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Shishapangma TRUE summit and the winner is..

Lock and British mate Neil Ward were the only to reach Shisha's main summit this fall, after climbing from the north side via a varient on the Inaki's route. Hard Wheather forced the two climbers to improvise a bivouac on descent.
(read the whole story on www.mounteverest.net/news)

TIMES ONLINE

Andrew Lock, with the help of his Welsh climbing companion Neil Ward, reached the true summit of Mount Shishapangma in Tibet on Saturday, ending a 16-year project to climb the world’s most extreme peaks.

“I feel very glad that I’ve done it, but very tired,” Mr Lock told The Times as he and Mr Ward, 37, enjoyed a cup of tea at the base camp of the Tibetan plateau earlier today. “The reality of completing the project of climbing the 14 hasn’t really set in, I’m still on an adrenalin high from this particular climb.”

It was Mr Lock’s third attempt at climbing Mt Shishapangma, which has an elevation of 8,013m (26,289ft) and is located a few miles from the border with Nepal.

Mr Lock met Mr Ward when both had attempted to climb the mountain two years ago.

Making the summit was a rewarding experience for Mr Ward, who learnt to climb as a child on the hills of Pembrokeshire in Wales, and now lives in the French Alps. “For me it’s been very good because we came here two years ago but we never made the summit, so to come back now and make it means a lot,” he said.

The ascent of Mount Shishapangma, along the north face, was not without its dramas. Their departure was delayed because of bad weather, and they were forced to leave their backpacks in the ice about 80m (a 90 minute climb) from the summit in order to make it there before darkness. On the way back down they got caught in a storm at an elevation of about 7,600m and had to dig an open bivouac in the ice and sit on their backpacks for insulation.

“It was very tricky, at times we were climbing along a knife-edge, avalanche-prone ridge,” Mr Lock said.

By Sunday morning they had finally reached base camp three, exhausted and dehydrated after more than 27 hours climbing.

Mr Lock is now the 18th person to climb all 14 of the world’s highest summits, and the only Australian. In 2005 the mountaineer Alan Hinkes claimed to be the first Briton to have summited the 14 peaks, however this claim has been disputed.

ABC News - tip toe to the top

Aussie climber tip-toes to the top
By Craig Allen

Tip-toe to the top

Late last Friday, Lock and his climbing companion, Neil Ward, dropped their packs near the summit and went for the top.

"It was an absolute knife-edge ridge and we had to very delicately tip-toe our way along this ridge towards the top," he said.

"[We had to] then climb over some massive ice cornices which were perched right on the ridge.

"With every step we set off little avalanches, so [we were] really hanging on by our fingernails.

"The snow was much deeper than we had hoped for, on quite a steep face, so it took us much longer to climb it than we thought that it would, and it became a race against the clock to get to the top, just before dark."

On their descent, the two climbers were caught in a heavy snowstorm, preventing them reaching their intended campsite at a safer, lower elevation.

Without provisions, they were forced to wait out the storm in appalling conditions at 7,600 metres.

"We had no tents, no sleeping bags, no stoves. We just had our backpacks, so on the ledge we just sat on the backpacks for a bit of insulation from the ice.

"It was a very, very cold night, I'm guessing between minus 20 and minus 30 [degrees Celsius]."

The storm delayed his descent and put him out of contact with his support team in Australia for several days.

Recovering at Mt Shishapangma base camp, Lock is already planning his next climb - a third ascent of Mt Everest.

He wants to return to the world's highest peak early in 2010 to attempt Everest without supplementary oxygen.

All Lock's other 8,000 metre ascents have been done without oxygen.