Chad Kellogg, who hopes to set a record for the fastest ascent of Mount Everest, trains on Mount Rainier, Wash. "Ultimately, I'm doing this for me," he said. (Stuart Isett, The New York Times )
MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. — A popular route at Mount Rainier National Park that includes an ascent of 9,000 feet of rock and ice takes days for most climbers. One man needed five hours.
The face of the 13,000-foot Eiger, in the Swiss Alps, has long presented climbers with one of the most daunting challenges in the world. One man recently conquered it in less than three hours.
From the big walls of Yosemite to the peaks of the Alps, climbers are setting speed records as techniques develop and gear becomes lighter or is left behind in favor of a minimalist approach that leaves little margin for error.
Many quick athletes say they are doing what climbers have always done — striving to reach the summit a bit faster or with purer style.
But as stopwatches become as important as carabiners, others say focusing on speed runs counter to the ethos of climbing.
"I don't feel, personally, that setting records and using the routes as tracks to set a new speed record — I don't feel that that's important to climbing," said Steve House, an American alpinist known for his fast and light style of carrying the bare essentials on difficult climbs. "I feel like that's important to people's egos, and I feel like that's important to people's sponsors."
Chad Kellogg, a 40-year-old general contractor from Seattle, rejects such notions.
On a late-summer afternoon, Kellogg, in running shorts and tennis shoes, hurtled up Mount Rainier's steep snowfields, his labored breathing audible for yards. A few casual day hikers gawked.
Kellogg cannot dawdle with passers-by. He is among an elite group of mountain climbers who are not only devising new routes and making first ascents, but also speeding up established routes in stunning times. His accomplishments have been personal quests, he said. He is training for a record ascent of Mount Everest.
"I don't really care what anyone else thinks," he said. "Ultimately, I'm doing this for me."
The number of climbers capable of such record times is quite small, said Steve Swenson, president of the American Alpine Club. Many elite climbers, he said, are not interested in speed, but he understands the draw to push boundaries.
"Fifty years ago, adventure in the mountains was more about going places where no one had been," he said. "Most of these places have been more thoroughly explored. Maybe adventure gets redefined."
Racing upward
• Alex Honnold, 26, a rising star of the rock-climbing scene at Yosemite, stunned the climbing world last year not only by completing record ascents on the northwest face of Half Dome and the nose of El Capitan in a single day, but also by choosing to use minimal protective gear.
• Ueli Steck, a Swiss mountaineer, climbed up the face of the 13,000- plus-foot Eiger, a classic Alps challenge first climbed in 1938, in 2 hours, 47 minutes. Since then, another Swiss climber, Dani Arnold, trimmed the record to 2:28.
• Ueli Steck also made a daring sprint in Tibet this spring on the south face of Shishapangma, the world's 14th-tallest peak. He bolted up the 26,290-foot mountain in 10 1/2 hours, setting a record.
16 Oct, 2011--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHOxnGhZOf3n1guFET8ucDMZuwZFw&url=http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_19123180
~
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com
No comments:
Post a Comment