UKC

British climbers Andy Houseman and Nick Bullock have repeated the huge Slovak Direct on Denali, Alaska.

"Slovak Direct DONE! 4 days of nearly constant snow, a 27hr push, 16hr unplanned.. What an amazing route! WOW!"

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=67229

In reply to UKC News:

Fine work chaps!

In reply to UKC News: First British ascent of one of Alaska's baddest routes...especially considering the weather they've had this year. Awesome effort

In reply to UKC News:

Brilliant! Glad to hear they're safe.

In reply to UKC News:


Big man ting!

In reply to UKC News: Top stuff lads!

In reply to UKC News:

If everyone will forgive my ignorance, what is it that makes retreat impossible beyond 1000m?

In reply to Luke90: Could be many things, but simply not having enough gear to retreat from is the most obvious. In perfect world of super solid one piece abseil points, you'd need to leave 20 pieces of gear behind, and of course the world is far from perfect.

Well done chaps.

In reply to Luke90: It's not impossible as such but as Toby points out there is a point where you're going to run out of rack

In reply to UKC News: Well done guys!

In reply to UKC News:

Chapeau !

Toby, Jon, thanks for the info.

In reply to Luke90: If there is solid ice on a route, not always a given, you can use abalakov threads to descend. Some people just thread their ropes through so as not to need tat, but you might be pushing your luck a bit there.

I do remember Fowler being very impressed with his partner Pat Littlejohn getting them down many abseils on Thangboche (?) without leaving anything behind using the self recovering ice screw trick. I think Mick had always thought (perhaps like lots of us) that it was one of those nice ideas in a instruction book but that nobody really does.

In reply to TobyA:

When you say "self recovering ice screw trick", are you referring to the abalakov thread again?

In reply to UKC News:
Really impressive.Well done you two.
Are we missing some banter imbetween or is the "cock" comment above truly offensive from a jealous fellow climber?

The Jesse and Mark video is great too.It really inspires me to go and do something in the future, not that it would be that tough a project that I would do.I have done Denali by the easy route (west buttress)and found it strenuous but not technical enough.So maybe I should go back sometime and try something imbetween in difficulty.I think that I would like to do something like the Sultana Ridge on the other side too.

In reply to Luke90:

Have a read of this, it explains all!

http://www.andy-kirkpatrick.com/articles/view/ice_anchors

In reply to Oceanic:

Presumably if done right it's better than it sounds but it still sounds dodgy!

In reply to UKC News: Great effort, congratulations

In reply to UKC News:

Good effort. It'll be interesting to get more details on this. I was reading about the route's history a while back: 11 days for the first ascent, 8 days for the second, 2 and a half for the third (to 200 feet short of the summit), 3 days for the fourth (part of an enchainment) and 80 hours for the fifth ascent.

The fourth ascent stood out for me. Climbed by the super-talented Giri Giri boys, it was enchained with the Isis Face (another Alaskan Grade 6) over a continuous 8 days. Katsutaka Yokoyama’s compelling and poignant account, "Pachinko on Denali", is worth reading. It not only details the link-up but sheds light on the Japanese approach to enchaining routes, and refers to the climbers' previous Alaskan experiences, which includes matter-of-fact repeats of Mt Hunter's Deprivation and the Denali Diamond.

http://c498469.r69.cf2.rackcdn.com/2009/24_Yokoyama_Denali_aaj2009_web.pdf

In reply to Luke90:

No, its a way of rigging the ice screw such that the act of pulling down the rope unscrews it.

In reply to UKC News:
I'm sat in the pub with Nick Bullock, and he wants to know where the comment of ''he's an elitist cock'' has gone! He's quite upset that he's been called elitist, if not, an old elitist cock!

In reply to Tom Livingstone: You shameless name-dropper Livingstone!! The question on everyones lips back home is whether he killed Bubbles??

In reply to UKC News: Awesome effort gentlemen, awesome. Look forward to hearing all about it!

Nick's Account; http://nickbullock-climber.co.uk/2012/07/04/over-the-top/

Andy's Account; http://www.andyhouseman.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/slovak-direct-south-face-of-...