Go Light, Go Fast by CAMP

Delta Airlines Third Bag Fee

We are fresh back from the Kahiltna glacier in AK and we have a public service announcement from the most frustrating part of our trip. As you can guess or hopefully have experienced personally, climbing in Alaska is expensive. It requires a lot of gear and high costs associated with inner-state transport like van rides to Talkeetna and bush flights into the glaciers. This is all part of it and we accept this. But the third bag fee from Delta is something we resent ... it is $125! And this is not even an overweight fee. Their fee schedule is as follows: $25 for the first bag, $35 for the second, $125 for the third! Since skis are pretty much mandatory for efficient motoring around the glaciers, it is almost impossible to trim to two bags unless you have an enormous ski bag and can keep it under 50 pounds.

Even if the Delta tix to Anchorage are slightly less expensive on the front side, consider the added cost of $185 each way if you have three bags.

This has been a public service announcement from two chapped climbers.

Musings on Fabrizio Zangrilli

Fabrizio Zangrilli is the man. He spends about 9 months out of the year in Himalaya guiding all manner of peaks from warm up routes to K2. He uses these expeditions as a launching pad for his huge personal climbing ambitions like the Rupal Face. He is a mild-mannered bad ass and one of the greatest climbing partners and friends we know. His commitment to the other side of the world and to the mountains is unparalleled. He returns to Colorado for a few weeks, maybe a month, each year and we get a chance to catch up. He arrives broke having blown what money he made guiding on his personal climbs and he is quickly in and out of Boulder and back in the Rockies or the Alps, literally within a matter of hours or days. He has not paid rent for as long as we have known him and his car is a hand-me-down from a special friend for being the kind of cool and committed soul searcher we all need in our lives.

Needless to say, Fabrizio is a person we trust our lives to. As an athlete, he is always above and beyond the call of duty with his input on product development and awesome use of technology to keep connected with the world during his long stays in the mountains. We truly believe he is one of the greatest living mountain guides.

And he is for hire! He is wrapping up some trips now in the Himalaya and will remain there until December. In the fall season he will be chasing some of his personal climbing ambitions, but in the near term, he is hoping to do more guiding. If you've had ambitions to climb in the Himalaya, Fabrizio would be the man to sign up with. You can get a much better picture of him than we can paint from his blog at http://fabriziozangrilli.blogspot.com/ where he has been posting video updates via sat phone from the Himalaya for two months now. His 'business' website is at http://web.me.com/fabriziozangrilli/FabrizioZangrilli/Home.html and this is the best way to contact him should the itch turn into the full on burn.  

To climbing big mountains,

CAMP USA Inc.

Denis Urubko wins "The Golden thistle" with “Alpinism guilty"

Denis Urubko, the highly acclaimed alpinist and a committed user of CAMP gear, has won “The Golden Thistle" literary award from Itas during the Trento Film Festival.

The book describes Denis’ approach to alpinism, with special consideration given to his first important solo ascents in the territories of the old Soviet Union. Through the pages, the reader feels the soul of a young man fighting with financial difficulties in the harsh sphere of the Kazakh Army. The struggle, in the end though, was worth it. At the end of this challenging chapter in his personal history, Urubko today is a renowned alpinist who has climbed the highest mountains in the world in a style fellow alpinists endear.

Urubko has been in the spotlight in recent years for climbing routes on the fourteen 8,000 meter peaks without oxygen, and recently finished the first winter ascents on Makalu (8463 m) and Gasherbrum II (8035 m) together with Simone Moro.

Special thanks to publishing house "Priuli & Verlucca” who have translated the book into Italian. For Denis, this has been like seeing his opera now performed in its truest form.

"It's a great pride to see one of my books published in Italian language," Denis told us during his recent visit to our headquarters in Premana, “in Italy the alpine public follows me since many years, finally I can personally tell them my story".

CAMP is proud to measure up with the likes of Denis Urubko who has been a CAMP athlete now for many years. We send him our heartfelt congratulations on this literary award and we look forward to ever more stories as he continues to push the limits of alpinism in the future.

Find more details about Denis’ book at:

http://www.priulieverlucca.it/catalogo/scheda/Colpevole-dalpinismo/471

For more on Denis, visit his blog at:

http://urubko.blogspot.com/

 

Mezzalama Closes the Italian Ski Mountaineering Race Season

The 2010-11 ski mountaineering race season has finally come to a close with the Mezzalama and CAMP athletes were once again in the lead pack where they could be spotted most of the season.

Daniele Pedrini and Alain Seletto finished second, just 18 seconds behind gold medal winners Burgada, Bon Mardion and Blanc.

Michele Boscacci and Robert Antonioli took third, an excellent position considering it was their first Mezzalama.

CAMP athletes also raced into fourth position thanks to Alessandro Follador and the Slovenian Nejc Kuhar. They crossed the finish line just 9 minutes after the lead group.

Disappointment was in store for Damiano Lenzi who was in prime condition leading into the end of the winter. His team was one of the favourites, but was forced to withdraw due to very low temperatures during the race.

In the women's field, Francesca Martinelli, Roberta Pedranzini and Gloriana Pellissier demonstrated their expertise coming in ahead of the favourites Mirò and Roux and finishing 18^th place overall.

With the close of season, we want to congratulate all the members of the CAMP team and every person who raced this year. We look forward to seeing you all again next year and just like CAMP gear, we hope you will return lighter, faster and stronger!

In the picture: The team of Robert Antonioli and Michele Boscacci (Photo courtesy Riccarco Selvatico - info@areaphoto.it) 

 

Blake Herrington will be Presenting on his recent Patagonia trip

Join Blake Herrington and his Patagonia climbing partner Scott Bennet at Bent Gate Mountaineering in Golden, Colorado on May 18th at 7pm. They will be presenting a slideshow and videos on their recent trip to Patagonia which included putting up FA's and FAA's. You can find more information about this event on Blakes blog here or by visiting the Bent Gate Calendar here.

CAMP ATHLETE JUSTIN LICHTER TALKS ABOUT ULTRALIGHT BACKPACKING

Justin is in the middle of a huge traverse in the Himalaya where he and his partner are covering an unfathomable amount of ground, most of which is above 16,000 feet in elevation. He is the world's leading through-hiker and he is an inspiration to all of us who have the desire and predisposition to simply keep moving. We are always interested in what he has to say primarily because he has accomplished what we are all striving for; to go places and see things others likely never will. What makes Justin so amazing is his commitment to doing it all on foot. This has required an unmatched commitment to organization and fitness, two things we advocate heavily in ourr Light is Right philosophy.

This recent interview with AtlasOmega is a great foray into his world. Enjoy!

http://www.atlasomega.com/2010/11/long-distance-ultralight-hiking/

Learn more about Justin from his Bio Page at camp-usa.com.

THREE FRENCHMEN SET INSANE SPEED RECORD ON THE HAUTE ROUTE

We were keyed into this by our athlete Fabrizio Zangrilli. He wrote to us, "You think you are fast or in shape? These guys just skied the entire Haute route in less than 19 hours. That's 3 days normally for fit people, 4-5 for anyone else!"

We can only hope the new record becomes a call to arms for the fastest long-distance rando buffs. It should serve to become for rando challenges what the speed record on The Nose has become today. The route covers 100+ kilometers and over 8350 meters of elevation. The new record is 18:50:29. 

Read the full article HERE.

AAJ NEW ROUTES SAMPLING

The AAJ has just released its e-newsletter with a sampling of new route descriptions submitted by members and climbers. This is an annual project of the AAC that then turns into the American Alpine Journal (AAJ). We anticipate it each year like daylight savings time in Spring. Like the release of the Accidents Report, it should be a national holiday for climbers.

Here's the link: http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=60afa02764806293a37aacfda&id=05f8d5eff8&e=ae6b391c5c

You can drill deeper at the AAJ website ... enjoy!