"Because it's there."

Skiers are nuts. They jump out with the copter hovering with one skid on a rock.
...and then ski down shit that snow only adheres to by some magical suspension of the laws of physics.
The movie is based on Nobile's book. I don't believe the ghosts were in the book. I think it's out there on netflix.

I'll add it to the queue.

Bed time for me. Sleep warm...
 
That's a badass group of places that require a high level of commitment and skill to climb. God damn, but they're beautiful.

Pakistan

The highest point in the group is the summit of Great Trango Tower, 6,286 m (20,608 ft). The east face of the Great Trango Tower features the world’s greatest nearly vertical drop.
 
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Pakistan

The highest point in the group is the summit of Great Trango Tower, 6,286 m (20,608 ft). The east face of the Great Trango Tower features the world’s greatest nearly vertical drop.
Yup. The Trango group is unmistakeable. I loved Todd Sinner's comments when he and some pals were training up for it:

"If you use a ladder to climb a mountain, you've climbed a ladder, not a mountain," and "We trained by bouldering. We figured if we could climb any ten feet of it, we could climb the whole thing."

And where it sits in the world...damn.

I think that's Jeff Lowe? What a great shot. You sort of wonder where he goes from there.


We dare not talk about huge vertical drops without a picture of Mount Thor!


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Mount_Thor.jpg
Mount Thor, including its steep cliff


Mount Thor, officially gazetted as Thor Peak, is a mountain with an elevation of 1,675 m (5,495 ft) located in Auyuittuq National Park, on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. The mountain is located 46 km (29 mi) northeast of Pangnirtung and features the Earth's greatest purely vertical drop at 1,250 m (4,101 ft), with an average angle of 105 degrees. This feature makes the site popular with climbers, despite its remoteness. Camping is allowed, with the only official site being at the entrance to the Akshayuk Valley near Overlord Peak.


Mount Thor is part of the Baffin Mountains which in turn form part of the Arctic Cordillera mountain range. The mountain is made of granite and is the most famous of Canada's mountains named "Thor".[1]
Mount Thor was first climbed in 1953 by an Arctic Institute of North America team. The team members were Hans Weber, J Rothlisberger and F. Schwarzenbach. The same men climbed the North Tower of Mount Asgard for the first time.
The world record for longest rappel was set on Mount Thor, July 23, 2006, by an American team consisting of: Chuck Constable, Dirk Siron, Ben Holley, Kenneth Waite, Gordon Rosser, Donny Opperman, Deldon Barfuss, and Tim Hudson. A 26-year-old Canadian national park warden, Philip Robinson, also rappelled, but had a problem with his equipment and was killed when he dropped to the base of the mountain. There had been a previous attempt in 2004, but they returned without rappelling due to dangerous weather conditions.[2]
 
Swatted in the climbing gym today. I guess flashing 5.7 and working on 5.8 is pretty accurate for where we're at. And I'll take it off the couch. I hurt, though. My shoulders and elbows ache.
 
For those not familiar with Riccardo Cassin (I see I misspelled his first name earlier):

http://www.climbing.com/community/perspective/Cassin_267-375.jpg


Riccardo Cassin 1909–2009

By Luke Laeser

The Italian climbing pioneer Riccardo Cassin has passed away on August 6th at his home near Lecco in Northern Italy.

The rarely idle Cassin, who continued climbing well into his eighties, made first ascents all over the world in ranges of such as the Alps, Alaska, South America and the Himalaya.

In 1931, a 22-year-old Riccardo Cassin along with Mario dell'Oro (whom he pioneered many routes with) made the first, of many great firsts, climbing the Cassin-dell'Oro Route on the Medale formation in Italy’s Dolomites. Some consider this route to be one of the most popular climbs in all of the Alps. After that, always looking for bigger and more grand, he moved up to the large formations in the Dolomites climbing on the Cima Grande, the Torre Triest the Cima Ovest, before moving up again to French and Swiss Alps climbs like the Eiger's North Face and Grandes Jorasses’ Walker Spur.

Riccardo had always been dedicated to the sport of climbing and in 1947 he began making climbing equipment like pitons, ice axes, and other hardware and clothing under his name “Cassin” until he eventually sold the brand to CAMP in 1997.

Riccardo Cassin was 100 years old and is survived by his three sons.






Stolen from Climbing magazine: http://www.climbing.com/news/passages/riccardo_cassin_1909-2009/
 
Not a forgiving place.

Not at all. From SuperTopo:

Overview
The Cassin is the quintessential technical climb of the Alaska Range. It is an elegant line that perfectly splits the enormous south face of the biggest mountain on the continent and is one of the most sought after climbs in the world. Many consider it a trade-route of the range, but judging by the actual number of ascents it has seen, it is still a modern testpiece and a lasting tribute to the visionary first ascensionists. The actual climbing is not that difficult by present technical standards. But the complete package of a long and dangerous approach, 8,000 feet of sustained climbing, high altitude, arctic cold and storms, and difficult retreat make this route a serious endeavor. The quality of the climbing is absolutely classic. Bradford Washburn wrote that the route had “unequivocally excellent climbing from start to finish.” Both the rock and the ice on this exceptional route are superb.
 
Not at all. From SuperTopo:

Overview
The Cassin is the quintessential technical climb of the Alaska Range. It is an elegant line that perfectly splits the enormous south face of the biggest mountain on the continent and is one of the most sought after climbs in the world. Many consider it a trade-route of the range, but judging by the actual number of ascents it has seen, it is still a modern testpiece and a lasting tribute to the visionary first ascensionists. The actual climbing is not that difficult by present technical standards. But the complete package of a long and dangerous approach, 8,000 feet of sustained climbing, high altitude, arctic cold and storms, and difficult retreat make this route a serious endeavor. The quality of the climbing is absolutely classic. Bradford Washburn wrote that the route had “unequivocally excellent climbing from start to finish.” Both the rock and the ice on this exceptional route are superb.

Washburn would know.
 
Just reposting this exchange from earlier in the thread, page 85.


Coolest one I ever saw was in the Harvard Mountaineering Club office. It was a gift to Brad Washburn from Ricardo Cassin.

That might be worth stealing......

but then, who could you show it to?

It was sitting in a dusty corner the first time I saw it. The pres said t was like a club joke..."Can we use this, or was it Washburn's?" Now it hangs above a dead fountain in the wall. Think I have a pic here somewhere...

Here it is. If you zoom in, you can see his name on the pick.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Peregrinator/192_92642.jpg
 
holy shite!

You two fuckers are STILL posting to this thread... DAMN, that's commitment! :D
 
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