Three times K2 without breathing mask: Fazal Ali

Sorry, Fazal Ali – that your extraordinary performance on K2 just slipped past me last summer! I reported on the first ski descent from the second highest mountain in the world by the Pole Andrzej Bargiel. I also noticed that Muhammad Ali “Sadpara”, the Pakistani winter first ascender of Nanga Parbat, completed his collection of the five eight-thousanders of his home country on K2 – and that it was a record season on “Chogori”, as you locals call the mountain. But I missed the news that you, Fazal, were the first mountaineer in the world to reach the 8,611-meter-high summit of the “King of the Eight-thousanders” for the third time after 2014 and 2017 without bottled oxygen. All the deeper I now take my hat off!

No appreciation

K2

The fact that I did not realize Ali’s performance is annoying, but not by chance. We usually find out very quickly via the social networks, when for example the youngest Briton to date has scaled K2, the first woman from Switzerland, Mexico, Mongolia … However, the Pakistani companions of the eight-thousander expeditions in the Karakoram are rarely talked about. “I’m happy,” Fazal Ali recently told a reporter from the AFP news agency after his K2 triple. “But I’m also heartbroken because my feat will never be truly appreciated.” Most Pakistani high altitude porters and mountain guides in the service of commercial expeditions are likely to experience it like the 40-year-old from the Shimshal Valley: They are good enough to work, but they shouldn’t be on the summit picture. “These hidden heroes contribute to the success of many Western mountaineers and also support adventure tourism in the country,” writes Mirza Ali Baig to me. “But they are neither appreciated by the Western clients of the expeditions nor by the (Pakistani) government.”

More Sherpas, fewer jobs for locals

Mirza Ali Baig

Mirza Ali Baig is 35 years old and comes from Shimshal like Fazal Ali. His sister Samina Baig was the first Pakistani woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 2013. Mirza Ali is the head of the Pakistani tour operator “Karakorum Expeditions”. The mountaineer, filmmaker and photographer puts his finger on another wound: “Most Western companies hire Nepali Sherpas. This has been shrinking the job opportunities of the locals. Sherpas now work in Pakistan, but not a single Pakistani can work in Nepal.” For the locals, says Baig, “such adventures” are not about fun or self-realization as they are for Western mountaineers, but about “bread and butter for their families and a source of income to educate their children”.

Mountain training is lacking

Porters on the Baltoro Glacier

He admits that the Sherpas are on average more experienced and trained than the locals. “For decades, Western mountaineers have guided and trained Nepali Sherpas. However Pakistani High Altitude Porters – I would name them “local High Altitude Guides” – have never been provided the same opportunity to learn what the Westerners taught Nepali Sherpas. There is not a single institute in Pakistan to train and teach mountaineering or outdoor tourism.” Baig considers this as the Pakistani government’s duty: “They have never really taken the (tourism) industry seriously.” In Mirza Ali’s sight, there also could be a benefit from employing Nepali Sherpa, “if they work with locals and improve their skills, especially in fixing ropes and (other) high-altitude services. This would be good for both.”

Role model for young people

Perhaps one day the Pakistani mountaineers will also be given the appreciation that Sherpas in Nepal have enjoyed for decades and that has subsequently brought some of them modest prosperity. Remarkable successes such as that of Fazal Ali on K2, says Baig, are “truly inspiring and a role model for young people – not only in mountaineering, but also beyond it”. However only in case you hear about it.

P.S.: Dear friends in Pakistan, I am always looking for first hand information and I am grateful when I receive it. So please let me know when someone celebrates another amazing success in the Karakoram like Fazal Ali did!

A lot of snow on Gasherbrum II

A short snowfall break in the Karakoram – or, as Felix Berg describes it from Gasherbrum II with a twinkle in his eye “a small good-weather disturbance”. Time for the climbers to stuck their noses into the wind and to reconsider their plans. Dominik Müller, head and expedition leader of the German operator Amical alpin has decided to strike the tents on the 8,051-meter-high Broad Peak and to return home. “All the equipment from Camp 1 was recovered,” Dominik writes on Facebook today. “Just now it’s snowing again, and during our ascent there were some avalanches!” The porters have been ordered for Sunday.

Stitzinger: “Too much snow in the flanks and couloirs”

The Amical team led by Luis Stitzinger, who wanted to first climb the 7,082-meter-high Urdok Kangri II, threw in the towel too. “It’s been snowing for days since we arrived at the base camp. There is now half a meter of fresh snow, and up to one and a half meters at 6,000 or 7,000 meteres,” Luis writes on Facebook. “The route looks elegant, but there’s too much snow in the flanks and couloirs.” For the next three days more than half a meter of fresh snow is expected, says Luis adding that they’ll finish the expedition early: “I’ve never experienced such a season with so constant bad weather in the Karakoram.”

Like Russian Roulette

Alex Gavan (l.) and Tunc Findik (r.)

Snowfall has also increased the risk of avalanches on the other eight-thousanders in Pakistan. Continuing the ascent would be like “Russian Roulette”, Romanian Alex Gavan wrote three days ago. Alex and his Turkish team partner Tunc Findik had interrupted their activities on Nanga Parbat. The two want to climb the 8125-meter-high mountain without bottled oxygen.

Bargiel and Golab move to the K2

On the eight-thousander Gasherbrum II, the Poles Andrzej Bargiel and Janusz Golab declared their acclimatization over – “due to heavy snowfall. Time to move on to K2 base camp and focus on our main goal,” writes Bargiel on Instagram. The 30-year-old is planning the first complete ski run from the 8611-meter-high summit of K2. Last year, Bargiel failed on the second highest mountain in the world – because of bad weather.

Göttler and Barmasse want to climb G IV Southwest Face

Gasherbrum IV

The German climber David Göttler and the Italian Hervé Barmasse are probably glad to have made their way to the Karakoram rather late in the season. Both are still on their trekking. They definitely haven’t missed anything so far. Göttler and Barmasse want to first climb the Southwest Face of the 7,925-meter-high Gasherbrum IV – in pure Alpine style, i.e. without bottled oxygen, high camps and high altitude porters.

Everest, Lhotse, Makalu (from l. to r.)

The time has come. According to reports of the newspapers “Kathmandu Post”  and “The Himalayan Times”, the government of Nepal has adopted some new rules for expeditions – “to improve the safety of the climbers”, as Tourism Secretary Maheswor Neupane said. The new rules apply to all mountains above 6,600 meters – these fall under the responsibility of the government – and will be in force already in the spring season 2018.

No more permits for double amputees and blind climbers

In future neither blind climbers nor double amputees are to receive permits for the highest mountains in the country. “Besides, we have also adopted a strict provision to check the medical certificate of the climbers to determine whether they are physically fit to climb the mountains,” Neupane said. It will be interesting how these checks will be operated.

Missing experience

Andy Holzer on the Rongbuk Glacier near Everest (in 2015)

In recent years, the Nepalese government has repeatedly said that it wanted to keep blind and physically disabled people away from Everest and other very high mountains. “I think very few climbers on Everest are prepared so exactly for their very special challenge Everest as the disabled adventurers with their personal teams are or need to be”, the blind Austrian climber Andy Holzer wrote to me already in 2015. “The real problem is more the climbers who put on their crampons for the first time on Everest and are quite surprised about it.” Last spring, Holzer scaled Everest in his third attempt: as the first blind man from the Tibetan north side.

No solo climbs anymore

Another now adopted amendment will probably also cause a heated debate. According to the new rules every mountaineer will be obliged to climb with a mountain guide. “From now on, foreign climbers will be banned from making a solo attempt on Mt Everest,” Tourism Secretary Neupane said. Supposedly, the government expects this provision to increase employment opportunities for Nepalese guides.

Not one bit safer

So much is certain: These rules will not make Everest or any other crowded eight-thousander one bit safer. Blind or physically handicapped mountaineers are only a tiny minority among the summit aspirants on Mount Everest, as well as those who want to climb the 8850-meter-high mountain solo. The much more important question of mountaineering skills does not seem to be taken into account in the new regulations. After all, in the first reports on the amended expedition rules there was no mention of new minimum requirements for all (!) Everest climbers – such as having climbed at least one seven-thousander or another eight-thousander before.

Paul Ramsden

He is anything but a self-promoter. Paul Ramsden does not belong to the group of extreme climbers who are out to market themselves and want to be constantly in the spotlight. Though he certainly deserves it – the list of his first ascents in the Himalayas is long. In fall 2016, for example, the British, together with his compatriot Nick Bullock, succeeded to climb for the first time through the extremely demanding North Face of the 7,046 meter high Nyainqentangla South in Tibet. For this performance, they were recently awarded the Piolet d’Or. It was already the fourth time that Ramsden received the “Oscar of the Climbers”. And this is despite the fact that the 48-year-old is not a professional climber. He earns his living as a self-employed occupational hygienist who advises companies and furnishes expert reports.

Paul, you are a non-professional climber, you have a job and family. What is your motivation to set off year by year to remote mountain areas in the Himalayas to tackle unclimbed mountains, walls or ridges?

I love the mountains, it’s as simple as that. But as I don’t live or work in the mountains this maintains my enthusiasm for when I do visit them. Strangely with family and work commitments I find it more difficult to go climbing for weekends throughout the year than I do to go on an expedition once a year.

Summit selfie of Paul (l.) with Nick Bullock (r.)

What does real adventure means in your view?

Real adventure is not knowing the outcome, if success is in doubt you are having an adventure. However, for me adventure is so tied up with climbing style that the questions are inseparable. The British climbing tradition has always been like this.

How important is it for you to climb in pure style?

Style is everything, without good style climbing becomes a meaningless physical activity. For me good style is climbing in a pure alpine style, small team, no bolts, no fixed ropes, no outside support.

How many risks are you willing to take?

I try really hard to reduce the risks to a minimum. I am very selective about my route choices, always considering objective hazards and the means of descent. The risk assessment in my head is a constant process and difficult to describe but I have turned back on many routes.

The route on Nyainqentangla South East

What is your secret of success?

I don’t know to be honest. I suppose it’s a combination of experience, judgement and climbing in a style that suits my abilities and temperament.

You have climbed for many years very successfully with Mick Fowler, now with Nick Bullock. Which criteria has a perfect team partner to meet?

The perfect climbing partner is safety conscious, has a good sense of humour (The British sense of humour helps a lot on the mountain) but is still prepared to commit to the max when the need arises.

Mick was diagnosed with cancer this year. What did you feel when you heard it?

This was a real blow and a total surprise as he appeared to be very healthy and has always seems indestructible to me. He has just finished his treatment and hopeful all will be well. It does make you think about the future though and consider all the things you haven’t done yet.

Piolet d’Or winners Ramsden (l.) and Mick Fowler

You were awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of the climbers”, four times, you’re the record winner (along with Marko Prezelj). Does this mean anything to you?

While it’s very pleasant to be recognised by you peers it has virtually no impact on my life. As a non professional, part time climber, I don’t really need sponsorship or publicity. However I do support the Piolet D’Or as a tool for promoting good ethics and style in mountaineering.

Is there already a climbing goal that you have set for next year?

Yes, I am going on another expedition in 2018 with Nick Bullock. I like to keep objectives secret though!

More than 9,600 expeditions

Miss Hawley in her home in Kathmandu (in 2016)

It was Salisbury who in the 1990s convinced Elizabeth Hawley, the legendary chronicler of mountaineering in the Himalayas, that it would be a good idea to digitalize her archive. Since 2004 the Himalayan Database has been available electronically. Today it includes information on more than 9,600 expeditions to over 450 mountains in Nepal, more than 70,000 mountaineers are immortalized in the archive. For anyone who wants to delve deeper into mountaineering on the highest mountains in the world the database is a true treasure chest.

Register expeditions online!

Tobias Pantel, Billi Bierling, Jeevan Shrestha und Rodolphe Popier (from l. to r.)

“It is a great wealth of information – no matter if you just want to know how many people have been so far on Mount Everest or Annapurna I or if you want to plan a climbing route,” Billi Bierling wrote to me in October. “The Himalayan Database answers all these questions.” In 2016, the German mountaineer and journalist had replaced the legendary chronicler, who is now 94 years old, as head of the database.

On the occasion of today’s possibility to free download the archive, Billi and the other members of the Himalayan Database team – the Nepalese Jeevan Shrestha, the Frenchman Rodolphe Popier and the German Tobias Pantel – point out to the mountaineers that “collecting the data is impossible without your help”. So if you are planning an expedition in Nepal, please register online for the database. That’s not too much to ask for as a small return for an open treasure chest, is it?

Tobias Pantel, Billi Bierling, Jeevan Shrestha und Rodolphe Popier (from l. to r.)

The Himalayan Database is something like the electronic “Bible of Expedition Mountaineering in Nepal”. For those who are dealing with the highest mountains in the world, there is simply no way around this extensive collection of data. Countless times I’ve asked for Billi Bierling when I wanted to check important details of ascents. The 50-year-old German journalist and climber has been working for the Himalayan Database since 2004. In 2016 she replaced the legendary chronicler Elizabeth Hawley, who is now 93 years old, as the head of the database. In the 1960s Miss Hawley had begun to file the expeditions in Nepal. Her archive was the base of the Himalayan Database, which has been available electronically since 2004. Till now a CD ROM had to be bought. This will change soon. Then the database will be available to everyone for free.

Huge collection of data

At the beginning of November the new version can be downloaded from the website himalayandatabase.com without charge, Bierling and Co. inform on Facebook. More than 450 mountains are listed in the Himalayan Database. More than 9,500 expeditions with about 70,000 members have been recorded so far, including routes, camps, specific incidents and details such as the question of whether the mountaineers used bottled oxygen. Billi and her team – the Nepalese Jeevan Shrestha, the Frenchman Rodolphe Popier and the German Tobias Pantel – regularly interview the expedition teams on their arrival in and departure from Kathmandu. Afterwards the American Richard Salisbury – he was the one who convinced Miss Hawley in the 1990s that it would be a good idea to digitalize her archive – adds the new data.

Hardly manageable

Miss Hawley (l.) und Billi Bierling

The amount has increased rapidly in the past 13 years since the first digital version. So many expeditions are now en route in Nepal, that it is hardly possible to cover them all. During the peak period, Billi Bierling is doing ten to fifteen interviews a day, which can last only ten minutes, but also up to two hours. Billi and her colleagues want to continue Miss Hawley’s work as long as possible. “We will have to see whether we still remain a database or in the future will possibly record only special ascents,” Billi told me a few months ago. Since last spring, climbers can also fill in their questionnaires online, e.g. via Facebook. With the upcoming free version, the Himalayan Database takes a further step into the future. I contacted Billi Bierling.

Billi, what do you expect from making the database available free of charge in the future?

The fact that the Himalayan Database is now available online for download makes it, of course, more available for many people. I think it will be now easier to communicate to the trekking agents, mountaineers as well as the expedition leaders what exactly we are doing. It is a great wealth of information – no matter if you just want to know how many people have been so far on Mount Everest or Annapurna I or if you want to plan a climbing route. The Himalayan Database answers all these questions. I also believe that so far some of the trekking agencies in Nepal actually don’t know what we are doing, and the fact that the database is now available online is a great opportunity for us to show them how they can use these data too.

How will you provide the financing of Himalayan Database?

We will continue to a great extent unpaid (the money they made with the CD ROM version was literally used for producing the data carrieres and the booklets). And the future of the Himalayan Database is still written in the stars. Our team, however, consists of people who want to – and hopefully will – continue the work of Miss Elizabeth Hawley with all their heart and soul. And if we have left a bit of money, they will get, of course, a small allowance. But we are still working by conviction.

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa

“Nepalese climbers have been the shadow for foreign climbers”, says Mingma Gyalje Sherpa. “It is obvious that foreign climbers pay a lot to them for this work and I do respect it but still I feel that Nepalese climbers are not given the credit they rightfully own.” The 31-year-old is the head of the expedition operator “Dreamers Destination” and belongs to a new generation of Sherpa entrepreneurs: young, well trained, reliable and successful. Mingma is also an excellent climber. He has so far scaled eight eight-thousanders, in fall 2015 he made headlines by first climbing a difficult route via the West Face of the 6,685-meter-high Chobutse solo. One of his dreams is to climb Everest without bottled oxygen after five ascents with breathing mask. These days, he is leading a commercial expedition on Dhaugaliri. For a portrait of Mingma that was just published by the German magazine “Allmountain”, I did an interview with him of which I don’t want to deprive you.

Mingma, in the past years some western operators withdraw from Everest complaining about a price war with local operators in Nepal. Is this battle going on?

Mingma on his solo first ascent on Chobutse

I do believe there are only few countable operators in Nepal whose services are as good as those of western companies at present but the majority of them are still having the same kind of services like before. The best thing about western operators is that they are more practical and emphasize on safety and security which Nepalese operators still lack. Only few Nepalese companies use UIAGM (International Federation of Mountain Guide Associations) certified guides and get accurate weather report. Almost all of them hire local guides and never get proper weather report. Actually it is not a price war but it still concerns on price. It is the client who makes the decision at the end. Western Companies publish their detailed prices on their websites, Nepalese operators never do it. That means they can handle any kind of expedition at any price.

Your company Dreamers Destination has raised the price for an Everest expedition – to 50.000 USD for a “luxurious service”? Do you want to dissociate from Nepalese “discount” operators?

Definitely, I don’t want to be counted among Nepalese discount operators because expeditions deals with life of climber and I don’t want to take chance on it. Why do we charge more from our clients? It is because we should be capable of providing them all kind of services which secure the life of climbers and Sherpas. We don’t want to give reason like “Oh, our client didn’t pay enough, so we couldn’t buy good equipment and weather report, so there was accident on mountain”.

I am UIAGM certified mountain guide. Our training taught us to focus on safety and security. You can only provide safety and security when you have well tested and technical equipment, well trained staffs, very accurate weather reports. It is not necessary to have UIAGM certified guide for each climbing members but it is better to have at least one in a team. Now I am trying to provide all these things on my expeditions, so I had to raise the price. Not only my company, but there are few other Nepalese operators like Ascent Himalayas and Tag Nepal who do it this way.  

There have been reports about Nepalese low price expedition operators employing little experienced high altitude workers at the expense of safety. Do you agree?

Yes, I do agree. If they charge less then obviously, they can afford staff accordingly and this is the most tangible reason of accidents in the Himalayas. 

Do you think it’s necessary to have rules and standards in mountain business to fight “black sheeps”?

It is impossible to have rules and standards in mountain business. I think operators and climbers should realize it by themselves.

What are the advantages of local expedition operators compared with operators from abroad?

It is only the minimized cost. Though operators from abroad need local companies to operate any expedition in Nepal, practically their management is still far better. I shouldn’t say these things, but it is the reality.

Mingma on K 2 in 2014

Do you think that there is an upcoming time with only Nepalese operators managing expeditions on Everest and other 8000ers?

I would say the chance is 50/50. There are climbers who believe on western operators and others who believe on Nepalese operators. It depends on client’s satisfaction. 

Every company wants to make profit. Is it difficult to find the balance between commercial interests on the one side and care for security on the other side? How much profit is allowed?

Everyone does business to earn profit, and tourism is one of the best business fields to earn good profit at low investment. But I think, expedition is little different again. If all goes well, it is good and profitable. However, if any accident occurs on the mountain and anyone dies, it is one of the worst things that can happen. You lose your friend, your property, you get ignorance and sometimes threats from the victim’s family, you have to pay huge money to them, you ruin your reputation in business, so it’s not good at all. Therefore, I think the profit margin depends on the difficulty of the mountain. 

Some critics say commercial climbing kills adventure. Does it?

There used to be more adventure. But though it is commercialized, there is still adventure.

The Potala Palace in Lhasa

Nasty surprise for some climbers heading for destinations in Tibet this spring: I have been confirmed by several sides that China currently does not allow tourists to enter Tibet in case that there is a visa for Pakistan issued in the past three years in their passport. Especially professional climbers, who like to tackle the impressive mountains of the Karakoram in summer, run the risk of not obtaining a visa for Tibet. Some mountaineers are stuck in the Nepali capital Kathmandu, because they have learned too late about this new regulation. So if you want to travel to Cho Oyu, Shishapangma or the Tibetan north side of Mount Everest and do not want to experience a bad surprise, take a look at your passport!

No problem without Pakistan visa

It is unclear why China suddenly reacts so allergically to former Pakistan travelers. Without a Pakistani visa stamp or sticker, the entry is obviously problem-free. So an expedition operator informed me that his group had arrived in Lhasa without being bothered by the border authorities.

Mount Everest, Lhotse, Makalu (from l. to r.)

It is the old road, but due to the increased traffic the (digital) emergency lane is used too. From now on,  expedition teams heading for Nepal can register with the Himalayan Database, the high mountaineering chronicle founded by the legendary Elizabeth Hawley,  also online before setting off, for example via Facebook. “We will continue to meet as many teams in Kathmandu as we can. However, it has become almost impossible in the last few years to interview everyone personally,” Billi Bierling explains the new procedure.

Last instance: Miss Hawley

Miss Hawley in her home in Kathmandu (in 2016)

The German climber and journalist is doing the interviews for the Himalayan Database, along with the Nepalese Jeevan Shrestha, the American Richard Salisbury and the French Rodolphe Popier. The now 93-year-old Miss Hawley has withdrawn. At the beginning of the 1960s the journalist from the USA had settled in Kathmandu and started documenting the mountaineering on the highest mountains in the world. With her blue VW beetle, built in 1963, she drove to the hotels and interviewed the expedition teams. Her chronicle became the benchmark of the scene: Only if Miss Hawley had confirmed a summit success, the expedition was really considered successful. The persistent inquiring journalist succeeded in convicting some cheaters.

Work more efficiently

Billi Bierling

Since the start of commercial climbing in the 1990s, however, the number of expedition members in Nepal has exploded. The times when Miss Hawley knew and could know almost every Himalayan climber personally are over. The online registration is designed to help the team “to work a bit more efficiently,” says Billi Bierling. “We do not intend to make the Himalayan Database impersonal.” For many climbers the interviews have become part of an expedition to Nepal, says the 49-year old. “Of course, I’m not Miss Hawley, and some people are disappointed when they don’t get to know the lady personally – what I can fully understand.”

No referees or detectives

Real (1,2) and fake (3,4) (© The Himalayan Times)

After the expeditions, the four interviewers continue to question as many climbers as possible. Everyone they miss has the opportunity to complete a questionnaire at a later date. Does this not reduce the chance to expose liars? “The number of cheaters is still very small compared to the people who are honest,” replies Billi Bierling. “And it does not mean that we will expose all cheaters, even if we meet them personally.” Thus the Everest fraud of the Indian couple in spring 2016 was initially not noticed despite the interview with the climbers. “If the actual owners of the faked summit pictures had not pointed out, this lie would probably have landed in the Database,” Billi admits. “We’re working on trust, as we are neither referees nor detectives – I would never presume. We will, of course, do our best to keep Miss Hawley’s Himalayan Database as good and precise as possible. But if someone really wants to lie to us, he will do. If we are lucky, other climbers who were at the same time on the mountain tell us about the fraud.”

A mountain in Gokyo Valley

You can’t just set off. If you want to climb am mountain in Nepal you should check the rules beforehand, otherwise you might experience a nasty surprise. Like the three Spanish climbers, who recently opened new routes on two six-thousanders. They were under way without permits, now the authorities in Kathmandu are investigating the case. They are facing a stiff fine and a 10-year-ban from mountaineering in Nepal. My compassion for the Spaniards is limited. I find their justification (“We are not pirates, we have left our money in Nepal at all”) flimsy. If you follow this argumentation, you could bilk any national park fee worldwide. Nonetheless there have been some construction sites the Nepalese “mountain management” for a long time, which are allegedly worked on but whose status does not change.

Absent liaison officers

Ama Dablam

Thus, the now practiced system of liaison officers is very much in need of reform, not to say that it must be abolished. “When 15, 16 or perhaps 17 expeditions on the same mountain have all shelled out for an liaison officer and not one of them is present it just seems completely underhand and verging on fraudulent”, British expedition operator Tim Mosedale wrote on Facebook after his Ama Dablam expedition this fall. Not enough, his liaison officer asked for more money during the de-briefing, says Tim. Only when he threatened with a formal complaint, she signed the necessary forms. The expedition leader was particularly upset because, as reported, Lhakpa Thundu Sherpa had been killed by ice debris and another mountaineer, who also belonged to his team, had been injured. “Indeed even if the liaison officer had been present when we were dealing with the complex rescue and recovery operation last week she wouldn’t have been any help at all”, Mosedale wrote. For months, a proposal by the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) is on the table. “We asked the government to send only one liaison officer per mountain, not 30 or 40 on Everest or other mountains,” NMA President Ang Tshering Sherpa told me recently.

Incorrect coordinates, wrong names

Another major construction site is the opening of allegedly or really still unclimbed mountains in Nepal. In spring 2014, the government in Kathmandu had published a list of 104 “virgin” mountains, which were then opened for expeditions. It turned out that the given satellite coordinates were partially wrong or inaccurate. An assumed first ascent of a six-thousander in the Rolwaling Valley this autumn turned out to be a repeated ascent because the mountain had previously been listed under a different name.

No continuity

A Khumbu mountain near Lukla

In addition, there are still plenty of mountains in Nepal that have not yet been recorded on the official lists as possible destinations for mountaineers. If you discover such a nameless mountain and want to climb it for the first time, it becomes really difficult. The Ministry of Tourism has still no regular procedure for obtaining such a permit. What one person responsible has promised can be revoked by the next. There have already been such cases. And they will surely continue to occur, considering how often the government is changing in Nepal. The current cabinet is already the seventh since early 2011.
Against this background, the fact is hardly surprising that we still wait for the overdue reform of the expedition rules (which would then also apply to Mount Everest), laid down in the “Tourism Act”. Every year it is announced that consultation has begun. As a rule nothing follows – or the next change of government.

Simplify procedures

What could help? In a first step the bureaucratic burdens should be purged. I talked about the problem with an Austrian mountaineer who has often been on expedition. He, for example, proposed to “turn the logic”: Instead of a list of mountains in Nepal, which are allowed to be climbed, should be a “blacklist” of forbidden summits, he says. All others mountains would then be open for climbing, and the permits could be given – as now – with fees according to the altitude of the mountains. If uniform and lasting procedures are desired, it would also make sense to entrust the NMA with issuing all permits for expeditions in Nepal. So far the NMA is only responsible for expeditions on mountains with an altitude up to 6,600 meters. The higher peaks are managed by the Ministry of Tourism. With the described consequences.

K 2, called “Chogori” by the locals

If I were a road planner, I would say: This smells like traffic jam. More than 100 climbers from eight expeditions have signed this summer for K 2, with a height of 8,611 meters the second highest mountain on earth. The Base Camp at the foot of the “King of the Eight-thousanders” could become crowded, as well as the normal route on the mountain. Even the team of the Nepalese expedition operator Seven Summit Treks consists of 44 (!) climbers.

Necessary arrangements

Serac above the “Bottleneck”

Similar to Mount Everest, the teams will have no choice but to “manage” the mountain, that is to coordinate their climbs to avoid jams on the dangerous key points on the route. The accident in 2008 should be warning enough. At that time, eleven climbers died in the summit area of K 2 within two days, six of them in ice avalanches. One of the reasons: Too many people were climbing simultaneously in the “Bottleneck”, a gully at 8,300 meters, extremely exposed to avalanches. In that season, “only” about 70 climbers tried to scale K 2, much less than this year. So far, around 350 climbers have reached the summit of K 2, which is considered one of the most beautiful but also most challenging and dangerous eight-thousanders. About 80 climbers have lost their lives on “Chogori”, as the local Balti call the mountain.

Record in 2004

In K 2 Base Camp

The summer of 2004 (when I visited K 2 Base Camp too) was so far the season with the most summit successes. In that year, the Golden Jubilee of the first ascent of K2 was celebrated. 51 climbers reached the highest point at that time. This record was only narrowly missed in 2014, with 48 summit successes. It was noteworthy then that 32 climbers reached the summit in a single day (26 July). 2015 was once again a year without any summit success on K 2.

More and more Sherpas from Nepal

Many of this summer’s expeditions will employ Climbing Sherpas from Nepal. Pakistani Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” – one of the climbers who first scaled Nanga Parbat in winter last February – complained that Nepalese Sherpas “already got 80 percent of business in Pakistan, and will be 100 percent soon. At the same time, many friends of mine spend all year at home, eating plain rice, waiting for a call that won’t arrive unless they don´t change their behaviour.”

Annapurna I (l.)

That was an exceptional weekend on Annapurna. According to the Nepalese newspaper “The Himalayan Times” a total of 30 climbers reached the 8091-meter-high summit. That makes 12 percent of the about 250 summit successes on Annapurna to date. The tenth highest mountain in the world is considered the most dangerous of the 14 eight-thousanders. Already 72 mountaineers have lost their lives on this mountain.

Kobusch’s first eight-thousander

Among the 14 foreign climbers, who reached the highest point last weekend, was German Jost Kobusch. For the 23-year-old, it was the first summit success on an eight-thousander. Kobusch had made headlines worldwide last year: with his video of the avalanche that had hit Everest Base Camp after the earthquake and killed 19 people. Compared with the young German, Spaniard Carlos Soria, who was also on top of Annapurna last weekend, is an “old hand” in two respects: It was his eigth-thousander number twelve – and Carlos has already 77 years under his belt. He is simply unstoppable.

As fit as a fiddle

Carlos Soria

Soria was a late bloomer on eight-thousanders. He climbed his first, Nanga Parbat, aged 51 – and picked up pace at an age when many retire. Carlos holds the age records at K 2 (65 years old), Broad Peak (68), Makalu (69, there he climbed solo and without bottled oxygen), Gasherbrum I (70), Manaslu (71), Lhotse (72), Kangchenjunga (75)  – and now on Annapurna (77) too. Theoretically, Soria, now well acclimatized, could even try to climb Dhaulagiri. The 8167-meter-high mountain is located only about 25 kilometers as the crow flies from Annapurna. The other eight-thousander which is still missing in the “best ager”’s list of summit successes is Shishapangma. If he does these two remaining jobs, Carlos will be by far the oldest man who stood on all 14 eight-thousanders. So far, this “record” is held by Polish climber Piotr Pustelnik, who scaled his last eight-thousander in 2010 at the age of 58.

Update 17 May: Carlos Soria has abandoned his attempt on Dhaulagiri and postponed the project to 2017. “The conditions are quite complicated,” Carlos was quoted on Twitter.

Mount Everest

The Everest spring season is gaining momentum. The Base Camp on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest is filling. According to the government in Kathmandu, 279 climbers from 38 countries have registered for the highest mountain on earth. The Icefall Doctors have meanwhile prepared the route all the way up to Camp 2 at 6,400 meters. The teams who want to climb Everest from the Tibetan north side, have also received now their permits from the Chinese authorities and are heading to Tibet. It’s going to kick off there too. Before the media Everest season begins, I would like to correct some reoccurring errors.

1) Everest is a safe mountain.

Dangerous Khumbu Icefall

Granted, the technical climbing difficulties on the two normal routes may be limited because the way via the Southeast Ridge as well as the route via the Northeast Ridge are secured with fixed ropes up to the summit. But that alone doesn’t make Everest a safe mountain. Finally, it is 8,850 meters high, where oxygen is pressed into the lungs with only one-third of the pressure compared to sea level. Also an ascent with breathing mask is not chicken feed. Even if it is really true that Everest in case of using bottled oxygen is downgraded to a six-thousander, you have to manage to get to the top. In addition, climate change has increased the objective dangers. Parts of the route that were previously almost always snowy, are now frequently free from snow and ice. Rockfall is threatening in the Lhotse flank. And the danger of avalanches has increased, not only in the Khumbu Icefall.

2) Everest is a killer mountain.

The opposite to 1) is wrong as well. Although there were no summit successes from the south side in the last two years, but two avalanche incidents with a total of 35 dead, Mount Everest is still far from being one the most dangerous eight-thousanders. On the one hand about 280 people have died so far on the highest mountain on earth, but there have been more than 7,000 ascents on the other hand. This ratio makes Everest belong even more to the category of the secure than of the extremely dangerous eight-thousanders. Most deaths per ascents have been recorded on Annapurna, on the second place of this “fatality ranking” follows K 2.

3) Everest is no longer a mountain for top climbers.

Everest North Face

20 routes have been climbed on Everest, plus several variations of these ways. This does not mean that there is a lack of other options. So far only two routes have been climbed in the Kangchung Face, in recent years the Everest East Face was almost always deserted. Furthermore there should still be possible new ascent routes via the North and the Southwest Face. Not to mention the ultimate challenge, the “Horseshoe Route”: up Nuptse West Ridge, traversing the summits of Lhotse and Everest and descending via Everest West Ridge to the starting point.

4) Everest is a garbage dump.

Garbage at the South Col

There have been garbage regulations for Everest expeditions for decades. The mountaineers are obliged to dig or burn their organic waste. Recyclable material such as plastic or glass must be returned to Kathmandu as well as empty oxygen bottles or batteries. Anyone who breaches the rules risks not getting back his garbage deposit of US $ 4,000. In addition, several eco-expeditions have collected tons of garbage from Everest, from the period when mountaineers made little thoughts about environmental protection. Many mountains in the European Alps are even more garbage dumps than Mount Everest.

5) Everest is littered with corpses.

It is true that Everest summit aspirants should mentally be prepared to pass some bodies of dead climbers. But it is not that the route is “paved with corpses”, as reports suggest repeatedly. Many of the climbers who died of exhaustion were “buried” in crevasses or their corpses were pushed down the Everest walls by other climbers. Sometimes a storm does this job too.

6) The moral of Everest Sherpas has been lost.

Much traffic on Everest

It’s like anywhere: If many people are on the way, you will find some black sheep. In spring 2013, Sherpas attacked Simone Moro, Ueli Steck and Jonathan Griffith in Everest high camp and a year later there were threats of violence against climbers who disagreed with the premature end of the season after the deadly avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall. But it is dishonest to conclude that now all Sherpas tend to violence or no longer do their job properly. More and more Sherpas acquire international certificates as mountain guides. The Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) is offering regularly training courses for local climbers. Undoubtedly, the young, well-trained Sherpa climbers act more self-confident. They are aware of their skills and want to be treated as fully-fledged climbers – and not as lackeys.

7) Everest should be closed.

Who would benefit? Perhaps the advocates of a mainly Western climbing philosophy, but certainly not the people of Khumbu, who strongly depend on the income of Everest tourism: local mountain guides, Climbing Sherpas, cooks and kitchen helpers in Base Camp, porters, owners of lodges and shops on the way to Everest, farmers and the families of these all. The Western critics should ask themselves whether mountains like Mont Blanc in the Alps or Denali in Alaska should have to be closed with the same arguments they use only for Everest.

8) The government will do the job.

If there is anything to be learnt from what happened on Everest in the past years, it is this: The government of Nepal is talking more than acting. Again and again politicians of the competent Ministry of Tourism present proposals for new Everest rules, but only to make headlines. As good as nothing is implemented. Even for a simple decision as to extend the permits after the disasters of the last two years, the authorities in Kathmandu needed almost a year each. Virtually all reforms fail, likely because the government itself makes big profit on Everest. It remains in the dark, where exactly the money from the sale of the permits goes – $ 11,000 per climber at all.

9) The climbers are capable of “managing” Everest on their own.

Everest Base Camp

Also at that point, the main counterargument is the business that is made on and with Everest. At the end of the day, every entrepreneur wants to be in the black. The more clients reach the summit, the better is his reputation, and therefore he will likely increase his profit in the following year. As a result one or the other expedition leader will show selfishness on the mountain, according to the motto: Why should I take care of the other groups? What is really needed is to “manage” the mountain to prevent that all ascend on the same day therefore causing traffic jams at the key points of the route. It might work, but also among the expedition leaders, there are black sheep.

10) One should not report about Everest.

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. Therefore, there will always be mountaineers who want to climb it. And most probably people will always be interested in Everest. That’s the main reason why we have to report about what is happening there – without glossing over, but also without demonizing. Just like anywhere else in the world, it applies on Everest too: You will not solve a problem by keeping quiet about it.

Manaslu, “Mountain of the Spirit”

The success stories from the eighth highest mountain on earth are piling up. On Wednesday and Thursday at least 76 climbers reached the 8,156-meter-high summit of Manaslu, said the “Himalayan Times”. The Nepalese operator Seven Summits Treks reported about 50 summit successes of their clients and Sherpas alone. On Friday Dominik Mueller, head of the German expedition operator Amical Alpin, reached the highest point of Manaslu too.

“Totally happy”

Dominik Mueller

“He is totally happy, he is doing very well”, his wife Tine told me. Dominik had called her by satphone from the summit. Manaslu is the second eight-thousander that the 44-year-old has climbed. Previously Dominik scaled Cho Oyu twice. On his other eight-thousander expeditions, he often had to put his own ambitions aside to take care of his clients. On Thursday, a first Amical group with co-expedition leader Rainer Pircher had reached the summit of Manaslu.

Earlier in the week, some teams, including those from Himalayan Experience, Altitude Junkies and Adventure Consultants, had abandoned their expeditions, because they considered the conditions on the mountain too dangerous. Against the background of so many summit successes in the past few days, one or the other of the climbers may probably be annoyed with this decision.

On Cho Oyu (8,188 m) in Tibet

China is closing Tibet for climbers for the rest of this year. “That is correct”, Dawa Steven Sherpa from the Nepalese expedition operator Asian Trekking confirms to me by email. “The Chinese authorities have decided not to issue permits for climbing in the autumn season in fear of further seismic activity telling that the mountains may be in a dangerous condition. They will issue climbing permits from 2016.” Furthermore, says Dawa Steven, the road that connects Nepal and Tibet, is still closed as it is under repair after the earthquake. “That means that equipment and logistics for the expeditions would not be possible to be transported via Nepal.”

Xi comes

Shishapangma (8,027 m) in Tibet

The Swiss operator Kari Kobler has abandoned the expeditions to the eight-thousanders Cho Oyu and Shishapangma that he had initially scheduled for next fall. Apart from the earthquake damage on the road to Tibet Kari tells me another reason for China not to issue permits: “The Chinese president will visit Tibet in the first two weeks of September.” 50 years ago, in September 1965, China had declared the previously occupied Tibet an “Autonomous Region”. The Chinese government will celebrate itself with some events in Tibet, probably with a large contingent of security forces to nip potential protests by Tibetans in the bud – especially when President Xi Jingping shows up in person. Foreign eyewitnesses have already been undesirable on similar occasions in the past. This is probably the main reason for giving no permits to expeditions next fall, as the example of International Mountain Guides (IMG) shows. Due to the earthquake damage in Nepal, the US operator had planned to travel directly via the Tibetan capital Lhasa to Cho Oyu, but did not get a permit too, with reference to the jubilee events in Tibet.

Alternative destination Manaslu

Manaslu (8,163 m) in Nepal

“Due to the current political fragility of Tibet we are unable to obtain guaranteed access for expeditions”, also the New Zealand operator Himalayan Experience informs. Himex has replaced the expedition to Cho Oyu by one to Manaslu in Nepal. The eighth highest mountain in the world is a popular alternative destination in case that China is closing the borders to Tibet. Already in fall 2012, many operators had offered expeditions to Manaslu instead of the cancelled one to the Tibetan eight-thousanders. The base camp at the foot of the “Mountain of the Spirit” might become crowded. Teams of many western operators (including the German operator Amical alpin) will set off to Manaslu in the upcoming post-monsoon period. Despite the earthquake with nearly 9,000 registered deaths and more than 22,000 injured, the Nepalese authorities have no doubt to issue permits for eight-thousander expeditions.

Update: Dan Mazur from the operator Summit Climb has informed me that they also have moved all their Cho Oyu and Shishapangma teams for this fall to Manaslu: “We were informed by our contact at the CTMA that because of the magnitude 8.1 devastating earthquake, the authoritative geologists in China surveyed the mountains. They decided that it is unsuitable to climb this year.”