The 28-year-old was among 24 climbers caught on Britain’s highest mountain during ‘ferocious’ weather
A man who died after falling about 300 metres (1,000ft) down the UK’s highest mountain has been named as Samuel Crawford.
The 28-year-old climber from Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland, slipped on the west side of Ben Nevis on 8 March , suffering fatal injuries, as 23 others were rescued in “ferocious” conditions.
Continue reading...Martin Hibbert, who was 5 metres from the deadly explosion, is now tackling Africa’s highest mountain
It was a month after the Manchester Arena attack when Martin Hibbert learned the catastrophic toll of his injuries. He and his 14-year-old daughter, Eve, on a “daddy daughter day” to an Ariana Grande concert, were 5 metres from the explosion that killed 22 people and injured hundreds more in May 2017.
Hibbert, 45, from Chorley in Lancashire, was told he would never walk again. Eve would probably never see, hear, speak or move – if she made it out of hospital. They were the closest to the bomb to survive.
Continue reading...Gemstones worth €300,000 shared between Mont Blanc climber and authorities as man praised for handing find to police in 2013
A treasure trove of emeralds, rubies and sapphires buried for decades on a glacier off France’s Mont Blanc has finally been shared between the climber who discovered them and local authorities, eight years after they were found.
The mountaineer stumbled across the precious stones in 2013. They had remained hidden in a metal box that was onboard an Indian plane that crashed in the desolate landscape some 50 years earlier.
Continue reading...Climbing solo without ropes, the Canadian adventurer would scale stratospheric walls of ice that could crack and fall with one wrong move. We meet the makers of a gripping, heartbreaking new film
An insect-like creature is climbing a wall. The wall is made of ice – not regular, firm ice, but ice with spikes and cracks and gaps in behind. The creature has extended arms like a mantis, with sharply angled ends that hook into the ice, as well as spikes on its feet to kick in. Still, it doesn’t look very secure: the ice creaks and bits break off and fall. The creature feels around for somewhere else to stick its hooks and spikes, then continues upwards – intently, methodically, almost mechanically. It is both beautiful and absolutely terrifying.
When the camera pans out, it’s even more terrifying, because of the sheer size of this frozen wall. It is vast and vertiginous, the creature a tiny dot creeping upwards, a gnat in a sweeping sub-zero landscape. Except that this gnat has no wings: if it falls, it falls. Nor does it have a rope, because it’s not a gnat or even an insect, but a man – a Canadian by the name of Marc-André Leclerc, climbing solo in the Rockies with crampons and a pair of ice-axes.
Continue reading...It is every climber’s worst nightmare. In this extract from his thrilling book about the glorious – and treacherous – Cuillin Ridge on Skye, Simon Ingram recalls the day its wild peaks almost took his life
I had been out of signal for most of the day, so when my phone suddenly stirred in my pocket, I decided to have a look. Remembering a climbing maxim – “Don’t try to do two things at once” – I shouted for my friend Kingsley to hang on, stopped and took out my mobile. The message was junk, but I took the opportunity to send some that weren’t and then check my voicemail.
Wandering absent-mindedly to where a boulder jutted off into the mist, I noticed Kingsley moving down the path. Shouting to alert him that I’d stopped, I brought the handset up to my ear and looked out at the cloud hanging off the Cuillin Ridge, waiting for the phone to connect. I took another step, just a small one to the left. And then everything went wrong.
Continue reading...Two decades ago Richard Stiles escaped an avalanche in New Zealand, but friend Steve Robinson wasn’t so lucky. Now the mountain has given up some of its secrets
When mountaineer Chris Hill found a backpack with an old camera in it on the Hooker Glacier – an 11km chunk of ice on New Zealand’s South Island – he was intrigued and decided to get the film inside developed.
Hooker is at the base of Aoraki (Mount Cook), in a national park of icy peaks where hundreds of climbers have died, dozens of them never to be found.
Continue reading...Organisations in Scotland say they have tried to contact Google about the dangers but received no reply
Scottish mountaineering charities have criticised Google for suggesting routes up Ben Nevis and other mountains they say are “potentially fatal” and direct people over a cliff.
The John Muir Trust, which looks after the upper reaches of the UK’s highest mountain, said attempts to contact the company over the issue had been met with silence.
Continue reading...Austrian expedition leader Lukas Furtenbach says the real number could be 200, despite official Nepali denials
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A coronavirus outbreak on Mount Everest has infected at least 100 climbers and support staff, a mountaineering guide said, giving the first comprehensive estimate amid official Nepalese denials that the disease has spread to the world’s highest peak.
Lukas Furtenbach of Austria, who last week halted his Everest expedition due to virus fears, said on Saturday one of his foreign guides and six Nepali Sherpa guides had tested positive.
Continue reading...Decision to allow expeditions to go ahead dealt blow after outbreak on world’s seventh highest mountain
Nepal’s decision to allow people to continue to climb its Himalayan peaks as a vicious Covid-19 wave sweeps the country was dealt a further blow after 19 more climbers tested positive for the virus.
Last month it was reported that the pandemic had reached Everest base camp and though officials later denied it, climbers have reported a wave of infections that were being covered up.
Continue reading...Nepal authorities accused of underplaying seriousness of situation as daily cases soar
The coronavirus outbreak at Everest base camp in Nepal, controversially opened to climbers despite the pandemic, has infected “many people” amid continuing evacuations and complaints of lack of transparency over the severity of the situation.
With Nepal reporting a record number of more than 7,000 new cases in a day, its highest total since October, reports from Everest described a number of evacuations of climbers showing symptoms of Covid-19 even as doctors at base camp complained privately they were not being allowed by the country’s ministry of health to undertake PCR testing.
Continue reading...Ali Sadpara of Pakistan, John Snorri of Iceland, and Juan Pablo Mohr of Chile lost contact with base camp
An aerial search to find three experienced climbers who lost contact with base camp during a winter ascent of K2, the world’s second highest mountain, will resume on Monday morning officials have said.
celebrated Pakistani mountaineer Ali Sadpara and his two companions, John Snorri of Iceland and Juan Pablo Mohr of Chile lost contact with base camp late Friday and were reported missing on Saturday after their support team stopped receiving reports from them during their ascent.
Continue reading...The mountaineer Doug Scott was a founder of Nottingham Moderns RFC, whose formation arose from the grip that grammar schools often held over rugby union in England. When you left school and wanted to play the game, but had attended a secondary modern school rather than a grammar, there was often nowhere to go. This was particularly the case in Nottingham, where a group of rugby-mad former secondary modern pupils, including Doug, and a motley crew of trainee Welsh school teachers formed their own club.
Doug had failed his 11+ and went to Cottesmore secondary modern, though his academic potential was soon spotted, and he transferred to the Mundella grammar (now Nottingham Emmanuel school) where he thrived. He became club captain of the Moderns for the 1958-59 season and is fondly remembered by many of his former team mates at the Wilford-based club, with many stories of his physical fitness and fondness for a Guinness or two still being told.
Continue reading...Several more mountaineers are unaccounted for and seven crew on a capsized ship are missing after wild weather across the region
At least 10 climbers have died and several more are missing after a blizzard triggered avalanches in mountains north of Iran’s capital, Tehran, state media reported on Saturday.
Several climbers have remained unaccounted for since Friday, when two deaths were reported, while the number reported as missing has increased as concerned families contact authorities, state television said.
Continue reading...Foreign minister makes formal complaint about ‘interference’ on the highest Alpine peak
Italy has reignited a dispute with France over Mont Blanc border rights after French authorities imposed measures that encroached on Italian territory.
Luigi Di Maio, the Italian foreign minister, who in the past has stoked tensions with France over other issues, said he had written a formal letter of complaint to the French government via the Italian embassy in Paris expressing his “strong disappointment” over the “interference” on the highest Alpine peak.
Continue reading...More than half a century ago, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to summit Everest. Now a collection of rare photos from Hillary’s life is up for auction in New Zealand, featuring scenes of the climbers tackling the world’s tallest peak
Continue reading...Team of 16 volunteers carried Daisy off Scafell Pike on a stretcher during five-hour operation
A mountain rescue team has said its members “didn’t need to think twice” when they were called to help a 121lb (55kg) St Bernard dog that had collapsed while descending England’s highest peak.
Sixteen volunteers from Wasdale mountain rescue team spent nearly five hours rescuing Daisy from Scafell Pike after receiving a call from Cumbria police.
Continue reading...Teenage French climbing prodigy Luce Douady was killed on Sunday when she fell on a footpath in a climbing area in the French Alps, the French Mountain Climbing Federation (FFME) and its club in Chambery said.
The 16-year-old reigning world junior champion fell 150m as she and a group of friends were crossing a tricky path equipped with a handrail between two climbing areas.
Continue reading...Hayden Prince, 24, fell to his death when large rock to which rope was tied became dislodged
A British man fell to his death in the Swiss Alps when a rock holding his abseiling rope toppled over as he descended a mountain, an inquest has heard.
L/Cpl Hayden Prince, 24, was on a private trip with two mountaineering friends while on annual leave from the British army. The group set out from the Hornli hut at the base camp of the Matterhorn at 6am on 2 June last year with a plan of turning around and descending by 2pm regardless of whether they had reached the summit.
Continue reading...The mountain’s closure is devastating for many in a Himalayan nation that relies heavily on trekkers and climbers
The tiny airport at Lukla, perched on the edge of a mountain high in Nepal’s Himalayas, usually echoes with the roar of propeller planes flying a constant stream of adventure-seekers into the small town, known as the gateway to Mount Everest.
During the peak spring tourist season, tens of thousands of trekkers and mountaineers arrive to test themselves on the popular trek to Everest base camp, and perhaps go on to climb the world’s highest peak.
Continue reading...The American was abseiling in El Potrero Chico near Monterrey when he plunged about 300m to his death
One of the world’s most renowned rock climbers, the American Brad Gobright, has died after falling off a mountain in Mexico.
The fall occurred on Wednesday on an almost sheer face known as El Sendero Luminoso on the El Toro mountain in the El Portrero Chico area near the northern city of Monterrey, civil defense officials said.
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