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NEWS: British Tahu Ratum Expedition

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 UKC News 11 Jun 2010
[Tom Ripley, Hamish Dunn and Luke Hunt atop the Petit Dru after a one day ascent of its' North Face., 3 kb]On 22 July 2010, UKC Users Tom Ripley, Luke Hunt and Hamish Dunn will fly from Manchester to Islamabad, Pakistan to take part in their first Great Ranges expedition.

Their objective is unclimbed NW Ridge of Tahu Ratum (6651m) - an immaculate granite pyramid, which rises approximately 1500m from the Khana Basi glacier, in the Hispar Muztagh region of the Karakorum.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=55458

 Soap 11 Jun 2010
In reply to UKC News:

Every credit and good luck lads.
 AlH 11 Jun 2010
In reply to UKC News:G'luck guys.
Al
 mrcog 11 Jun 2010
In reply to UKC News: Good luck guys! Giving me insperation for a few years time!
Cheers everyone - Just one more thing... you can follow our expedition on facebook too.

Got to this page and click, 'like'!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/British-Tahu-Ratum-Expedition/103492896366...

Tom
 Franco Cookson 11 Jun 2010
In reply to UKC News:

Good luck guys. I'm so jealous of your opportunity to climb that peak. Totally outragous. Just don't drop the guidebook.
 JdotP 11 Jun 2010
In reply to UKC News:

Don't forget to pack the powdered water and bottled psyche.
 Michael Ryan 11 Jun 2010
In reply to UKC News:

Hi Tom, Luke and Hamish,

A fantastic looking objective and all the best out there this summer. Looking forward to hearing all about it.

I've a question on behalf of young UK alpinists other than yourselves.

You have done extremely well getting funding and have Sir Chris Bonington as your patron.

$4,000 from the GORE-TEX® Brand Shipton-Tilman Grant Program: http://www.gore.com/en_xx/news/2010shiptontilman.html

£750 from the The Jeremy Willson Charitable Trust (JWCT): http://www.jwct.org.uk/index.htm

£500 - £1000 from the Mark Clifford Mountaineering Grant: http://www.markclifford.co.uk/Welcome.html

An unspecified amount from the Mount Everest Foundation http://www.mef.org.uk/

An unspecified amount from the Nick Estcourt Award: http://www.nickestcourtaward.org/index.htm

An unspecified amount from the BMC.

How did you go about getting such impressive funding for your expedition?

Could you give other young alpinists out there some hints and tips.

Cheers,

Mick
 Milesy 11 Jun 2010
Best of luck on this!!
In reply to Pete Graham: hahaha errrr BANTER!!!

I have a question on behalf of young punters everywhere Mick.....how did a punter such of bubbles' (tom ripley) proportion get on an expedition of such pedigree!!!
In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:


> How did you go about getting such impressive funding for your expedition?
>
> Could you give other young alpinists out there some hints and tips.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mick

Hi Mick,

British Mountaineering is really well supported by a number of very generous grants. Getting them is quite straight forward if one for fills the requirements. As a young team with an ambitious, technical, yet exploratory objective we ticked all the boxes. However we have put the work in, between the three of us we have filled out an awful lot of paper work and sent out a lot of emails. Although our efforts have paid of massively.

Before we begin applying for grants, funding and gear we compiled a short dossier on our expedition - a sort of expedition proposal. This had details of who we were, what we'd climbed, our objective, a picture, a quote from Sir Chris, a budget and details of our media arrangements. This was saved as a two page PDF and sent out with covering email/letter to everyone we applied to.

This was a two page document (don't make it any longer), which summarised us and our trip succinctly.

Also, when approaching companies be realistic, as much as they may think your trip is amazing, most companies simple cannot afford to throw gear at you. Be clear in what you can offer them in return and ask sooner rather than later. Marketing department's budgets get eaten up very quickly.

I'd meet Sir Chris Bonington in 2008 and when I interviewed him for the BMC's Summit Magazine. During the earlier stages of expedition planning I got in touch with him asking for advice. He was very happy for us to use his name as patron and has been extremely helpful and supportive.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask.

Cheers,

Tom


 Calum Nicoll 12 Jun 2010
In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:
> (In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com)
> details of our media arrangements.

What details were these?

Good luck, stay safe.
 Michael Ryan 12 Jun 2010
In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

Thanks Tom. I'm sure some will find that very useful.
 L.A. 12 Jun 2010
In reply to A really helpful and sensible reply Tom. Hopefully other young expedition teams will learn something from it.
If youre on the BA Manc to Islamabad flight. Be aware that the check in team really hate dealing with this flight. Too many people with excess baggage, too many kids, too much general hassle. Turn up early for check in, be super polite and smile a lot at the check in girls. Be nice to them and theyll usually help you as much as they can with baggage allowances.
All the best on the trip Watch out for the heat and learn to love gritty chappatis! Oh yeah, nearly forgot -Enjoy it!
 Michael Ryan 12 Jun 2010
In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Hi Mick,

It is all on the blog.

http://tahuratum.blogspot.com/2010/06/as-youve-probably-gathered-were-team-...

"Tahu Ratum is really Luke’s baby. Whilst alpine dreaming in Chamonix last summer he realised, like Mick Fowler thirty years previously that there are no unclimbed Walker Spurs or Freney Pillars. To find such routes one has to head to the Greater Ranges. After hours of searching through Summit Posts for an unclimbed, aesthetic, rock line on a big mountain he came across Tahu Ratum’s NW Ridge. Perfect, but who to climb it with?"

In reply to Calum Nicol:

> details of our media arrangements.

Before we sent out our expedition dossier to any companies or organisations we sent it out to the editors of the major climbing magazines and websites (including this one) - asking if they would be interested in publishing a piece on our climb. Once we had the responses this was added to the dossier.

I think the media arrangements helps massively when approaching companies, as it showed what we could do in return for their support.

There is no such thing as a free lunch after all...
 Damo 12 Jun 2010
In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

Tom

Any idea how the new KKH lake will affect logistics in the area? Seems to be getting worse rather than better. I realise you'll be turning off before the lake itself, but it seems to be causing big problems in the whole area - refugee camps in Gilgit etc. Should make an interesting 'cultural' aspect to your trip though. You'll be one of the only foreign teams in the area this year.

D
 hamish2016 13 Jun 2010
In reply to Damo:

Hi Damo,

I've been following the situation quite closely (there's a really good blog here if you're interested: http://daveslandslideblog.blogspot.com/ ) and have made alternative arrangements to reach basecamp via Skardu if forced to.
Approach via Skardu is by no means ideal as it will cost £900 more in porterage fees and reduce our climbing time by a week. Approach via Hunza would be much better but we'll see what the situation is nearer our departure date.

Cheers,
Hamish
 Damo 13 Jun 2010
In reply to HamishD:

Thanks, Hamish. Very interesting site - amazing it exists at all! Also incredible that the lake is over 100m deep now.

Yes the Skardu-Biafo approach would be much longer and $$$, but on the bright side you'd arrive at BC better acclimatised and you'd pass a lot of spectacular stuff on the way in/out.

Good luck with it all.

D
 mlt 16 Jun 2010
In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

"British Mountaineering is really well supported by a number of very generous grants."

I agree with that statement from Tom. Myself and a few others are off to southern Kyrgyzstan this summer and without the help of these grant schemes our trip would not have been possible. It is fantastic that we (as climbers) have the opportunity for support to go on expeditions and I would strongly encourage anyone thinking of heading farther afield, with whatever dream, ambition or objective it is, to give it a shot!

The amount of support we received was fairly similar to the Tahu Ratum expedition, so again if anybody ever has any questions or would like a bit of guidance (based on my limited experience) on how to get started do feel free to get in touch with me (bear in mind I will be gone from the end of June!).

Also, as a shameless plug, please visit our wee website www.kyrgyzstan2010.com. We've got a blog and Facebook page as well.

 mlt 16 Jun 2010
In reply to UKC News:

Oops, I meant Eastern Kyrgyzstan. A bit of a spatial error there!
 Jonny2vests 17 Jun 2010
In reply to UKC News:

Good luck to Hamish and the other guys.
 JdotP 17 Jun 2010
In reply to mlt:
> (In reply to UKC News)
>
> Oops, I meant Eastern Kyrgyzstan. A bit of a spatial error there!

Haha, yes. Quite a serious spatial error in light of the current situation! Am off to the Torugart-Too mountains in late July, access is via Naryn so not affected by the current troubles. But initially we had seriously considered a range which you need to go through Osh to get to. Really glad we didn't go for this option!
 mlt 17 Jun 2010
In reply to monkey kong:

Ohhh, cool stuff. Keep in touch and let us know how you get on (we'll do the same). I take it you'll be flying in to Bishkek? When would you be there? We'll be there from the 30th June for a few days then heading out east.
 JdotP 17 Jun 2010
In reply to mlt:
> (In reply to monkey kong)
>
> Ohhh, cool stuff. Keep in touch and let us know how you get on (we'll do the same). I take it you'll be flying in to Bishkek? When would you be there? We'll be there from the 30th June for a few days then heading out east.

We're flying on 22nd July (to Bishkek). Please do keep in touch! Especially on the security and dodgy police officer situation in Bishkek... You already have my email, when the revolution was on we were swapping our thoughts...
 mlt 17 Jun 2010
In reply to UKC News:

Ohhhhh yes, indeed I do have your e-mail. Check our blog whilst out there and we might have some updates about the situation first hand.

Cheers,

Matt
Tim Chappell 24 Jun 2010
In reply to UKC News:

Tom, Luke, Hamish: I'm only a punter (and that's all I ever want to be)-- but good luck from me anyway.

Make sure you come back!
 Chris the Tall 13 Jul 2010
In reply to UKC News:
Hi Tom

Good luck to you all, stay safe

Looks an awesome mountain, make sure you come back to tell the tale
 Jesamine 19 Jul 2010
In reply to Chris the Tall:

Seconded.

I wish you all good luck, good weather, and good times on behalf of UNUMC.

Come back safe...and this time with all your teeth Hamish!

In reply to Jesamine:
>
> Come back safe...and this time with all your teeth Hamish!

I thought the lack of teeth was an improvement
We've just spent the whole day packing and I've just managed to squeeze in one more blog post before bed...

http://tahuratum.blogspot.com/2010/07/today-has-been-mainly-about-packing.h...

!7 hours 'til take off... Yikes!
Chauvi 24 Jul 2010
In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:
By way of an update, the've arrived in Islamabad:
http://tahuratum.blogspot.com/

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