In the midst of all that, climbers in the country were advised to be cautious, since the Karakoram Highway was closed during the Red Mosque crisis. Meanwhile, the McNair-Landry siblings crossed Greenland, Erden Eruc set off on his solo row across the Pacific, Borge and Thomas were almost done retracing Nansen’s foot-prints on Franz-Josef Land – and ExWeb got a kid volunteer for the trip to Mars.

In other news; His 1985 Everest summit Sherpa came to Cadiach's defense, while Bear Grylls was questioned by the community. And Mike Horn announced he'll try to climb all Pakistan 8000ers - with no oxygen - nor previous climbing experience!

Broad Peak SUMMITS - Mondinelli bags his 14th! About 40 climbers reached the summit of BP last week. Among them was Silvio ‘Gnaro’ Mondinelli, who has thus become the 13th climber to complete the 14x8000ers quest. He is the third Italian to achieve the feat, after Reinhold Messner and Sergio Martini. He is also the 6th person to summit all the Great 14 without supplementary O2.

Ladies on top Also on BP summit, Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner stepped up to the first place in the top league for female 8000er climbers. Broad is her tenth 8000er. Spanish Edurne Pasaban followed close behind: By summiting Broad Peak, the Basque lady climber bagged her ninth 8000+ summit.

This one is for you Rena: JiJi SUMMITS Hidden Peak Seven Chinese/Tibetan and 3 Pakistan climbers summited Gasherbrum 1 (Hidden Peak). Among the summiteers is JiJi - Rena's widow. She and Rena had summited Everest together in 1999, becoming only the third married couple to summit the peak. In 2005 she was climbing Everest with a Chinese all female team while Rena was in the convoy of Chinese climbers enroute to G1. The cars were caught in a rockslide and Rena and Bianba Zaxi - both with only GI and Broad Peak to go for the full list of the 14x8000er summits and selected to carry the Olympic torch to Everest summit - were struck. Rena died while Bianba Zaxi clinged to life. Bianba recovered, but was left heavily scarred and deaf in one ear. A new attempt was scheduled on G1 this year, and Bianba Zaxi came along to film a documentary. JiJi came along to bag the summit for Rena.

Newsflash: Piotr, Peter and Dodo SUMMIT Nanga Parbat! At 13:40 local time today, Piotr Morawski, Peter Hamor and Josef "Dodo" Kopold reached the summit of Nanga Parbat. The three have wasted little time on the peak. A first summit push took place almost instantly after reaching BC. When bad weather thwarted the attempt, the climbers climbed down last weekend and then back up again Monday. This weekend was spent waiting for a storm in C4, until summit finally arrived today. Next the three aim for a new route in alpine style on K2’s unclimbed west face.

Kinga and Gorri next Kinga Baranowska (Alpinus Expedition Team) and Roberto "Gorri" Rojo are to leave camp 4 tonight local time for a Nanga Parbat summit push.

Ski attempt Also on the spot, is the Chilean team led by Carlos Bascou, and French climber and skier Jean-Noel Urban. Much like Kinga, Urban intended to pitch a fourth camp, or move his tent from C3 to 7,400 meters. “Otherwise the summit day from C3 would be too long, most of all due to a very long traverse at above 7,000 meters,” Jean-Noel stated. “I still hope to ski down all the sections which provide with good enough conditions on this huge mountain,” Urban added.

Other Broad Peak summiteers Santiago Quintero, teaming up with Carlos Pauner, topped out as well, despite having lost all his toes to frostbite on a previous Aconcagua expedition. Italian Simone La Terra aims for all Karakorum's 8,000ers and is now moving to K2, after which he plans to also attempt both Gasherbrums.

Shared Summits: Ready for another summit bid on K2 “The team's spirits have been buoyed by the news that a summit chance looks very promising early next week," reported BC manager Joel. "Once again we will be watching the weather very closely through the weekend to confirm the projections and nail down the specifics. If things continue to line up as forecasted, the 5th time is the charm.”

Don Bowie – Shared Summits team down but not out From the myriad clichés arising from thousands of years of historic wars and ancient revolutions comes this overly-plagiarized gem, courtesy an annoying vacuum sales guy: ‘If I should stagger, hold me steady. If I should fall, pick me up. If I retreat, shoot me.’

Hugues d’Aubarede “All K2 teams are currently down in BC, to weather a forecasted storm the upcoming weekend,” the French climber said.

Kazakh NW ridge team: C1 set up Serguey Brodsky, Serguey Bogomolov, Andrew Puchinin and Malik Ismetov set Camp 1 at 5,700m, according to RussianClimb.

Denis Urubko: North face dreams “I will leave for the Central Tien Shan in July, in order to climb Khan Tengri (7,010m) for acclimatization,” Denis said. “On July 27 I'll be back to Almaty. Over the next two weeks it'll be necessary to get fit at medium altitudes. The green zone between 2,000 and 4,000 meters is the best place to prepare the muscles and mind for the future extreme conditions. My partner Serguey Samoilov will get the same acclimatization on Lenin Peak.”

Al Filo team: Viva San Fermin! Running the Bulls in BC Before the summit push, the Spanish team on Broad Peak, and some friends from neighboring expeditions, had a proper celebration of St. Fermin’s Day on July 7 – Pamplona style. The gang sang, hailed to the saint, and even ran a bull (with team member Asier happily playing the role) up the Baltoro.

Battlefields of valiance: Final list of 2007 Pakistan Expeditions is up In response to the current “Visit Pakistan 2007” campaign and drastically reduced climbing fees; 106 teams have migrated to the Karakoram mountains this season; 74 to challenge the death zone and the rest to cut their teeth on the spires. That's about 20 teams up from last season.

KKH closed during Red Mosque fighting The bloody clash between Army forces and Islamists bunkered up in Islamabad’s Red Mosque came to an end by Thursday. Foreigners in the country were advised to be cautious, though, and ask their local outfitters about the state of their planned domestic flights and road trips, since the Karakorum Highway had been closed during the crisis.

Ueli Steck’s Annapurna debrief: "The rock was a run of bad luck but the expedition was perfect" After two acclimatizing climbs on Cholatse and Pumori, things looked promising for Swiss Ueli Steck as he began his way up Annapurna on May 21. But Ueli’s solo, alpine style ascent was thwarted in a single second by a falling rock - that hit him right on the head. Read his debrief at ExWeb.

Christine Boskoff's body found November last year, climbing buddies American Christine Boskoff and Charlie Fowler went missing in China. Charlie was found in avalanche debris at the base of a 6,204m peak belonging to Genyen massif, Sichuan Province. With the onset of winter, recovery efforts for Christine were suspended until now, when her body was found on the peak along with her passport and camera late last week.

Everest second step - 1985 summiteer Ang Karma Sherpa: Misunderstanding between Miss Hawley and Shambu An unexpected witness has popped up in support of Oscar Cadiach’s claim on Everest’s Second Step free-climb. “Being one of the summiteers on Oscar Cadiach’s Everest climb, I would like to add the following information, which relates to my own memory from the summit day on Aug. 28, 1985 and recent information obtained in conversation with Shambu Tamang,” Ang Karma Sherpa told ExplorersWeb. "When Oscar says 'There is no way Shambu said I used the ladder,' this seems to be the truth.”

Pilots doubt Bear Grylls’ Everest para-motor flight claims “It is all captured on film!,” Bear Grylls stated over email as a reply to ExplorersWeb's request for proof on his claimed para-motor flight over Everest. “Discovery & Channel four are releasing the 2 hours-long film documenting the whole adventure at the end of the year… We will see it all then so there is no doubt!” British pilots disagree though, and it's not the first time the Discovery host has sailed close to the wind with his claims, according to British journalist Tarquin Cooper. Brian Milton, the first person to fly a micro-light around the world, told him: “The worst thing about it is that anybody who genuinely wants to fly over the mountain will never be able to raise the money because any sponsor will say Bear Grylls has done it. And he hasn’t.”

Jean Troillet for all four Karakoram's 8,000ers – with Mike Horn on his first Himalayan experience Jean Troillet wants them all – the Swiss mountain guide is currently in Pakistan hoping to climb all four peaks over 8,000 meters in the Karakoram range. Or maybe the ambitious one is his climbing-mate: Celebrity adventurer Mike Horn, who has never climbed before.

Pittarak Greenland expedition: The kids made it! “We are here! The crossing is complete,” reported Sarah, Eric and Curtis. The kids have kite-skied across Greenland from south to north, without resupplies. On Monday they pitched their tent for the last time – not on a glacier, but by the sea, after toasting to success with a sip of Scotch and a swim in the Arctic waters.

Thomas & Børge: The last steps are the toughest Thomas and Børge are expected to cross their targeted finish line at any time now – but until then, every further day across Franz Josef Land is weighing heavily on their exhausted bodies and souls.

Tara expedition update: Getting wet “The snow is melting, and the landscape is rapidly changing,” Tara crew member Charles reported on Saturday. The boat will soon break free from the Arctic ice.

Pacific rowers: Erden’s off – Roz not yet “I am writing this dispatch from the ocean at about 35 nautical miles west of Bodega Bay,” reported Erden Eruc, finally at sea after two failed attempts. Also aiming for a Pacific row, but divided into three stages, Briton Roz Savage has not shared Erden’s luck. “My boat won't be ready in time,” she said.

Ralph Tujin update: No music, waterlogged laptop, are we there yet? It's gonna be a long 3,498 miles. Ralph Tujin is little more than halfway to Australia, and his electronic stimulation seems to be dwindling at an alarming rate. First, after a close call with a shark, Ralph was left with a barbecued iPod. Then, later that day, a sudden crashing wave made for a big helping of laptop stew.

"It's a red planet" said the kid ExplorersWeb's Mars mission is already making waves. "Tom will you have time to finish my website before you leave?" worry fellow explorers such as Henk De Velde. Readers offer solutions on how to clean urine while one kid needed no explanation to 'why'.

Mars Ocean Odyssey: From lofty thoughts to gritty works With 1,000 days of seafaring, Reid Stowe has found there is a time to ponder the great deeps and wide horizons of human fortitude, and then there is a time to clean the barnacles off the bottom of the boat.

ExWeb Special - Mars ho! Peas in Space (food) Explorers always expect all kinds of monsters in unknown territory, and NASA was no different when venturing into space for the first time. How would zero gravity affect eating? Would we choke? What should we eat and how? Check how Tina put the problem to a test and the second entry in the upcoming Mars mission - including everything from sailors killed by dented food cans to the huge difference in cost between fat and skinny Astronauts.