Messages: 25865 Location: Washington, DC
Registered: November 2003
INDUSTRY NEWS – Linde Werdelin Watch Reaches Summit of Everest
Mon, 02 July 2007 09:26
First confirmed free climb - London, UK – June 25th, 2007
The Linde Werdelin Biformeter and Land Instrument has made history by guiding World leading climbers, Conrad Anker and Leo Houlding, to becoming the first to free climb the famous North East Ridge of Everest.
This is the first confirmed true, i.e. unaided, ascent of the route. Anker and Houlding formed part of the Altitude Everest Expedition 2007 which is due for release as a documentary film at the Sundance Festival 2008. The expedition investigates whether George Mallory and Sandy Irvine could have been the first men to summit Everest in 1924.
The Linde Werdelin Land Instrument measures heart rate, temperature, altitude, weather and compass readings, principally keeping the expedition team safe whilst measuring how the body reacts to such extreme conditions. Previously, all confirmed ascents using this route to reach the summit have used a ladder bolted to the Second Step of the North East Ridge. The Chinese authorities gave special permission for the removal of the fixed ladder and ropes enabling Houlding and Anker to complete the Second Step very much as Mallory and Irvine might have done 83 years earlier proving that it is very possible that they did reach the summit.
- Jorge Merino