Denis Urubko on Kangchenjunga

Mount Everest is still awaiting the first ascent this spring. But summit successes are reported from other eight-thousanders. The Russian climber Denis Urubko sent a message that he reached the 8586-meter-high summit of Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain on earth, today at 9:40 a.m. local time. As Denis also his companions, the Polish climber Adam Bielecki, the Spaniard Alex Txikon and the Russians Artyom Brown and Dmitri Sinev, should have started the descent. Bielecki, Txikon and Sinev had previously made a summit bid but had returned from 8350 meters. Initially Urubko and Co. had wanted to open a new route through the North Face. Obviously, it was more of a variant of the British North Ridge route which Doug Scott, Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker had climbed in 1979.

The old man did it again

Carlos Soria on the top

Several successes have been reported from the normal route on the south side of Kangchenjunga. Noteworthy was the ascent of the Spanish climber Carlos Soria. With 75 years, he is now the oldest climber who has ever reached the summit of Kangchenjunga. Soria is already holding the records as the oldest summiter of K2 (65 years), Broad Peak (68), Makalu (69), Gasherbrum I (70) and Manaslu (71). And he wants to complete the 14 eight-thousanders. Three are still missing: Shishapangma, Annapurna and Dhaulagiri. The Finn Samuli Mansikka and the Italian Marco Camandona also summited Kangchenjunga, both apparently without bottled oxygen. For Mansikka it was the eighth, for Camandona the sixth eight-thousander.

Too late

Alix (r.) and Luis on Makalu

On Makalu, the German couple Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger turned back on 8250 meters on Saturday. “We could twist and turn it as much as we wanted, the time was too close to reach the summit in daylight”, Alix and Luis wrote in their expedition diary. If everything fits they want to make a second attempt around 24 May. Their German companion Florian Huebschenberger was more lucky. The 27-year-old reached the highest point at 8485 meters together with the Swiss climber Mike Horn on Saturday.

Last weekend there were also summit successes on Cho Oyu and Dhaulagiri. Last Wednesday four climbers of a French military expedition summited Shishapangma, after they had climbed via the South Face.

Maxut Zhumayev

“When I was approaching the highest point I saw Vassiliy sitting in the snow, ten meters away from the summit. I was very happy because my friend had waited for me”, said Maxut remembering his summit day on K 2 on 23 August 2011. “This was very special.” That day Maxut Zhumayev and Vassiliy Pivtsov completed their 8000er collection, ten years and ten days after they had climbed Gasherbrum I, their first 8000-meter-peak. The two Kazakh climbed 13 of the 14 eight-thousanders as a rope team, only on Manaslu they joined different expeditions. That is unique, says Maxut: “In the history of climbing we don’t have the same story that two climbers have reached so many 8000-meter-summits together.”

Hard job on K 2

Maxut and Vassiliy on the very last meters

I met the 37-year-old climber at the trade fair ISPO in Munich where there was a little reunion of the 2011 K 2 team: Maxut was talking to Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, who had also summited the second highest mountain of the world, her last 8000er that was missing, and to her husband Ralf Dujmovits, who belonged to the team, but had not joined the final summit push. “K 2 was really hard”, said Maxut. “It was my sixth and Vassiliy’s seventh attempt.” Zhumayev had climbed the other 8000ers on his first try. He never used bottled oxygen.

From below to the top

Maxut, born in the steppe in the west of Kazakhstan, became a climber fairly late: “I started climbing when I was 20 years old. I was working like a Sherpa, as a porter. I carried some luggage for a trekking group from France.” In this group he met some guys who did climbing as a sport. “I am happy that I touched this philosophy, this way of life. That’s the reason why I am still in the mountains and why I have been climbing until now.” Like his friend Vassiliy Pivtsov, Zhumayev earns his living as a lieutenant of the Kazakh army.

Founder of Kazakh Alpine Club

Zhumayev on Mount Everest in 2007

After having finished the 8000ers, Maxut had to cross a mental valley. “It took me about a year to find my new dreams and new goals.” At the beginning of 2013 Zhumayev founded the Kazakh Alpine Club. He wants to change the attitude of his compatriots to the mountains: “It’s a philosophy how to live inside nature. For me nature is not a toy, but my home.” Maxut knows that it will not be possible overnight to establish structures like those of Western Alpine clubs in Kazakhstan and to spread his mountain philosophy: “That is my new Everest. Its altitude is more than 8848 meters, because my life is not long enough for developing this project.”

No more dangerous climbs

Taking responsibility for his wife, his four-year-old daughter and five-year-old son, Maxut is staying well clear of dangerous climbs. Zhumayev wants to complete the Seven Summits, the highest peaks of all continents. Having already climbed Mount Everest (Asia) and Kilimanjaro (Africa) he plans to add the ascent of Denali (North America) in May, Aconcagua (South America) in autumn and then – if he is able to find sponsors – Mount Vincent (Antarctica).

8000ers in the Karakoram

When I was a small boy I wanted to be an astronaut. Maybe the reason was that the first moon landing in 1969 was at the same time my first television experience. Then I was six years old. In our neighbors’ house several families were jostling around a small black and white television, which was the only one in our street block. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins – the astronauts of Apollo 11 were my heroes. I dreamed of jumping over the lunar surface by myself, watching the earth as a blue ball in the distance. Until today the universe has not lost for me anything of the fascination that I already felt as a child.

The US space agency NASA is not just looking into space, but also from there to our good old earth. It has now published an article with the most important facts about the 14 eight-thousanders adding satellite images of the highest mountains. I want to share these pictures with you – to make you feel a bit like astronauts.

P.S. This time I have sorted the mountains not by altitude but by their fatality rates (look at the percentage).

[See image gallery at blogs.dw.com]