Bolotov and Urubko were at 5600m on the south side of Everest when the accident happened. The pair were attempting a new route on the southwest face, between the Southwest Face route (Haston-Scott-Boardman-Pertemba-Burke, 1975) and the South Pillar (Czok-Kukuczka, 1980), in alpine style. The only ascent on Everest to match these conditions (new route in alpine style) is Reinhold Messner's famous solo ascent in 1980. However, he started on the 1960 North Ridge route, breaking off onto new ground for less than 1000m of the 3600m route, long enough to constitute a new variation but not its own route. Historian Ed Webster asserts, though, "No one can ever 'better' what Reinhold Messner achieved with his solo ascent of Everest. 'Absolute Best Style' has already been achieved on Everest."

Australians Greg Mortimer, Tim Macartney-Snape, Andy Henderson, Geoff Bartram and Lincoln Hall came close to Bolotov and Urubko's goal in 1984, but used fixed ropes to ferry loads when they established White Limbo up the Norton Couloir without oxygen. Two years later, Erhard Loretan and Jean Troillet climbed with "no more than what they could fit in their pockets or in a small daypack," (Alpinist 27) but by a combination of existing routes to reach the summit. In 1988, the four-man team of Robert Andersen, Paul Teare, Stephen Venebles and Ed Webster put up the Neverest Buttress on the Kangshung Face, but they also used fixed ropes to aid their ascent.

Age 50 at the time of his death and married with two children, Bolotov was well-known for mountaineering feats in the Greater Ranges that placed him among the top alpinists in Russia. He won his first of two Piolets d'Or for climbing the west face of Makalu (8485m) in 1998. In 2004, he was part of an eleven-man team that claimed the first ascent of the elusive north face of Jannu (7710m) by a route more than 3000 meters tall. Three years later, he established one of the most difficult routes on K2 as a member of another large Russian team using the same siege-style tactics over two and a half months. The climbers chose a direct line up the steep, mixed buttress on K2's west face, even though an unclimbed couloir to the left of the buttress promised an easier path to the 8611m summit.

"Criticism often is leveled at the heavy-weight, traditional Russian tactics still used on big mountains, but their talent to overcome great technical difficulties at very high altitudes--and the now-famous ability to stick with it through very harsh conditions--has led to the completion of some highly impressive projects over the last few years," Lindsay Griffin wrote in the September 5, 2007 NewsWire.

On May 16, Denis Urubko, Lakpa Sherpa, who works at the Base Camp medical tent, and Damian Benegas recovered Bolotov's body with the help of helicopter pilots Maurizio Folini and Simone Moro. After filling out paperwork in Kathmandu, Urubko continued with the body to Russia.

"Denis is better off today," Moro told Montagna.tv. "Having been involved in the recovery has definitely helped."

A memorial service will be held today at 10 a.m. (local time) in at the Ural Cultural Center, while the funeral service and burial will take place at 1:00 p.m. at Shirokorechenskiy cemetery, Ekaterinburg, near the monument to mountaineers Salavat and Igor Bugachevskiy, who died on Makalu in 1997.

Sources: Anna Piunova, Federico Bernardi, Bob A. Schelfhout-Aubertijn, Alpinist 26, Alpinist 27, mountain.ru, barrabes.com, montagna.tv, urubko.blogspot.com, montagna.tv

The policy affects all National Parks, which contain many of the country's most popular climbing areas: Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Zion, Tetons. In the Director's Order, the NPS recognizes "that the use of removable anchors may reduce, but does not in every case completely eliminate, the need for fixed anchors. The occasional placement of a fixed anchor for belay, rappel or protection purposes does not necessarily impair the future enjoyment of wilderness or violate the Wilderness Act." In some National Parks, this interpretation contrasts heavily with current regulations. Arches National Park, in eastern Utah, prohibits any new fixed hardware or webbing, limiting climbers to existing routes or new routes that don't require fixed gear. In others, like Yosemite, climbers are allowed to place fixed anchors on new routes as long as you're not killing vegetation, using a power drill, climbing near falcon nesting areas or in banned areas.

While, in some parks, this fixed-anchor policy will be more lenient than existing restrictions, it does not mean climbers will be allowed to drill at will. The NPS believes that the "establishment of bolt-intensive face climbs is considered incompatible with wilderness preservation and management due to the concentration of human activity which they support, and the types and levels of impacts associated with such routes."

At this time there are still many questions as to what all the new policy means. In the next few weeks, the NPS will release a reference manual to the Director's Order. Until then, "climbers should be very cautious until we get clear direction in the coming weeks, when establishing a new routes where fixed protection is needed," says Jason Keith, Access Fund's Senior Policy Adviser. "I predict there will be some concerned climbers out there in limbo, and we need to figure out how to deal with interim permit authorizations and large-scale authorizations in parks that can be both programmatic and streamlined so they are workable and effective for climbers and land managers."

Click here to read Director's Order #41.

This morning, news reached Base Camp that Alexy Bolotov, the rope partner of Denis Urubko, died in an accident at 5600m on Everest. "The incident is confirmed," Beni Maiya Hyoju of Cho Oyu Trekking told Montagna.tv. "But still little is known about the dynamics. It took place at about 5600 meters above sea level, just above the Icefall. Maybe a fall into a crevasse."

Bolotov and Urubko planned to climb a new route in alpine style on the southwest aspect, between the Southwest Face route (Haston-Scott-Boardman-Pertemba-Burke, 1975) and the South Pillar (Czok-Kukuczka, 1980).

The prime conditions on eastern aspects in the Ruth Gorge, result of heavy snow- and rainfall last year and cold temperatures this spring, enabled another new line, this time on a 7,500-foot satellite peak of Mt. Johnson (8,460'). Peter Doucette and Silas Rossi climbed Twisted Stair (V WI6 R/X M6+, 2,300').

They flew into the Ruth Gorge on April 10 in the bone-cold temperatures that have settled into the range this season. They waited on the glacier for one week as the temperatures ranged between 0 and -35 degrees Fahrenheit, "skiing and scheming and [waiting] for a bump in the mercury." Huge snow mushrooms quelled their several attempts on Mt. Bradley and Mt. Dickey, despite clear weather.

On April 20, Doucette and Rossi pointed their skies toward a "clean and obvious" direct line on a 7,500-foot peak in the back of the east-facing Johnson/Wake Amphitheater. Already bisecting this north face was the legendary Elevator Shaft (Alaska Grade 6: 5.7 A3 AI5+), put up by Doug Chabot and Jack Tackle in 1995. The 2,400-foot couloir enchanted Chabot when he flew by it in 1992. When he and Jack Tackle flew onto the Ruth Glacier three years later, Mt. Johnson had only been climbed once, and recent attempts on a second ascent had ended badly. Dave McGivem and Charlie Sassara climbed low on the mountain when blocks of ice and avalanche detritus knocked them down the mountain. Their rope wrapped around Sassara's neck three times. His partner resuscitated them and they returned to the Ruth Glacier. Two years later, Jim Sweeney broke his hip in a 90-foot fall. The eight-day retreat that followed nearly killed him and his partner, Dave Nyman, but they survived multiple avalanches and crevasse falls and a plane crash. Despite two imposing-looking cruxes and a menacing serac, Chabot and Tackle finished the climb with relative ease, marking Mt. Johnson's second ascent and its first traverse.

Earlier this month, Doucette and Rossi started their ascent on the 2007 Giri-Giri Boys' route, The Ladder Tube (V 5.10 R A3 WI4+ R M5, 3,000'), one of three new routes that Fumitaka Ichimura, Yusuke Sato and Tatsuro Yamada fired off in the Ruth Gorge over a two-week period. Before the end of the first pitch, Doucette and Rossi split right to follow what they believe to be unclimbed ground. They found "physical and committing 'blue-collar' Alaskan climbing" sustained for the height of the wall.

"Bergschrund to summit cornice, there was little reprieve as we navigated steep snice, sporadic mixed terrain, and a dizzying and delicate WI6r/x crux smear at two-thirds height," Doucette wrote. They bivied in a snow cave just below the crux, then finished the climb and returned to camp the following day, happy to have the same number of fingers and toes with which they started.

Sources: Peter Doucette, 1996 AAJ, 2008 AAJ, alpinist.com

In a 10-day period this month, three new lines went up on the rarely climbed east side of the Mooses Tooth, just outside Alaska's Ruth Gorge. All three lines took direct routes through the steep buttresses that make up the upper half of the face.

In the American Alpine Journal, Bradford Washburn highlighted the east face of the Mooses Tooth as a last great problem in Alaska in the 1970s. A number of North American climbers, including Jeff Lowe, Mike Weiss and Michael Kennedy, answered the call with several unsuccessful attempts on the 5,000-foot wall. Meeting in Europe in 1980, Jim Bridwell and Mugs Stump agreed to make an unconventional winter attempt on the right side of the face the following year. They approached the climb, having recently shed its most threatening cornice, with a "conquest or death" attitude. The pair simulclimbed the first several hundred feet, repeatedly moving left as they ran into rock.

"This traverse was memorably scary. Less than a foot of crusted snow clung to the sixty-degree rock slabs. It sounded like we were climbing on cardboard," Bridwell wrote in the Alpinist 8 Mountain Profile. "Down climbing gave the second the sensation of leading. Purely psychological belay anchors kept us focused."

Gaining the central prow of the face, Bridwell and Stump pitched out ice-filled chimneys up to WI4+ and steep snow. Stump found the crux on Day 3 in a string of A4 placements. After spending another cold night in a snow cave at the top of the wall, they climbed the three remaining pitches to the summit of the Mooses Tooth. The climbers spent the rest of the day and night there, despite temperatures of -30 degrees Fahrenheit. The wall steepened as they descended, and forced them to rappel on a series of ghastly anchors: pins in loose, sandy rock, slung flakes and a single number-three nut. They graded their route, The Dance of the Woo-Li Masters, a stout VI 5.9 WI4+ A4.

"In terms of boldness, commitment and sheer adventure, that's one of the best routes that's been done in North American," Michael Kennedy told Alpinist in 2003.

Something about the east face of the massif must have beckoned to Bridwell. He returned as part of a five-man team in 1999 to do a similarly difficult line on the east aspect of the massif, this time to the neighboring Bears Tooth summit. The Useless Emotion (VII 5.9 WI4 A4, ca. 1430m, Bridwell-Christensen-Dunmire-Jonas-McCray) follows an incipient line of ice through the lower buttress and continues up the broken face to the summit of the Bears Tooth.

Two years later at age 58, Bridwell returned for his second attempt at a direct start to his 1981 route with Spencer Pfinsten. The pair climbed in capsule style for 30 days, encountering aid as high as A5. High on the route, Pfinsten was injured by a falling rock, but could still jumar. They descended short of the summit snowfield. "Spencer's Southern California origins" made him uneasy on the loose terrain between them and the summit.

After several more hard routes were climbed on the east aspect--The Southeast Face (WI5+ 5.8 A3, 1300m) by Ben Gilmore, Steve House and Kevin Mahoney in 2000 and You Can't Fly (5.10+ A3, 1400m) to the Bears Tooth summit in 2002--Gregory Crouch wrote in Alpinist 4 (2003), "A precipitous North American gem, the magnificent brutality of the east face has earned the respect of the country's finest alpinists for more than thirty years. But The Mooses Tooth is hardly a one-carat mountain.... Much history remains to be made on the flanks of The Mooses Tooth..."

Mahoney returned to the face with Ben Gilmore in 2004 to drive a direct line up the face, spurred by a "Zen rage" he described as "absolute detachment from the world, from the storm, from reason," in Alpinist 8. They failed on their first attempt, sent back to the ground from 2,500 feet up by a steep offwidth with no protection but a slung chockstone dug out of the snice at the base of the crack. Gilmore and Mahoney returned with a number-four Camalot and makeshift aiders. They skirted the offwidth with aid moves, climbed through the "most amazing stretch of rock and ice either of [them] had ever climbed," and finished Arctic Rage (VI WI6+ R A2) in a 24-hour snow storm. Without visibility, the two decided to end their ascent on the summit snowfield, rather then continue to the true tallest point. Jon Bracey and Matt Helliker would make a similar decision in 2008, descending 100 meters below the summit because of exposure to a serac.

This month, Scott Adamson and Pete Tapley climbed the first free line on the face. NWS (V WI6 M5, 1400m) follows the gully system to the right of Arctic Rage.

Adamson's interest in the east face sprang from a rappelling mistake on the Mooses Tooth in 2004. He and James Stover had just climbed a new route on the south face of the massif, Levitation and Hail Marys (V M7 WI6, 3,400'). Disoriented in low visibility on the summit, they accidentally rappelled a full rope-length down the east-facing, opposite side of the mountain from their base camp.

"Back at home I found myself thinking about that wrong turn and how grand and sheer that east face was," Adamson told Alpinist in 2010. "I had to put a route up that thing... free."

Adamson traveled to the face with his brother, Tom, in 2008. They waited out a storm halfway up the wall for two days before turning around at a big, ice-less roof just above. In 2010, he and Matt Tuttle attempted it twice, almost making it to the end of the technical difficulties. "I remember Matt climbing into the belay with an ice lens plastered to [the] right side of his face. I could only make out a small bit of his face through the mask of ice he was wearing." They descended in poor weather, despite the moral-boosting coffee and Peeps marshmallow candies they ate in their snow cave.

This month, Adamson and Tapley arrived on the Buckskin Glacier in -30 degrees Fahrenheit to find excellent conditions from heavy snow- and rainfall the year previous and consistently cold conditions this spring. What was the bare roof that turned the Adamsons around in 2008 and a smear of ice in 2010 was a detached, but thick column of ice that allowed Adamson and Tapley to pass that section. The conditions also meant the route was threatened by a hanging serac that kept them moving quickly. Just below the 2010 snow cave bivy, Tapley broke an ice tool that forced an early retreat.

One day of rest prepared them for a second try on April 13. Over the course of 34 hours, the duo blitzed up the mountain in a single push, taking three brew stops along the way. On the last stop, they enjoyed hot mac and cheese even though their stove was dysfunctional and Tapley spilled the noodles into his gloves, filling them full of "gloop." He had stored his gloves by his chest to keep them warm while climbing. "[Having warm gloves] is like being on the moon and having someone hand you a nice warm cotton T-shirt fresh out the drier!" Adamson said. Refueled, they followed the final three pitches of Arctic Rage and descended from the summit plateau.

Meanwhile, Chris Wright had just bailed off his own project on the east face and was looking for a partner.

"What do you think about going back up there?" he asked Adamson.

"How 'bout tomorrow?"

Only four days after finishing NWS, they teamed up for another go at Wright's line right of The Dance of the Woo Li Masters that's dominated by continuous mixed climbing.

Simulclimbing the first 2,500 feet, they made quick work of the terrain up to Wright's previous highpoint, including 600 feet of WI4+. From there, the difficulties didn't relent until the top of the wall. "If I would have known that every pitch but one and two would be at the same difficulty for the next three days I would have brought more shit paper," Adamson said afterward.

They spent that first, over-20-hour-day getting pumped just swinging their arms to stay warm and were happy to curl into fetal positions at their hanging bivy that night. Another full day of climbing brought them to a wild, Dr. Seuss-esque ridge to sleep.

The next morning, Adamson lead one of the final pitches, placing a nut 10 feet above Wright's belay. A body-length above the protection, he popped off the ice and watched his tools wave in the air as he fell. He landed on a snow mushroom and cart-wheeled onto the belay, but was unhurt. From the summit, a "blur of v-threads" and down climbing brought them back to camp after 67 hours. In total, they pitched out 22 rope lengths on their route they called Terror. Only three were easier than WI4, and 19 of them topped WI4 M6 for an overall grade of VI WI6 M7 R/X A2.

While Adamson, Tapley and Wright were filling in the gaps on the Mooses Tooth east face, Dani Arnold and David Lama did the same. Though neither climber had been to Alaska and had flown onto the Buckskin Glacier "without a specific idea (of) what we would go for," Lama said, they quickly picked out a technical link-up of features just left of Arctic Rage, aiming for an obvious rock buttress high on the mountain. They made it halfway up the buttress on their first day, having made quick work of 80- and 90-degree snow that led into nine pitches of more difficult terrain. "The climbing was really complex, and we constantly had to switch between free, ice, mixed and aid climbing," Lama said.

The next morning, Arnold and Lama left their bivy gear behind to make a fast-and-light summit bid. The corner system they followed was periodically interrupted by snow mushrooms that they pendulumed around. Twenty-six pitches bought them to the summit snowfield at 6 p.m. They chose to descend back to their bivy without continuing to the summit proper. In all, it took the two climbers 48 hours, camp-to-camp, to establish Bird of Prey (5.10 M7+ A2 90 degrees, 1500m).

Sources: Scott Adamson, Dani Arnold, David Lama, Pete Tapley, Chris Wright, Alpinist 4 Mountain Profile, Alpinist 8, alpinist.com (Arctic Rage), alpinist.com (There's A Moose Loose Aboot This Hoose)

Mark Thomas and David Almond have proven once again that limits lie not in the mountains but in our minds. Their new route, Jottnar (Scottish Grade VIII,8, 250m), ascends the north face of the Aiguille du Midi, one of the most iconic peaks in the Alps. That sufficient unclimbed ground exists for a natural, non-contrived route on the Midi seems unlikely.

Thomas spotted a thin line of ice (Pitch 4) while guiding clients, and after he and Almond bailed off Pointe Lachenal in sketchy avalanche conditions, he suggested they give it a try. They rappelled from the top of the Cosmiques Arete until they were level with the base of what would become Pitch 4, with the intention of continuing all the way down to Passerelle Couloir. But the ground grew steeper, and, running out of time, the pair decided to climb out from there.

Two days later they returned, and four rappels brought them to the base of their intended line. Almond led off, working his way up a groove to an airy traverse on snow. "Looking up, we saw what looked like reasonable ground for Pitch 1 but we new that we had a scary traverse across a snowfield that looked like it would slide off the slab it was on as soon as I touched it." Almond wrote. "We ended up having to move together to allow me to get to a good flake belay on the far side of it. We both commented that the snowfield felt like a mini 'White Spider.'"

Thomas went next, scratching 55 meters up overhanging flakes and a faint groove, reaching the base of a cracked yellow and red wall. "On arriving at the base of the next pitch I realized it was going to be the crux, and if we failed to get up it I was going to be bitterly disappointed," Almond said.

He took the sharp end, and promptly shredded a pair of new climbing pants in a narrow chimney before gaining the crack systems. "The cracks provided great torquing moves but due to few foot holds they were very strenuous." At the top of the crack one wide step brought him to a pod on the left. "I don't know if I was pumped after the previous moves but the next 10 meters was hard as the hooks were marginal and gear was hard to find," write Almond. "But now we knew we had the route in the bag." The final pitch, also graded Scottish VIII,8, took Thomas up some "amazing layback torquing" to the Cosmiques Arete.

With every pitch 55m or longer and having extreme technical difficulties, the pair graded Jottnar Scottish VIII,8, and commented that they felt it was significantly harder than the classic Scotch on the Rocks (IV M7, 450m). Almond sums it up: "The climb builds as it goes as it gets progressively harder and to get two full pitches back-to-back at that standard is, as Mark says, 'Awesome'. It is easily accessed so it can be climbed in almost any conditions, i.e. stormy weather and its perfect for acclimatization. We climbed it without using pitons or using any aid or tension moves and hope that anyone that attempts it uses the same ethics. What I found amazing is that we managed to climb a new, quality route up one of the most looked-at pieces of rock in the European Alps. Maybe I should start looking harder at those classic cliffs. There may be spaces to fill."

On March 16, Tonelli and Philipp Angelo, also of South Tyrol, completed one of the longest ice lines in the region. L'onda di Hokusai (WI5+ M3 60 degrees, 750m) climbs the northeast face of Molignon (2852m), in the Rosengarten region, so named for the unique pink dolomite in the area. The route climbs 10 pitches of pure ice split into two sections, with 150m of 45-degree snow between them. The penultimate pitch peters out into M3 terrain for 60m.

Tonelli discovered the route last December. "The long crest is traversed by the beautiful and panoramic Via Ferrata Laurenzi that links Molignon with the Antermoia valley, rendering this area fairly popular throughout the warmer months, but in winter there isn't a soul in sight. I've often wondered if the face could be climbed in winter."

Borrowing a pair of binoculars from the Flachkofel Zallinger hut, Tonelli spotted a thin runnel of ice that seemed to disappear before restarting farther down the face. Later, in January, while skiing the run off Antermoia from the Seiser Alm (the highest mountain plateau in Europe) with Angelo and Thomas Gianola, Tonelli saw the complete route. A section, hidden by a rocky outcropping from his earlier perspective, connected the two flows he had seen. Tonelli writes: "and now that we'd discovered this cold water, all we needed to do was pack our bags and set off..."

The pair's first attempt on March 2 was too slow, and they abandoned the effort two pitches shy of the summit. They returned on March 16, this time with friends Thomas Gianola (17) and Klaus Baumgartner (18), who climbed behind them and completed the route's second ascent. This time they moved faster, overcoming occasionally rotten ice and reaching the summit of Molignon as the sun was setting. "This is an outstanding vertical journey, long and demanding in a grandiose, wild environment," Tonelli writes. And though pure ice lines like L'onda di Hokusai are still a rare find in the Dolomites, Tonelli and Angelo's climb is hardly the only one. For alpinists seeking unclimbed winter lines in Europe, their pictures bespeak a wealth of possibilities.

The pair dedicated the climb to Manuel Moroder, a 15-year-old climber from Val Gardena who died in an avalanche on Monte Pic on February 3, and Giulio Longatti, a 37-year old alpinist from Bolzano who died in an avalanche on the Gran Zebru on March 16.

On April 8, two of Scotland's most seasoned mixed climbers claimed the first Scottish winter ascent of Nevermore, a 150m rock route in the Cairngorms originally climbed by Dougie Dinwoodie and Bob Smith in August of 1981. Located on Lochnagar's Tough-Brown Face, Nevermore takes a direct route between Mort (E1 5b [5.10], 110m; winter IX,9), and Post Mortem (E3 5b [5.10/5.11], 150m).

During the 2011-2012 winter season, Pete Benson and Guy Robertson attempted Nevermore three times with Pete Macpherson but were continuously shut down by a technical second pitch that they consider X,10. During their third and final effort of the season, Benson finally unlocked the second pitch only to get turned around below Pitch 5 in thawing conditions.

Benson and Robertson returned to the area for a fourth attempt in early March of this year, this time with Nick Bullock, but fading light and frigid temps turned them around on Pitch 5, yet again.

On their fifth attempt, Benson was unable to join Robertson and Bullock. Despite good winter conditions, they thought it would be their last chance of the season. The duo set off on April 8. Bullock took care of the technical second pitch, leaving the final and unknown fifth pitch for Robertson.

Moving up on rock and very thin ice, Robertson pulled over a roof leaving the last piece of gear well below him and no more available pro placements in sight. He exploded off the thin streak of ice below him and went soaring through the air, losing one of his axes. "I wanted to say, 'I'm going rock climbing and I don't want to break my legs.'" Bullock wrote in a report for UKClimbing.com, "But instead I heard myself saying, 'OK, give me the gear, let's have this bastard.'"

Taking the rack, Bullock moved slowly past Robertson's highpoint. Dropping a hook in a poor pick placement was the only protection he could find above the roof. Severely runout, a terrified Bullock inched higher, battling to keep moving. A fall would certainly have been catastrophic.

Hailed as one of the last major winter projects on Lochnagar, "[Nevermore] was the most strenuous and possibly the boldest, most technical route I've ever climbed in Scotland," says Bullock. "It is close to some of the routes I've climbed in the Rive Gauche in France but I think it was more bold than most of them."

Sources: Nick Bullock, scottishwinter.com, nickbullock-climber.co.uk, cairngormtiger.wordpress.com, ukclimbing.com

In 1976, David Black, Mike Graber, Andy Embick and Alan Long made the first ascent of peak's east face via the east buttress (VI 5.9 A3). Fixing ropes and sleeping in hammocks, the party spent six days on the wall and climbed 33 pitches total, reaching the summit on June 28. Long remembers "one-swing nailing, incredible exposure" in his account in the 1977 American Alpine Journal. They climbed in two parties, allowing the off-team to rest their arms and nurse their wounds, while the hammocks tortured their backs. "This is the beauty of a four-man party: your involvement with the actual climbing decreases and the often-welcome distraction of pitons and pitches disappears for hours at a time, but a feeling of security emerges and endures through even the most trying situations," wrote Long. A complex descent required down climbing a couloir, eight rappels and two bergschrunds, interrupted briefly by a snow storm. When they finally made it back to camp, they'd been moving for 75 hours, with just nine hours of rest.

This month, plans were in place for Erdmann, Roskelley and Szilas to land on the Shadows Glacier of the Kichatna Range and repeat Super Dupa Couloir (ED4: WI6+, 3,700'), a technical line established in 2003 by Mike "Twid" Turner, Stu McAleese and Olly Sanders on The Citadel. But after receiving information from Turner about a possible line near Super Dupa, ambitions changed.

Turner's information held true. To the left of Super Dupa Couloir lay another aesthetic line. On April 5, the initial pitches of Hypa Zypa climbed through snow and ice and eventually led to a steep corner system with difficulties reaching AI5+ and M6+. As the sun set, the trio chopped into a steep ice slope making an area just large enough for a cold sitting bivy. The tent they carried with them was too small for the ledge they created and collapsed in the night.

Waking up early, the team continued up to the col on the southeast ridge. Erdmann took the sharp end on a steep A3 section of rock and continued through the crux 5.10R pitch without crampons or gloves, pulling out a full 60m of rope. Reaching the summit ridge that evening, they set up another bivy "a stone's throw from the actual summit," and hunkered down for another cold night on a chopped ice ledge.

The next morning, the trio made a short rappel down the west face of the sub-peak to a snow ramp leading directly to the summit. After a quick rest on top, they descended the north ridge, getting their ropes stuck several times, down climbing many sections of exposed rock and rappelling from their only two snow stakes. They made a final rappel over the bergschrund on a flexing Spectre hammered less than three centimeters into an icy crack. The trio stumbled back to their tents, completing Hypa Zypa over a 70-hour push camp to camp.

Assessing their route afterward, the climbers gave Hypa Zypa an NCCS grade VI out of VII because of the ascent time, sustained technical difficulty, remoteness and commitment. "Descending our route would have been extremely difficult due to the lack of cracks in the lower wall and/or thick enough ice for v-threads," Roskelley said. "You'd have to bail up it [to get down]."

Back at home, Erdmann wrote, "How good it feels to be back to the world of humans and warmth, the first of many Bikram Yoga sessions to work the cold from protesting digits and getting food in the system that's NOT fried in bacon grease."

Sources: Ben Erdmann, Jess Roskelley, Kristoffer Szilas, 1977 AAJ, kristofferszilas.com