Although not a household name  among climbers in this country, George Band was a climbing great.

In fact, he was part of the historic 1953 British expedition to Mount Everest, which resulted in the mountain’s first ascent.  He was the youngest member of the team, at the age of 23.

Of the Everest expedition, Band recalled to the BBC in 2005, "We were all basically climbers hoping to make the first ascent which had defeated so many earlier expeditions. ...  It created a sort of synergy and something that I think in the post-war years really uplifted the British public.

"So we did have a rather fabulous time on our return." He attended receptions at Buckingham Palace, Lloyds of London and elsewhere: "Sometimes we felt five or six receptions in one week was a bit much, but as a student I didn't object to having a good dinner and some free drinks!"

Two years later he was on the first ascent of Kangchenjunga, the world’s third highest mountain, on May 25, 1955, with Joe Brown. They are the only British climbers to make a first ascent of an 8,000-meter peak.

Band was born February 2, 1929, in Taiwan and shortly relocated to England.  The son of Presbyterian missionaries, Band attended Cambridge University where he served as President of the Mountaineering Club.  As an undergraduate, he climbed the North Ridge of Dent Blanche, Pennine Alps, Switzerland. which attracted the attention of the climbing community, leading to Band’s inclusion in the Everest expedition.

In 1954, Band climbed Rakaposhi in the Karakoram for the mountain’s first ascent.  

Band eventually began work in oil exploration for Shell and traveled the world, often climbing when he could.  He became the director general of the UK Offshore Operator’s Association.

Band served as president of the Alpine Club and the British Mountaineering Council.  He was also a board member of the Royal Geographical Society.  After retirement, Band published works such as Road to Rakoposhi (1955) and a history of Everest titled, 50 Years On Top of the World (2003).

He attended an American Alpine Club meeting, the Centennial celebration held in Denver in 2003, invited by then AAC president Jim Frush.

Mark Richey, a lifelong hard rock and mountain climber from New England who is the immediate past president of the AAC, recalls: "I knew George Band personally, hung out with him and climbed with him in India.  He liked nothing better by the way then getting out with the younger generation for a day of cragging or hill walking, never lost his passion and enthusiasm for the mountains like all true mountaineers.

"I first met him in Wales and then got to know him much better in Mumbai at the Himayalan Club 80th celebration.  What a super guy!  Very sad about his passing."

Band died on August 26.

For more on Band, read Ed Douglas' obituary in The Guardian here.

Antoine Nicolas, who recently finished his Masters degree for Industrial Design in Belgium, won the “Le Prix de la Maison du Design” for his project: a self inflating, double wall tent that can be assembled on vertical cliffs, in trees, or on the ground in roughly five minutes. For more information on the El Capitan XP.1 check out Nicolas’ website.

[Photo and logo by Nicolas.]

Every day Stella Noble, of Boulder, Colorado, looked at a photo of the Diamond face of Longs Peak in her father's office.

She says, "He climbs it every year and I wanted to climb it, too."

On August 31, she got her wish. Stella and her father, Forrest, completed the Casual Route (5.10a) making her the youngest person ever to climb the Diamond, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

Ranked number one in the country for sport climbing in her age group, Stella recently competed in the Teva Mountain Games, winning the gold medal for ages 11 and under.  She is a member of the ABC climbing team based out of Boulder, Colorado.

[Stella Noble. Photo by Walter Workman.]

Stella and her father, with their friend Fredrik Marmsetter, climbed the Diamond as a trio.  Forest says, “I took some precautions, like climbing as a threesome with Stella in the middle. That way someone was always with her at each belay and at all times in close contact with her.” 

A climbing legend is gone with the passing of Walter Bonatti, who died yesterday, September 13, at age 81.

Bonatti is a seminal figure of alpinism who pioneered cutting-edge first ascents of bold routes such as the East Face of Grand Capucin in the Mont Blanc massif in 1951 at just 21 years old, but he is perhaps best known for his integral role in the 1954 Italian K2 expedition and controversy.

The onetime leading British alpinist Doug Scott described Bonatti as “perhaps the finest alpinist there has ever been,” in his 1974 book Big Walls.

Bonatti was born in Bergamo, Italy, in 1930.  The son of a fabric merchant, he discovered climbing at age 18 and within a year made the fourth ascent of the Walker Spur on the Grandes Jorasses.  In 1955 Bonatti spent five days soloing the southwest pillar of the Dru for its first ascent via the Bonatti Pillar, an ascent often dubbed one of the greatest achievements in alpinism.

Along with his fellow Italians Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni, Bonatti and his Hunza climbing partner Mahdi became entangled in one of mountaineering’s greatest debates. While attempting to carry oxygen tanks from camp seven to camp nine for Lacedelli and Compagnoni, Bonatti and Mahdi were misled by their peers and left to endure an open bivouac.  Bonatti and Mahdi survived and left the oxygen tanks for their companions, who managed the first ascent of K2 the next morning.  However, Bonatti was bitter at Lacedelli and Compagnoni, claiming they misled him as to the location of their tent, an act Bonatti later referred to as the “failed homicide.”  Bonatti fortunately emerged unharmed from the bivouac while Mahdi lost several fingers and half of both feet.  Mahdi never climbed again.

For more on the K2 controversy, see Rock and Ice’s interview in issue 183 with Lacedelli here.

Bonatti eventually grew disheartened with the climbing scene, writing, “The morals of the rat-race are found even among climbers, some of whom even go so far as to define their methods as ‘technical advances’ and—perhaps even more ingenuously—their dishonest compromises as ‘progress.’”

In 1965 he soloed the Matterhorn Nordwand in winter on the mountain's centenary year of its first ascent and then promptly announced his retirement from climbing.

Bonatti became a photojournalist for the Italian magazine Epoca (meaning "time"), and lived a quiet life in the Italian town of Dubino.

In 1998 he returned to climbing, only this time through writing, and published his autobiography The Mountains of My Life.  The book addressed his first ascents as well as the K2 controversy in great detail.

Walter Bonatti is survived by his wife, Rossana Podesta.

[Steve House holds the tire cover to his '84 Ford Van, which (in a nod to the "Clapton is God" graffiti that once appeared in London) he customized to pay homage to Bonatti. Courtesy of House.]

(See video below.)

[Video of Bonatti climbing the Dru.]

Freedom Climbers, by the Canadian author Bernadette McDonald, is on the shortlist for the 2011 Boardman Tasker award.

In a story of beating the odds, McDonald writes of triumph despite the political oppression faced by Polish climbers during the reign of the Iron Curtain.  Undeterred, these “freedom climbers” ruled the Himalaya and forever changed the face of alpinism.

Freedom Climbers encompasses an era that included Voytek Kurtyka’s visionary climb of Gasherbrum IV’s west face with the Austrian Robert Schauer in 1985, and Wanda Rutkiewicz summiting K2 in 1986 for its first female ascent.

The book tells the stories of dozens of others, however: "There were dozens, even hundreds, of world-class Himalayan climbers during the 20 years covered in this book," McDonald tells us (see interview below). "I had to focus on a few more than others. The three main characters are Wanda Rutkiewicz, Jerzy Kukuczka and Voytek Kurtyka. But I spent a lot of time exploring others like Andrzej Zawada, Krzysztof Wielicki, Artur Hajzer and a few more."

(See review by Barry Blanchard in the next issue of Rock and Ice.)

Wanda Rutkiewicz died in 1992 on Kangchenjunga, which would have been her ninth 8000-meter peak.

McDonald had previously been shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker for Brotherhood of the Rope, a biography of Charlie Houston.  The Boardman Tasker is a British award, and entrants from other countries are uncommon. Only two other Canadians, Chic Scott and Jerry Auld, have ever been shortlisted, both in 2009.

Among other North Americans, Steve House of Ridgeway, Colorado, won the award in 2009 for his memoir Beyond the Mountain.

The two other Americans to win the award have been Robert Roper for Fatal Mountaineer, in 2002, and Jeff Long for The Ascent, 1993.

Also on this year's short list is Steve "Crusher" Bartlett, an ex-pat Brit living in Boulder, Colorado, for his illustrated history Desert Towers (see Rock and Ice review by Rob Dillon here).

The other 2011 honorees are Joe Simpson for his novel The Sound of Gravity, Tim Hannigan for Murder in the Hinduy Kush, and Ian Smith for Shadow of the Matterhorn.

Established in 1984, The Boardman Tasker award honors the lives of Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker, two British alpinists who not only pioneered first ascents in the Himalayas but made a lasting contribution to mountain literature with the books they authored. Boardman and Tasker were last seen attempting the unclimbed North Ridge of Everest in 1982. The award is £3,000 ($4,740) and the winner will be announced on Friday, November 18, at the Kendall Mountain Film Festival, England.

Rock and Ice caught McDonald just returning home from a short climbing road trip:

Q.  What inspired you to write Freedom Climbers?

A.  The characters in the book inspired me. I met quite a few of them over the years when I was director of the Banff Mountain Festivals and they intrigued me.

Q.  Once you conceived of the idea, how long did the complete process take?

A.  About two years.

Q.  Did any of your opinions on Polish climbers change during your research?

A.   Of course I learned that the situation was much more complicated than I first thought. There were some themes - particularly the overall political and socioeconomic influences - that applied to most of the Polish climbers in this book, but each one had their own story, their own set of circumstances, their own motivations, demons and passions. So as the research progressed, the story grew more complicated, but in my opinion, more fascinating. It's hard to imagine how different some of these people were. Their backgrounds varied so much, from well-educated, cultural situations to really tough, poor upbringings.

Q.  Is there an underlying theme to Freedom Climbers?

A.  Yes, I guess the underlying theme has to do with what motivated this group of superb Himalayan climbers, and my take on it is that climbing allowed them to be free. Their life in Poland was so stifling; they were so oppressed; and yet they were vibrant, active, educated, creative and talented individuals. Climbing gave them an avenue to express themselves, to see the world, to have lives that were full of adventure and meaning.

Q.  What does being shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker award mean to you?

A.  Being on the BT shortlist means a lot to any author who writes about mountaineering. As far as I know, it is the oldest award committed to mountaineering literature. The shortlist group is always an interesting and impressive group of books, so to be included in that group, is a distinct honour. It is also a tribute to my publisher, who was the only publisher to take on this topic....most said to me that it was a bit too "niche". I have to say it makes me HAPPY!

Q.  After writing Freedom Climbers, has your own approach to climbing changed?

A.  I think my approach to climbing WRITING has changed. I feel, more than before, that the context of mountaineering stories is extremely important. Of course it is true with the Polish climbers of this era, but I think it's probably true of most mountaineering stories, and in the future, I'm going to concentrate on that.

[Wanda Rutkiewicz, a major character in Freedom Climbers.]

[Voytek Kurtyka, leading Polish alpinist.]

[Bernadette McDonald. All photos courtesy of McDonald.]

On Saturday, Sam Elias crushed the second ascent of Waka Flocka Flame (5.14c), the link-up on the Project Wall of Rifle, Colorado, that links Waka Flocka (5.14b) into Living the Dream (5.14a) for one sustained 130-foot pump-fest. The link-up was envisioned and first sent by Joe Kinder last year.

On Sunday, Jonathan Siegrist quickly took down Waka Flocka Flame's third ascent in a matter of tries to conclude what has to be one of Rifle's most productive weeks of climbing. In the last week, Siegrist has redpointed Bad Girls Club (5.14c/d) for its second ascent, The Crew (5.14c), Planet X (5.14a) and now Waka Flocka Flame (5.14c). On the same day as doing Waka Flocka Flame, Siegrist also flashed Vision Thing (5.13b) and Sprayathon (5.13c) and redpointed Marry Me (5.13c) second try.

To read an interview with Jonathan about his week in Rifle, click here.

Today, on the airy summit of Mont Dolent, John Harlin III closed the final chapter on his quest to travel the entire border of Switzerland.

Harlin’s journey was self-supported, employing a kayak, mountain bike, and his own two feet (plus arms) to travel the 1,858 kilometer (1,150 miles) of diverse terrain.  Roughly 800 kilometers were covered by bike and kayak, leaving the remaining distance of 1,000 plus kilometers for trekking, scrambling and technical climbing.

2010: The Beginning

Beginning on June 22, 2010, Harlin departed from his childhood hometown of Leysin, Switzerland, and climbed south along the border.  However, just 10 days into his journey, on July 1st, Harlin and climbing partner Cameron Burns were crossing Aiguilles Rouges du Donlent when Harlin pulled off a loose rock that sent him for a 45-feet fall, breaking five bones in his feet.

[Harlin shortly after his bone breaking fall.]

After three months of healing, Harlin continued his journey in two installments, thus beginning his Rivers and Ridges segment of the trip.  The first involved floating the Rhine River by kayak from the northern German border of Switzerland and traveling west.  Regarding the Rhine River portion of his trip on his blog for Swissinfo.ch, he wrote, “Despite its beauty it felt completely altered by man, and despite the old buildings lending a sense of timelessness, history is marching forward now as much as ever.”

Upon reaching the area of Basel, Harlin was joined by his fellow Americans Jay Sherrerd and Lee Greenwald to bike the western border of Switzerland.  After pedaling the border around Schaffhausen and the French border along the Jura Mountains past Geneva, Harlin kayaked Lake Geneva to complete the second stage of his three-part journey.  Vowing to return in the summer of 2011, Harlin wrote, “I started this journey by following the skyline as seen from Leysin - the French border south until it reaches Italy on Mont Dolent. But the journey isn’t even half over, as connecting Sargans with Mont Dolent next summer will involve a distance that I now appreciate far more than when I began. But I’m looking forward to it, as wandering through and over mountains is as good as life gets.”

Summer 2011

On July 6, Harlin began the third and final stage of his Swiss border adventure.  Traveling clockwise from eastern Switzerland to end near the site of his 2010 accident, Harlin began an alpine trek that would include a series of 4,000-meter peaks culminating in an ascent of Mont Dolent, where the countries of France, Italy, and Switzerland come together.

Harlin wrote at the beginning of his third stage of adventure, "However complex and challenging my own life has been, it pales in comparison to the struggles these border regions have seen.”

Joined by another American, John Bird, for the last two weeks of climbing, the team summitted Mount Dolent today (September 12) to complete the Swiss border adventure, with a complete vertical distance of 170,000 meters, taking a total of three months over two years.

John Harlin III is the son of famed mountaineer John Harlin, who founded the International School of Mountaineering in Leysin, Switzerland.  Harlin died while attempting the Eiger North Face in 1966.  Harlin III is an accomplished climber and writer, and the editor-in-chief of the American Alpine Club’s American Alpine Journal.

[All photos courtesy of swissinfo.ch.]

Jonathan Siegrist is on a Rifle rampage.  As of September 4 he claimed the coveted second ascent of what may be Rifle, Colorado's, hardest route.  Bad Girls Club, a route bolted in the Wicked Cave by Joe Kinder, had thwarted all previous suitors until Matty Hong unlocked the powerful sequence and linked to the chains on August 21.

Although the route is speculated to be 5.14d, Siegrist made quick work of Bad Girls Club, linking to the chains on his eighth try.

Of the ascent and the grade of Bad Girls Club, Siegrist posted on his blog, “I'm beginning to speculate that 'your number of attempts' is really a flawed standard for judging difficulty. Grades are everywhere, and differ for every climber, at every crag. I think the best we can do is try to keep consistency within areas, remain honest, and also expect to get shut down, and kick ass from time to time. On that note, I'd like to repeat a few other hard routes in the canyon before I feel confident to defend or deny BGC at 14d.”

A new  9a (5.14d) has been proposed in the coastal region of Norway. The Dutch climber Jorg Verhoeven established Nordic Flower, a 55-meter roof climb located in Flatanger.

Verhoeven, who won the overall Lead World Cup in 2008 and who is currently based in Austria, reports on his blog that Nordic Flower is “one of the most brilliant routes I’ve ever done.”  Yet there's more: the 55-meter proposed 9a still holds a 15-meter extension of powerful climbing culminating in what Verhoeven describes as an “8a boulder at the lip of the roof.”  He speculates, of the extension, that “nothing goes underneath 9b in my opinion.”

He wrote in early September that he had established Nordic Flower in the past week. Verhoeven writes, “I do hope that some people will try this soon (Magnus [Midtboe] and Dani [Andrada] are on their way next month), 'cause it’s so damn nice.”

[Jorg on Nordic Flower/Still more potential in the Norwegian granite cave. Photos by Saku Korosuo.]

It’s time to nominate your favorite adventure artist for the 2011 Rowell Award.  The nomination period is open until November 15, 2011, and the winner will receive a $15,000 award.

The Rowell Legacy Committee and others who knew the late Galen and Barbara Rowell established this award in 2004 to honor adventurers “whose artistic passion illuminates the wild places of the world, and whose accomplishments significantly benefit both the environment and the people who inhabit these regions,” as stated by the American Alpine Club, which is administering the award this year.

Previous winners include the writer Greg Child, and photographers Jim Balog, Beth Wald and Jimmy Chin.

The Rowell Award winner will be announced by November 30.

For more information please visit: http://www.rowellaward.com/.