A 53-year old mountaineer rescued on Saturday, July 24th 51 hours after his fall at 4800m on west side of Mt. Damavand. The event occurred on July 22nd, when Gholam-Husain Shah-Mir was getting back from Damavand summit (5671) on his 53rd birthday. He had fallen down for less than 10 meters on a rocky slope. More than 50 mountaineers were on the west route but just a few of them went up for rescue. They just could put him in a sleeping bag and a safe place for future efforts. Besides, Air rescue was impossible in that altitude due to lack of well-equipped choppers. However, a team of 3 alpinists reached the place at 7:30 a.m. on July 24th. Thankfully to god, he was still alive. After first aid operations, Ghola-Husain was carried down by a group of approximately 20 mountaineers to west route’s BC around 3500 m at 6:30 p.m., where a helicopter evacuated him to hospital.

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Neville McMillan - Chairman of the BMC Technical Committee for 17 years - has been presented with an Award for Contributions to International Mountaineering.

At this year’s UIAA Safety Commission meeting in Longarone, Italy, Neville formally ended his role as UK National Delegate, after 23 years. He had half expected some acknowledgement of this during the four-day meeting, but he was very surprised by what actually happened - at an evening public meeting for Safety Commission members, local guides, and mountain rescue teams, he was formally presented with a framed award from the UIAA for his “Contributions to International Mountaineering”, by the President, Mike Mortimer, and the Executive Board Member, Silvio Calvi.

Commenting afterwards Neville said:I really was gob-smacked when it was presented to me at a public meeting in Italy. When I started rock climbing at the age of 42, with an introductory climbing course at PyB, I never thought I'd end up with an international award!"

Neville was Chairman of the BMC Technical Committee for 17 years, from 1987 onwards, when gear was not as reliable as it is now. As UK Delegate to the UIAA Safety Commission, he was instrumental in ensuring that BMC research into gear failures was fed into the UIAA Safety Standards, and also into the first European standards (EN) for mountaineering safety equipment, which all safety gear sold throughout the EC has had to comply with since 1998.

Five days after leaving Iran, Tehran’s male and female expeditions hope to reach "Kargil", north side of India on July 22^nd.
"Arriving in New Delhi, Tehran mountaineers have visited Indian mountaineering federation before flying to "Leh". They had planned today to reach "Kargil", the last city to visit. Trekking toward the BC of Mt. Nun (7135m) will start in a day or two," told MSCCT’s head, Kaveh Kashefi.
Led by Mohammad-Reza Kafash, Tehran’s female and male expeditions include 4 women and 5 men picked up after an 8-round selection process. Expedition’s leader is assisted by two instructors, a doctor and a logistic supporter.

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Mamoud Hasan-Zadeh won the male veterans lead competition that was hold in memorial of Farshad Khalili on July 15^th at Taheri climbing gym of Tehran.
There were 11 climbers aged more than 35 from Tehran and Arak cities competing on qualifying route with 5.10bc grade, where 8 men managed a top and entered the second round. The second round has been assumed as the final but 3 climbers completely climbed a 5.11bc route and got neck and neck on points. Therefore Fatak Mousavi set a harder route as difficult as 5.12ab, where Abbas Mohammadi from Arak and Goudarz Nategh from Tehran respectively followed Mahmoud without any top out.
This competition had been organized by Mountaineering and Sport Climbing Council of Tehran (MSCCT).

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The 90th monthly meeting of Alpine Club of Iran will start at 5:00 P.M. on July 21st in "Shahryaran-e-Javan" culture hall.
According to ACI’s official website, the meeting will set by a presentation about a Farsi website that serves a room to everyone on internet to point out his opinions subjected to mountaineering. It is called "Wiki-Pakoob". Then this meeting goes on with a description about the International caving expedition in "Megalaya" region, NE of India, which was attended by erfan Fekri and Leila Esfandyari last February.

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Iranian star climber, Elnaz Rekabi won women’s bouldering in 11th national climbing championship, which is going on till July 22nd at "Polour" climbing gym, southern side of Mt. Damavand.
"Women’s open bouldering competition started on July 19th with almost 40 climbers from 13 provinces vying in qualification round and finished this evening, where 6 climbers were competing to achieve more tops on final routes. The finalists were Elnaz Rekabi and Farnaz Esmaeel-Zadeh both from Zanjan, Nasrin Abdol-Rahimi from Tehran, Sayeh Tajalizadeh and Fatemeh Jafari from Kerman and Negar Varshowchi from Hamedan," said comp’s spokeswoman, roya Fardi, "and it was Elnaz, who topped bouldering podium. She followed by Nasrin, the winner of 10th championship and Sayeh."

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Iran’s big wall climbing veterans, Esmaeel Motehayer-Pasand died of heart attack on July 15^th, while trying to pass the entrance test for Level-2 rock climbing instructor’s course in Pol-e-Khab climbing resort.
Despite a bypass surgery he had undertaken a few years ago, but Esmaeel’s tendency to push his climbing limits was not seriously affected. Born in 1968, his fame in iran’s mountaineering society was due to a few outstanding experiences such as membership in Iran’s national expedition to Mt. Rakapushi (1997), membership in Azad university’s expedition to Mont Blanc (2001) and Kilimanjaro (2003), opening a new route on northern wall of Alam-Kouh in winter (2001), opening a new route on western wall of Alam-Kouh (2008), opening a new route on Bistoon Wall (2007/2008), opening a new route on "Ab-e-Ask" Wall (2007) and instructing several courses with the theme of "Search and Rescue".

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Passing more than 1 month after Iqbal Aflaki’s resignation, Hadi Saberi was appointed by MSCFI’s head, Mahmoud Shoaei as federation’s interim secretary.
At the same time with Iqbal, Homayoun Bakhtiari had also resigned from MSCFI’s committee of foreign affairs, where an unknown person named "Mohammad Fahimi" has served as committee head since end of last June.
But contrary to Mohammad Fahimi, 36-year old Hadi Saberi is a well-known person in Iran’s mountaineering society. He was the technical authority of Haft-Khan mountaineering group in Karaj city during last few years and also had the membership of Iran’s national expedition to Dhaulagiri last spring. He is also a teacher recruited by ministry of education since 1996.

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Summit on Nanga-Parbat: Azim bagged his 4^th 8000ers

Having gone by just 14 days after arriving in BC, Azim Gheychi-Saz topped out Mt. Nanaga-Parbat (8125 m) on Saturday, July 10^th.
According to MSCFI’s official website, Azim has gotten to the summit along with Nepalese brothers, Mingma and Dava and also three Korean climbers at 14:00 (local time) and has dispatched his summit when back in C4.
Prior to Nanga-Parbat, 29-year old Azim Gheychi-Saz has summited Everest (2005), Broad-Peak (2008) and Dhaulagiri (2010).

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