Ralf Dujmovits

What a pity! Ralf Dujmovits has not been able to fulfill his dream of reaching the summit of Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. The 55-year-old turned back at an altitude of 8,500 meters. From Camp 3 at 8,300 meters, he telephoned his life partner, the Canadian climber Nancy Hansen. “He had to turn back at 8,500 m because a storm blew in: 40 kph winds with snow. He was losing feeling in his hands and feet,” Nancy wrote on Facebook. “As you can imagine, he is extremely disappointed. The weather just didn’t allow for a summit.” Ralf’s wise decision demands respect and shows that he was still in control of himself.

Still all the fingers and toes

Top of Everest (from the Northeast Ridge)

Dujmovits is the only German so far, who has summited all 14 eight-thousanders. Only on Everest in fall 1992, he had used a breathing mask above the South Col due to bad weather. Ralf has always felt this was a flaw in his climbing career which he was so keen to eliminate. But this eighth attempt should be his “definitively last one”, he said. Today he slightly missed his sporting goal, but he has remained true to his principle: It is more important to come down healthy again. With a certain amount of pride, Ralf points out that he still has all his fingers and toes after more than three decades of expeditions to the eight-thousanders – not to mention the fact that he has survived all his adventures, in contrast to some of his companions.

Richards used bottled oxygen

The Americans Adrian Ballinger and Cory Richards today reached the 8,850- meter-high summit, also climbing via the northern route. Cory used bottled oxygen, because he did not feel well, but wanted to continue to support his friend Adrian. Richards had reached the summit without breathing mask in 2016, Ballinger had to turn around at that time.

Latorre completes his fourteen 8000ers

South side of Mount Everest

From the south side, the Spaniard Ferran Latorre and the Austrian Hans Wenzl reached the summit, according to Spanish media reports. Latorre said after his return to the South Col, he finally had used bottled oxygen: “It was too hard.” It is not yet known if Wenzl was also using a breathing mask. With his success on Everest, Latorre has completed his eight-thousander collection. The other 13 peaks he had reached without supplemental oxygen.

Graziani and Sangay turned around

The Frenchman Yannick Graziani and the Sherpa Dawa Sangay turned back on 8,500 meters. “Too much snow, too much wind, you freeze on the spot. Too risky without oxygen,” Yannick said. Still, there is no information as to whether the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol has reached the summit. She also wanted to climb to the top of the highest mountain on earth without breathing mask today. This spring Elisabeth had already reached the fore-summit of the eight-thousander Makalu, and afterwards had summited Lhotse.

P.S.: I will be offline for the rest of Saturday and can’t deliver further updates. (3 pm CEST)

Update 28 May: Yesterday the Austrian Hans Wenzl was the only climber on the south side who reached the summit without bottled oxygen. Ferran Latorre had used a breathing mask far up. They both spent the night on the South Col and descended today. Elisabeth Revol turned back yesterday because of the adverse weather conditions “not far from the summit”, as she writes. On the north side, Kilian Jornet reached the summit without supplemental O2 for the second time within a week. Ralf Dujmovits yesterday descended all the way down from his turning point at 8,500 m to the Advanced Base Camp, today he went down to the Chinese Base Camp. Yesterday also Adrian Ballinger and Cory Richards reached the ABC after their summit success.

Summit of Everest seen from the north side

Ralf Dujmovits is close to his big goal. In his eighth attempt, the 55-year-old finally wants to scale Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. Ralf is only about eight hours of ascent away from the highest point on earth at 8,850 meters – if everything goes well. Today Dujmovits, according to his life partner Nancy Hansen, reached Camp 3 on the Tibetan normal route at 8,300 meters, from where he called her by satellite phone. There had been a thunderstorm for the last hour, Ralf told the Canadian. It had taken him five hours to climb the 600 vertical meters from Camp 2. “He feels a little tired, but he sounds very alert and normal,” Nancy wrote on Facebook. “He will drink a lot now, rest a few hours, and leave for the summit at 1am Nepali time (1.15 pm Friday in Canada, 9.15 pm Friday in Germany).”

Little wind expected on the summit day

The weather forecast predicts for Saturday morning little wind and light snowfall, at temperatures around minus 25 degrees Celsius. In the afternoon heavier snowfall is expected. Dujmovits is the so far only German who has summited all 14 eight-thousanders. Only on Everest in fall 1992, he had used a breathing mask above the South Col due to bad weather – a fact he is still regretting. The current Everest attempt without bottled oxygen will be, as Ralf told me before the departure, his “definitely last”. I keep my fingers crossed.

Mask to moisturize the air

Special mask

The Americans Adrian Ballinger and Cory Richards also reached Camp 3 on the north side without supplemental oxygen. “It was hard getting here. I’m scared now,” Adrian wrote on Instagram. In the picture he attached, Ballinger is wearing a mask which, in his own words, “warms and moisturizes the air we breathe up here”.

Latorre and Co. on the South Col

Sangay, Wenzl, Latorre, Graziani (from l. to r.)

On the south side of Everest too, the summit attempts of climbers, who are not using bottled oxygen, are right on schedule. The Spaniard Ferran Latorre, the Frenchman Yannick Graziani and the Austrian Hans Wenzl reached the South Col at 7,950 meters. They are accompanied by Sherpa Dawa Sangay. A short video, which Ferran posted on Twitter, shows strong gusts and snowfall. This was also reported by the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol, who climbed today from Camp 2 at 6,400 meters up to the South Col.

Klein turned around

The today still adverse weather conditions stopped the summit attempt of the Hungarian David Klein, who had climbed up – as I was informed only yesterday – from the south side without breathing mask. At about 8,100 meters, David and two Sherpas, who should film him, turned around because the wind was too strong. It was David’s ninth Everest attempt without supplemental oxygen. In his most successful one in 2014, the Hungarian had reached an altitude of 8,650 meters on the north side.

First balance

Even though a few commercial teams are still on the mountain, the Nepalese authorities have already drawn a first balance of the spring season on Everest. According to the Ministry of Tourism in Kathmandu, more than 450 people, ascending from the south, have so far reached the summit, including about 200 foreign climbers from 29 countries.

Summit of Nanga Parbat

She arrived like out of nowhere. Suddenly these days, Cleonice Pacheco, called “Cleo” Weidlich was standing with her Sherpa team at Base Camp on the Rupal side – to the surprise of most observers. The Brazilian-born US citizen had even made no secret of the fact that she also wanted to try this year to scale Nanga Parbat for the first in winter. But hardly anyone, including myself, had taken notice. And the few who had noticed it might have thought that the 52-year-old had given up her plan. Finally, she appeared in Base Camp only at a relatively late stage, when the Polish “Nanga Dream” team was already preparing to leave after their failed attempt.

Three Sherpas to break the trail

Obviously Cleo Weidlich had made a pre-acclimatization in Nepal. She is accompanied by three Sherpas. At my request, the expedition organizer Adventure Tours Pakistan told me the names of the other team members. The 45-year-old Pema Tshiring Sherpa, the 33-year-old Temba Bhote and the 30 year old Dawa Sherpa Sangay, all from Sankhuwasaba District in eastern Nepal, will support Weidlich. On the one hand, they may benefit from the work of the “Nanga Dream” climbers, who had already prepared the Schell route up to an altitude of about 7,300 meters (expedition leader Marek Klonowski contradicted reports that Pavel Dunaj and he had reached a height of 7,500 meters). On the other hand the Sherpas may have to start from scratch doing the trail-breaking due to continuing snowfall during this week.

Partially disputed

Cleo on top of Kangchenjunga in 2011

Cleo Weidlich’s reputation in the climbing scene is not exactly the best. In the past, the 52-year-old sometimes took liberties with truth. At times, Cleo claimed to have scaled ten of the 14 eight-thousanders, later she backpedaled to eight. But only six of her summit successes are confirmed: Cho Oyu (in 2009), Gasherbrum I (2010), Mount Everest (2010), Manaslu (2010), Kangchenjunga (2011) and Dhaulagiri (2012). Her claimed ascent of Annapurna in spring 2012 is still listed as “disputed” in the “Himalayan Database” of Elizabeth Hawley, the legendary chronicler of high altitude mountaineering in Nepal. In autumn 2012, Weidlich also claimed to have climbed Makalu. In this case too, she missed to prove the summit success. Her statements to Miss Hawley were so contradictory that Cleo’s alleged ascent was not even listed in the category “disputed”.

By helicopter to high camp

In spring 2014, Cleo made worldwide headlines, when she was flown – as well as the Chinese Wang Jing – by helicopter from Everest Base Camp to Camp 2 at 6,400 meters from where she wanted to climb the 8516-meter-high Lhotse. At this time, almost all commercial expeditions had left Everest prematurely. This was due to the avalanche in Khumbu Icefall which had killed 16 Nepali climbers on 18 April 2014. It had led to fierce debate on the safety of local high altitude porters. After the departure of almost all teams, the government had granted an exemption to fly to high camp in order to bring down expedition equipment. Normally, helicopter flights on Everest are only permitted for rescue.
After having been flown to Camp 2, Wang Jing and her Sherpa team reached the summit of Mount Everest on 23 May. Cleo Weidlich later said that she had not even seriously tried to climb Lhotse.