Unusual places to climb

MEMBERS:
JORGE CABRERA M.
HEIVI ORTIZ S.
RUDDY RODRIGUES M.
EMILIO GUERRERO C.
Annapurna, Nepal

 The road to Annapurna summit is the trek most

likely to kill you. It’s the tenth highest mountain in
the world and is considered the most dangerous one.
For every five people to reach the summit, two have
died trying, with its fatality rate of 40.8%. There is no
safe access to the summit of Annapurna, with no
Sherpa’s, no fixed rope and a steep slope that is very
difficult to pass over. Avalanches are so frequent, and
the weather changes a lot with possibility of severe
and inhospitable climatic conditions. In 2014, at least
43 trekkers died as a result of snowstorm and
avalanches on and around the mountain, making it
the worst-ever trekking disaster in Nepal.
Annapurna, Nepal

 On March 24, Mingma Sherpa and his 12-member

expedition team stood on the summit of Annapurna
(8,091 meters; 26,545 feet)—the tenth highest and
most dangerous mountain in the world. Two of those
climbers wouldn’t make it back down. Samuli
Mansikka, of Finland, and Pemba Sherpa, from
Sankhuwasava, Nepal, died in a fall while
descending from the summit in the dark.
“Annapurna is [a] life-taking mountain,” Mingma
Sherpa wrote on his expedition page. “Climbing
Annapurna depends on luck and hard work. ”The
goal of the expedition team—consisting of seven
foreign climbers, six Nepali climbers and two
cooking staff—was to find a new, safer route up the
mountain.
Trango Tower, Pakistan

 There are few mountains in the world that

cause fear and respect to climbers. Las
Torres del Trango is one of them.

 The striking group of imposing rock pillars is

home to some of the most difficult climbing
walls in the world and has attracted even the
best climbers on the globe. And we are not
talking about the pure difficulty in climbing.
Trango Tower, Pakistan

 Just reaching the peaks is like completing an

expedition. The climb will take place during
6,000 m. (enough to make a strenuous
stretch). Recently, the Polish experts in large
walls, Marek Raganowicz and Marcin
Tomaszewski completed 46 new routes of
passage: they took 20 days.

 Height: 1,300 m. Distance: 9 Difficulty: 10

Aesthetic beauty: 9
China, Yangshou

 Here in the still cloistered country was the

planet’s greatest concentration of the
otherworldly topography known as karst:
sinkholes, stone towers, forested spires,
and disappearing rivers that form over
centuries as rainwater dissolves a soluble
bedrock, usually limestone. And hidden
inside and underneath this green
mountains cape—the same iconic scenery
found in traditional Chinese paintings—
was the planet’s greatest concentration of
undocumented caves.”
China, Yangshou

 “Yangshuo is the most popular international rock

climbing destination within China,” he wrote. “The
local karst topography offers a lifetime of crags
unique in rock formations, atmosphere and scenery.
Potential development is limitless and only bound by
imagination.”
 The popularity of climbing has grown not just as a
result of Olympic recognition, but also because the
government has introduced controls to ensure safety.
 Climbers from around the world are visiting Yangshuo
county to experience its lofty peaks and unique rock
formations, contributing to a rock-climbing revolution
that is seeing many new facilities developed