Piolet d’Or Asia 2007, the candidates are... Planet Mountain reports that the 4 nominations for Piolet d’or Asia, are Koreans for Mount Garmush's west face; Koreans for the summit of Lhotse Shar; Japanese Dec 27 ascent (40 m short of summit) of the south Face of Lhotse; and Kazakh Denis Urubko and Serguey Samoilov's for their ascent of K2 via the Japanese route last month.

ExWeb Jannu special: West Ridge first ascent - climbers back in BC Monday at 2 am, Valery and Serg reached base camp. They were very tired, but they had the summit - and they were alive. It was a slam dunk; small team, new route, alpine style. Time was in for a big ExWeb special and interview recaps. "Some like the priest, some - his wife, and some - his daughter." Remember the quote? It's all in the story.

Spot Blanc? A closer look at the Zaragoza Everest brain study A few weeks back, New Scientist reported that neurologists at the University Hospital in Zaragoza, Spain, recently performed an MRI on a number of high altitude climbers. "Though the expedition suffered no major mishaps, only one of the 13 climbers returned with a normal brain scan," said the New Scientist article. However, a line further down said that the climbers' MRI scans actually were abnormal already before the Everest ascent - and unchanged after. More than anything, the study showed the importance of proper acclimatization - ignorance of which is still killing far more people than altitude itself.

HumanEdgeTech presents: Put some HEAT on frostbite! "If you get frostbite, you're an idiot." Sitting at the glass veranda of the hotel where Shackleton stayed after his ship was wrecked on Antarctica's coast; the prominent polar guide didn't mince words. One month later, we got frostbite. It almost wrecked our unsupported North Pole quest, but solving the problem, we managed to heal on the ice. Using a solution we'd tried already on Everest, HumanEdgeTech has now brought the system for you to enjoy! Best part: it's only 20 bucks per toe!

BaseCampMD: Mountain Medicine World Congress explores hypoxic tents Does it work? Is it sporting/fair? In order to “bring the mountain to the athlete,” various technologies such as hypoxic altitude tents have been tried. The tents are quite cumbersome; you need to use them for a month or so, basically camping out beside your comfortable bed. The question is also if they really work. BaseCampMD brought up a few points from a recent world summit on the subject.

Spoof - the latest in Everest news. Ancient Greeks got their news from parodies and likewise today, many Americans go to Comedy Central's Daily Show for the real deal in world and local events. On internet, Spoof is another dependable source. In the latest update from Everest, Spoof reports that the Nepalese and Tibetian governments have announced that Mt. Everest would open the world's first haunted mountain this Halloween season. "We see this as a fund raiser," one spokesperson told the news source. "Their will be no protuberant conurbation as a result of our work." But the idea has critics: Alternatives such as sending film crews up to record the mountain's dead for IMAX theatres are currently being discussed, reports the news source.

Ama Dablam update - all well in Base Camp Ama Dablam had a scare last week when an avalanche dusted camp 3 in a reminder of last year's tragedy. All is well though, reported Adventure Consultants team from BC.

"Good job, ladies" said the President to Croatia's first female 8000+ summiteers 5 girls from a Croatian female expedition have reached the top of Cho Oyu - and without oxygen. "We are the first Croatian female climbers on the 8000ers," Vedrana reported to ExplorersWeb and included a congratulation from a proud president!

More international first ladies: Liga Plakane the first Latvian woman on top of 8000+ Following Singapore and Croatia, also Latvia got its first female 8000+ summiteer this fall. The team held only three members: Atis Plakans (leader), Liga Plakane, and Kaspars Klapkalns. The Latvian mountaineers had no climbing Sherpas, and only Kaspars used supplementary O2. Liga and Atis are the first Latvian husband and wife team to summit an 8000er.

Jacuzzi on top of Mont Blanc! A team of climbers have dragged a Jacuzzi all the way up to the summit of Mont Blanc. The crew worked up to a year to make the system lighter: "All components had to be as light as possible still functioning in an oxygen depleted atmosphere, under wind and freezing temperatures."

ExWeb interview: Norwegian women for an Antarctica double - and new route! Norway has a proud polar heritage; Rita Glenne and Ine-Lill Gabrielsen plan to keep it that way. November 21 they will fly straight to Mt.Vinson. After climbing to the summit, the two will drop the crampons and mount their skis, heading for the South Pole straight from Vinson's old BC. The 1300 km path will be a new route to the pole, which the women will attempt to ski without support. ExWeb caught up with Ine-Lill for a chat about the upcoming expedition.

Battleground Antarctica: Off the List Expeditions Good fences make for good neighbors. Out of about 200 countries (pending who you ask) twenty eight nations have divided Antarctica between them. Iran is not one of them. "In my opinion, Antarctica is the home of 20 million penguins," Iranian Ali Samsam Bakhtiari said last year - adding that no international treaty will protect the frozen continent from petrol-thirsty governments. A few weeks back, Britain announced it was looking into claiming rights over the ocean floor. "The claim may anger neighboring South American countries such as Argentina," media reported. Now an expedition is en route to the continent made up of Chilean political members. Other expeditions headed south include members recently awarded the Peace Nobel Prize. Artur Chilingarov, 67, who planted the Russian flag at the bottom of the Ocean at the North Pole, reportedly plans for an Antarctica expedition as well.

Going...going..gone! Ralph Tuijn Australia round two "I'll have to think hard about that over the next few days!" Ralph Tuijn said last week, only hours after failing to locate his spare parts on an arriving ship. Wrecked on the Atafu atoll coral reef on August 24, with most of the navigation and communication gear broke or lost, the Dutch ocean rower thought his expedition was over. But on Friday October 19, Ralph left Atafu to row the remaining 4.000 kilometers to Australia.

Tomek and Wacek 'wrong-way' voyage update: "I opened a bottle of Whisky and my perception sharpened" He lost it all, gained it back fishing for scallops in Alaska, met Beata, bought a boat - you know the story by now. Tomek and Wacek have hit about 230 days in their around the world single-handed and without stopover voyage from East to West. The sailor and his Jack Russell first mate almost got us worried. No updates for a week, but then a message explained: "Wind and direction the same, nothing worth describing happened." Day 221 though, was a big day; check the update which includes sausage pancakes and a cigar from America.

Expedition Amazonas: Return to "the best rapids of our careers" Last we checked, after starring in an "epic river soap opera" the guys had limped to Cusco and were "making a new plan" for their 7 month, 7000km trek and paddle, along the Amazon River. With one epic over, another has now begun: "Our last 5 days on river have been the most epic and fun of all our lives!" was the latest last week. "Nathe and Scotty are both quite ill and get some well-earned rest to attempt a quick recovery. We make camp at 3pm on a great beach. The day was a perfect re-introduction to our mate, Apurimac."

It's that time again! Wirefly X Prize Cup in sunny New Mexico "A true 'rocket festival' held in beautiful New Mexico, the Wirefly X Prize Cup brings together science, technology, space exploration and interactive education," say the organizers. "An interstellar trading post," said crew Pythom after visiting last year. October 27 & 28 featured another set of live lunar lander vehicle competitions, launches, and air show performances. Ground and static displays of rockets, NASA, robotic, military and warbird aircraft displays.

The Never Ending Voyage: ExWeb's interview with Henk de Velde Henk is an old world explorer. His son was born on Easter Island and the small family roamed the oceans without all the fancy stuff. Henk still brings all the water he needs with him, and arrives back with it too. "There's plenty of rain water around," he commented in surprise at an ocean rower who battled a malfunctioning water maker in the midst of a heavy downpour. Now Henk, 58, has set out for a truly different expedition - he's not coming back. The idea of a total uproot is frightening to many people. To others, Henk's story is dangerously inspiring. Either way, few remain untouched. Check ExWeb's interview with Henk.