Celebrated mountaineers Ueli Steck and Simone Moro have announced their NO2 Limits Expedition 2013 to Everest. The intention is to summit via a new route (to be decided depending on conditions) and without oxygen.
The team consists of Mountain Hardwear athlete Ueli Steck (Switzerland), Simone Moro (Italy), and Jonathan Griffith (UK) who will be performing filming duties. Simone Moro is well known for his winter ascents of 8000m peaks, he has also summited Everest four times. Ueli Steck has climbed the three big North Faces of the Alps in winter (Matterhorn, Eiger and Grand Jorasses) in record time (7h 4min altogether). He has also taken his speed ethic to the 8000m peaks: in 2011 he soloed the South Face of Shisha Pangma (8027m) in just 10.5 hours, and in 2012 he summited Everest without using bottled oxygen.
To tell this story there needs to be a third person, Jonathan Griffith, who will be the cameraman of the team. Jonathan is a great photographer and a strong alpinist. Living now in Chamonix, he’s done numerous ascents of the big hard routes in the Mount Blanc Massif as well as further abroad, and he will complete the team on the mountain.
While the normal Everest route is fixed each year for numerous commercial expeditions, Simone and Ueli will be looking for a route away from the fixed lines and camps. Their exact line will be decided while they acclimatize, and their decision will be based on conditions both on the mountain and within themselves. There are so many factors that dictate the optimal route, the team can only make the key decision of what to climb when on the mountain itself, gauging fitness, weather and snow conditions. You can follow the NO2 Limits Expedition 2013 at Mountain Hardwear’s Facebook page (see link below).
RELATED LINKS
www.mountainhardwear.com
www.simonemoro.com
www.uelisteck.ch
www.epictv.com