Archives for February 2018

Mount Sidley ascents – update

25th February 2018 by James Stone Leave a Comment

[An update to the list below can be found here.]

There is a dearth of information on the web on Mount Sidley ascents. So I have continued to undertake further research since my return from Antarctica and over the past year, and put together what I believe to be a definitive list of all ascensionists. This is set out below. The one qualification that I would make is that scientists funded by US, UK and NZ were prohibited from undertaking mountaineering activities unless necessary for the scientific purpose for which they were there. So it is possible that one or two unrecorded ascents could have been made, but I think that this is unlikely. It is also possible that some of the scientists listed here who report that they have “climbed” the mountain may only have been on the upper reaches.

In assembling this list I am grateful for the assistance of Dr Kurt Panter, Dr Nelia Dunbar, Christoph Hoebenreich (who was a guide on my expedition in 2017) and, through him, Damien Gildea and Mike Roberts and of Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions (ALE).

As ever I am happy to correct any errors or omissions and if there is any other information on trips to this remote area beyond that in my previous blog, I would be pleased to receive it.

In summary, the mountain has received 46 ascents from 44 different people. All expeditions to the mountain have been facilitated either by national scientific expeditions or by ALE.

MOUNT SIDLEY SUMMIT LIST

(as at 25^th February 2018)

	Date	Name	Group	Nationality
1.	01/11/1990	Bill Atkinson	Panter Group	NZ
2.	01/12/1990	Bill McIntosh	Panter Group	USA
3.	01/12/1990	Kurt Panter	Panter Group	USA
	01/21/1994	Bill McIntosh (second ascent)	Dunbar/ McIntosh	USA
4.	01/21/1994	Nelia Dunbar	Dunbar/ McIntosh	USA
5.	01/21/1994	Thom Wilch	Dunbar/ McIntosh	USA
6.	01/21/1994	Tony Teeling	Dunbar/ McIntosh	NZ
7.	01/23/2011	Scott Woolums	ALE #1	USA
8.	01/23/2011	Alex Abramov	ALE #1	Russia
9.	01/23/2011	Crina “Coco” Popescu	ALE #1	Romania
10.	01/23/2011	Mario Trimeri	ALE #1	Italy
11.	01/01/2012	Mike Roberts	Roberts Group	NZ
12.	01/01/2012	Jennifer Erxleben	Roberts Group	USA
13.	01/01/2012	John Paul O’Donnell	Roberts Group	Ireland
14.	01/01/2012	Andrew Lloyd	Roberts Group	USA
15.	01/18/2013	David Hamilton	ALE #2	UK (Scotland)
16.	01/18/2013	Olga Rumyantseva	ALE #2	Russia
17.	01/18/2013	Vyacheslav Adrov	ALE #2	Russia
18.	01/18/2013	Vitaly Simonovich	ALE #2	Russia
19.	01/18/2013	Paul Nicholson	ALE #2	Canada
20.	12/28/2013	Dylan Taylor	ALE #3	USA
21.	12/28/2013	Andre Filkov	ALE #3	Russia
22.	12/28/2013	Ilya Bykov	ALE #3	Russia
23.	12/28/2013	Sophie Cairns	ALE #3	UK (England)/ Hong Kong
24.	12/28/2013	Liana Chabdarova	ALE #3	Russia
25.	01/17/2014	Rob Smith	ALE #4	UK (Northern Ireland)
26.	01/17/2014	Jean Frederik Paulsen	ALE #4	Sweden
27.	01/17/2014	Francois Michel Bernard	ALE #4	France
28.	01/17/2014	Christian de Marliave	ALE #4	France
29.	01/17/2014	John Dodelande	ALE #4	France
30.	01/17/2014	Joachim Marte	ALE #4	Austria
31.	01/17/2014	Philipp Lehner	ALE #4	Austria
32.	01/17/2014	Alexander Svaetichin	ALE #4	Sweden
	01/17/2014	Scott Woolums (second ascent)	ALE #4	USA
33.	01/14/2017	Tre-C Dumais	ALE #5	USA
34.	01/14/2017	Christoph Hoebenreich	ALE #5	Austria
35.	01/14/2017	James Stone	ALE #5	UK (England)
36.	01/14/2017	Dan Bull	ALE #5	Australia
37.	01/14/2017	Jarryd Commerford	ALE #5	USA/UK (England)
38.	01/14/2017	Robbi Malandreniotis	ALE #5	UK (England)/Greece
39.	01/14/2017	Michael Guggolz	ALE #5	Germany
40.	01/14/2018	Nate Opp	ALE #6	USA
41.	01/14/2018	Theodore Fairhurst	ALE #6	Canada
42.	01/14/2018	Katie Sarah	ALE #6	Australia
43.	01/14/2018	Cheryl Bart	ALE #6	Australia
44.	01/14/2018	Nikki Bart	ALE #6	Australia

ALE #6 was led by ALE guide Nate Opp with a strong Australian contingent. This ascent saw Katie Sarah’s final volcanic summit. Cheryl and Nikki Bart are a mother/daughter team who have the distinction of having already climbed the continental seven summits together,

Updated list of Volcanic Seven Summit completers

21st February 2018 by James Stone 1 Comment

As I mentioned in my recent post, there have been two more completions of the Volcanic Seven Summits. The list below reflects these.

This post is an update to my posts of 9th November 2016 and 28th June 2017.

These completions have been achieved by Katie Sarah, an Australian guide based in Adelaide who runs Sarah Mountain Journeys, and well known UK guide David Hamilton who runs High Adventure and regularly works with both Jagged Globe and ALE. Links to their websites are in the list.

KatieSarahV7S — Katie Sarah celebrates (copyright Katie Sarah – used with permission)

David Hamilton on Ojos del Salado (copyright David Hamilton – used with permission)

In addition, further research indicates that the French guide and photographer, François Bernard, has also completed the Volcanic Seven Summits.

Climber, nationality and age at completion	Date of final summit	Final summit	Date of first summit
Mario Trimeri (Italy) (58)	24^th January 2011	Mount Sidley	23^rd August 2005
Crina Popescu (Romania) (16)	24^th January 2011	Mount Sidley	23^rd July 2008
Vyechaslav Adrov (Russia) (50)	18^th January 2013	Mount Sidley	8^th January 2010
Aleks Abramov (Russia) (47)	13^th September 2013	Mount Giluwe	3^rd May 1991
Olga Rumyantseva (Russia) (36)	9^th December 2013	Ojos del Salado	14^th August 1994
Vitaliy Simonovic (Russia) (42)	19^th December 2013	Ojos del Salado	26^th February 2012
François Bernard (Fr) (49)	17^th January 2014	Mount Sidley	Not known
Sophie Cairns (UK) (32)	10^th June 2014	Elbrus	28^th December 2013
Paul Nicholson (Canada) (50)	5^th December 2014	Ojos del Salado	7^th August 2005
Liana Chabdarova (Russia) (28)	12^th January 2015	Ojos del Salado	29^th August 2013
Andrey Filkov (Russia) (49)	16^th September 2015	Damavand	2^nd May 2007
James Stone (UK) (59)	14^th January 2017	Mount Sidley	23^rd February 2014
Daniel Bull (Australia) (36)	27^thApril 2017	Ojos del Salado	6^thMarch 2006
Katie Sarah (Australia) (49)	14^th January 2018	Mount Sidley	3^rd September 2010
David Hamilton (UK) (56)	10^th February 2018	Ojos del Salado	April 1992

Mario Trimeri, François Bernard and David Hamilton have also completed the seven continental summits (Carstenz version).

Andrey Filkov and Katie Sarah have completed the seven continental summits (Kosciuszko version).

Aleks Abramov, Vitaliy Simonovic and Dan Bull have completed the seven continental summits (both Carstenz and Kosciuszko versions).

I would be interested to hear from anyone who is aware of any person looking to achieve this challenge. Ted Fairhurst who only has Ojos del Salado to do is presently in Chile having to deal with poor weather in order to complete the challenge.

[Note that this blog was updated on 4^thMarch 2018 in order to add François Bernard to the list.]

Further updated lists of completers can be found in this blog and here.

More Volcanic Seven Summits completers

18th February 2018 by James Stone Leave a Comment

The Volcanic Seven Summits challenge is, as I predicted, becoming more popular.

January and February have seen Katie Sarah and David Hamilton (both professional guides) complete on Mount Sidley and Ojos del Salado respectively. Both are also Seven Summiters.

I will update my lists of those who have completed the Volcanic Seven Summits and climbed Mount Sidley shortly. The January 2018 ALE trip to Sidley was successful in getting five people to summit.

Ted Fairhurst about whom I wrote in October slipped in an ascent of Pico de Orizaba in December. He was successful on Mount Sidley on this trip and is presently on or near Ojos del Salado. He is, however, having weather problems. Ojos del Salado would see him complete his quest to climb the seven. In his latest report he stated:

“I last posted February 4 that I was climbing Volcano Ojos del Salado. It has been quite a ride since then. Ojos is a huge mountain at 6893m (22615 feet) and very tough – weather, altitude and climbing. Together with teammate Michael Halbig from Germany and our formidable Chilean guide Ismael Sepulveda we first climbed 3 mountains to acclimatize for Ojos – Siete Hermanos 4890m, Mulas Muertas 5300m and San Francisco 6018m.

We pushed our Summit Bid forward 2 days to February 14 because a big snow storm was predicted later the same day. However the mountain had already been blasted with 65 centimeters of new snow since the last few days and the climbing was slow and extremely tiring. There were 17 climbers on the mountain from different countries and only 3 of us made it to the summit crater plateau but not the true summit itself. We were about 75m below the last rock technical section. The final climb is to climb a chute and then scale a rock wall.

Reaching the crater at 1pm with very little energy left and past our turnaround time with a snowstorm coming in we had no option but to descend. It was extremely hard but the right decision. Safety first.”

Quite right. He will make another attempt in the next week or so. He will have used a lot of energy in this first attempt so will need to recuperate. Best of luck to him and his team.