UKC Alpine correspondent and gear reviewer Jon Griffith takes us through five impressive feats of Alpinism this year, including action from the Grande Jorasses, speed climbs on the Eiger and more.
These are interesting and inspirational achievements, documented here in Jon's no-nonsense style.
We were inspired by these climbs and climbers and we hope you will be too.
There are several errors in this report which should be corrected:
1) Pascal Ducroz was not killed in a climbing accident - he took his own life.
2) Jeff Mercier dry-tooled the Dru Couloir Direct in winter 2007.
3)Clouet and Dumarest's linked ascents in the Ecrins may have gone unreported on UKClimbing, but they were widely covered by the French national and regional press and radio.
In reply to gaston lagaffe: Co-incidentally enough I was just about to write an email to Jack to amend the Jeff Mercier Dru couloir climb. It had been widely reported in the press that the Slovenian climb was the first one but I noted this morning that as you say it was Jeff Mercier and Philipe Batoux (?). Apologies.
I had head that Pascal took his own life but since I was not 100% sure and did not want to probe into it I thought it best to leave it as that.
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