In other news - a special report about the current situation on Everest and a sneak preview of the Olympics 2008, along with an interview with a 1975 Chinese Everest team member who wants to come back - without legs. Also; the Russian mini-sub NP diver is going for the South Pole next, and Abora III - the prehistoric-style boat made of reeds - is truly getting a taste of the old times.

K2 SUMMITS - Russians win the battle for the west face! They were among the first to arrive the hills and among the last to leave – but at 12: 50 pm, local time on Tuesday, Andrew Mariev and Vadim Popovich checked in over the radio - from K2's top! The west face was finally climbed.

K2 West Face Jackpot: Jannu and Everest North Wall climbers SUMMIT! We should have guessed. Once they broke through on Jannu and Everest North Wall, the Russians just would not stop. On Wednesday we had an encore on K2's West Face: One by one, the nine climbers who had held in C6 and C7 behind the two first summiteers, also reached the top. That included Shabaline - who lost toes and fingers to frostbite on Khan Tengri's north face two years back - and the three Jannu climbers who had a marathon stay high up in the deathzone on the first summit attempt just one week earlier. By Friday, all climbers were safe back in BC.

K2 NW ridge Kazakh team: Summit push on “the other side” The young Kazakh team and Russian Serguey Bogomolov are on their own hard summit push. The latest, as reported by the expedition website, is that two of the summit push climbers have descended - leaving only the hard core crew of Max, Zhuma and Sergey Bogomolov with no less than 33 (!) 8000ers summit between them to try. The only high altitude rookie with them is Andrey Puchinin, the well known speed- and technical climber now out on his first, and pretty serious, 8000er experience. The core team of four planned to reach camp 2 today - reportedly in snowy and foggy weather.

Also this weekend, the camel caravan arrived BC delivering much needed supplies - along with Denis Urubko and Sergey Samoilov.

Troillet's team summit push on Broad Peak Jean Troillet, Fred Roux and Mike Horn reached Broad Peak's C3 on Friday. The three climbers planned to set off for the summit that night, but the latest update is that the team is back in BC, after 6 hours of walking through fog and fresh snow. The crew will rest and evaluate the situation.

Aggei’s SMS from K2’s NW ridge, "Forgive me father for I am fed up" Last week, ExWeb published an image of a Kazakh kid in a high camp on K2’s NW ridge. He looked at the camera with the eyes of a young man at his limit. ExWeb contributor Andrey Verkhovod provided the face with a name, a story - and a confession.

Can reduced climbing fees save Everest? The fall Himalaya list of expeditions is thinner than usual. Karakoram meanwhile, sported a record breaking season this summer. Nepal has taken notice; the government now announces its own reductions in fees. The slash will however only be valid off-season. China seems to care less; further increased fees and screening of climbers is on the table for next spring. Check out ExWeb's special report on the current state of things and a sneak preview of the 2008 Olympic year.

2008 Olympic Special: Chinese 1975 Everest climber Xia Boyu, "Don't need legs to climb again - but support" Little did Chinese climber Xia Boyu know that his expedition's 1975 Everest triumph would mark the beginning of his difficulties. An un-selfish act high up in the death zone cost him both his legs. Xia's climbing spirit would get a serious reality check in the 30 years of hardship and pain that would ensue. Yet when a number of amputees began to scale Everest in recent years; Xia was urgently watching. The 55-year-old climber now wants to return to the peak; facing a challenge that may prove tougher than the climb itself: To find support and sponsorship in a political and financial climate not exactly famous for its interest in disabled people.

Joao Garcia: Memories from K2 “We helped each other to summit K2,” Joao Garcia told ExWeb's Karrar Haidri during his ACP debrief. The Portuguese climber spoke of the strength of the Russian-Kuban team on Abruzzi, and the shock when Nima Sherpa slid off the mountain right before his eyes. Joao will attempt Makalu next year.

Iranian Kazim Faridyan: First Iranian on K2’s top On July 20, Kazim Faridyan became the first Iranian climber to summit K2. In 2005, he had reached Broad Peak’s foresummit. In a chat with Karrar, Kazim said he'll return to Pakistan’s mountains next year; for Nanga Parbat.

Spantik: Field Touring Alpine’s weekend summits The Australia-based Field Touring Alpine team summited Spantik on Aug. 18 and 19. A Japanese expedition might have summited the peak on August 19, but that's it - no other teams were successful on the hill it seems, except in parts for...

Austrian climbers paraglide from Spantik’s C2 back to Skardu Austrians Hannes Niederseer and Gernot Graf hoped to climb Spantik and then BASE jump from the summit. Bad weather wrecked the summit push. Instead, Hannes pulled out another set of wings and managed to paraglide from C2 all the way back to Hussainabad, on the outskirts of Skardu. The team also paraglided near Islamabad, over Khanpur Dam - check ExWeb for the pics.

HumanEdgeTech alert: Solar Blazt back in stock! Scouring the world for the latest technology - comparing charts and testing claims - last year we added the lightest and most efficient solar panels at the best prices. Shortly after - we were sold out. Now at last, the panels are back in stock! Hurry to order, and look out also for an upcoming new generation of batteries in a joint venture between HumanEdgeTech and Expedition Batteries.

HumanEdgeTech quick guide: Seven Summits - Seven Sat Phones? Researching an upcoming in-depth story on Everest satellite phones; a journalist called up HET a while back. Turned out, he wasn't even sure which system to use up there. It hit us that if he didn't know, chances are you don't either! So much for our articles about high altitude WiFi... Therefore, HET compiled a quick guide to what satellite phones to bring in the first place.

Early call for young British explorers to take part in a scientific expedition to the Himalayas The British Schools Exploring Society (BSES Expeditions) is calling for budding young explorers to join a five week expedition to the Indian Himalaya region of Ladakh in July 2008.

Antarctica 2007/08: Adrian Hayes for his Third Pole After summiting Everest last year, and reaching the North Pole from Canada in spring, British Adrian Hayes is now heading for Antarctica.

Mini-sub NP Russian plans to bag the South Pole next Arctic explorer Artur Chilingarov, 67, descended 14,000 feet below the NP ice cap in a mini-sub early this month. Now the 67-year old explorer plans to trek to the South Pole, Independent reported. You might recall Artur from previous stories at ExWeb: In November of 2002, the IL-18 airplane crashed while flying from Khatanga to Moscow. All top management people of the Khatanga Air company were on board and killed. Following the accident, Khatanga Air was reorganized, but it lacked people who could take over the difficult management of the Borneo icy runway. The task was mantled instead the next season (2003) by Center Polius – the expedition’s department of the “Association of Polarmen” of Russia with its President Artur Chilingarov.

Norwegian/US Scientific traverse of East Antarctica Among the large number of scientific projects launched during the current International Polar Year, this American-Norwegian expedition on the East Antarctic ice will prevail – in time at least: It is planned to last two seasons.

Abora III: Food rationing, storms and sperm whales Last time we left off, Abora was almost at a standstill. Since then, the prehistoric-style boat made of reeds has survived storms, but with only 1,5 knots on average - time is still an issue. The guys are only estimating the speed, as the log has busted probably due to algae. Now the crew goes old fashioned - throwing stuff in the ocean and clocking it to measure their speed against the current. Unfortunately, the slow going also means rationing of food, collecting rain water and trying their luck at fishing.

Erden Eruc update: "I just don't know where will I end up" After a brief tsunami warning in connection with the earthquake that rocked western Peru, Erden Eruc had been preparing for the worst. And though he’s still tethering himself to his boat for safe measure, his weather partner Dane Clark has assured him that the risk has died down. So for now, Erden is brushing up his Spanish while trying to calculate where the drift and winds will land him.

Expedition Amazonas: On foot and raft from source to sea Expedition Amazonas team members are kicking their training sessions into high gear as they prepare for their huge source-to-sea paddle of the Amazon River, set to launch in less than a month. It's different, it's cool - and a big undertaking.

'Gone rowing': Roz Savage off to Waikiki After a series of delays, Briton female rower Roz Savage departed on August 12 from the dock at Crescent City, San Francisco area, towards Hawaii. Seas were calm at the start - maybe too quiet - but then things changed...

'Gone...home' The next day after ExWeb published her update, Roz aborted the rowing attempt after 12 days at sea. High seas reportedly caused the boat to roll over twice during the night. The boats are designed to behave this way in storms, and the vessel self-righted as it should, but along with some tech glitches the situation proved too much for the rower who finally called home and had a helicopter lift arranged.