UKC

Surprised there has been zero interest in this on here, a very noticeable lack of information since there return in cyberspace, from what I can glean two of the worlds top Alpinists took eleven days for the climb, I don't want to read between the lines to much, due to the vagaries of conditions, weather etc, but this really does put into some kind of perspective Ueli Stecks, hombre super 28 hour round trip, on the face.

Have we just witnessed the biggest achievement in Himalayan super alpinism so far.

In reply to Andy Clarke1965:

Firstly, I thought it had been mentioned on here at the time? (Or maybe it was somewhere else?)
Secondly, I thought it was quicker than that? Eight days maybe?
And third, it's worth ploughing through this thread on C2C where the authenticity of Steck's ascent is being questioned. http://www.camptocamp.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=246710 I haven't looked at the thread for a week now, and I really don't feel like ploughing right now so I'm not sure how it's developed, but at one stage the OP was using Graziani's and Benoist's considerably longer ascent as a reason to question Steck's.

In reply to jon:

Thanks for the link Jon, will make interesting reading in my pit tonight.

In reply to Andy Clarke1965:

Here: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=567210 but it didn't stir up much interest, for some reason.

In reply to jon:

There is a report at Montagne magazine, obviously in French, but I could decipher eleven days.

I think any conspiracy nonsense doubting Stecks ascent is just sour grapes, the haters since the Everest spat are gonna hate regardless of the facts, there is absolutely no reason this ascent should be doubted, the guys looking through telescopic lenses at base camp, said they saw a track near the summit, negative unsubstantiated nonsense and should be nipped in the bud now.

In reply to Andy Clarke1965:

I agree, none at all. I just suggested it as an interesting read. Incidentally, Graziani and Benoist said they saw his tracks at about 7300m.

In reply to Andy Clarke1965:

Some news here...

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/benoist-and-graziani-repeat-ueli-stecks-route-on-a...

In reply to Andy Clarke1965:

I'm just back from Nepal, having been looking across at Annapurna from a unique (though unfortunately far too low) viewpoint and talking to some of the Himalayan Database people. There is no questioning of Steck's climb.

I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth, but apparently Ueli is quite open about getting once-in-a-lifetime conditions on the route - which were completely changed just after, when the French went up. Ueli reported good firm snow cover over some of the rock section up high, which was significantly thinned by the time the French got there.

September was good and clear up high, plenty of summits on the 8000ers and the start of October was good also, when Ueli climbed. Then those big cyclones south of India ramped up and around Oct 11th sent waves of cloud and precip north up to the Himalaya. It was already a 'late' monsoon then the storms happened. Places in the Khumbu got metres of snow and people died. Where I was, north of Dhaulagiri, it was mostly just crap light snow and rain, no big dumps.

Through the middle of October right up to the end me and my partner could look across and see the summit of Annapurna (actually the top of the NW face/ridge) beyond the Nilgiris. I remember thinking, as waves of cloud and wind piled up against the south side of the massif, that I would not want to be up there and could not imagine anyone was - but the French were. We chuckled about how Ueli had timed his climb just right.

My diary shows the weather clearing up noticeably on 22nd October, like a switch had been flicked. It also got noticeably colder and windier almost overnight and it is around this time the French were descending. I've not seen any photos from their climb, but I can't imagine they got many nice views. From what we saw it looked like they would have been climbing in constant cloud and generally poor weather.

In reply to Andy Clarke1965:

Why not as much interest- they were a few days too late. Had they completed their ascent before Steck then I imagine that they would have been collecting a Piolet D'or next April, but their ascent is now obviously overshadowed in many peoples minds by the lightning fast solo that preceded it. Still a massively impressive achievement from the French team, which deserves serious recognition.