K 2, the “King of the Eight-thousanders”

Will K2, after all, stretch out its hand for reconciliation? Despite the difficult weather and snow conditions on the second highest mountain on earth, today more than a dozen climbers have reached the highest camp on the K 2 Shoulder. “He just arrived at Camp 4,” Lina Moey, partner of the Icelander John Snorri Sigurjonsson, wrote on Facebook. “He is very tired, after almost twelve hours of climbing. This was a very long day and the snow reached up to his waist at some points. Fourteen people are planing to summit the peak, 9 of them are Sherpa. They had to dig 1.5 meter down to be able to put the tent down.” On 16 May, the 44-year-old Sigurjonsson had summited the 8516-meter-high Lhotse in Nepal. He was the first Icelander on the fourth highest mountain on earth. Also on the summit of K2, he would be the first climber of his country. John’s GPS tracker showed an altitude of 7,650 meters.

Furtenbach team returns home, Bargiel still in Base Camp

The British-American mountaineer Vanessa O’Brien also reached this height. “Camp 4”, the 52-year-old tweeted concisely, with a link to her GPS tracker. Like Sigurjonsson, O’Brien also belongs to the team of the Nepalese operator Dreamers Destination. Vanessa tries to climb K2 for the third year in a row. If she reaches the summit, it would be her fifth eight-thousander. Today the team of the Austrian expedition operator Furtenbach Adventures descended. “Sadly weather on K2 played it’s own game again,” the team said. “Avalanche danger became dramatically high very quick so team decided to stop and descend to Base Camp. We do not want to send our Sherpas up in that danger.” The team members arrived safe and sound at the foot of the mountain and want to go home tomorrow. “We are still sitting in the Base Camp waiting for weather to improve,” wrote Andrzej Bargiel today on Facebook. The 29-year-old Pole wants to ski down K2 for the first time from the summit without interruption to Base Camp. However, Andrzej and his team are running out of time.

Cardiach and Co. reached last high camp

Broad Peak

On the neighboring eight-thousander Broad Peak, the Spaniard Oscar Cardiach and his companions reached Camp 3 at 7,200 meters and are planning to climb up to the 8051-meter-high summit on Thursday, if the conditions allow an ascent. Cardiach’s team includes Tunc Findik, who has already summited ten eight-thousanders, making him the most successful high altitude climber of Turkey, Muhammad Ali “Sadpara”, who was among the winter first ascenders of Nanga Parbat in 2016, and Yosuf, a Balti HAP (High Altitude Porter). Broad Peak is the last of the 14 eight-thousanders which is still missing in the collection of the 64-year-old Catalan Cardiach. Oscar has climbed all 13 eight-thousanders so far without bottled oxygen.

Ueli Steck (1976-2017)

A black day for mountain sports: The great Ueli Steck has fallen to death on Everest. That was confirmed by the management of the 40-year-old. R.I.P, Ueli! First of all the official communication:

Ueli Steck was killed while trying to climb Mount Everest and the Lhotse. His family has learned of his death today. The exact circumstances are currently unknown. The family is infinitely sad and asks the media builders to refrain from speculation about the circumstances of his death due to respect for Ueli.

As soon as there are reliable findings on the causes of Uelis Steck’s death, the media will be informed. The family asks the media for understanding that they will not provide any further information at the time.

Children play “Hot Potato”

“They lost their houses and all their property, but they didn’t lose their plans,” says Arjun Gatraj about the people of his native village Thulosirubari. “There is still hope.” Not only for better times for themselves, but also for their children. “They feel that education is important for their children. They sent them directly after the earthquake as soon as we started the school again.” Arjun is the chairman of the school committee of Thulosirubari, a small mountain village, about 70 kilometers from the Nepalese capital Kathmandu. Almost every family has been affected by the earthquake. “75 people died, among them eight of our students”, Arjun tells me during my visit in Thulosirubari. “About 1800 houses were destroyed, only 30 to 40 are still intact.”

Teaching outside

Earthquake damage in Sangachok

Also almost eleven months after the devastating earthquake on 25 April 2015, the damage in Sindhupalchowk District, east of Kathmandu, is obvious. Most people, whose houses collapsed in the quake, are still living in tin sheds. They have cleared the debris, provisionally, if at all. As reported, the “Gerlinde and Ralf-School” in Thulosirubari had been damaged so badly that it had to be demolished completely. The teachers are currently giving lessons to about 700 students in temporary classrooms with tin sheets – or outside. Even today, the younger children have gathered outside. They work on a quiz. In teams of three, they lean over their wooden desks and put their heads together. The best of the ten teams will represent the school in the near future in a competition with other schools. Each correct answer is accompanied by large applause from the audience.

Shortly before take-off

Who will represent the school?

“Even in winter, the teachers often moved outside,” says Arjun.”We could not heat the sheds. In the midday sun it was warmer than inside.” For a long time the staff meetings were held beneath a large tree on the school grounds. Now the teachers use a tent. “If strong wind is blowing, we think it is going to fly into the air,” says the head of the school committee and laughs. The people of Thulosirubari have not lost their sense of humor and regained their courage.

Jumping out the window

Shailaja Kasaju

Immediately after the quake, that was different. Many residents of the villages were traumatized, among them also the children. “I could read it in their faces,” English teacher Shailaja Kasaju recalls. The 27-year-old is giving lessons at the school in Sangachok, not far from Thulosirubari. „A week back I had seen them smiling, very happy. And these faces turned into very sad faces. They even stopped talking to each other, what was very sad.“ The children were so traumatized that they often jumped out of the windows of the temporary classrooms when an aftershock occured. Meanwhile, they have become adepted to the situation, says Shailaja: “They have a kind of accepted it. In case of earthquake they know we can do this, we cannot do that. So they know the concept of earthquake, how to be safe.“ Like the school in Thulosirubari, the school in Sangachok had to be demolished completely. Both had been built and supported by the “Nepalhilfe Beilngries“.

Waiting for the go-ahead

The German aid organization is awaiting the approval of the Nepalese government for reconstruction. The process has become much more bureaucratic. Before the earthquake, the “Nepalhilfe” could manage the construction of new schools directly with the local school committees, now there are two more intermediary instances. “We hope that we can start in April,” says Shyam Pandit, who coordinates the school projects of the “Nepalhilfe” in the country. The government has adopted new rules to make the buildings earthquake resistant. So the schools must not have more than two floors now.

Loud and stressful

Badly soundproofed tin sheds

The teachers long for the new buildings. The lessons in the badly soundproofed tin sheds are “very stressful,” says Shailaja. “If I teach in one class, the other two classes are disturbed. We can hear everything from the other classes coming in. The teachers have to go on top of their voice. This is very tiring.” In addition, the students get distracted a lot, because they can see what happens outside, says Shailaya. And then there is also the risk of injury: “The children are cutting their hands on these tin sheets.”

The place for the new school in Thulosirubari is already chosen. The wooden doors and windows of the demolished school store in a shed. “So we can save money,” says Arjun Gatraj, the chairman of the school committee. “We are ready for reconstruction.”

P.S.: The people in Thulosirubari asked me to tell you a heartfelt thank you. Your donations for our aid project “School up!” have made the hopefully soon start of the construction works possible in the first place. More than a third of the necessary amount is already met. But the prices of construction material in Nepal have increased by 50 percent after the earthquake and the long blockade of the Nepal-Indian border. We are not there yet. Please continue to donate for “School up!” and tell others of this project! Here again the account information:

Recipient: Nepalhilfe Beilngries
Bank: Volksbank Bayern Mitte eG/Germany

IBAN: DE05 7216 0818 0004 6227 07
BIC/SWIFT-Code: GENODEF1INP

Intended purpose: Gerlinde and Ralf School

North side of Everest

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.

Road to Nepal closed

Other climbers confirm that the Chinese authorities have forbidden any further activities on the highest mountain on earth and on other Tibetan mountains too. “Dreams are just gone”, Austrian climber Alois Fuchs writes in his internet diary. “It is supposed that earthquake activity will shift towards Mount Everest (Tingri) and has not yet finished. No one is able to assess accurately the danger of falling rocks and avalanches, therefore all mountains in this area have been closed. For us, this means: Mount Everest cancelled, we have to collect our equipment, to rebook flights and to wait in BC (Base Camp) for the mates who are still in ABC (Advanced Base Camp).” Ralf Dujmovits, the most successful German high altitude climber, is in ABC too. Ralf will now pack his things, his office in Germany confirms. According to Adrian Ballinger, head of the US operator Alpenglow Expeditions, the road between Tibet and Nepal is closed. Therefore his team wants to leave the country like many others via the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

Insufficient surgical equipment

Matthias Baumann confirmed that the road link between the two countries was interrupted again. “There have been new landslides, some regions are cut off”, the German doctor and mountaineer told me by phone from Nepal. The trauma surgeon is helping in a hospital on the outskirts of Kathmandu. “We have been operating mainly fractures of arms and legs, and spinal fractures too.” There is a lack of surgical equipment such as plates, nails and screws. He is now trying to organize supplies from Germany. “We have to treat so many fractures that there would be a lack of equipment in any hospital in the world.” Matthias is sleeping in a tent. “That’s what a lot of people do here.” He counted three aftershocks on the first day of his stay. Baumann said that caring for the earthquake victims in Kathmandu in his opinion was “quite well, but there are still so many mountain regions cut off. And there are far too few helicopters.” Those helicopters which were used for rescue on Mount Everest until yesterday are therefore urgently needed. On Tuesday evening, there were reports about an avalanche in the region Langtang with at least 250 people missing.

Only after helicopters come free

Although many climbers have already started to make their way home, the season is officially not yet finished on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest – despite the terrible avalanche disaster after the earthquake. “Our Himex team will stay at Everest BC for the next few days and we will then decide if we will continue or not”, writes Russell Brice, head of the New Zealand organizer Himalayan Experience. This morning, when he was at the airport, he had a meeting with the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) and the Tourism Minister. “He gave us permission to fly loads to Camp 1, but only after the helicopters come free from rescue operations which we of course totally agree with.”

North side of Everest

He cannot just carry on as if nothing had happened, says Dominik Mueller. The head of the German expedition operator Amical alpin today abandoned his expedition on the Tibetan north side of Mount Everest – after consultation with his clients, who according to Dominik also did not want to continue. “When I look in the faces of our cook, the kitchen boys and all the other Sherpas here, I cannot climb on in good conscience”, Dominik tells me by phone from the “Chinese Base Camp” at 5,150 meters, where according to his estimate are still 250 to 300 climbers and staff. The team’s cook has lost his house in Kathmandu, many others have not even been able to contact their families. “We can not sit here on a beautiful island and make for love, peace and harmony while there are thousands of deaths around us.”

A text message, not an official document

Dominik Mueller

There is still confusion about whether the Everest is now definitely closed, says Dominik: “This morning Thomas Laemmle, our expedition leader on Cho Oyu, received a call from the Chinese authorities that all Tibetan mountains were closed from 9 a.m and that the spring season was over.” Then Dominik sent a request to the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) whether this was also definitely true for Everest. “I received a text message: Everest is closed”, says the 44-year-old. “But there is no liaison officer or anyone else here at Base Camp who has an official document or who says: Yes, it is definitely closed.We are in limbo.” During the meetings, the Chinese officials mainly referred to the risk of aftershocks, says Dominik. They told the expedition leaders that the quake had torn new crevasses and that the North Col was very dangerous this year.

Dujmovits in Advanced Base Camp

Dominik says, the team of Chinese climbers that was to fix ropes on the normal route left Base Camp and was taken to lower villages – for him another sign that climbing will not continue on the north side of Everest. “If the authorities would really see a chance to climb on, the fixrope team would still be here and would be sent to ABC (Advanced Base Camp) to wait there for a few days.” Mueller expects that the whole mountain infrastructure will be taken back. Ralf Dujmovits, so far the only German mountaineer who climbed all 14 eight-thousanders, is staying at the 6,200-meter-high ABC. Ralf had reached the camp before the Chinese authorities ordered most of the climbers to return.

Way back to Nepal cut off

Mueller’s clients will travel back to Germany via Lhasa and Beijing at the beginning of May. Dominik himself want to stay with the Sherpas of his team at Base Camp. “It’s about the Sherpas and their families,” says Dominik. “They have supported us so often. Therefore it is for me a matter of course to stay with them in this difficult situation and to ensure that they come home.” According to his information, the way from Tibet to Kathmandu is still cut off.

Rescue in Everest Base Camp

My heart is heavy. My thoughts are with the people in Nepal – and also with the climbers on Mount Everest. After the devastating earthquake on Saturday, the death toll is rising continuously. Meanwhile, it’s more than 2,000 across the country. And also from the base camp on the Nepalese side of Everest more and more victims are reported. As reported before, yesterday’s earthquake had triggered a huge avalanche from the seven-thousander Pumori vis-a-vis Everest that had hit the Base Camp at 5,300 meters. Today, the area was shaken by ​​strong aftershocks of magnitude 6.7 on the Richter scale. “Another three small avalanches. All good. Pfiu!!!” Romanian climber Alex Gavan tweeted. German mountaineer Ralf Dujmovits told me via satellite telephone that a very strong aftershock was also felt on the Tibetan north side: “But everything’s okay. The Sherpas told me that yesterday’s earthquake triggered an avalanche at the North Col. However, no one was hurt.”

At least 17 dead recovered

Trail of devastation

Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association NMA told Reuters that at least 17 bodies were recovered and more than 60 injured climbers were rescued on the Nepalese south side of Everest. More than 20 injured were flown by helicopter to Pheriche, a small village at 4,371 meters where the Himalayan Rescue Association has been running a small clinic for many years. The doctors in Pheriche are unlikely prepared for such a large number of injured climbers. But a further transport to the capital Kathmandu currently makes little sense because the hospitals there are overcrowded.

Icefall route “relatively intact”

The route through the Khumbu Icefall which is secured with aluminum ladders and fixed ropes had been destroyed in parts by the quake. Therefore more than 100 climbers had to stay overnight in Camp 1 and 2 above 6000 meters. Some of them were flown down by helicopter.  Meanwhile, other climbers were able to descend through the icefall. A member of the US expedition organizer Mountain Trip reported that the route was “relatively intact”. He said, that also in the high camps were a few injured climbers, which would now be brought down. Others suffered from altitude sickness. Mountaineers in Base Camp spoke of at least 20 dead, many climbers were still missing. Three victims from the USA have been named: an expedition doctor, a cameraman and a mountaineer, who was a Google executive.

One tragedy among very many

Kathmandu, the day after

Even with the now recovered 17 dead, yesterday’s avalanche is the worst disaster in the history of Everest climbing. Last year, 16 Nepalese climbers were killed in an avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall. In respect of more than 2,000 earthquake victims throughout Nepal yesterday’s avalanche on Everest is one tragedy among very, very many.

Update 13.15: An official of the Nepalese Tourism Ministry said that at least 22 bodies have been recovered in the Everest region, 17 in Base camp, five below. More than 200 people were missing in the region.

Hard life in the mountains

This year’s IMD is focusing on mountain family farmers. Most of them live a hard life in the mountains all over the world. According to the FAO, about 300 million people who live in the mountains of developing and transition countries are food insecure, with half of them suffering from chronic hunger. And climate change is exacerbating their situation. Most of the mountain farmers worldwide don’t have any strong lobby – except for the European Alps: In Austria, a “Federal Institute for the Issues of Mountain Farmers” already exists for more than 30 years. It supplies politicians responsible for agriculture with scientific studies.

Don’t forget the hashtag!

I tweeted this image of Manaslu

Actually, we can come to the aid of the “International Mountain Day” by delivering some digital stuff. After all, any mountain lover should like the IMD hashtag: #welovemountains. So I want to encourage you to tweet mountain images using this hashtag or to spread it via other social networks.

P.S.: To anyone who only wants to take part if there is something to be won: The FAO has launched a photo contest. It will run until 15 December. But in that case you have to take pictures that show a mountain summit or landscape and at least one person holding an IMD flag.

Not a no man’s land

It is the second time within 15 months that a terror attack against climbers made headlines worldwide. In June 2013, radical Islamists killed eleven climbers at the base camp on the Diamir Side of Nanga Parbat in northern Pakistan Islamists. Like Hervé, they died because they were in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Meanwhile some climbers avoid to travel to areas of conflict. Thus, the Huber brothers cancelled their Karakorum expedition scheduled for last summer, because “the risk was no more calculable”, as Alexander said.  A month ago, the German Foreign Office warned not to travel to remote areas in  North Africa saying that there was a danger of hostage- taking. Algeria was explicitly mentioned. Mountains are just not an always peaceful no man’s land.

My thoughts are with Gourdel’s wife and thier two children. Hervé, R.I.P.!

North side of Mount Everest

Ralf Dujmovits is annoyed. More about himself than about the fact that his dream to climb Mount Everest without bottled oxygen has disappeared. At 8300 meters, Germany’s most successful high-altitude climber decided not to start to the 8850-meter-high summit but to turn around. “I have performed badly”, says Ralf when he calls me by satellite phone from Camp 2 at 7700 meters. “I made a double fault.”

Too little flat surface

The first mistake was to send away the Sherpas of the team of the Swiss Kari Kobler, who had helped him before to prepare the platform for his tent. “I did not want to cause them any trouble and finished the work by myself”, says the 52-year-old. “After that I was really tired and thought: That must be enough! In my tent I had too little flat surface to place my stove.”

All wet

Ralf Dujmovits at Camp 2

Mistake number two: Ralf was not able to melt enough snow. “I just got half a litre of water.” Because the wind was blowing with 50 kilometers per hour, a lot of white frost occurred on the inner side of his little, one-wall tent. The white frost melted and dripped. “It troubled me very much. Everywhere it dripped. My down jacket, my sleeping bag, my inner shoes, the lighter, everything was wet. I was no more able to light my stove.” Already on Saturday evening he decided to descend because it was impossible for him to recover sufficiently.

Wrong tent

It would have been better to take the larger tent from Camp 2, Ralf admits. “But it’s easy to be wise after the event. Actually, the small, lightweight, one-wall tent had proven its worth on Mount McKinley and Aconcagua. I did not think that so much white frost would occur inside.“ Today Ralf wants to descend to Advanced Base Camp at 6400 meters.

Health is the main thing

On the way down from the North Col

Between 1990 and 2009 Dujmovits had scaled all 14 eight-thousanders, as first and so far only German climber. Only in 1992 on Mount Everest, he had used bottled oxygen on the summit day. Ralf wanted to wipe out what he thought was a mistake. But now, after his fifth attempt that failed, he is fed up with it. “The subject Everest is finished for me”, says Ralf. “”It would have been great to be successful. But it was not to be. The main thing is that in all these years I have always returned healthy.” He is right.

P. S. On today’s Sunday some more climbers have reached the summit of Mount Everest, including the 72-year-old American Bill Burke and the only 13 years and eleven months old Indian girl Poorna Malavath, both with bottled oxygen. Malavath is the youngest girl that ever stood on the highest mountain in the world. The record as youngest climber is still held by the American Jordan Romero, who scaled Everest at the age of 13 years and ten months in 2010.