mountaineers

20 Stories

Mountaineer Accused of Climbing Over Dying Man: We Couldn't Save Him

'We couldn't have done anything more,' an emotional Kristin Harila insists

(Newser) - A record-setting Norwegian mountaineer pushed back Sunday against claims that she could have done more to save the life of a Pakistani porter who slipped off a narrow trail near the peak of the world's most treacherous mountain and died there after several hours. The circumstances of Mohammad Hassan'...

As Glacier Ice Melted, Another Grisly Find

Cops say body found near Matterhorn is German mountaineer who went missing 37 years ago

(Newser) - DNA tests have confirmed that the body recently found on a glacier southeast of the famed Matterhorn peak is that of a German mountaineer who disappeared 37 years ago, police in southwestern Switzerland said Thursday. Increasing glacier melt, which many scientists blame on global warming, has spurred a recent increase...

She Tried the Big 14 Last Year and Failed. Now, Success

Kristin Harila, Tenjen Sherpa summit at K2, scale world's highest mountains in record 92 days

(Newser) - A Norwegian woman mountain climber and her Nepali Sherpa guide have set a new record by scaling the world's 14 highest peaks in 92 days, a Pakistani mountaineering official said. On Thursday, Kristin Harila and Tenjen Sherpa summited K2 on the Chinese-Pakistani border in the Karakorum Range—considered to...

Glacier Gives Up Explorers' Cameras Abandoned in 1937

Bradford Washburn and Robert Bates' gear moved more than 12 miles over 85 years

(Newser) - Conservators hope to get an inside look at a 1937 mountaineering expedition in the Yukon thanks to the discovery of the explorers' cameras—with surviving film inside. The trip by Bradford Washburn and Robert Bates didn't go according to plan. Bad weather turned their starting point, the Walsh Glacier,...

Dozens of Trainee Mountaineers Dead or Missing in Avalanche

Avalanche hit group of 34 trainees, 7 instructors in Indian Himalayas

(Newser) - The Indian Air Force has joined search and rescue efforts in the Himalayas, where at least 10 people were killed in an avalanche Tuesday and dozens more are missing. Authorities say the avalanche hit a group of 34 trainee mountaineers and seven instructors on Mount Draupadi ka Danda II in...

Hilaree Nelson Given a Sherpa Cremation

The ski mountaineer died in a Sept. 26 fall

(Newser) - Hilaree Nelson died on Sept. 26 after falling thousands of feet when a small avalanche struck as she skied down the 26,781-foot Manaslu in Nepal. On Sunday, she received a traditional funeral at a Sherpa cremation ground in that country. The AP reports family, friends, mountaineers, and government officials...

8th-Highest Peak Claims Pioneering US Mountaineer

Body of Hilaree Nelson recovered from Nepal's Mount Manaslu, from which she fell on Monday

(Newser) - Update: The death of US ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson has been confirmed with the recovery of her body from the world's eighth-highest peak. The 49-year-old fell down the southern side of Nepal's 26,781-foot Mount Manaslu after leaving the summit on Monday. Her partner, Jim Morrison, who was...

Adventurers, This Dicey Cabin No Longer an Option
Adventurers, This Dicey
Cabin No Longer an Option
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Mar 26, 2022 6:30 AM CDT

Adventurers, This Dicey Cabin No Longer an Option

Canada says high-altitude Abbot Pass Hut must be dismantled because of erosion

(Newser) - For those with an adventurous streak, a century-old cabin that overlooks the Continental Divide in Canada might have been the perfect retreat. But as Gizmodo reports, the famed Abbot Pass Hut is no longer an option. The hut sits about 10,000 feet above sea level in Canada's Rocky...

They've Climbed the 14 Highest Peaks. Now, a 'Grand Slam' Quest

Nepalese Sherpa brothers set out to climb highest peaks on all 7 continents

(Newser) - Two brothers who are among Nepal's most famous Sherpa guides set out on Monday to scale the highest peaks on each of the world's seven continents, in a sweeping global trek that will take them across both the North and South poles. Mingma Sherpa and Chhang Dawa Sherpa...

No One Has Climbed K2 in Winter. This Year, 55 Will Try

Push is on to claim 'one of mountaineering's last great prizes'

(Newser) - About 1 in 4 people who climb K2, the world's second-highest mountain, die in the process. That's compared to about 4% of those who climb Mount Everest, which is 800 feet taller but less of a challenge for mountaineers. And the 28,251-foot-tall K2 is the only one...

Hi, I Just Climbed Everest Twice in One Week!

Kami Rita Sherpa, 49, breaks own world record, ascends mountain for 24th time

(Newser) - Dear everyone who's ever climbed Mount Everest: Big deal. That may be exactly what Kami Rita Sherpa is thinking after extending his latest record on the mega-mountain, reaching the peak for the 24th time on Tuesday, per the BBC . Not only that, but the 49-year-old had just ascended Everest...

30 Years After They Vanished on the Mountain, 'Closure'
30 Years After They
Vanished on the
Mountain, 'Closure'
in case you missed it
Dec 15, 2018 4:00 PM CST

30 Years After They Vanished on the Mountain, 'Closure'

Steve Aisthorpe grateful that 2 friends who disappeared in Himalayas in 1988 have been found

(Newser) - The bodies of those who succumb to the Himalayan mountains likely stay on the slopes forever—it's often too difficult, dangerous, and costly to retrieve them. That fact didn't stop Steve Aisthorpe of Scotland from his recent mission on the Nepal-Tibet border: to get "closure" on the...

9 Die in Nepal Climbing Disaster
9 Die in Nepal
Climbing Disaster
Oct 15, 2018 1:02 AM CDT

9 Die in Nepal Climbing Disaster

Storm swept through their base camp

(Newser) - Nine people, including South Korean climbers, were killed on Gurja Himal mountain after a strong storm swept through their base camp, Nepalese police say. The nine climbers who died included Kim Chang-ho, the first South Korean to summit all 14 Himalayan peaks over 8,000 meters without using supplemental oxygen....

He Lost 9 Fingers on Everest, Then Lost His Life

Nobukazu Kuriki was 35

(Newser) - Two foreign climbers attempting to scale Mount Everest have died on the world's highest peak, a Nepal mountaineering official said Monday. Members of their expedition teams reported a Japanese climber died Monday and a Macedonian died on Sunday, said Gyanendra Shrestha, who is stationed at Everest's base camp...

Quick-Thinking Rescuer Saves Life of Man Trapped in Glacier

German mountaineer lucky to be alive after falling into a crevice in Austria

(Newser) - Austrian emergency teams have rescued a German mountaineer who spent five days in a deep glacier crevice after slipping. Officials say the man was found in the 100-foot-deep gap Thursday after he succeeded in making an emergency call from his cellphone following numerous failed attempts because of poor reception, the...

The Mountaineer We Never Knew Dies at 94
The Mountaineer We
Never Knew Dies at 94
OBITUARY
Oct 31, 2017 12:10 PM CDT

The Mountaineer We Never Knew Dies at 94

Fred Beckey, who sometimes climbed 50 peaks a year, had more first ascents than any American

(Newser) - Legendary mountain climber Fred Beckey, who wrote dozens of books and is credited with notching more first ascents than any other American mountaineer, has died. He was 94. Megan Bond, a close friend who managed his affairs, told the AP that Beckey died of natural causes in her Seattle home...

Climber Says He Raced Up Everest Twice in One Week

Kilian Jornet says he did so without oxygen or fixed ropes within one week

(Newser) - It's one thing to climb Everest. It's another to climb Everest without fixed ropes or extra oxygen. And it's entirely something else to do the latter twice in a span of a single week. That's what 29-year-old Spanish climber Kilian Jornet claims to have just accomplished,...

Missing Climber Fell 1,500 Feet, Survived

'He is literally a walking miracle,' mom says of Ryan Montoya

(Newser) - High winds and frigid temps couldn't take him down, nor could frostbite. And, per the story now trickling out of Colorado, even a 1,500-foot plummet off of Pyramid Peak couldn't keep Ryan Montoya from proving he's the ultimate survivor. The Aspen Times and Denver7 report the...

Humans Failed to Conquer Everest in 2015

 Humans Failed to 
 Conquer Everest 
 in 2015 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jan 10, 2016 7:00 PM CST

Humans Failed to Conquer Everest in 2015

And more people died on the mountain last year than in any other year

(Newser) - For the first time in 41 years, not a single person stood on the summit of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak at 29,029 feet, during an entire calendar year. But that's not even close to the worst of what 2015 brought, as famed climber Alan Arnette...

Missing Climber's Frozen Body Found—32 Years Later
Missing Climber's Frozen Body Found 32 Years Later
in case you missed it
Jul 13, 2014 7:00 PM CDT

Missing Climber's Frozen Body Found 32 Years Later

Patrice Hyvert disappeared on Mont Blanc in 1982 when he was just 23

(Newser) - Some 32 years after he went missing, the body of aspiring mountain guide Patrice Hyvert has been found, frozen, on a glacier in the Mont Blanc range. Just 23 at the time he vanished during a solo climb of one of the Mont Blanc massif's main peaks, Hyvert was...

20 Stories