Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
General => General Chat => Topic started by: Scribble on June 14, 2010
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This guy has balls....
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7052520.ece
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Wow.
And I have difficulty trying to work out when I might be able to get up the Mournes again?!
I wish him every success and look forward to enjoying and, without doubt having admiration at his achievment when the documentary is released.
Banjo Bannon's recent book goes some way to uncovering the dedication that people like this have and and the hardship they go through to achieve their ambitions.
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Pity - the link is still down. They must have removed the article.
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Pity - the link is still down. They must have removed the article.
Must be your browser or something, it worked for just now and yesterday...
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The son of mountaineer Alison Hargreaves is attempting to scale K2, the world’s second highest mountain, on which his mother died when he was six years old.
Tom Ballard, 21, is training in the Swiss Alps in preparation for an assault, later this year, on the 28,000ft peak.
It is considered to be the world’s most dangerous climb. His ascent will be captured on film by award-winning documentary maker Chris Terrill.
Ballard has been climbing since he was a child and says he is convinced he’s ready for the challenge, which has been managed by only 300 other people.
The mountain, which lies on the border between Pakistan and China, has claimed 77 lives.
Hargreaves was the first woman to reach the top of Everest alone and without oxygen, in May 1995. Three months later, aged 32, she was blown off K2 while descending from the summit in a violent storm. Her body was never recovered.
Ballard, his father Jim and sister Kate, 18, moved from their home in Fort William to Switzerland last year so that he could prepare for the climb.
He told a BBC film crew last week he wasn’t daunted by the knowledge that the peak had claimed his mother’s life.
“It’s no different to if she had died in a car crash. I would still travel around in a car. I think I need to climb mountains, it’s inside,” he said.
“Maybe initially she would have been against it but then she would realise that I like doing what she liked doing so she would see the parallels and probably enjoy it for that.
“She would still be nervous but I think she would be proud and happy that I was doing what I want to do.
“I am following in her footsteps. They are already there, so I can just step in them and carry on.”
Hargreaves was 18 when she met Ballard, the owner of a climbing shop and 16 years her senior. They married eight years later.
Despite her achievements, she was criticised for risking her life on epic climbs while leaving her young children at home. Ballard upset her parents when he took his son and daughter on a trek to K2 shortly after their mother’s death. The trip was filmed by Tirrell and shown on the BBC.
Jim Ballard rejected any suggestion he was pushing his son into a career in climbing.
“I never have encouraged him but any parent should support their children in their ambitions,” he said. “Nobody would blink at all if Tom had decided, at 18, to go into the Marines.
“I think she [Alison] would be very proud of the kids. I think with Tom there would always be a bit of rivalry because I don’t think it would sit too easily with her the fact that he is so good.”
Ballard intends to take an expedition including porters, doctors and the film crew to the mountain’s base camp and to complete the climb solo, using hand-held and helmet cameras.
Terrill, who has remained close friends with the family since he filmed them in 1995, said: “K2 makes a lot of sense with it being the mountain that killed Tom’s mother.
“He was there when he was six years old to say goodbye to his mother when I filmed them, but now he has turned into an animal of the mountains. It is in his blood in every way.
“Jim reckons Tom is ready and that is for the two of them to determine, it’s not for me to say. What I can say is that I have seen Tom in action in Scotland and he is quite astonishing on rock faces and mountain faces; he’s like a spider.
“It is such a compelling story for this young, very talented mountaineer to return to the mountain which killed his mother and, of course, Alison is still out there.
“Tom is old enough to make his own decisions and I know him not to be a reckless young man. I don’t think he would set out to do anything which he didn’t think he could achieve.
“There is something very deep within Tom which is driving him and my job as a filmmaker is to get to the bottom of what that is.”
Terrill is in discussions with a number of broadcasters about the film and the family are seeking sponsors for the expedition.
A previous plan to film Ballard scaling the Eiger in Switzerland, the mountain his mother climbed while pregnant with him, was abandoned after Terrill was injured while filming in Afghanistan.
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Thanks guys - must be a browser problem (kept getting a 404 error).
Very interesting. He's so young, but appears to have the skills and experience to make it possible, although the mountain can always say otherwise. Perhaps it is good to get K2 out of the way early in his "climbing career" and when he is on a roll of fitness and ability. The longer he leaves it the bigger the skeleton in the closet that it might become - psychologically, he would then be at greater risk of succumbing to tragedy.
I admire his decision to climb solo - it appears crazy, but in many ways I think; the harder the climb, the smaller the team should be. It reduces the variables, increases speed and deepens experience. When I read about Messner's climbs the ones that inspired me were his alpine style solo or 2-man efforts.