The Northwest passage was crossed by sail from Alaska to Greenland for the first time, and Tim's final days on horseback showed that not all those who wander are lost...

K2 West Face climbers at home with Pakistan's Prime Minister - and back for K2 in winter! The Russian K2 West Face team left Pakistan last weekend, after a Sept 7 visit to the Prime Minister's residence. Victor Kozlov also told ExWeb's correspondent that the guys plan to return for K2 - but in winter next time! "It was a steep climb" Victor commented the West Face expedition.

Paved roads a fact in Himalaya Shisha climbers landed in BC after riding there on a paved road. "We passed the intersection to Mount Everest - a simple dirt road but marked with a huge sign in Chinese and Tibetan. This is the road that was marked to be paved for the 2008 Olympics but is stalled by environmental concerns," Alan Arnette reported.

Russian tennis star Marat Safin for Cho Oyu Marat Safin is changing rackets for ice picks this fall. The 7Summits Club – Alpindustria expedition arrived Nepal September 11. Alexander Abramov's team includes Russian Tennis star Marat Safin. "Hopefully to his many victories in tennis Marat will add one more victory on the 6th highest mountain in the world," Alex says.

Makalu - Nives & Romano: Between the monsoon and the Maoists Nives and Romano reported from Kathmandu that their flight to Tumlingtar (where the trek to Makalu begins) was delayed due to heavy monsoon rains. “We considered to drive there – but the road is apparently blocked by Maoists as a protest again the upcoming elections,” they wrote.

Shisha Pangma - Edurne Pasaban: Expedition kick-off Edurne Pasaban left Madrid Monday. For the third time this year she is teaming up with Asier Izaguirre and Ivan Vallejo. 14x8000er summiteer Juan Oiarzabal is also joining the expedition, headed to Shisha’s normal route on its north side. “I learned that I was to join the Shisha Pangma team barely one week ago – I was only told at my return from vacation” Ecuadorian Ivan wrote. “I actually summited Shisha in 2004, via its south face, together with Santi Sagaste, who sadly perished on Dhaulagiri last year.”

Alex Txikon: Road movie with a ‘Bollywood’ ending Alex Txikon and his small crew’s adventure began long before reaching base camp. Back home in Spain, the guys loaded their van and headed east. Their prolonged route to Shisha's summit have since included border hassle in Iran, and a Pakistani military escort to the Indian check point where the Indian authorities finally confiscated their vehicle. It is not yet clear how the climbers will make it to Tibet.

K2 North side update: Denis and Serguey back up on the mountain Serguey Samoilov has managed to recover from his bronchitis, and so he and Denis Urubko back on track with their plans to open a new route on the mountain’s north side. The Kazakhs are now continuing their acclimatization climb.

Kazakh NW ridge update: A lesson of survival from the Savage mountain September 7, all the NW ridge Kazakhs were safe back in BC. "We did all we could, but it just wasn't our time," Serguey Bogomolov said. A flashback to K2 in 2005 showed it takes lots of experience to turn back a stone's throw from K2's summit - again and again - and could be the very difference between life and death on the Mountaineers' mountain.

Manaslu looking good Canucks Neil Bosch, Toby Brodkord and Keith Sanford; Kiwis Warwick White and David Morrison; Aussie Mike Parker and Portuguese Gonçalo Velez are already back from C2.

Andrew Lock - Kathmandu again "We've arrived in Kathmandu to find a late monsoon, sweltering temperatures and humidity like standing under a shower. Still, nothing a couple of dozen Everest beers won't fix I'm sure," Andrew reported. This is the Australian top mountaineer's second round in the city this year, since his Annapurna summit this past spring. "Altitude headaches are much like being drunk and hung over at the same time," Andrew also educated, "so I'd best head off now to drink those couple of dozen beers - altitude training!"

Dutch Dhaulagiri The guys were delayed in Marpha; due reportedly to the heavy rains and landslides. "The team is especially annoyed because, although this day of delay has been put forward as bad luck, all the members of the team have a feeling that this 'rest day' has been planned from the start," reported the expedition webmaster. Another downer is that the climbers' USB-port is bust and so they can't send pics. "We hope we will find a solution for this, but chances are slim."

Fredrik Eriksson - On the road, again! "with a smile on my face I’m on my way to the mountains," Fredrik reported. Following a desperate plan B, including a quest to find "21st Century skis in KTM" Fred got a break Friday morning: "I went on one of our routine trips to the airport to look for the ski bag. The man at the lost baggage desk, that I was sure couldn‘t say anything else than “Bag not found”, said something different this time: Bag is here!" A small Ghorka Air propeller plane swept Fred off to Jomsom. "If everything goes as planned we will reach Dhaulagiri base camp (4700m) on Wednesday."

2007 Everest debrief: Al Hancock’s message from the land of giants: "Believe, believe in yourself" “That night the stars were shining like diamonds and the air was crisp - it was going to be a good night to climb. If I have a message- it’s a simple one: Believe, believe in yourself.” Canadian Al Hancock summited Everest from its south side on May 19th, 2007 - check his debrief at ExWeb.

Newsflash: Russian kayakers missing in China Six Russian adventurers went missing during a canoeing trip in the Xinjiang-Uigur Autonomous Region, in the country’s Northwest. The men were to paddle down the Yurungkax River on August 22 through September 2. Contact with the group was lost soon afterwards, and the team failed to show up at the designated point on the agreed date (September 2).

Puigblanque and Eiter win the XXI Rock Master before 6000 spectators Ramon Julien Puigblanque from Spain and Angela Eiter from Austria won the 2007 XXI Rock Master in what turned out to be a truly fantastic two day event for the best rock climbers in the world.

The Saturday Speed competition was won by Eugeny Vaitsekovsky from Russia ahead of his teammate Sergey Synitsyn and Manuel Escobar from Venezuela. Tomasz Oleksy from Poland finished 4th but set a new piste record with 10.04 seconds.

The Sint Roc Boulder Contest was won by Gareth Parry from Great Britain, ahead of last year's winner Nalle Hukkataival from Finland and Gabriele Moroni from Italy.

The women's event was won by Anna Stuhr from Austria, ahead of Yulia Abramtchouk from Russia and Olga Shalagina from the Ukraine. Furthermore, the second edition of the Arco Rock Legends was won by Paxti Usobiaga from Spain and David Lama from Austria. This was decided by an international Jury comprised of 14 specialized climbing magazines. Check out the organizers' debrief of the thrilling Sunday finals.

Karambony update: Tough enough - but not yet free The worlds hardest big wall? François Legrand and his mates think so. “This is the route of my life,” Francoise said and his friends chimed in, “With four 8b+/8c pitches, we must be facing one of the toughest routes of its kind in the world". François and Greg have free-climbed every single move on the Tough Enough route. With that, the 400 meters-long route is up for grabs for the first complete (ground to top) free climb. "I honestly don't think the entire wall can be free-climbed in one day by one single climber or a team of two. The granite is too aggressive for the fingers, and the difficulties too high," François said.

Summit and new route on Shingu Charpa - a series of problems overcome It was a question of determination: Alexander says the wall presented not one specific but a series of hard problems to overcome. More than 20 days were spent on the mountain, by a small team - leaving none of the 3 climbers time to catch their breath. The men were hammered by rock fall day and night; wickedly loose granite and filthy cracks ruled out the initial idea to free-climb the wall.

Thomas Ulrich: Goodbye Borge, hello sweet home The guys reached Murmansk midnight August 19 - worried about having to sort out their permit to reach Russian territory after it was a fact... "That same evening, I said goodbye to Børge. His trip isn’t finished yet: He continued on board the sailing boat to Bodø, and is now biking home to Oslo where he will arrive in about two to three weeks," Thomas reported.

Alaska-Greenland: Northwest passage crossed by sail! It took Sebastien Roubinet one year to build Babouche - a 7,5 m ice catamaran designed to sail on water and slide over ice. Last Sunday, the vessel made Sebastien's dream come true. The adventurer and his friends connected the Pacific to the Atlantic by the north of Canada; claiming the first Northwest Passage made without engine in one year. The passage took 3 months and 21 days, and spanned 4500 miles.

More on Northwest passage adventures: Three-stage sail in 1986-1988 The amazing adventure brought readers to remind ExWeb about another great passage made by sail: In 1986-1988, Canadians Jeff MacInnis and Mike Beedell made it through the Canadian part in a 3 stage trip spanning 3 summers. Wearing diving suits, the two explorers rode a custom 18 foot Hobie catamaran on a 2,500 mile passage from Inuvik in the Northwest Territories to Pond Inlet on Baffin Island.

Not all those who wander are lost: Tim's amazing Saga coming to an end Only days away from finish line, Tim's horseback journey through Hungary read like a story out of Lord of the Rings. In the evenings, tall, powerful horsemen with almond eyes shared tales of the Huns, while treating Tim to Palinko (the national spirits) and goulash cooking slowly over camp fires.

Next came a story out of Lassie: Tigon disappeared and turned up in Tusze; the village from where Tim had traveled four days earlier. No one knew how it is possible, but seems the dog swam across the Tisa river, and was waiting in the garden of the original host family. The reunited travelers were treated to a stay in a castle where Tigon and Tim were led up to a kind of ‘royal’ guest room with a huge bathroom, red quilted king size bed, and views over the gardens.

The Polar World - Wally Herbert's travels and paintings in a brand new book "...and by the time the mining town, two miles away was awaking to another day, Hilmer Noice had sown in my mind the seed of a truly great idea..." On June 12, British polar icon Wally Herbert died at age 72. The third expedition to walk to the North Geographic Pole, Wally and his men continued across the Arctic Ocean; in a monstrous trip that included over-wintering on the ice. Together with her dad, Kari Herbert had been working on a retrospective book of his travels in the Polar Regions - and his large collection of amazing paintings. "Thankfully he saw the proof copy before he went, and he was thrilled with it," Kari told ExplorersWeb. Check out and excerpt from The Polar World at ExWeb.

"As a Muslim man" - Erden Erduc's dispatch in the wake of 9/11 The last man standing on the Pacific Ocean; Erden continues to push his oars through the estimated 6.700 nautical miles from Bodega Bay, CA to Australia. The adventurer has demonstrated lots of courage already, but even more so perhaps in his dispatch posted 9/11 last week.

Adrian Flanagan update: Time for Plan C - lift on a merchant ship "Given the best available advice, Adrian decided to opt for the next option to pass through Proliv Vil'kitskogo. Barrabas will be lifted onto a large ice-hardened merchant ship which will enable Adrian to continue his expedition westabout." The expedition writes that the ice is arriving early this year. "Given all the claims for Global Warming this may seem confusing," they note. "Looking back over the last seven years of Arctic weather and ice movement along the Russian Northern Sea Route, the last two years have demonstrated a shorter summer with ice receding slowly to a point closer to the coast. Indications are that the trend is to shorter summers, but that could reverse again in later years."

XPrize/Google award for robots to the moon On Thursday, September 13 at WIRED NextFest in Los Angeles, the XPrize Foundation was to announce the largest international prize in history. It turned out the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a robotic race to the Moon to win a $30 million prize purse. Private companies from around the world are to compete to land a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon that is capable of completing several mission objectives, including roaming the lunar surface for at least 500 meters and sending video, images and data back to the Earth.