Two South African rock climbers, who have scaled peaks from Patagonia to Pakistan, left Johannesburg last night to attempt the first ascent of a rock tower in the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan.(Picture: The Torres del Pain in Patagonia in Chile is over 1000m of sheer granite, making it a prime climbing destination. The goal was to climb all 3 towers.)
Mark Seuring, 35, and Andreas Kiefer, 36, will be climbing in a remote and mostly unexplored valley in the former Soviet republic, making this a challenging and risky expedition.
Seuring, a physiotherapist, said on the eve of their departure: “A small team narrows our safety margins, but also allows us to move quicker and lighter. We have been climbing and kayaking together since we were 10 and 11 years old.”
The accomplished pair have set their sights on the steep granite east face of the 5239m Alexander Block in the Llailak Canyon of the Pamir Alai mountain range.
Seuring said: “The peak has sheer rock on every side and looks hard at the top.”
Unpredictable stormy weather at high altitude as well as unknown rock and ice conditions will influence their chance of success.
Another of the team’s goals is to climb Aksu, an almost vertical pyramid with an east ridge of more than 1700m.
Kiefer, an engineer, said: “It will be an adventure. It appeals to me that the valley has been relatively unexplored by Westerners.”
As veterans of the Mountain Club of SA — Seuring’s late father, Herbert, and Kiefer’s mother, Ulrike, introduced their children to the Magaliesberg mountains as toddlers — the two have impressive track records.
Seuring was on the second South African team to climb a hard face on the Central Tower of Paine in Chile in 2004 and he climbed Cerro Torre in Argentina in 2005.
Kiefer was part of the first South African team to reach the summit of one of the world’s most difficult rock routes at high altitude, the Trango Tower, in the Karakoram mountain range, in 2005. (copyright thetimes.coza)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment