Russian Everest North Face Update–Onward and Upward: They just keep going and going and going…Slowly but surely the Russian Big Wall team trying to scale the rocky Hell of Everest’s central North Face is gaining altitude. Here’s the latest dispatch from team leader Viktor Kozlov:

“Yesterday the group led by Petr Kuznetsov managed to settle the tent, and it is our second camp at 7550m. Having spent the night already in this camp since the morning we continued working on the wall. There were 4 pitches made before and today we managed to fix five ropes more. In a result the expedition have reached 7800 meters. We have got 4-5 pitches left up to the beginning of the rocky bastion. Tomorrow the guys plan to engage in fixing these ropes, and then will descend to have a rest. Today Ermachek’s group (Ermachek-Volodin-Zhilin) left the camp I to change Kuznetsov’s group that is going to descend to 6200m. Bastion’s altitude is 7900m. The main task of Ermachek’s group is to set there next camp. Then the groups led by Koshelenko and Shabalin by turns will begin fixing the bastion. So, for today – the altitude is 7800m.”

The rocky bastard, I mean bastion. This climb only gets more difficult the higher the climbers go, which is why it will be such an incredible feat of high altitude moutaineering if these guys actually get to the top via this route….



“This thing is so hairy, I’m losing all of mine…”