Tom Ballard (climber)

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Tom Ballard
Personal information
Born16 October 1988 (1988)
Belper, Derbyshire, England
Died24 February – 9 March 2019 (2020) (aged 30)
Nanga Parbat, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan-administered Kashmir
ParentAlison Hargreaves
Climbing career
Type of climberAlpine, greater ranges, mixed, dry-tooling, traditional
Known forFirst solo winter ascent of the six major alpine north faces in a single season
First ascentsA line above the sky (D15), Dolomites

Tom Ballard (born 16 October 1988; died 24 February – 9 March 2019) was a British rock climber and alpinist, who was the first mountaineer to climb the six major alpine north faces solo in a single winter season.[1] In February 2019, Ballard disappeared during bad weather on an expedition to Nanga Parbat, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. His body was discovered on the mountain's Mummery Spur on 9 March 2019.[2]

Early life[edit]

Ballard was born in Belper, Derbyshire, in 1988,[3] the son of mountaineers Jim Ballard and Alison Hargreaves, who achieved fame both as the first female solo ascensionist of Mount Everest, and for completing the first solo ascents of the six alpine north faces in a single summer season. His mother died in a climbing accident on K2 on 13 August 1995.[4][5] Ballard also had one sister, Kate.

In 1995, Ballard's family moved near to Fort William, Inverness-shire, before relocating to the Alps in 2009, and then Val di Fassa in the Dolomites.[5][6][7] In Val di Fassa he met his fiancée Stefania Pederiva, daughter of alpine guide Bruno Pederiva.[8]

Climbing career[edit]

From an early stage, Ballard began creating new rock climbing, mixed climbing and alpine routes in the Alps, the Dolomites, and in the Himalayas. He climbed a new rock route on the Eiger in 2009, naming it "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" and completed the first solo climb of the Eiger winter route "Piola-Sprungli" in 2010.[9] This was followed in 2013 by a first free ascent in winter of "Olimpia – going for gold" on Catinaccio in the Dolomites, and a new route on the Agassizhorn in the Bernese Oberland that he named "If Gengis can, we can!".[9]

From December 2014 to March 2015, during a project known as "Starlight and Storms", Ballard climbed the six major alpine north faces (the Cima Grande di Lavaredo, the Piz Badile, the Matterhorn, the Grandes Jorasses, the Petit Dru and the Eiger) solo, being the first person to complete this feat in a single winter season without a support team.[10] A film chronicling this project, Tom, won several awards at international film festivals.[11][12]

In 2016, Ballard established several new rock, mixed and dry tool routes. He established a new 26-pitch rock climb "Dirty Harry" on the northwest face of Civetta and a new mixed route "Titanic" on the north face of the Eiger.[13][14] He also created what was at the time the world's hardest dry-tooling climb, "A line above the sky" in the Dolomites.[15] He attempted the previously unclimbed North East face of Link Sar in Pakistan with Italian climber Daniele Nardi [it] in 2017 but failed to reach the top.[16]

Disappearance and death on Nanga Parbat[edit]

In 2019, whilst climbing together again, Nardi and Ballard disappeared[17] during bad weather on an expedition to Nanga Parbat.[6] The last communication with the climbers was made on 24 February.[18] Approximately 148,000 euros were raised by friends to fund a search mission.[6][19] The rescue attempt, which began on 28 February, involved high-altitude drones, helicopters, and mountaineers on foot, but was hampered by heavy snowfall and the military standoff between Pakistan and India.[20][21] Although a three-person tent was spotted[22] on the first day of the search, it was not clear if it belonged to Ballard and Nardi.[6][18] The search on 6 March was called off without the pair being found.[23]

The following day, Basque climber Alex Txikon, continuing the search, spotted the outline of two bodies in the rocky part of the Mummery Spur on the mountain.[24] After Txikon sent photographs to the families, to Agostino Da Polenza, an Italian climber who had been coordinating the search on behalf of the Nardi family,[25] and to Italian ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo, it was agreed that the figures were very probably Nardi and Ballard, and certainly an avalanche had to be ruled out.[26]

On 9 March 2019, it was confirmed that the bodies of Ballard and Nardi had been found[27] "in a place that was difficult to reach but everything possible would be done to try and recover them."[2] Footage of the bodies was published by Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo and Alex Txikon with the permission of the families.[28]

In September 2021 the BBC broadcast the 110-minute documentary The Last Mountain, directed by Chris Terrill, about Ballard's life and death.[29]

Filmography[edit]

Year Name Director(s) Production Awards[12]
1996 Alison's Last Mountain Chris Terrill
2015 Tom
  • Angel Esteban
  • Elena Golatelli
  • KOTTOMfilms
  • Ruggero Arena productions
 Best Mountaineering Film, Kendal Mountain Festival 2015
2021 The Last Mountain Chris Terrill Uppercut Films

Dorothy Street Pictures

Globus Pictures

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Climber eyes K2 after mother's death". 30 March 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Tom Ballard: Bodies found in missing climbers search". BBC News. 9 March 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  3. ^ "Tom Ballard Visiting Rockies for Mixed". Gripped Magazine. 14 December 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  4. ^ Child, Greg (November 1995). "The Last Ascent of Alison Hargreaves". Outside magazine. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  5. ^ a b Shute, Joe (6 April 2015). "Tom Ballard: the new king of the Alps". ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  6. ^ a b c d "Thousands raised for missing climbers". 3 March 2019. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  7. ^ Chalmers, Robert. "Tom Ballard, mountaineer, never wanted to die in bed". British GQ. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  8. ^ "Paura e attesa per Tom Ballard, giovane alpinista inglese di Fassa disperso sul Nanga Parbat". L'Adige (in Italian). 1 March 2019.
  9. ^ a b "Tom Ballard, climbing in his veins". PlanetMountain.com. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  10. ^ Sawer, Patrick (26 February 2016). "Tom Ballard conquers the Alps 20 years after his mother's death on K2". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  11. ^ ""Tom": il film sull'alpinista Ballard conquista i film festival internazionali della montagna". Fassa.com. 14 January 2016.
  12. ^ a b Elena Golatelli. Tom.
  13. ^ "Civetta / New Dolomites climb by Tom Ballard and Marcin Tomaszewski". PlanetMountain.com. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  14. ^ "Tom Ballard talks Titanic and the Eiger North Pillars". www.ukclimbing.com. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  15. ^ "Tom Ballard claims world's first D15 dry tooling climb in the Dolomites". PlanetMountain.com. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  16. ^ "NEWS: Tom Ballard and Daniele Nardi on Link Sar". www.ukclimbing.com. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  17. ^ Leger, C. J. (1 March 2019). "Tom Ballard, Son of Alison Hargreaves, Disappears on Nanga Parbat". Base Camp Magazine. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  18. ^ a b "Full-scale search for missing climbers". 4 March 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  19. ^ "Search for missing climbers resumes". 5 March 2019. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  20. ^ "Search operation for Daniele Nardi and Tom Ballard on Nanga Parbat continues". PlanetMountain.com. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  21. ^ "Nanga Parbat: still no contact with Daniele Nardi and Tom Ballard. Alex Txikon also available for rescue mission". PlanetMountain.com. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  22. ^ Leger, C. J. (3 March 2019). "UPDATE: Tom Ballard & Daniele Nardi Rescue". Base Camp Magazine. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  23. ^ "Tom Ballard: Missing climbers 'assumed dead' as search ends". BBC News. 6 March 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  24. ^ Leger, C. J. (7 March 2019). "Tom Ballard & Daniele Nardi Rescue Update: Two Silhouettes Identified. Search is Not Over". Base Camp Magazine. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  25. ^ Kington, Tom (2 March 2019). "Father of lost climber Tom Ballard is reliving wife's death on K2". The Times. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  26. ^ "Nardi-Ballard: il riepilogo della giornata di oggi al Nanga Parbat" (in Italian). montagna.tv. 7 March 2019.
  27. ^ Leger, C. J. (10 March 2019). "The Search for Tom Ballard & Daniele Nardi Officially Over. Bodies Found". Base Camp Magazine. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  28. ^ "Nanga-Parbat: "Nardi e Ballard sono morti, individuati i corpi"". mediaset.it (in Italian). 9 March 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  29. ^ "BBC Two - The Last Mountain". BBC.
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