International Climbing News for 08/27 /2008

Slovenian climber dies ***** Cape town climber dies.

LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), Aug 26: Authorities say a Slovenian climber has died while trying to climb a 23,862-foot mountain in northern Pakistan and that a fellow climber called home with a mobile phone and is waiting to be rescued.
The Alpine Association and foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the pair began their ascent of Mustagh Tower on Monday, but one of them, Pavle Kozjak, fell into a chasm and died of injuries.—AP click "read more" for Cape town story.
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A Cape Town mountain climber has been left traumatised after seeing his climbing partner, a fellow South African, plunge to his death on Mont Blanc in Switzerland.

Hannes Esterhuyse, 36, a Capetonian who moved to Switzerland last year, died while climbing with Mark Johnston, a freelance journalist, on Friday.

"Hannes and I were climbing in the Trient region of Mont Blanc, which is on the Swiss (northern) end of the massif," Johnston told the Cape Argus from his home in Kenilworth on Tuesday.

"On Friday morning we set off to do a route on a beautiful, imposing granite spire called the Petit Clocher du Portalet."

The pair had taken a ski-lift up from the Swiss town of Champex two days earlier, and had hiked up for around an hour-and-a-half from a mountain hut that morning.

"Three pitches (rope-lengths) up, Hannes was in the lead when a large block of rock dislodged in his hands. He fell approximately 15m," Johnston said.

He lowered himself to his partner and found him "still alive, but seriously injured".

Johnston tore back to the hut and managed to summon help.

"The first person I met, by an absolute fluke, was an Alpine guide in charge of rescue services in the valley. He whipped out a radio, called a helicopter, so I basically passed the baton," Johnston said.

A helicopter reached the scene shortly afterwards and a highly technical rescue followed, but Esterhuyse was already dead.

"It's awful," Johnston said. "We don't climb for the risk factor, we climb for the love of the mountain. You do your best to stay safe, and I was very comforted to hear from the rescue services that we did nothing wrong.

"Climbing is not about being reckless or a daredevil pursuit. It's an expression of love for the mountains, and Hannes was a very safe climber.

"It was purely very bad luck that a piece of solid-looking rock ripped off like that. I was also told that his injuries were so severe that there's little chance that he would have survived even if he'd received medical attention immediately," he said.

Esterhuyse was an IT specialist and Johnston said he understood that his friend's parents, from Durbanville, had left Cape Town last night for Switzerland.

Condolences have poured in to several internet climbing forums.

One friend, identified only as Brent, reported that Esterhuyse had e-mailed him last week: "..next week I am off with Mark Johnston to climb something big and alpine and so and so for 3 or 4 days...grim life! ciao H".

Details of a memorial service will be announced shortly.

This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Argus on August 26, 2008