Details of the first free ascent of Eternal Flame (VI 5.13a/7c+) on 20,508-foot (6,251-meter) Trango Tower (Nameless Tower) in Pakistan were just released a few days ago. The famed German hardcore climbers Alexander and Thomas Huber climbed the 2,200-foot, 24-pitch route from August 11 to 14 during a spell of good weather, making it one of the world's hardest rock climbs above 20,000 feet.

The route was originally established in 1989 by the crack German team of Wolfgang Güllich, Kurt Albert, Milan Sykora and Christoph Stiegler. They redpointed the route using siege tactics, fixing ropes, and then climbing the next pitches. About 80% of the route was free-climbed, leaving several sections of aid including a 50-foot bolt ladder. Over the next 20 years several strong climbers attempted an all-free ascent, including Swiss Denis Burdet and Spaniard Iker Pou, who found a 5.13b variation to the 10th pitch bolt ladder but had to abandon his attempt because of weather.

The Huber brothers, accompanied by photographer Fritz Hinderbrandner and Mario Walder, climbed to Camp 2 at the Sun Terrace, and immediately headed up the face, climbing two 5.12 pitches, which they named "Come on Baby" and "Light My Fire." The weather turned bad for the next three days so they holed up at Base Camp before getting a great weather report for the next week. They climbed to the high point and began working up the wall above. Walder aided the pitches first, fixing ropes for Hinderbrandner to film the ascent. On their website, the Hubers wrote: "...we wanted to free climb as a team, swapping leads, without any falls, both on lead and as second, from belay to belay, pitch after pitch."

On day two they reached the unclimbed bolt ladder section. The Pou Variation was out of the question since ice coated it. But 12 feet to the right was "a trace of a crack" which led to the dry upper Pou crack. They did it in two 5.12d pitches and then finished the day with "a perfect hand-jamming crack." The next day the Hubers swung leads up more perfect cracks to a "slightly overhanging finger crack." After a "very intensive boulder session," they cranked the 5.13a crack.

On the fourth day they blitzed for the summit, reaching it at noon. Alexander Huber told Planet Mountain: "There's no doubt we were extremely lucky. To be successful, so many different things have to fall into place. The weather was great which meant we could climb perfectly, up the cracks which were free of ice. I take my hat off to the achievement and free climbing instinct of the first ascenders. This route is a true enrichment for mountaineering. With Eternal Flame, Kurt Albert, Wolfgang Güllich, Christof Stiegler and Milan Sykora have passed on the best and most beautiful free climb on the globe. We are thrilled that we could play a little part in developing this route!"

Photographs: Top: Trango Tower in Pakistan's Karakoram is one of the most beautiful mountains in the world. Bottom: Thomas Huber, Alexander Huber, and Mario Walder on the summit of Trango Tower after the first free ascent of Eternal Flame. Photographs courtesy Fritz Hinderbrandner/Huberbuam

Last Thursday I climbed the East Face route (5.6) up the First Flatiron, a 1,200-foot-high sandstone slab pasted to the mountainside above Boulder, Colorado, with my friends Bill Springer, a cardiac surgeon from Lubbock, Texas, and Brian Shelton with Front Range Climbing Company in a mere two-and-a-half hours. We did nine pitches of climbing, with 1,500 feet of actual climbing. That's pretty fast for a party of three.

To climb fast, we did a few things to save valuable time. We placed little gear on most pitches. On the hike back to our packs we counted how much gear we actually placed and it came out the same as the number of pitches--nine. That's not much but then again the Flatirons are notoriously runout plus the climbing was mostly easy. We also simul-climbed the upper half of the route. Brian led each of those pitches and Bill and I climbed together, ten feet apart, at the rope's end. I figured we saved almost an hour of belaying time by doing that.

It's fine to take your time on climbs, enjoying the views and company, but sometimes you want to move fast. That was one of those days. Even though it was early October, the air was chilled. A brisk wind swept over the Northeast Ridge, pushing frigid air from the cloud-obscured Continental Divide to the northwest. It didn't help that after a steep hike to the base of the Flatiron, Brian and I both shed our fleece sweaters, electing to climb in short-sleeved shirts. Big mistake. The whole climb I watched Bill stay toasty in his jacket. So speed equalled warmth.,

You want to climb fast too? Check out my section on Speed Climbing and learn reasons why climbing fast is good as well as get lots of time-saving tips to speed up your ascents. Sometimes it's good to climb fast--because you're cold, it's windy, and you have a lot of pitches to do to the summit and afternoon is fading to night. The reason I like to climb fast though is because I like it and because I can get more climbing in during the day. Try speed climbing. If you like it, adopt my mantra: Climb Fast, Climb More.

Learn more about speed climbing:
Climb Fast, Climb More
Speed Climbing the Nose
Speed Climbing Tip #1

Buy the book Speed Climbing by Hans Florine and Bill Wright, FalconGuides, 2004. Get speed climbing tips from Hans, one of the fastest men on the planet.

Photograph top: Bill Springer and Brian Shelton simul-climbing up pitch 5 on the First Flatiron. Photograph © Stewart M. Green

This week the Ken Burns' series The National Parks: America's Best Idea airs on PBS with six 2-hour episodes.The series, filmed over six years, depicts the history of the National Park system from the mid-19th century when the expanding United States began setting aside some of its majestic and magical landscapes, protecting them from being gobbled up by robber baron interests.

The cinematography itself is inspiring, with spectacular scenes of wild America from Maine's Acadia National Park to California's Yosemite National Park and from Alaska's Gates of the Arctic to Florida's Everglades. This is pure unadulterated natural America at its best, or what Time Magazine called "plenty of unobjectionable, pledge-drive-friendly nature porn."

As climbers, of course we love the National Park system. So many of our best and brightest climbing areas lie within the nation's parks, including Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Sequoia, Zion, Canyonlands, Arches, Rainier, Grand Teton, Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and Acadia. And that doesn't include all the national monuments with great climbing like Colorado and Devil's Tower.

We're darn lucky to have all those wonderful places to not only climb at but also to wallow in their singular beauty. Thank goodness for all those far-sighted Americans like John Muir, President Teddy Roosevelt, and Enos Mills who saw the need for preservation and protection of our best and brightest natural wonders.

Watch the National Park series on PBS or at the PBS website:
PBS site for the National Parks series.
Behind the scenes and preview videos.
Watch each episode in its entirety after airing.

Photograph top: Liz Dunn-Tierney climbing at Otter Cliffs, Acadia National Park, Maine. Photograph © Stewart M. Green

Clifton Maloney, husband of Democratic U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney, died at a high-altitude camp on Saturday, September 26, after reaching the summit of 27,765-foot Cho Oyu, one of the fabled 8,000-meter peaks, the 14 highest mountains in the world. Maloney, a 71-year-old investment banker and former vice president of Goldman Sachs, was a seasoned climber, adventurer, as well as runner who had completed the New York City Marathon 20 times.

Apparently Maloney was resting at the 23,000-foot camp after becoming the oldest man to reach Cho Oyu’s summit on Friday. Maloney’s guide, Marty Schmidt, reported that he didn’t appear to have any problems but died in his sleep in the tent. Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain in the world, is relatively easy compared to other 8,000-meter peaks like K2. The mountain straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet. Cho Oyu, pronounced "choy-Oh-you," means "turquoise god" in Tibetan. The mountain, first climbed in 1954, is usually the first 8,000-meter peak climbed by aspiring high-altitude mountaineers.

Barry Nolen, a Congressional aide for Representative Carolyn Maloney, said, "I am told that his last words were, 'I am the happiest man in the world. I just climbed a beautiful mountain.” Representative Maloney was shaken by the news of her husband’s death. Arrangements are being made to bring the body down the mountain and returned to the United States.

Photograph top: Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain in the world, straddles the Tibet and Nepal border. Photograph © Getty Images

Read more about Cho Oyu.