial expeditions began in the early 1990s, wealthy clients have lined up to pay as much as $65,000 to companies that organize expeditions.

Sherpas can earn $2,000 to $3,000 in the two-month climbing season, securing ladders and ropes and carrying clients’ loads. Elite Sherpa climbers like Apa do far more than that, carefully shepherding to the summit Westerners who often have scant mountaineering experience and whose lives may rest in the Sherpas’ hands.

MountainZone.com reports that the Harvard Mountaineering Club is celebrating its 80th Anniversary by undertaking an expedition to the Borkoldoy Mountains in Kyrgyzstan.

For political reasons, the Borkoldoy range was only opened to foreign mountaineering in the last decade. Only five expeditions have reported visiting the range since, and numerous peaks from 14,000 to 18,000 feet remain unclimbed and unnamed. The area is an extremely remote and practically unexplored haven for alpine style climbers, located on the border between Kyrgyzstan and China and part of the greater Tien Shan Mountain Range.

Not sure how this site will turn out, but MSN Travel will be covering every aspect of Ed Viesturs‘ attempt on Annapurna without oxygen. Viesturs’ 20 year quest to be the first American to summit all 14 8,000 meter peaks without oxygen will be complete with success on Annapurna.

“We will combine coverage you won’t find anywhere else — like Viesturs’ climb — with fundamental tools the travel audience demands to create a one-stop shop for the travel connoisseur.”

To provide the “behind-the-scenes” component that is fast becoming the trademark of MSN Travel “First and Best” adventures, Bangs and his crew, including chief trek photographer Didrik Johnck and renowned Himalayan photographer Jimmy Chin, will be filming numerous dispatches from the area including stories about the culture and terrain, Viesturs’ 20-year journey to this point, and, of course, the climb itself.

The Los Angeles Times has an article about two Rainier Mountaineering guides, Chris Bamer and Rob Montague, and their attempt on the Ptarmigan Ridge route.

The article also has some great background info on climbing Mt. Rainier.

For many American mountaineers, the road to the toughest climbs in the world goes through Mt. Rainier, considered the premier technical ice climb in the Lower 48. As climbing season dawns this spring, the tricky conditions and the popularity of the climb — almost 10,000 people take on Mt. Rainier each year — mean the mountain will be a busy place for Mike Gauthier, 35, head climbing ranger at Mt. Rainier National Park.

Both of them successfully climbed Mt. Pumori on March 25, but while returning, they climbed 100 meters down and unfortunately slipped and fell down in mountain trench of 500 meter depth which led them to the death.

These two climbers were on the 11 member International Pumori Expedition 2005 team.

After last year’s Everest season, climbers trickled in to ExWeb’s office bringing with them tales of summits but also some alarming news. All over the mountain, climbers had been falling asleep. All had been shook awake by Sherpas; most weren’t aware how close to death they’d been. Almost all were novices to 8000+ altitude. They didn’t feel cold, or thirsty, or too tired. They just had an overpowering urge to sit down, close their eyes – and rest for a while.

Discussed are mountain illnesses and how they progress including the following details: “When dying a ‘sweet death’, you feel an innocent desire to lie down and sleep. A certain feeling of wellness overcomes you. And with a sardonic ‘Mona Lisa’ smile on your face, you die.”