Bene Boehm has started his second summit bid

The second summit bid of the German ski mountaineers Benedikt Boehm and Sebastian Haag has begun on the eight-thousander Shishapangma in Tibet – under slightly different conditions. The Swiss top climber Ueli Steck is accompanying the team. Today Ueli and Bene started towards the summit. Basti, who is suffering from a cough caused by high altitude, will join them at Camp 1, the Italian Andrea Zambaldi at Camp 2. Norbu Sherpa is not part of the second bid. The conditions on the mountain have hardly changed during the past days since the first attempt, which ended at about 7,600 meters. It is still windy, and there is a high danger of avalanches due to the deep snow on the slopes. The climbers want to reach the 8,027-meter-high summit on Wednesday morning. The weather forecast for the scheduled summit day is favourable: moderate wind and temperatures between -10 and -20 degrees. The chance of success was 50 percent, Benedict said before leaving the Advanced Base Camp.  

No third attempt

If Boehm and Haag fail again, there will be no third attempt. In this case, the two Germans want to leave Shishapangma on Thursday and cycle with their  mountain bikes to Cho Oyu. The original “Double8” project would be buried. The two German ski mountaineer want to climb and ski down Shishapangma and Cho Oyu and in between cycle from one to the other eight-thousander – all within seven days.

Ueli Steck is an expert for speed climbing on 8000ers. In 2011, the Swiss climbed solo via the 2,000 meter high Shishapangma South Face in only ten and a half hours. In 2013, Ueli mastered the Annapurna South Face in 28 hours – for solo ascent and descent. The 37-year-old is actually on Shishapagma to climb this eight-thousander together with his wife Nicole.