In other news: In the normal rute aftermath, as hopes fade to find K2 climber Stefano Zavka alive, questions arise why it took so long for the family to get any reports. A dramatic debrief arrived from G2's avalanche, while disaster hit the private space exploration industry. And in the entertainment business - viewers are striking back at Discovery host Bear Grylls and his allegedly "real" survival show.

K2: Don Bowie rescued from ABC – no news from Stefano There is no news from Stefano Zavka, member of Italian K2 Mountain Freedom team, who went missing last Friday above C4, while descending from the summit. It's not clear what exactly happened, and why it took 2 days for the family to get any reports. Word was that the Italians had helped down American Don Bowie after he had injured his leg, but Don corrected the statements. In fact, Don made it down on his own in spite of his injury until Chris Warner and Czech Libor caught up with him between C1 and ABC. Gerlinde arrived BC and said she'd try to go up and check C4 for Stefano as soon as conditions allow.

K2 main course: Gerlinde is there for the Abruzzi, Peter's and Dodo are en route for the west face, and so are Denis and Serguey for the north face, while Russians (west face) and other Kazakhs (NW ridge) are already working hard in the full-blizzard conditions that caused others to run down or fall apart in normal route's BC.

K2 views Polda Sulovsky’s team submitted stunning images from Czech Libor’s ascent via the Cesen route, and the climb down the Abruzzi Spur. The Kazakh team, fighting their way in loads of snow up the NW ridge, sent cool images from the other side of the mountain.

GII Avalanche debrief: "This amazing site soon turned to horror" “After the loud crack I knew exactly what had happened and what was about to happen next,” recalled Phil Crampton, leader of Mountain Madness on GII. Crampton, McGuinness and Dave Elmore reported on the events following the avalanche that hit GII two weeks ago, killing two climbers and badly injuring Hirotka Takeuchi – currently in hospital in Islamabad. Check the debrief and dramatic images on ExWeb.

GII: Some going, others staying It has been a down week on G2. Each new inch of snow had another climber packing up. The few climbers left on Karakoram’s 8,000ers intently check the weather forecasts, looking for a break. FTA, Kari Kobler, Valles al GII, Alex Gavan’s mate Andrei, and part of Project-Himalaya teams have called it quits. Mountain Madness, some members of Jamie’s team, Alex Gavan, Japanese, Italians and Hungarians, plus a Czech team and Troillet’s expedition, still hope for a weather window. Merelli and a Japanese team, among others, are attempting GI.

Nanga Parbat more summits Belarusian’s team and French Nicolas Brun (teaming up with Jean-Noel Urban) topped-out on Thursday, July 19. Unfortunately, Jean-Noel was turned back in exhaustion after having to not only climb, but also carry all his skiing gear up the snow-packed slopes of Nanga Parbat.

Joao Garcia: See you on Makalu! “It’s time to pack up and go home,” reported Joao from K2’s BC. Before returning to Portugal however, Joao will be stopping in Nepal, in order to prepare his next expedition: Makalu in spring, 2008.

Krasnoyarsk team: Trango, check – now on to the 8000ers After opening two (!) new routes on Trango Towers, the young Russian team from Krasnoyarsk has started climbing their first 8000er: Broad Peak.

Pakistan spires: 2005 quake relief workers bag Dofana's first ascent “We have lost an entire generation,” army sources told news agencies shortly after the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. Within days of the disaster, climbers Christian Walter and Jens Sommerfeldt took a plane to Islamabad, and hiked up with aid to villages impossible to reach for regular relief workers. Markus Walter meanwhile started a massive fundraiser. Now the Walter brothers are back in Pakistan - to continue the quake job but also for some climbing. In fact, Christian bagged the first summit of the season already on June 23, in a first ascent Dofana Peak (5,940m), which had two failed attempts back in the ’70s/’80s.

Who'll win the “Silver Alpamayo”? Andes climbing high-season in full gear, Peruvian climbers are holding Inka Fest in Huaraz on August 8-11. The gathering includes a proper mountain film festival, lectures, outdoor filming workshops, gear fair and a promotional campaign for outdoor sports in the region

Oh Bear! Survival of the fittest - in Bass lake Chalets? UK Sunday Times reported that Channel 4 has asked Diverse, the production company that made the Man vs. Wild series, to look into all Bear's claims. “We take any allegations of misleading our audiences seriously,” a spokeswoman for the channel told the news source.

ExWeb interview with polar skier on Bear Grylls' cold water survival episode Judging from ExWeb's mailbox and world media, Grylls and Discovery have had lots of people upset with their show and claims, and for good reason. Seems 'Bear' (Edward Grylls) stayed in hotels when supposedly trying to survive nights in the wild, was chased by fake bears, tamed tame horses, and killed already dead snakes. The list goes on - and while team ExWeb hasn’t followed the Man vs. Wild series, we did check out a youtube link sent to us by the community where Grylls teaches survival after falling into an ice hole. ExWeb double checked Bear's technique with one of ExWeb's own; Tina Sjogren who - in an unsupported skiing trip to the North Pole - actually did fall through the ice into the Arctic Ocean, wearing no survival suit.

112 years after: Nansen's and Johansen's North Pole quest retraced It took 85 days for Thomas Ulrich and Børge Ousland to retrace Nansen's and Johansen’s legendary North Pole quest. Check in next week for an ExWeb special on the subject.

Ice & Ocean Greenland 07: Kiwi kayakers due northwards After kayaking around South Georgia two years ago, Kiwis Marcus Walters, Mark Jones and Graham Charles are taking a stab at the Arctic waters — in both liquid and solid state. The team is heading to Greenland, aiming for an E/W ice cap crossing, and a kayak trip down the western coast as a bonus.

John Williams on dry land - after rowing across the Indian Ocean On July 10, after 109 days at sea — the last 18 of them spent alone — John Williams felt the sand between his toes at Port Mathurin, Rodriguez, finishing the Indian Ocean crossing he had started with Glenn Edwards. Why Glenn left? He became claustrophobic!

Adrian Flanagan departs Provideniya: “The hand of fate is at my back” Adrian Flanagan secured Russian permission and has now embarked on his attempt to sail the first ever single-handed vertical circumnavigation of the globe via the Russian Arctic.

Ralph Tuijn update: Shark soup Ouch! They say revenge is a dish best served cold, but Ralph Tuijn preferred to fry it up and have it for breakfast. After a charging shark left his iPod smoking and broken, Ralph went on the offense with a fishing line and a taste for vindication.

Fatal explosion at Mojave Spaceport Eric Blackwell, 38, Glen May, 45, and Todd Ivens, 33, were killed by an explosion that occurred during a routine cold-flow test of the oxidizer system for SpaceShipTwo. Three other Scaled employees were seriously injured and are hospitalized. "We are committed to learn all we can from this tragedy and move ahead," stated Burt Rutan.

Mars news: Opportunity weathering the perfect storm "Blep, bleep, BLEEEP!" Karakoram expeditions complain about sketchy forecasts but how about this one, offered to two lonely rovers by SpaceWeather.com: "Mars is beginning to resemble an orange billiard ball. The storm is already a month old and no one knows when it will subside."

NASA reports that Spirit and Opportunity are facing perhaps their biggest challenge since their 3,5 years of operations on the planet. Opportunity's original solar power production of 700 watt hours of electricity per day, was down to 128 watt hours early this week. "We're rooting for our rovers to survive these storms, but they were never designed for conditions this intense," NASA reported. If the storm doesn't ease up, the rovers might lose their base charge (keeping the vital core warm) and simply die of electronic hypothermia.