Russians launching a summit push on the west face Strong wind regardless - time has come for Kozlov’s Russian expedition to launch a summit push on K2’s west face: Two teams headed to C5 Friday, hoping that the storm will subside once they get there. Beyond C5, the men will need 3 days of fair conditions to climb the steep face to the summit and back to high camp without fixed camps or rope. Final summit push was slated for Monday.

K2 summit push from Abruzzi and Cesen routes aborted Thick fog and bad weather forced all climbers back on K2. Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Ralf Dujmovits, David Göttler and Daniel Bartsch retreated from C4 after climbing the Cesen route in alpine-style. Using the fixed ropes - Fabrizio Zangrilli and 4 Americans turned back as well. On the Abruzzi Spur - Austrian Gerfried Goeschl and Kilian Volken; Italians Marco and Simone, and Polish climber Jacek Teler were also rejected.

Ralf Dujmovits: "She'll try again but I've had it" Trouble started long before reaching C4. “The first scare came after gaining 300 meters,” Ralf reported. “At 6700 m a cornice fell apart, triggering an avalanche which ran down the couloir straight at us – we ran for our lives!” Read the debrief and check out awesome images from K2's Cesen route. Gerlinde might try again but Ralf is most probably done.

Kazakhs on the NW ridge: Avalanche hits C3 – no one injured Thursday morning Brodsky, Puchinin and Russian Serguey Bogomolov reached C3, carrying ropes in order to fix the route up to C4. However a major storm developed through the night and an avalanche hit the climbers' tent. Uninjured, they retreated to BC on Friday.

She's a perfect 10! Nives Meroi comes out clean on Shisha Pangma After decades of Himalayan expeditions, triple-headers, climbing one summit twice in order to leave no doubt, and actually nothing to prove, Nives Meroi says she did summit Shisha Pangma Main back in 1999. Miss Hawley agrees - and so does AdventureStats.

112 years after: Gentlemen explorers – ExWeb’s special on Nansen and Jackson Together with The Long Riders' Guild, ExplorersWeb ran a Nansen and Jackson’s special last week, complete with diaries from the pioneers' first meeting. Appropriately, an interview with Thomas and Borge, who just retraced their steps, ends the series.

Troillet, Horn, Roux and Roduit Summit GI the four climbers summited Gasherbrum I on July 30. Next, Jean, Mike, Fred and Olivier should go for GII - the second stage of their goal this season, which also includes climbing Broad Peak and K2.

GI Sunday summits Australian Mick Parker summited GI on July 29th. Following him on the top were Hungarians Zsolt Eross, Anita Ugyan (female), Katalin Csollany (female), Hilda Sterczer (female), Peter Csizmadia and Istvan Tarjanyi. None of them used supplementary oxygen. Romanian Alex Gavan reportedly summited as well (no date confirmed).

Kopold, Morawski and Hamor’s arrival in K2’s BC The trio arrived K2 west face with a bottle of rum and mixed feelings. They had just enough time to set up ABC at the foot of the face before the bad weather forced them back down to BC.

K2 Memorial: The story of Nima Sherpa The news struck on July 20, in the full heat of K2's summit push: “One of the Sherpas climbing with the Korean team fell to his death from the Bottleneck to the rocks below." At only 33 years old, the young Sherpa of Thame village in Solukhumbu had worked his way up to a Sirdar position fast. On K2, he was leading 2 climbing Sherpas and the Korean climbers, with whom he'd already scaled Everest north side in 2006. Check ExWeb special about the Sherpa who lost his life on the Savage Mountain a few weeks back.

Anna Czerwinska evacuated The veteran Polish lady climber was flown to a hospital in Islamabad after ice struck her shoulder on Broad Peak.

Broad peak summits: Gerfried Goeschl’s team mates Günther Unterberger and Louis Rousseau summited Broad Peak on July 30, together with Spaniard female Blanca Ardanaz. There was also confirmation on Mexican Jorge Salazar and Spaniard Felix de Leon summitting on July 20. Nick Rice, Badia Bonilla and Mauricio Lopez eventually turned back. "It's both of us or none of us," said Badia who turned back from the summit when her husband couldn't go on.

Georg Kronthaler recovers his brother’s body Austrian George Kronthaler and his team brought down to BC the remains of George’s brother, Markus, who perished near Broad Peak’s fore summit last year. A helicopter moved the body to a town, from where it can be repatriated to Austria for burial.

No luck on Latok I Latok I (7151m) is cursed. For years, the Benegas brothers fought a losing battle with the Spire. Last year, the rock also defeated Maxime Turgeon and this season, bad weather already beat Mark Richey's attempt. Mark will climb Baintha Brakk instead, so the last hope stands to Joshua Wharton and Bean Bowers.

New route on Shipton Spire News arrived from Sweden that Hanna Melin and Martin Jakobsson climbed a new 500m route on Shipton.

Parnell & Kirkpatrick climbing Patagonian spires in winter The infamous Patagonia weather is bad enough in summer. Now picture it in winter. Brits Ian Parnell and Andy Kirkpatrick are in El Chalten, ready to head for the iced-up spires of Cerro Torre’s massif as soon as the rain stops. Their original goal is a first winter ascent on Torre Egger, but a first look at the route’s conditions has got them considering a suitable ‘plan B’.

Michael Reardon Memorial Service to be held on August 18 An Official Memorial Service to Michael Reardon will be held on August 18, 2007. US free climber Michael Reardon was swept out to sea near Valentia, Ireland.

Adrian Flanagan's sail beyond WSSRC rules? Adrian’s Barrabas is advancing steadily towards Norway – mostly by engine though. According to WSSRC rules, this is no longer a single-handed sail circumnavigation.

Erden Eruc: No troubles from Delila After some minor concerns about the prospect of running into Tropical Storm Delila, Erden now has nothing to worry about. As he suspected, the chilly waters along the California coast have calmed the storm down. Erden has finished all his fresh food supply and now he hopes for some warmer waters. The shadow his boat will offer the fish should help to bring variety to his current diet of freeze-dried.

Starved sharks put Ralph Tuijn on a diet After 139 days at sea, Ralph's got ‘only’ 2,754 NM to go in order to reach destination at Brisbane, Australia. But sharks are becoming his particular nightmare. In addition to attacks on an almost daily basis, the animals took his last line leaving him without means to catch fish.

Reid & Soanya update: 100 days at sea - and taking it better than the boat On July 31 Reid and Soanya successfully completed their 100th consecutive day of sailing – they just have… 900 more to go! The two sailors are in good health and good spirits, with only the third participant having a few problems; the boat.

Phoenix Mars mission launch The Phoenix Mars Lander, scheduled to land at Mars North Pole in May next year, launched on Saturday aboard a Delta II rocket. The name comes from the fact that the craft is made of backup hardware from the Polar Lander that vanished in 1999, after entering the Martian atmosphere.