Manaslu

The “Mountain of the Spirit” is close to my heart. It is simply because I spent more than a month at the foot of Manaslu ten years ago. Since then, I have had a personal relationship with this impressive eight-thousander in Nepal. In spring 2007, I reported from the base camp at 4,850 meters about a commercial expedition. Once I myself climbed up to Camp 1 at 5,700 meters. At that time we – expedition leader Ralf Dujmovits and eleven clients as well as a team of two from Austria – were the only people on the mountain. We could not imagine (and would not have liked) then that Manaslu would mutate into the “Mount Everest of fall season”.  In the current season about 500 climbers populated Manaslu Base Camp. Nearly 200 summit successes have been reported so far – being noticed that this time mostly pictures were published that had been taken on the highest point and not, as in previous years, on a spot below. Among those who reached the 8,163-meter-high summit there were two climbers with whom I had been en route on other mountains.

Eight-thousander no. 7 for Stitzinger and von Melle

Alix von Melle (r.) and Luis Stitzinger (l.)

Luis Stitzinger, my expedition leader during the first ascent of Kokodak Dome in western China in summer 2014, led a team of the German operator Amical alpin to the summit of Manaslu last Saturday. According to Luis, all eight members of the group were climbing without bottled oxygen. For the 48-year-old, it was the seventh eight-thousander, all scaled without breathing mask. His wife, Alix von Melle, now has the same record. No other woman from Germany has stood on more eight-thousanders  than the 46-year-old. Alix and Luis have summited six of their seven eight-thousanders together.

Breathing mask partly already above Camp 2

Sergio Zigliotto on top of Manaslu

Climbing Manaslu without using supplemental oxygen has become the exception rather than the rule, confirmed another of my former companions.  “90 percent are using O2 above Camp 3 (at 6,800 m),” Sergio Zigliotto wrote to me. “I saw Chinese climbers using O2 already above Camp 2 (6,400 m).”  With the 51-year-old Italian, I had shared the tent at the seven-thousander  Putha Hiunchuli in western Nepal in fall 2011. At that time Sergio had reached the summit while I had had to turn about hundred meters below the summit. Last Wednesday, Zigliotto stood on top of Manaslu. Sergio had wanted to ascend without bottled oxygen, but used it on the last 200 meters  below the summit due to health problems.

On the short rope

Queue on Manaslu

“It was very hard, but wonderful. On 27 September at 10 a.m. , I was standing on the highest point of Manaslu at 8,163 meters,” Sergio wrote. “I found the perfect day for the summit. It was a clear and sunny day. There were just me and other 4 people, hence no problems of traffic due to excess of people.” On that day a total of about 50 people had reached the summit, he said: “I saw many Chinese going on the short rope up and down. It was really sad to see.”  Everest conditions on Manaslu. That is why the “Mountain of the Spirit” is not only close to my heart, but also weighs on  my mind.

North side of Everest

Rapid is not enough, it should be as fast as a flash. This could describe the concept of the Austrian expedition operator Lukas Furtenbach: for eight-thousander aspirants with a big pile of money, but little time budget. After the US operator Alpenglow had halved the duration of an Everest expedition with their “Rapid Ascent Expedition” from about 70 days to 34 days, the 39-year-old Tyrolean wants to go one step further next year. In spring 2018, the “Everest Flash Expedition” of Furtenbach Adventures on the Tibetan north side of the mountain is to last a maximum of four weeks.

Up to 16 bottles per person

Lukas Furtenbach

This is Furtenbach’s plan: The pre-acclimatization of the clients takes place at home for six to eight weeks with a special training plan and a newly developed hypoxic tent system, which is capable of simulating high camp nights up to an altitude of 7,300 meters. On the spot, there will be no more acclimatization climbs, but – of course, depending on the weather – a summit attempt. Furtenbach guarantees unlimited oxygen for each member. The plan is to use a special regulator “designed for us by Summit Oxygen, with a possible flow rate of up to eight liters per minute” (a flow rate of four liters per minute is currently common on Everest) and a total of up to 16 (!) oxygen bottles per client on the mountain.

Battle of material

“Alpine moral – if you want to use this terrible term – makes no difference whether half a bottle or 16 were used,” Lukas writes to me from Kathmandu. “It remains a climb with supplemental oxygen. But more oxygen makes the climb definitely safer. That’s a fact.” Material and staff should be “100 percent redundant”, says Furtenbach: “Bottles, masks, regulators and even Sherpas on the bench.” The whole thing has its price, which is on the upper end: US $ 95,000. Nevertheless, the expedition operator from Austria is convinced that his tactics “will develop into a new industrial standard within just a few years”. In his opinion, commercial climbing on the eight-thousanders has remained “on the level of the early 1990s”.

“Great room for experience”

Camp 1 on Everest North Col

This spring, Furtenbach will be with a team on the north side of Everest. Once again he wants to test the newly designed regulator during the expedition. It is clear to Lukas that he will trigger off a discussion with his radical concept. Here are his answers to three other questions I asked him:

Shorter expedition time also means less time for the Nepali or Tibetan staff. Will less money remain in the respective countries?

We need more Sherpas for the “Flash Expedition”, and they will be hired for at least the same time as on conventional expeditions because they prepare the route. Significantly more money will remain in the respective countries, definitely. We pay our Sherpas significantly better than other Western operators usually do.

Does the new concept lead to even more summit aspirants on the eight-thousanders, who actually do not have the necessary skills – because they say: Cool, that suits me, under these circumstances even I can do it?

Furtenbach on the summit of Everest (in 2016)

We look very carefully at each aspirant – no matter whether on a Flash or a normal expedition. If someone seems to us inexperienced or unsuitable, we offer him a special program to develop his skills, which may take a longer period, or we reject him in principle. The real problem on Everest is currently the uncontrolled hordes of mostly completely inexperienced Chinese and Indian clients of essentially two Nepali low-cost operators, who have been responsible for most of the deaths (clients and Sherpas) of the past years.

Flash Expeditions are certainly more attractive for the clients because they are not missing work for such a long time. However, doesn’t the special expedition experience fall by the wayside due to the short duration?

Four weeks are still a long time with plenty of space for adventure. For most people, even a four-week holiday is a far-away dream. Nevertheless, we continue to offer a classic expedition on Everest, in which the members can approach the mountain in the way climbers have been doing for almost 50 years.

Andy Holzer on the Rongbuk Glacier near Everest (in 2015)

Andy Holzer has climbed already six of the “Seven Summits”, the highest mountains of all continents. Only the very highest is still missing in the collection of the blind mountaineer from Austria. This spring, the 50-year-old from the town of Lienz in East Tyrol wants to tackle Mount Everest for the third time. During his first go in 2014, the season had been finished prematurely after an avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall had killed 16 Nepalese climbers. In spring 2015, the devastating earthquake in Nepal, with nearly 9,000 deaths, had resulted in no Everest ascents from the south and the north. Like two years ago, Holzer plans to climb Everest via the Tibetan north side. He will be accompanied by his (seeing) East Tyrolean friends Wolfgang Klocker and Klemens Bichler.

Andy, again you are going to Mount Everest – after two attempts in 2014 and 2015, when, for different reasons, you actually were not been given the opportunity to tackle the highest of all mountains. Third time is a charm?

Andy Holzer

Once, twice, three times, four times, people have invented this. I go back again, because I think I know: If everything fits, my physical condition that day, the condition of my friends there, the weather, the conditions on the mountain … then it could work for us.

Like in 2015, you want to climb Everest from the Tibetan north. Why did you choose this side?

Because my small experience, which I could make in my previous attempts on Everest, has clearly shown to me that the Khumbu Icefall is like Russian roulette. The steeper rocks and the route on the north side are, apart from an earthquake, relatively static. I prefer it to be a bit more rejecting, somewhat “unfriendly”, but more reliable than to take the route on the Nepali side which is – besides the objective risks that I described – easier to climb.

How did you prepare for the expedition?

I get the feeling that my whole life is a preparation for so many challenges. I was able to complete a lot of them successfully, others not. The older I get, the more I realize that the number of passed tests doesn’t matter. For me it’s more and more about this free spirit which today almost only children have: simply set off, without guarantee of success guarantee in your pocket! In addition a bit of life experience as well as rational thinking, given to me now at fifty years of age, and then I feel prepared.

Blind climber Andy Holzer on Carstencz Pyramid (© Andreas Unterkreuter)

Quite pragmatically, the technical answer to your question: My nature, my team, my friends are my basis. We are a well-coordinated team, as only a few can have – partly from the same village.
Like for 30 years, I have been spending about 200 days a year in the mountains. Especially now in winter we have done a lot of extensive ski tours, in blocks without rest days. We are also completing a hypoxic training program. All of us have been sleeping in altitude tents in our bedrooms for week before our departure. We can simulate high altitude by oxygen deprivation at night and stimulate the body to produce more red blood cells.

So far, only the American Erik Weihenmayer has scaled Everest as a blind climber – via the south side of the mountain in 2001. How high do you estimate your chance to reach the 8850-meter-high summit?

I have known Erik for years, and we have become friends long ago. Of course, I pumped him for information on Everest. But I won’t and can’t tackle Everest in the way Erik did on 25 May 2001 along with his team. At that time a whole country stood behind the first attempt of a blind man on Everest. Erik had a large number of partners, friends and team members at his side, who could support him by turns. In our case, only Wolfi and Klemens can alternate from time to time to tell me the difficulties of ascent and descent. We three will climp up to the highest point of Mount Everest, only accompanied by our Sherpas. But that does not mean that we have lower chances. We are a compact team, flexible and fast in decision making. So I think and hope: Our chance is strongly alive.

You’ll climb with companions, with bottled oxygen. Experts are predicting a record number of Everest aspirants this year, so it could become crowded on the normal routes. What tactics have you considered?

This was a smaller reason to choose the Everest north side. Compared with the south side, only one-third permits are issued there. But honestly, if I go to Everest and then complain about too many other climbers on the mountain, I should go home right away. Then there would be one climber less on Everest.

Andy on Shishapangma (in 2011)

Indeed, we will use bottled oxygen during our summit push. I would like to experience the mountain of the mountains so that I am able to notice something up there consciously and maybe enjoy it and be really happy about it. In addition, supplemental oxygen gives us the opportunity to climb in exactly the same rhythm. Perhaps too few people know this: When Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler were the first to climb Everest without bottled oxygen in 1978 and then descended separately, this had nothing to do with egoism, but with the fact that the extreme lack of oxygen at high altitude forces every climber to use his own rhythm of walking and performance. If you go one step too fast, you are in danger of dying from oxygen deficit. If you go a step too slowly, perhaps out of consideration for your partner, you freeze to death.

Oxygen deficiency does not mean in the first place the risk of choking, but rather the extremely increased danger of frostbite, because the body has less oxygen available for the “own heating” or metabolism.

North side of Everest in the last daylight

If Wolfgang (or Klemens) always has to go a bit slower in front of me, because I have to correct many missteps and therefore walk slower, he’s getting too cold and I am getting too hot. And if my partner is walking at his own pace, the distance between us will increase. With more than about five meters distance, I can not hear his crampons any more exactly and therefore have to slow down even more because I myself have to search for the steps.

But this has been clear to me and my guys already for a long time. We expect an adventure which is not easier than climbing the mountain without supplemental oxygen. We try to climb this great mountain with a “person without light”. And that requires from my point of “view” enormous cohesion and feeling for the other.

Why, at all, has it to be Mount Everest? What does attract you to go there?

If you have planned, financed and tackled a project several times, you get a great relationship to this project. That’s the way, Wolfi, Klemens and I feel about it. We know, of course, that there are so many other beautiful mountains, and, and, and … But climbing Everest does not mean that we can not tackle the countless other beautiful mountains as well.

Krzysztof Wielicki

Krzysztof Wielicki is skeptical. “I think they can have a problem because they only slept in Camp 3 and not at 8,000 meters,” answers the Pole when I meet him at the trade fair ISPO in Munich and enquire him about the chances of the Basque climber Alex Txikon on Mount Everest. Txikon, who wants to scale the highest mountain of the world this winter without bottled oxygen, is currently waiting in Everest Base Camp to set off for his first summit attempt. “In my opinion, you should have slept at the South Col, if you want to push to the summit,” says Wielicki. “I wish him good luck, I hope that nothing happens. It’s most important that they’ll come back safely. It doesn’t matter if they climb to the summit or not.”

Wielicki about Txikon: They can have a problem

Empty bottle at the summit

Wielicki (l.) and Cichy after their successful climb

The now 67-year-old knows what he is talking about. On 17 February 1980, Wielicki and his countryman Leszek Cichy had succeeded on Everest the first ever winter ascent of an eight-thousander. Above the South Col, they had used bottled oxygen “We didn`t know that it was possible to climb without,” says Krzysztof. “Our leader [Andrzej Zawada] said, here is the bottle. You have to carry it. One bottle, nine kilos. When we climbed to the summit, we realized, that the bottle was empty.”

Never again with breathing mask

Despite a flow rate of only two liters per minute, the bottled oxygen lasted only for three or four hours. “The mask was frozen. I even didn’t feel that I was using oxygen,” says Wielicki. “It was horrible. I never again used oxygen afterwards.” Even without breathing mask, the Polish climber remained a pioneer. In 1986, he and his compatriot Jerzy Kukuczka managed the first winter ascent of Kangchenjunga (8,586 meters). In 1988, Krzysztof scaled Lhotse (8,516 meters) not only for the first time in winter, but also succeeded the first solo climb of the mountain. In 1996, Wielicki became the fifth person who had stood on all 14 eight-thousanders. Bottled oxygen “is not necessary, if you are well acclimatized,” says the Pole. “That’s the key.”

Wielicki: It was horrible

Still financing problems

K 2

In winter 2017/2018, Krzysztof Wielicki wants to lead a Polish winter expedition to K2, the only eight-thousander that has not yet been successfully climbed in the cold season. The planned financing by Polish government companies has not yet been finalized. “We are a little disappointed with the government”, says Wielicki. “But we fight and I hope that we can overcome the problem.” According to Krzysztof, at the moment 14 climbers are still on his list of candidates, in the end he wants to assemble a team of eight.

Wielicki: I hope we can overcome the problem

“The most difficult challenge”

Denis Urubko

Adam Bielecki, who succeeded the first winter ascent of Gasherbrum I (8,080 meters) in 2012 and of Broad Peak (8,051 meters) in 2013, will surely belong to the team, says Wielicki. And also Denis Urubko, first winter ascender of Makalu (8,485 meters) and Gasherbrum II (8,034 meters): “He wants to go and we want him to join us. I think he will go with us.” Urubko was born in Kazakhstan, but now he has a Russian and a Polish passport. Already in winter 2002/2003, Wielicki and Urubko had been together on K 2, with an height of 8,611 meters the second highest mountain on earth. Wielicki had then also led the expedition on the Chinese north side of the mountain. Urubko had reached an altitude of 7,650 meters before he and his rope partner had been stopped by bad weather and the expedition had been canceled. This time, the attempt is to be made on the Pakistani side of K2. “Either via the Abruzzi Ridge or the Cesen/Basque route, depending on the conditions in the wall,” says Krzysztof Wielicki. “I think, if we talk about winter expeditions on 8000 meter peaks, it is the last and most difficult challenge.”

Wielicki: K 2 the last and most difficult challenge

Thomas Laemmle on top of Mount Everest

He has a written proof. The China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) certificated that Thomas Laemmle reached the summit of Mount Everest without bottled oxygen on 23 May. As reported before, the German was among a handful of climbers who made it to the highest point at 8,850 meters without breathing mask this spring. “Finally, I took four breaths per step,” Thomas writes to me from Kathmandu, where he is waiting for the flight home. “But I was not at my limit. I was able to enjoy the climb, because it was almost windless and relatively warm. Unfortunately, the summit was wrapped in a cloud.”

Planned proposal

Per SMS and picture

On the top of Everest, he was even able to take off his gloves and write two SMS, says the 50-year-old. In one of them he asked his girlfriend Heike for her hand. The marriage proposal was not spontaneous but planned for a long time: “Otherwise I would not have had the sign with me.” Later Thomas took a picture of it on the highest point on earth. Actually, Laemmle had already planned to climb Cho Oyu and Everest without oxygen in 2015. “After four weeks the earthquake in Nepal put a spoke in my wheel,” writes Thomas.

Two summit attempts on Cho Oyu

Training on Kilimanjaro

This year again the sports scientist, who is living in the German town of Waldburg in Baden-Wuerttemberg, first went to Cho Oyu for acclimatization. Previously he had already breathed thin air on 5895-meter-high Kilimanjaro in March. He had reached the summit of the highest mountain in Africa three times within a week. On Cho Oyu, he made two summit attempts along with a friend, Laemmle reports. The first one on 7 May ended at 7,500 meters, the second one on 13 May in difficult conditions at 7,850 meters. “My friend was aware that we had only the first half of May for climbing Cho Oyu. I did the guiding for free.”

Terribly cold

Thomas, in the background Cho Oyu

Well-acclimatized, Thomas reached Everest Base Camp on 16 May. His plan: regeneration below 5,700 meters regenerate and then directly the summit attempt. To avoid being stuck in traffic jams on the Northeast Ridge – “About 100 climbers were waiting in the wings.” – Laemmle, in consultation with the Austrian meteorologist Charly Gabl, decided to make his final summit push on 23 May – two days after the date that most of the other mountaineers on the north side of Everest had chosen. But there were also some traffic jams on 23 May, says Thomas: “Until sunrise on the ridge at 5.30 a.m., I was terribly cold due to lack of oxygen. My boot heater was running on full blast. Then I finally found a sunlit rock on which I could wait until the jam at Second Step had dissolved.” There were two more short jams behind this key point. Finally, he reached the summit at 2 p.m. – as last climber from the north side. An hour later, Thomas started his descent.

Concern for fingers and toes

Certificate of the Tibetan Mountaineering Association

In the evening, in Camp 3 at 8,300 meters, it began to snow, and snow penetrated into the tent. “Shortly thereafter, the stove was not working any more,” says Laemmle. “I had no chance to do something against dehydration. In order to prevent a pulmonary edema, I spent the night sitting in the tent and awake.” When it got warm again the next morning, he managed to light the stove and melt snow for half a liter of water. However, because strong wind was predicted, he finally breathed bottled oxygen. “I thought the risk of frostbite due to dehydration and strong wind was too great,” writes Thomas. “I decided to use the emergency oxygen to save fingers and toes from frostbite during the descent.” At an altitude of 7,400 meters, the bottle was empty. From there, he continued to descend without supplementary oxygen again.

Not on the list

Lammle’s success will hardly be listed in Everest statistics as an ascent without bottled oxygen because he used a breathing mask on his descent. It doesn’t make any difference to Thomas. He will return home physically unharmed. And after all, he has a certificate that he made it to the summit of Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen.

UIAA avoided the term “doping”

The drug Diamox contains an active ingredient which is able to reduce the intracranial pressure. Many trekkers and climbers take the pills prophylactically against acute mountain sickness. Actually, Dexamethasone is an emergency medication for high altitude cerebral edema, but is also often used preventively. Are the climbers and their doctors just dewy-eyed or do they act negligently? “At least, they break the rules of fair sport,” Kuepper answers. “Since it is strictly doping, even if the UIAA – despite my intensive efforts – was not willing to call a spade a spade.” Above all, the trekking and expedition operators are acting incredible negligently, by urging their clients to take drugs “without any individual benefit-risk analysis”, says Kuepper. “During Everest treks you can regularly hear: Okay, we have some five minutes left, time enough for another coffee and our Diamox pills.”

“Pockets full of drugs”

Everest ER

US doctor Luanne Freer is quoted in the UIAA report. In 2003, she founded the “Everest ER”, the highest infirmary in the world, located in Everest base camp. “We estimate that during our informal survey on Everest spring 2012, at least two thirds of climbers we contacted were prescribed several performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and had intent to use them not for rescue, but to increase their chances of summit success“, said the 56-year-old physician. One day a commercial guide had asked the ER team to counsel his clients on use of PEDs for summit day. “We were alarmed to find a tent full of anxious climbers with pockets full of prescription drugs (prescribed by their personal physicians and filled at home pharmacies) and with no understanding or instructions on when and how to use them”, said Luanne.

Bottled oxygen on the list

Prof. Thomas Kuepper

The UIAA Medical Commission has listed drugs that are used by mountaineers and climbers. Among others the list includes oxygen. That caused more debates within the members of the commission than any other section, says the report. That was due to the fact that bottled oxygen is established in high altitude mountaineering and is not regarded as a drug in many countries, explains Professor Kuepper. In addition, there are data showing that the death rates of mountains above 8500 meters were significantly lower for climbers who use supplemental oxygen. “My opinion is: Those who need it, do not belong up there”, says Kuepper. “By definition ‘method that artificially enhances the performance’, it’s doping, because it changes an 8000er to a high 6000er.”

New category?

The UIAA wants to sensitize mountaineers and climbers to the problem of drug misuse. Dangerous interactions that might occur are listed for each active ingredient. However, the report is also an appeal for fair sport, says Thomas Kuepper: “The UIAA is no drug squad. Who really wants to use it, can do it. But then he must also be fair enough to point out after a successful ascent that he has used drugs. There would not only be the difference with/without supplemental oxygen, but as another category with/without drugs.”