David Goettler

“For me, this is completely new ground.” David Goettler is looking forward to his upcoming winter expedition that, after Christmas, will take him and the Italian climbers Simone Moro and Emilio Previtali to the 8000er Nanga Parbat in Pakistan. “Until now I have gained experience in winter climbing only in the Alps, never in the Himalayas or in Karakoram”, says the 35-year-old climber from Munich when I meet him in my hometown Cologne this week. David has intensified the endurance training since Simone’s invitation at the end of September to accompany him to Nanga Parbat. You cannot train coldness, says David. “It makes no sense sitting in the refrigerator for three days.”

Urubko not willing to go to Pakistan

Moro (r.) and Urubko on Nanga Parbat in 2012

Unlike Goettler Simone Moro is an old stager in winter expeditions to 8000ers. The 46-year-old Italian (like the Polish climbers Jerzy Kukuczka, Krzysztof Wielicki and Maciej Berbeka) is holding the record of three first ascents in winter: In 2005 he climbed Shishapangma in Tibet with Piotr Morawski from Poland, in 2009 Makalu in Nepal with Kazakh climber Denis Urubko and in 2011 Gasherbrum II in Pakistan, with Denis again and the Canadian Cory Richards. Moro has already tried to climb Nanga Parbat in winter, but failed in 2012. As he did then he once again wanted to climb with his friend Urubko now. But Denis was not willing to go to Pakistan because he was concerned for his safety after last summer’s killing of eleven climbers in Nanga Parbat basecamp.

You need a bit of luck

“I would lie if I said that this issue doesn’t find its way into my feelings and thoughts”, admits David Goettler. But right now he has a good feeling. “I have always experienced Pakistan as a friendly, open and incredibly beautiful country,” says David . “I’m sure that local people haven’t changed. Maybe they are even much more alert to suspected people. But of course, at the end you need a bit of luck to be not in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

No trench warfare

The three climbers will take the so called “Schell route” on the Rupal side of the mountain – the same option a Polish expedition has chosen: Marek Klonowski and Tomek Mackiewicz try to climb Nanga Parbat for the fourth winter in a row. Last winter Marek reached a height of 7400 meters on the Schell route. The Poles will arrive at the mountain earlier than the Italian-German team. David does not believe that the two teams will tread on each other’s toes: “It would be stupid if we worked against each other. We are in contact. We will support each other and certainly not start trench warfare.”

Satisfied with the second row

Nanga Parbat

There have already been 17 attempts to scale Nanga Parbat in winter, but all failed. The 8125-meter-high mountain and K 2 are the only two of the fourteen 8000ers which have not yet been climbed in winter. “The chance of success is very low”, guesses Goettler. “We are talking about 15 to 20 percent. This is very little but still worth a try.” David has already climbed five 8000ers, last May he summited Makalu. In the past he was frequently travelling with Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Ralf Dujmovits. Now he will climb with Simone Moro, another star in high altitude mountaineering. “I find it quite pleasant to be in the second row”, says Goettler. “In our team we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s important that it matches internally. I have no problem with the fact that I don’t have such as big stage as Simone Moro.” But to demonstrate team spirit does not mean to conceal his opinion, finds David: “I’m not going to say yes to every decision.”

Hans Kammerlander

The South Tyrolean mountaineer Hans Kammerlander has been involved in a car accident with a tragic end near his home village Sand in Taufers. According to media reports from South Tyrol, a 21-year-old man lost control of his car. It grazed three oncoming cars before it crashed head-on into a van that was driven by Kammerlander. The 21-year-old died at the scene. Kammerlander and four other persons, who were injured too, were taken to hospital. Stol.it reports that Kammerlander broke his right leg. The 56-year-old was under shock, it said. His van was completely destroyed.

Double traverse

Kammmerlander has climbed twelve of the fourteen 8000ers, all without bottled oxygen, seven of them together with Reinhold Messner. With him Kammerlander succeeded in 1984 the first (and till this day not repeated) double traverse on 8000ers, in Alpine style, i.e. without the help of Sherpas, without high camps, fixed ropes and oxygen mask. In the Karakoram in Pakistan Messner and Kammerlander summited Gasherbrum I, descended on another route to a col, from where they directly climbed up to the top of Gasherbrum II and downhill via another route. After eight days, they returned to basecamp. It was a milestone of climbing on the 8000ers. Get well soon, Hans!

Blind climber Andy Holzer

The blind can see, just in a different way. This is demonstrated by the Austrian Andy Holzer. The 47-year-old from Lienz in East Tyrol has been blind since birth. But that does not prevent him from rock climbing, ski touring or even mountaineering in the Himalayas. 16 August 1975 was a special day in Andy’s life: As a nine-year-old boy he was allowed for the first time to climb a rocky mountain together with his parents. After he had dragged himself for hours through the debris he turned to rock climbing and suddenly he regarded his father as climbing too slow. His mother couldn’t follow them. “I felt like someone had freed me from chains”, Andy recalled, as we recently met during the International Mountain Summit in Brixen.

Andy, the first question is probably always the same. How do you manage to climb a rock face without being able to see anything?

I don’t climb without seeing it. That would not work.

Please explain what you mean!

I generate the topographical details of a rock face with other sensations, for instance when I touch the grip, which later becomes my tread. This is simply intuitive climbing. Also seeing climbers train – of course in a protected environment – to climb blindly. These are completely different movement sequences. You don’t take a grip because you see it, but you grab for the place where your body’s center of gravity wants to go to. That’s the difference when you are climbing blindly. I habe been refining this technique for 25 years now. It’s no top climbing, no bid deal, but a lot of fun.

Andy on Carstencz Pyramid

You must have a huge memory to combine all these sensations and informations in your brain to a 3-D-image of the rock face.

I am not even aware of this. I only notice that I have a much higher metabolism than my friends or other climbers. This is a very different deal of energy. I have to imagine much more, to invest more mental strength to climb on the same level as my seeing friends. The difference for me makes two, three or four degrees of difficulty. It’s just another dimension.

You are mostly climbing roped up with seeing partners. Are you also able to lead a route after having finished it with your mates?

For me that is the great motivation to climb steep mountains. I want to know: What does it look like? What do the seeing climbers see? Which shapes and structures has the mountain? I can not do it with my eyes. Not even with my ears. No matter how exactly you are listening into nature, you do not hear the mountain in its details. But I have my sense of touch. It is limited just to the point where my arm ends. I have to climb up the mountain to see him. It’s a huge motivation. To save it in memory is not strenuous but rather an emotional impulse, as if seeing people remember faces or sunsets.

Guiding in rock (Image by Martin Kopfsguter)

Are you experiencing a rush of adrenaline like others when they hang in the wall, look down and are suddenly overwhelmed by what they are doing?

Many people confuse blindness with foolishness. Blindness is only the failure of one of five sensory nerves. You still have four, 80 percent of sensory perception are there. If I climb and a 600 meter deep abyss opens beneath my legs, I perceive the yawning depth that seems to pull me down. It’s tremendous. The knowledge is quite enough to get this feeling of exposure, the knowledge that the next step decides about fall or summit victory. There is no difference. Many people say to me: You are surely free from giddiness, because you do not look down. I reply: It’s a ferocious story to fall and see where it will end. But it’s much worse to fall into the dark, into uncertainty.

In the North Face of Cima Grande in the Dolomites (Image by Martin Kopfsguter)

You have already climbed six of the “Seven Summits”, the highest peaks of all continents. Only Mount Everest is still missing. In 2001 it was already climbed by a blind man, Erik Weihenmayer from USA. You have already climbed together with him, as a “double-blind” rope team. Has he encouraged you to dare climb Everest too?

For me the “Seven Summits” are less a planned project. Until I had climbed the  fourth of these summits I was not even aware of this collection. I climb about 200 mountains a year, not only here in the Alps. From Greenland to Antarctica, I’ve been everywhere. This “six of seven” were simply among these mountains. I’ve also left my traces on the two 8000ers Shishapangma and Cho Oyu, on which I, alas, couldn’t reach the summit. But I know what it feels like in Tibet, in Nepal, in the Himalayas.

Venture Everest? Everyone knows that Everest is the safest of 8000ers. It’s not an expedition but a journey. If I could now, aged 47, pack my bags and start together with my friends a trip to the highest mountain in the world, that would be very interesting. Others make a trip to Venice or to the Kitzsteinhorn (a mountain in Austria), and we just go to Everest. This is a cool idea. Because I think that anyone who does not feel tears in his eyes when he climbs up the Hillary Step and the last few meters to the highest point in the world, has no business being there. If there is no emotion on Everest, where else? Let’s see if it will happen. Maybe it will. But Everest is not my absolutely focused goal now.

So there is no concrete plan to try it next year? Also your biological clock is ticking. You know, it will be harder to climb in high altitude if you are 50 or older.

I’m totally aware of this fact. My friends are telling me, no problem, a 70- or 80-year-old has also climbed Everest. But that’s only a compliment of my friends to me. They all climb with headlamps. I am the only one who climbs in total darkness. This is a completely different thing, in a physical sense, concerning metabolism or body’s energy balance. At the age of 50 you have probably no business being there, and I’m probably already standing on the verge. For me as a blind Everest is just another mountain than for a seeing climber. We need not discuss this.

You tried to climb 8000ers twice. Was it for you another kind of self-experience climbing in this great altitude?

Up there the seeing and I converge further, because the speed is reduced. Going slower means for me as a blind person that I have for each step a few milliseconds more time to analyze whether I have to give more pressure on my crampon rear left or front right to stay in balance. Down here where the altitude does not matter I have to make my steps quickly one after another to keep pace with the others. In this case each step is like to do a lottery. In the long run it’s extremely exhausting. Compared to this it’s almost like a game if you have suddenly two seconds time for each step. The high altitude excites me that way because I feel good up there.

Andy during skitouring on an Austrian mountain (Image by Erwin Reinthaler)

A Paralympic winner once told me that he didn’t like the term “disabled athletes”. Do you also feel pigeonholed when someone calls you like this?

No. I’m rarely called like this because I am not in competition. In addition: At 7500 meters above sea level everyone is disabled. I have never met anyone up there who was not disabled. And if we do rock climbing in the Dolomites and my seeing friend is not disabled, we have probably chosen the wrong route. In this case it was too easy, no challenge. We are climbing mountains just because we want to handicap ourselves, to escape the paved roads and to avoid tracks. That’s the great thing about mountaineering.

You also do skitouring.

In the last ten years I have spent at least hundred days per winter with skitouring, last winter even more. Snow suits me. In contrast to stones you can form snow by carving and balancing. Of course I had to learn special techniques. Again, the ears are extremely important. By the turns of my friend I immediately hear the inclination. It’s not necessary that he cautions me about an icy patch because I have heard it long since. Furthermore speed is important. If you are not fast enough you will sink into deep snow or in snow that is frozen at the top. I have intensively worked to get better during the last ten years so that now I can really enjoy it.

I skied down Shishapangma from 7100 meters, also from Mount McKinley or Mount Ararat in Turkey. Not because I want to be particularly cool, but because it’s a great relief for me. For this you don’t need eyes, it’s a matter of feeling. I also had to get used to the material. My skis are very short and very wide, so that the manoeuvrability is guaranteed.

All that sounds as if your life always is a workshop too.

Ha! I hope that everyone’s life is a workshop. Because if it’s not, you don’t further your personal development. I am constantly developing myself. What I am living day by day is my workshop of life. You have said well.

Ines Papert

And it was a first ascent at all! On 13 November Ines Papert was the first person who set foot on the 6718-meter-high Pig Pherado Shar in Nepal, also known as Likhu Chuli I. Billi Bierling, staff member of the legendary Himalayan chronicler Elizabeth Hawley, writes me that the Frenchwoman Cecile Barbezat and Nawang Dorje Sherpa on 21 October 1960 were at the top of Likhu Chuli II, “which conversely means that Ines made the first ascent of Likhu Chuli I.” This was the result of a research that her French colleague Rodolphe Popier made in the library of the French Alpine Club (Club Alpin Français).

Text-image-gap

Likhu Chuli is on a 12-rupee-stamp

“It’s very clear they went to Likhu II by the west ridge and not to Likhu I”, says Rodolphe, who has reviewed the report of Barbezat, written more than half a century ago: “The text mentions a difficult climb up and no traverse at all between two summits. There are clear pictures taken under their claimed summit showing the Trakarding NW glacier straight down with the Tsho Rolpa lake (Gauri Shankar and Melungtse in the background) and from their summit showing South west ridge of Likhu 2 (still virgin and wrongly mentioned as south ridge). Even the picture of the summit taken from their Basecamp mentions their west ridge route on the right with no clear distinction of the both summits.” In other words: The informations in the text do not match the images. Barbezat and Nawang Dorje have claimed another summit than the one they really climbed. According to Billi Bierling the error in the database of Miss Hawley will be corrected immediately. And Ines Papert will be listed as the climber who made the first ascent of Likhu Chuli I. Congratulations, Ines!

P.S. While I’m at it: All the best, Miss Hawley! Sorry, I missed your 90th anniversary on 9 November.

Reinhold Messner in Cologne

Actually I wanted to ask Reinhold Messner these questions during the International Mountain Summit in Brixen. But a planned press conference was cancelled and the 69-year-old left the venue in no time at all, for whatever reason. But I had not to wait a long time for the South Tyrolean. He came to me – in a way. Last weekend the most famous mountaineer of the world gave a lecture in my home town of Cologne. Before the event started Messner answered my questions.

Reinhold Messner, recently you visited Pakistan, a few months after terrorists had shot eleven climbers at the Diamir basecamp on Nanga Parbat. Describe the atmosphere down there!

The mountain has not changed, but the connections are much worse than I thought. The terrorists were contract killers close to the Taliban, paid to carry out a bloodbath. Originally they had a different target. A great festival with polo games etc. was cancelled, probably because the organizers were worried that something might happen. Then the hit squad turned to Nanga Parbat. After the assault the killers took their money and disappeared. Some of them have been arrested, but nobody knows who has been the principal. On the one hand the terrorists wanted to hit the north of Pakistan, the local tourism, which collapsed by 90 percent. But they also wanted to hit the western world. Fortunately there have not been more victims. There were more than 60 people on Nanga Parbat, but most of them were at the high camps then.

Do you think that climbers will avoid Nanga Parbat in the next few years because of this summer’s assault?

Diamir basecamp on Nanga Parbat

There are already requests for new expeditions. But the Diamir face is and probably will remain locked. The south and the north side of the mountain remain open. You can go there on winter expedition. The northern part of the Karakoram around the K 2 has not been affected, there were no problems. But I have also learned in my research that above Chilas, at the entry of the Diamir valley, four busses were stopped, all the men were taken out and shot. Women and children had to watch the massacre, then they were chased away and the busses were set on fire. And on the Babusar pass, which leads from the Swat valley along the Nanga Parbat to the Indus valley, jeeps were attacked in the same way. These news did not reach Europe. But now terrorism has also reached the north of Pakistan.

You have initiated aid projects in the Nanga Parbat region, including three schools. Is there an atmosphere of fear among the locals?

I was worried that these Taliban forces might have an interest to burn the schools, because also girls are going to some of them. This is clearly not the case here. But I have stopped my aid to Pakistan, out of concern that the whole thing falls into civil war. This would be a pity. I only keep the projects alive that we have initiated, I continue to pay the teachers as promised. But otherwise I ‘m moving the aid of my small foundation mainly to Nepal.

Right there, in Nepal, Swiss top climber Ueli Steck has caused a sensation by climbing solo through the Annapurna South Face. What is your view on this performance?

Ueli Steck on Annapurna South Face

Ueli Steck has not been very lucky this year on Everest. The attack at Camp 2 has actually not been directed at him. The Sherpas wanted to hit others, real parasites. Steck and Simone Moro are no parasitic climbers, even if they used the fixed route via the Khumbu Icefall, without having talked to the Sherpas or having paid them. Last year Ueli Steck climbed Everest via the normal route which was not “Steck-like”. But what he did now on Annapurna, was again typically Ueli Steck: Climbing quickly, climbing at night to avoid rockfall, via a very difficult wall. He had tried the South Face twice before but failed, once even quite dramatically, because he was hit by a stone. I really have great respect for this climb. The way he did it is the only one that allows you to climb such a difficult and dangerous wall in Alpine style.

Steck has lost his digital camera during his ascent, he had no GPS tracking. Do you think that a stain clings to his climb because it is not completely documented?

Once again we see critics who in fact have problems with themselves. As Ueli Steck describes his climb it is absolutely comprehensible. He is climbing solo, he loses his camera, there is no partner who has a second camera in his backpack, and he has no GPS system. I see no reason to doubt. If he does not have the ability, whoever else should have it? It is clear that doubts have arosen mainly in Switzerland where Ueli Steck has become so dominant in the creativity of modern mountaineering and where of course are rivalries. That is human nature. But to spread rumours like “Yes, it could be, but maybe not” via internet or pass them on to journalists, that’s no recommendation for climbers.

In other words: Ueli Steck is not in need of telling lies. Is the German Alpine Club (Deutscher Alpenverein – DAV) in need of offering commercial Everest expeditions as he will do next spring with the DAV Summit Club? 

Mount Everest (from Kala Pattar)

The German Alpine Club has not just my approval, but exceptionally I can understand it. The DAV has contained itself on Everest for such a long time. But there is no difference whether I prepare a route on Everest or on Gasherbrum I or II or Dhaulagiri or Nanga Parbat. The DAV has played this game for many years by offering 8000ers which were prepared for mass ascents.
I was on Mount Everest last spring and had to change my mind. The basecamp was perfectly clean, the toilets of the high camps were flown out every other day. Now the expedition agencies are so experienced that they work things out with each other: Who is responsible for Camp 2? Which cook is up there? Who will fix the last ropes from the South Col to the summit? This is so well-organized that there are no more jams because the groups – or should I say the clients, the tourists – are led up to the summit one after another.

Why should the DAV stand back? That’s just the biggest hype. I guarantee that within ten years commercial expeditions to all 8000ers will be offered in spring, summer or autumn depending on where they are. The international agencies are very, very good. If you book an expedition with them you know: I will be well supplied in basecamp. They will take care that I’m well acclimatized and give me a good guide. And they ensure that I as an ordinary climber will very likely reach the summit and will probably not perish. However, the risk is not zero.

How do you judge the announcement of the Nepalese government to set up an outpost at Everest basecamp with observers who shall ensure that everyone plays by the rules?

I do not see why they should bureaucratize the mountains more and more. The climbers themselves must be able to decide what to do or leave undone so that there is enough room for all climbers on the mountain. And there is room for everyone. The self-sufficient, traditional climbers shall go where the others are not, where they can climb alone and in their style. Each style is justified. The tourists have conquered Mount Everest because the agencies are working so well. If we do it in the Alps for 150 years, why should we ban it on Everest?

Catherine Destivelle

She looks younger than she really is (53 years) and her eyes twinkle when she is talking about climbing. 20 years ago Catherine Destivelle of France was a star of the climbing scene: Inter alia she soloed the classical north faces of Eiger, Matterhorn and Grand Jorasses, all of them in winter. She free-climbed the more than 6000-meter-high Nameless Tower in the Karakoram. (If you want to get an impression of her style of climbing, watch the amazing video below!) After the birth of her son Victor in 1997 she scaled down her climbing activities. I talked to Catherine on a hike during the International Mountain Summit (IMS) in Brixen in South Tyrol.

Catherine, are you still climbing?

Yes, less, but I’m still climbing. I like it. When I have time or holiday, I do it several times a week.

When you did your great climbs, in the 1980s and beginning of the 90s, you were a pioneer of women climbing. What has changed since then?

I think it’s a normal evolution. Women climbers of today are better than in our times, because they are training since their youth. Climbing has become a real sport. In my day it just had started to be a sport, but wasn’t really.

Do you think nowadays it’s easier for young women to be professional climbers?

I’m not sure. There are a lot of women climbers, so maybe it’s more difficult. At my time we were only a few, about one in each country. So it was probably easier to live from climbing.

Catherine Destivelle: Probably more difficult

Do you still follow what’s going on in the Himalayas?

I still know what’s going on, but I’m not dreaming about that. I’m quite jealous because I am not able to go away for a long time. But one day I will decide to take my time to come back to do some little climbs in the Himalayas.

You did it in the 1990s, when you were on Makalu, Shishapangma  – and on the Annapurna South Face too. Just two weeks ago Ueli Steck did a solo climb through this wall in only 28 hours for up and down, climbing during the night. What do you think about his climb?

I think it’s the safest way to act in the Himalayas to be fast. So you don’t lose much energy and you keep your mind straight. (laughs) Erhard Loretan did the same. He was climbing very fast in high altitude.

When you were on expedition in the Himalays in the 90s, there were not so many climbers in the mountains. Things have changed, especially on Everest.

Everest was not one of my goals because I liked technical routes. Those were my favourite climbs. But climbing technical routes in high altitude is very dangerous. I was scared,  I didn’t want to take any risk. So I decided not to go on very high peaks. Climbing Everest on the normal route was not attractive for me at that time. Now there are too much people. So I’m not sure that I will go there one day (laughs). I think it’s crazy. Just because it’s Everest, everybody goes there. They don’t know how to climb and how to deal with any problem.  They need fixed ropes, they don’t know how to move without a rope. If there is an avalanche or a serac fall like on Manaslu in 2012, a huge catastrophe happens. On K 2 it was the same a few years ago: Climbers lost their lives because they were not real alpinists. I think it’s quite dangerous if there are too much people on a high peak. 

Catherine Destivelle: Too much people on Everest

What was the reason that you stopped extreme climbing in the mid of 1990s? Was it your accident during a climb in Antarctica when you had a compound fracture of your leg?

No, it was not the accident. I wanted to have a kid (laughs). Victor. I preferred to care of him. I’m like a chicken, I don’t want to leave my son alone. I like to share my days with him. I still climb but I want to make sure that my son is happy. That’s the most important thing for me. I travel with him, but he is not focused on climbing, so I’m going to the seaside with him (laughs), kitesurfing, stuff like that.

If you should give an advice to young climbers, especially female climbers, what would you say?

You have to like it and to follow your instinct. Be happy, then you have a chance to be good at it. If you want to be very good, train a lot! Meet very experienced people to get inspired, take their advice!

Catherine Destivelle: Like it and follow your instinct!

What about courage?

You don’t need to have courage if you like it (laughs). You have your passion. You have to train and to be focused on this, if you want to succeed. But that’s all. Courage is something else. For me courage means for example risking your life for an idea.

Stephan Sigrist (l.) with old equipment

Hinterstoisser Traverse, Swallows Nest, Death Bivouac. When I was a boy of ten I sat on holidays in Grindelwald using my binoculars to study the Eiger North Face. I had devoured “The White Spider”, Heinrich Harrer’s well-known book. I was so fascinated that I got up at night and looked on the route for bivouac lights. On this Wednesday 75 years ago the Eiger North Face was climbed successfully for the first time. The four pioneers of 1938 are dead. The last of the German-Austrian team who died was Harrer in 2006.

I ring Stephan Siegrist up. The 40-year-old mountaineer from Switzerland has a special relationship to the Eiger North Face. He has already climbed the wall 29 times, opened two new extremely hard routes together with his compatriot Ueli Steck – and climbed on the trails of the quartet of 1938.

Stephan, 75 years ago the Germans Anderl Heckmair and Ludwig Vörg and the two Austrians Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek climbed the Eiger North Wall for the first time. What do think about their performance?

For me it’s still one of the greatest things that have ever been made in the Alps. You have to imagine that the strain was very great. They knew that many climbers before had died in the wall. And climbing it with the material of these former days was truly heroic.

The Heckmair route (1938)

Eleven years ago you climbed the North Face together with Michal Pitelka using the equipment from 1938. Did your experiences open your eyes for the quality of the pioneer’s performance?

Of course I had already great respect for these pioneers before we started our project. But after this experience with the old equipment my respect has increased still further.

What are the main differences between old and today’s material?

For the pioneers their equipment was then certainly top material. But the 30 metres long hemp ropes could only carry 400 kilos, which for us today is dangerous to life. The shoes had rubber soles with small nails. The climbers had bad crampons, classic ice axes without prongs.  In addition the old karabiners, no helmets, just hats and caps. From A to Z it is hardly conceivable for us today to climb with this equipment.

Even today, the Eiger North Face is still often referred to by many as “murder wall”. Isn’t that a bit excessive?

Yes. Fortunately, nowadays tragic accidents hardly occur in the Eiger North Face. Today you can compare it with other major walls in the western Alps.

What are the specific risks of the wall?

If we, as right now, have high temperatures of 30 degrees, we must be alert to rock fall. The wall is long, you have to be physically fit and experienced in rock and ice climbing. Most climbers need a bivouac, where they don’t sleep well. It’s physical stress, which shouldn’t be underestimated.

Have the risks shifted in recent years due to climate change?

Even earlier, there was rock fall in the Eiger North Face. What has changed is the season to climb the wall. Today more and more climbers arrive in winter or in spring, when there is a lot of snow in the wall – as it was in July 1938. In this respect, the mountaineers have adapted to the changed circumstances.

Stephan Siegrist

On mountains like Everest or Mont Blanc you find many people who actually don’t have the necessary climbing skills. Does that also apply to the Eiger North Wall?

Fortunately not, because everybody knows the technical challenges of the wall. Normally only climbers try the North Face, who know that they have these skills.

You yourself climbed the Eiger North Face 29 times, you opened new routes and climbed them free. What does attract you again and again?

For me, the wall is still spectacular, it offers difficulties. The Eiger is a beautiful mountain and easily accessible for me. That’s why I’m happy to go to this area, especially to the North Face.

The wall is almost like a big stage. Tourists have their binoculars and camera lenses directed to it. If you climb the North Face, do you feel like living in a goldfish bowl?

Once you’re in the wall, you’re really in a different world. You hardly register the tourists, much more the surroundings. You hear the cowbells, you see the cable car (to Kleine Scheidegg) driving up and down. You don’t feel that you are being watched – although in fact it’s like that.

Heckmair and Co. took about three days for their first climbing of the Eiger North Face. Since 2011 Swiss climber Daniel Arnold is holding the record with two hours and 28 minutes. Is it the end of the road?

No, a competition like that doesn’t simply stop. But it’s not like someone starts climbing the wall in the morning and tries to break the speed record. There must be a plan, you have to be very well prepared.

Apart from these speed records, what new challenges the wall still holds?

For me personally, the north face now has so many routes that there is hardly any new, unique,  logical line that you can open. Sure there will be the one or other new variant, because the Eiger North Face is just media-effective. But real great new trips are hardly conceivable.

Namasté, Chomo! Stefan is calling! Where the hell have you been?

Also Namasté! I was taking a snow shower. Wonderful, this monsoon!

Did you really need a shower after this spring season?

Joker, are you living behind the moon?

Almost. But from here it looked like you had a better press than in 2012 – perhaps because of the 60-year anniversary of the first ascent.

I heard something different. I just say: The brawl in Camp 2.

True, that didn’t go down well. What did really happen there?

You have to ask the participants. Only this: There are hooligans on the mountain too. And who is the victim once again? I am.

You? Why?

First, I am once again held responsible for an excess to which I haven’t even contributed a falling rock. And secondly, some more top climbers will turn their back on me. For my future this means: No delicacies, just fast food – if you know what I mean.

But after all, this spring you were able to welcome an 80-year-old climber on the summit.

Very funny! I haven’t laughed like this in a long time. Did I have an alternative? It would have been easy for me to blow him away. But in this case everybody would have said: Look, the killer mountain! Now Chomo’s got it in for seniors.

You were not even tempted?

Yoga.

Yoga?

I knotted my avalanche-prone slopes, held my breath and remained motionless until the old man was up. Afterwards I got a cramp.

In the Hillary-calf or the South buttocks?

(He is laughing) Good joke! But no, I had a crying fit. And I swore something to myself.

You make me curious.

If the first group of seniors with walkers reaches the South Col, I turn myself into a volcano.

Impossible.

I am already in negotiations with the climate change officer of the United Anger Mountains.

You are silly.

Silly, my friend, is if someone plans to fix a ladder at the Hillary Step.

What’s so silly with it?

That they don’t build a lift. Finally, we are living in the 21st century, aren’t we? Even mountains must be barrier-free.

Sir Chris Bonington

When Everest was climbed first in 1953 Chris Bonington was a young English mountaineer of 17 years. Later he did historic climbs like the first ascents of Annapurna II in 1960, of the Central Pillar of Freney on the south side of Mont Blanc  in 1961 and of the 7285-meter-high Ogre in the Karakoram together with Doug Scott in 1977 (the second ascent followed only in 2001). But Bonington also proved to be a great expedition leader. In 1970 he led the successful expedition to the South Face of Annapurna, in 1975 the expedition to Mount Everest, during which Doug Scott and Dougal Haston climbed the Southwest Face first. Bonington himself reached the summit of Everest in 1985 as a member of a Norwegian expedition. He was knighted by the Queen in 1996 for his services to the sport. I met the 78-year-old climber last week at the diamond jubilee celebration of the first ascent of Mount Everest in the Royal Geographical Society in London and asked him – of course – about his thoughts on Everest.

Sir Chris Bonington, 60 years after the first ascent of Mount Everest, how do you feel about these pioneers? 

I’m a great believer in the heritage of our sport, looking back, enjoying and learning from what our predecessors have done. In a way that first ascent of the highest point on earth is one of the very, very great occasions. I think it’s story. How they succeeded and worked together, it was a superb team effort. It’s something very special. 

Hillary was a New Zealander, Tenzing Norgay a Sherpa living in India, but I think it was a great push for British mountaineering because it was a British expedition which was first successful on Everest. 

British and New Zealand, because George Lowe and Ed Hillary were two important parts of it. It was a Commonwealth expedition. But the key thing was that the individuals who came together were undoubtedly melted as a team by John Hunt who was a supreme leader. I think he provided a blue print of how to go about planning, organizing and leading an expedition. It was the achievement of all which of course Ed Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay kind of completed.

Has it been an initial point for your generation to do something more difficult?

That’s a natural progression going from the base what has been done in the past to take one step further into the future. And therefore naturally the next generation is trying to take it on other levels. When for instance we climbed the Southwest Face of Everest, that was the next thing to do. Reinhold Messner’s solo ascent of Everest from the north was an extraordinary step. There have been a whole series of developments on Everest and within the mountain as a whole.

But it seems to me that after this era there was a step back when commercial mountaineering took over.

No, it’s not a step back, it’s just natural evolution. You can see exactly the same thing happening in the Alps where mountains like the Matterhorn or Mont Blanc are guided. Hundreds of people go up every single day guided by professional mountain guides. It was almost an inevitable thing that was going to happen in the Himalayas and it has done. And it’s enabled hundreds of people to reach the top of Everest. It’s not a give-away, it’s still a tough game for those individuals, 2000 people at basecamp, 200 people going up the Lhotse face, 100 people going to the summit in a day aligned on a fix rope put up by the Sherpas. That’s something that happens. But what the elite of climbers are doing – and they do extraordinary things – is climbing Alpine style in very small parties, four maximum, usually two, very often solo. That is climbing adventure at its upmost. There are still thousands of unclimbed ridges and faces in the Himalayas on the peaks around 8000 metres. Everest, if you like, is no longer a place for the pioneers. The pioneers have gone elsewhere.

Sir Chris Bonington about commercial climbing on Everest

This spring brought a Sherpa attack against the European top climbers Simone Moro and Ueli Steck in Everest high camp. What do think about it? 

I think that was very unfortunate. I’ve got a great respect and liking for Ueli, I know him and Jon Griffith, the English climber (who was also involved in the brawl). They were doing a kind of acclimatization climb up the Lhotse face to the South Col, maybe dumping a bit of stuff there as well in preparation for what they were planning to do, which was actually to do an amazing ascent. They were trying to keep out of the way of the Sherpas. In no way they did interfere with them. I think there has been a lot of tension and resentment by the Sherpas perhaps feeling that they had not been paid enough. Lots of things that have nothing to do with what these three climbers were doing. But there was a configuration and the Sherpas attacked them. I think that was unforgivable, it was appaling and very unfortunate. But what it highlighted was that the whole system on Everest needs to have a serious look. What is needed is that the commercial expedition leaders, the government, the Sherpa community, all the various people involved on Everest, need to get together and have a serious talk about how can we improve the situation. There is something that needs to be done by consultation, talk and discussion. 

Sir Chris Bonington about the brawl on Everest

Would you say it’s a conflict that has emerged long ago and has now broken out? 

I think it has been simmering for quite some time. It’s the same with everything. When there are too many people, when there are two bigger crowds, when that kind of pressure is involved, when money is involved as well, that’s why things start going wrong. 

Simone Moro (r.), Ueli Steck

Actually, you think anything possible has already happened on Mount Everest. But it’s a sad novelty that in a high camp three climbers are beaten, kicked, pelted with stones and threatened with death by furious sherpas. The two top climbers Simone Moro from Italy and Ueli Steck from Switzerland and their British photographer Jonathan Griffith have been effected by the incident. „Something from another world“, Simone called what happened to them. 

Dispute on 7200 metres

On Saturday Moro, Steck and Griffith were on their way to camp 3 at 7200 meters on the normal route, when they reached a group of 17 Sherpas who were fixing ropes. The Sherpas told the trio not to climb above them while they were working. Moro said that they had climbed then 50 metres away and to the side of the sherpas. When they traversed to reach their tent, the leader of the Sherpas rushed to Ueli Steck wildly swinging his ice axe. He accused Ueli of having kicked loose chunks of ice and injured a Sherpa. Simone Moro tried to mediate. In vain. Enraged, the Sherpas finally descended to camp 2 on 6500 metres.

Death threats

When Simone, Ueli and Jonathan later reached the lower camp, the situation escalated completely. The three climbers from Europe faced a furious mob of several dozen Sherpas. The Sherpas threw stones, punched and kicked the climbers. A group of Western mountaineers acted as a buffer between both parties. They were also attacked. After about 50 minutes the situation calmed a litte bit. But Steck, Moro and Griffith were told that if they weren’t gone within one hour they all would be killed. The three climbers descended to the base camp. The Nepalese police is investigating the incident.

Night in the hospital

Ueli, slightly injured by a thrown stone, was flown by helicopter to Kathmandu and spent a night in a hospital near the airport. Meanwhile, the Swiss is reportedly back at base camp discussing with Simone Moro how to proceed. The two top climbers have told the public only a few details of their plan for this spring: They will to climb Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen and they want to try something new.

Venables at South Georgia

This May Stephen Venables can celebrate a double Everest jubilee: the 60th birthday of the first ascent – and his more personal anniversary: On 12th May 25 years ago Venables was the first Briton to climb Everest without supplementary oxygen. A milestone. „I was lucky enough in 1988 to help write a new chapter in the mountain’s history, when I climbed a new route up the Kangshung Face with Robert Anderson, Paul Teare and Ed Webster”, Stephen wrote to me after I had asked him for his thoughts on Everest on occasion of the 60th anniversary of the first ascent. “Thanks to those fine American/Canadian climbers and a magnificent base camp support team, I enjoyed some of the greatest days of my life of Everest, living for over two months in the beautiful Kama valley.” But his life was hanging by a thread then. 

Mostly deserted 

Kangshung face

It’s for good reason that the Tibetan east face of Mount Everest is mostly deserted. It towers up steeply 3000 metres into the sky, glaciated with deep crevasses and the permanent risk of avalanches. When in 1921 the legendary British climber George Mallory was looking for a route to scale Everest and saw Kangshung face, he said it would be impossible to climb it. But in 1983 the Americans Carlos Buhler, Kim Momb and Louis Reichardt proved that it was possible. They matched the challenge using bottled oxygen. The expedition was successful very much thanks to the brilliant leading by George Lowe from Utah.

At his limit and beyond 

Paul Teare (below) in the Kangshung face

Five years later Stephen Venables, Paul Teare from Canada and the Americans Robert Anderson and Ed Webster opened a new route via the face and did it without oxygen masks. The route led to the South Col. Teare decided to descend from there, because he had symptoms of a high cerebral edema. Webster returned just below, Anderson from the 8690-meter-high South Summit. Only Venables reached the highest point on 8850 metres. On his descent he lost more and more of his power, he hallucinated. „I was at my absolute physiological limit”, Stephen later said in an interview. „All that day was a crossing barriers.” Below South Summit he bivouaced in open – and survived. But the odyssey continued. It took the three climbers three more days to descend via the Kangshung face, through waist-deep snow, in a white out and with no food. „Our ascent of the Kangshung was, for the four of us, the adventure of a lifetime”, Ed Webster wrote subsequently.

Two broken legs

Stephen lost three toes which were frozen and later had to be amputated. He was 34 years old, the expediton to the Kangshung face was his tenth in the Himalayas. In 1991 Venables climbed together with two Britons a new route on the 6000-metre-peak Kusum Kanguru near Everest. One year later he belonged to the British climbers who did the first ascent of  the 6437-metre-high Panch Chuli V in the Indian part of Himalaya. During the descent Stephen broke both his legs in a 80-metre-fall. Venables knew that it could have ended even worse. He finished to take part in extreme Himalayan expeditions. But the 58-year-old Briton is still climbing. In the past years he has often visited Antarctica, in particular the island of South Georgia.

Adventurous uncertainty

Stephen Venables

It’s not fair to reduce a man’s lifetime to an Everest expedition of two months. But Venables’ survival story on Mount Everest will always remain unforgotten. „It would be wonderful if Everest became again a place where climbers push the limits of human endeavour in an atmosphere of quiet contemplation: just three or four expeditions per year, climbing without supplementary oxygen, enjoying a sense of adventurous uncertainty”, Stephen answered my question, what he wishes Mount Everest for the future. He knows that this „will never happen, because it is not compatible with commercial imperatives.”

P.S.: You find Stephen’s full statements on the two Everest-60-pinboards on the right side of the blog.