Things didn’t go well on the eight-thousanders in Karakorum this summer. “It was just too hot, and the conditions were too dangerous”, the German mountaineer Billi Bierling, who had tried unsuccessfully to climb Broad Peak, wrote to me. This mountain was scaled only twice this season: by the Argentine Mariano Galvan and Andrzej Bargiel from Poland, both climbed solo. Bargiel also succeeded in skiing down to the Base Camp. A Pakistani high altitude porter died in an avalanche.

All K 2 expeditions returned home without summit success. 13 climbers reached the highest point of Gasherbrum II. There was a fatality too: The Pole Olek Ostrowski disappeared on G II and was not found. On neighboring Gasherbrum I, so far – two Czechs are still on the mountain – just a team of three was successful, including a German mountaineer, born in my hometown Cologne.

read more

“There are no easy mountains and certainly no easy seven-thousanders.” I remember very clearly these words of my Austrian expedition leader Herbert Wolf in 2011, on the 7,246-meter-high Putha Hiunchuli (Dhaulagiri VII) in Nepal. I had to turn around 150 meters below the summit because the weather conditions were deteriorating and I was too late. What Herbert meant, was the fact that the conditions can change even an apparently easy mountain into a difficult and dangerous one.
Commercial expedition operators often call Peak Lenin in Kyrgyzstan an “easy seven-thousander” or an “entry seven-thousander”. On 7 August, a Russian mountain guide died on the 7,134-meter-high mountain in the Pamirs. 

read more

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.”

read more

The eternal attraction of Latok I. There is hardly another seven-thousander that has been such a hard nut to crack for top climbers from all over the world for the past decades. The first ascent of the highest of the four Latok summits was made 36 years ago. The Japanese Tsuneo Shigehiro, Sin’e Matsumi and Yu Watanabe succeeded on 19 July 1979. They had climbed up from the south via a buttress to the east East Ridge and from there to the highest point. More famous because notorious are the still unconquered North Ridge – and the also unclimbed North Face. This summer, the “Huberbuam”, the German brothers Alexander and Thomas Huber, will try to master this big wall.

read more

“That was far below my limit”, says the Slovenian Luka Lindic when I ask him about the first climbing of the North Face of the 6515-meter-high Hagshu in the Indian Himalayas. After all, Luka and his two Slovenian friends Marko Prezelj and Ales Cesen have been awarded for this climb with this year’s Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar for climbers”. “Sometimes you find such a logical line. It’s normal to follow it. We didn’t find any extreme difficult terrain”, Luka remembers. Looking for his personal limits, the 27-year-old climber will travel to the North of Pakistan this summer. In early July, Luka will set off to the Karakoram, together with his compatriots Luka Krajnc, Martin Zumer and Janez Svoljsak. “We will stay on Choktoi glacier for a month. And if the conditions will allow it and if we feel good, we would like to try Latok I.”

read more

China shows its friendly face. For 10 May, the Chinese government is planning “to provide a charter flight free of charge form Lhasa to Kathmandu for all Sherpas – not just for Climbing Sherpas, but also for cooks and kitchen helpers”, Ralf Dujmovits wrote to me calling it “a generous gesture” – despite  the expected propaganda of the Chinese. The most successful German mountaineer arrived in Lhasa, like many other western climbers who were on expedition in Tibet. “The China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) generously bears the costs of transport to Lhasa, accommodation and meals. And they take care of the visa formalities for the stranded climbers coming from all Tibetan peaks”, the 53-year-old said.

read more

First of all:  Compared to the suffering in Nepal after the earthquake of last Saturday – now more than 5,000 deaths and 10,000 injuries have been counted – it seems almost insignificant what is happening on the Tibetan north side of Mount Everest. But I also give reports on the consequences of the terrible tragedy in Nepal for the climbers in the region – and there are still several hundred mountaineers in Tibet, including many Sherpas from Nepal. All will go home now. Whether they like it or not, they have to. “It’s official: Everest is closed for this season”, expedition leader Dominik Mueller, head of the German operator Amical alpin, writes from “Chinese Base Camp” on the north side of Mount Everest. Yesterday Mueller had abandoned his expedition, one day before the decisive meeting of the expedition leaders with representatives of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) in Base Camp at 5,150 meters.

read more

Actually, they wanted to climb Mount Everest without bottled oxygen this spring. Actually, they were on the Tibetan north side of Everest where no one was injured by the earthquake. Nevertheless, the German couple Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger finished their Everest expedition, before they could make any attempt on the mountain. “Although there is no damage to people or property on the north side, we cannot turn a blind eye to the suffering thas has happened”, Alix and Luis write on their homepage. “Moreover, we do not want to be the reason why Nepalese helpers, cooks and Climbing Sherpas have to stay here and cannot go home to their families to see if everything is alright. Under the circumstances, we think it’s wrong to continue our  expedition. Even a possible summit success would feel vapid and invalid. We couldn’t find any joy in it.”

read more

The quite inconceivable really happened. A huge avalanche from Pumori, triggered by yesterday’s earthquake in Nepal, hit the Base Camp at the foot of Mount Everest at full force. The seven-thousander is located just opposite the highest mountain in the world. But hardly anyone had expected that an avalanche from Pumori would reach the edge of the Khumbu Icefall. “I ran and it just flattened me. I tried to get up and it flattened me again. I couldn’t breathe, I thought I was dead,” said George Foulsham, a mountaineer who lives in Singapore. The 38-year-old marine biologist was lucky and survived. It is not yet totally clear how many climbers lost their lives in Base Camp.

read more

The number of victims of the devastating earthquake in Nepal is increasing every hour – now over 1100. In the capital Kathmandu, but also in the nearby towns of Patan and Bhaktapur, many houses and buildings collapsed, including centuries-old temples. The tremors reached a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale, the center of the quake was 80 kilometers north-west of Kathmandu. At least ten climbers were killed at the foot of Mount Everest after the quake had triggered a massive avalanche on Pumori. The seven-thousander is located vis-a-vis the highest mountain in the world. The situation is dramatic.

read more

Dead and gone. Why only are single deaths of Sherpa climbers in the Himalayas swept under the carpet so quickly? Almost as if it was just a work accident. According to the motto: It’s sad, but unfortunately it sometimes happens. The most recent example was the accident on the eight-thousander Annapurna four weeks ago. In the days that followed, many obits of the 36-year-old Finn Samuli Mansikka were published. For sure, he had deserved each of them. Samuli was not only an excellent climber – Annapurna was his tenth eight-thousander, eight of which he climbed without bottled oxygen – but, according to all reports of his mates, a cool guy, always up for fun or ready for party. However, we learned next to nothing about the other climber who died. It was 35-year-old Pemba Sherpa, was said in a few reports. Allegedly he was born near the eight-thousander Makalu and was called “Technical Pemba” due to his technical climbing skills. About what Pemba had previously done as a mountaineer, the information diverged widely. I was not content with this confusion.

read more

Edi Koblmueller, one of the most famous Austrian mountaineers froze to death a few days after his 69th birthday at a ski tour at the 5047-meter-high Mount Kazbek in Georgia. The guide had led an eight-member group of the operator “Bergspechte”. A 59-year woman from Austrian also died. According to media reports, she had been slower than the other members of the group and Edi had remained with her. “The local group told us that Edi Koblmueller and the woman ran into a blizzard,” it says on the website of “Bergspechte”. The other members of the group were able to escape from the snow storm into a shelter. The bodies of the two victims were later found and recovered by helicopter.

read more

South Tyrolean climber Tamara Lunger and her Italian team partner Simone Moro have finished their expedition to the eight highest mountain on earth. They had planned to climb not only the 8167-meter high main summit of Manaslu but also in one push the 7992-meter-high Pinnacle East. “It started off as a winter expedition and is ending as a spring one only by the calendar and not because of the weather conditions. I wrote ‘ending’ because this is the final decision taken by Tamara and myself over the past few hours”, Simone wrote from base camp at 4800 meters. “We have used up all our patience, optimism,  experience and shrewdness, but for this year Manaslu remains for both of us a dream we have decided to postpone.”

read more

Apparently, the new route through the Khumbu Icefall is more than a little course correction. That is indicated by the images that the US guide Garrett Madison has published in his blog. Expedition members of his Madison Mountaineering team had flown over the icefall above Everest Base Camp by helicopter and had looked from the air where the so-called “Icefall Doctors” set up the route for this spring season. The images show that the route leads – seen from below – much further to the right side of the ice labyrinth than expected. Closer to Nuptse, further away from the West Shoulder of Everest, from where an ice avalanche had released on 18 April 2014 that had killed 16 Nepalis. “It appears that climbers will have to negotiate broken ice as before, and perhaps more vertical ladders”, Garrett wrote adding that there was at least one section that had four vertical ladders tied together to ascend up a very large ice cliff.

read more

Manaslu, next attempt! The South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger and the Italian Simone Mono flew back by helicopter to the base camp at the foot of the eight highest mountain in the world. In early March, the two climbers had fled Manaslu due to heavy snowfalls and extremely high avalanche danger. It looks as if our camp was quite destroyed”, Tamara wrote in her blog.

read more