UKC

Climber and adventurer Leo Houlding has announced details of his next expedition. In December, he will lead a team to Antarctica and make an attempt on a new route on the north east ridge of Ulvetanna. Houlding has described his objective as “the last great climb” and he will tackle it with a team that includes Sean Leary, Jason Pickles, David Reeves, Chris Rabone and film-maker Alastair Lee.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/news.php?id=5110

In reply to UKC Gear: That girl is checking out Leo and his warm buttocks.

In reply to UKC Gear: Here's the UKC article including the video from when the Hubers went there, including doing a line on Ulvetanna http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1818

In reply to UKC Gear:

Looks great, nice artwork. Should be an interesting trip. Good to see people making the effort to get down there and try big things.

'The Last Great Climb'? Wasn't that Mazeno Ridge? Or Latok N spur? Or Makalu W face? Or...

I guess the NE ridge, along with the steep and shady E face, are the obvious last things to do on Ulvetanna, with the face being harder, but the ridge being easier to film?

Pulling loaded sleds in full down suits? Hmm. I wonder how long that lasted!

In reply to UKC Gear:

is BASE jumping banned in antarctica too?

In reply to ice.solo:

Not that I know of. Who would 'ban' it?

They've had skydivers at the South Pole (3 dead) in 1999 and basejumping in QML a few years ago, and I don't think anything has changed.

In reply to Damo: I think ice.s is making a reference to the Asgard Apology thread Damo! The rest of us having been toying with the idea but maybe not wanting to upset the apple cart excessively.

In reply to TobyA:

Yeh, Toby, I'm aware of the Asgard thread, but this is a forum, not a club, so I took Mr Solo's post at face value, for the sake of it. Think of the children, Toby, I implore you.

One of the two Australians arrested for paragliding off Mt Thor is a friend of mine. They also did some paragliding off a hill above town after the climb and nobody, 'Inuits' or otherwise, seemed to mind. They only got nabbed as they were getting on the plane to leave.

I've no idea really of the rationale, or lack thereof, for banning BASE in the park, but given the stats I've seen on the accidents for BASE compared to other adventure sports, I could imagine a bureaucrat looking at them and just banning it outright on the spot, leaving climbing and other things in a 'we'll see what happens' box.

Industry-sponsored ambassathletes performing for film often come into conflict with officialdom - Dean Potter on Delicate Arch, Cedar Wright in Crimea etc.

In reply to UKC Gear:

just a question. i dont know - just like i was surprised it was banned in Baffin Is.

who would ban it? the same people who ban and enforce any other law, the Polar Affairs Department which answers to the Ministry for Justice and Police of Norway i assume.
wouldnt they be the people who would ban, enforce and prosecute heroin use, murder or indecent exposure in their bits of territory?

is BASE jumping banned in the australian bits of territory (if theres anything to leap off). again - i dont know.

In reply to ice.solo:
>

In short, no, I don't think it is banned in the AAT. The Antarctic Treaty is certainly not that specific, and the most relevant legal or policy provisions (under the Madrid Protocol etc) for tourists are to do almost solely with environmental impact, rather than bodily impact.

There are some steep rocky things in the AAT but not sure they're steep enough for long enough off the tops for a jump.

In reply to Damo:

Well, one would hope and imagine after the legal case in Canada that all concerned would respect whatever regulations are relevant for a trip to Antarctica.

In reply to UKC Gear: A quick question - the Hubers climbed on the face they chose to be in the sun and avoid the much colder temps of the shade - wouldn't doing anything on the north side mean you spent the whole time in the shade freezing your arse off?

In reply to Arms Cliff:

This is in the southern hemisphere so the S face is the cold one and the N face faces the sun.

I'd hesitate to describe anything at those latitudes as "warm"

ALC

In reply to a lakeland climber:

if you are far enough south, the aspect makes no difference - they all get the same amount of sun in mid summer

In reply to UKC Gear:

In reply:

At 78 South (Vinson) 72 South (Ulvetanna) and the sun does not just 'go around' in a circle equidistant above the horizon, it still goes up and down, so there is variation on different aspects. I have a good time-lapse showing this but can't find it right now. There is a noticeable difference at any one location at 78 South between the different times of day, shade issues aside.

Individual faces on some peaks are also sometimes affected by the geography of the mountain itself. ie. shaded by ridges etc.

On Ulvetanna the Hubers climbed the NW ridge* (5.11 A2), an amazing natural line, very similar to the NE ridge this team will be attempting. The south face was the first ascent route, it is much less steep than the other sides. On Ulvetanna it is the E face that is the really steep and cold one, and has seen the Norwegians fail a couple of times.

*The right-hand skyline at: http://www.climbing.com/news/huge-wall-climbed-in-antarctica/

In reply to t_stork:

I call for the photo caption to be changed!

In reply to UKC Gear: As all great adventurers and explorers have, I love the slightly mad/glint in the eye look that Leo has nowadays!

In reply to UKC Gear:

Awesome and best of luck to the team. However, the 'last' climb? It's a great climb, but not the last great climb. Come on! Seeing as there's clearly nothing else left to do now I might as well just give up.