Ralf Dujmovits

Two weeks have passed since Ralf Dujmovits has decided to abandon his winter expedition on Nanga Parbat due to the strong risk of icefall. Two weeks to reflect on his experiences in Pakistan and also to look ahead. I call the 52-year-old German climber at home, in the town of Buehl at the foot of the Black Forest.

Ralf, what does German winter feel like, compared with winter in Pakistan, in particular on Nanga Parbat?

I stood at Frankfurt airport and then at the stations in Mannheim and Karlsruhe wearing a short-sleeved shirt, all around me people wrapped up in winter clothes. I had to get used again to the warm temperatures. We have a very warm winter in Germany, a real contrast to what we had in Pakistan. Whatever, I feel that I`m arriving also mentally and I am enjoying the warmth again.

Has your disappointment blown over that you had to give up your plan to climb the mountain for the first time in winter already at 5500 meters?

I am still disappointed. Of course I’m sad that it did not work. On the other hand, if I view the images and see where I have climbed I must say it was certainly the right decision. And that we had a narrow escape from a large ice avalanche on the last day was a sign for us to pack up and leave. Therefore, this sadness is within limits.

Dangerous

You talked about the ice avalanche that went down after you had broken down your high camp. How close was it?

The last chunks of ice were about 15 meters away, some of them were as big as a fridge. We were really very lucky. We were running as fast as it was possible in the deep snow.

Did you feel confirmed by this incident that it was the right decision to abandon the expedition?

Yes, indeed.  I’m worried that the area where the ice avalanche started is threatening the normal way up to Camp 1 on the Kinshofer route. This makes me think for future expeditions. There must be a warning. Admittedly, during our expedition the icefall was really active. But whenever you want to climb to the summit via the normal route you have to pass underneath this icefall.

Your plan was to acclimatize elsewhere under easier conditions, to climb up and down quickly and depart. Have you paid dearly on Nanga Parbat?

The time slot to realize this plan is relatively short. Of course I knew that before. But I have learned the hard way that you are getting into trouble if the weather window doesn’t open as expected. You are asking yourself whether this will really work, whether you are really acclimatized well enough. Actually you should set a time slot of ten, maximum 14 days and stock up food only for this period. If it works, everything’s allright, if not, your are going home again. But of course in winter the weather must fit.

Ralf: People are conservative and fundamentalist

Or it takes a lot of patience – as you can see now on the other side of the mountain, where until now the teams have not climbed higher than 6000 meters.

Darek (Zaluski, Ralf’s companion on Nanga Parbat) told me that this was the normal process of winter expeditions: Climbers are working upwards slowly, fixing ropes, losing power more and more. That really takes it out of you. In this case, according to Darek, the chance to get beyond the key point of the route and to traverse to the Diamir side at 7400 meters is extremely low.

Before you started to Pakistan you told me that you wanted to give a signal that despite last summer’s terror attack at Diamir basecamp it was furthermore possible to go there on expedition. Can you still recommend it?

That’s a difficult question. On the one hand you have the problem with the Taliban in the far periphery of Nanga Parbat. But I think the greater problem results from the sociocultural situation right in the Diamir Valley above Chilas. The people living in this area are very conservative and fundamentalist. There are still many feuds. If someday grandfathers had a dispute, their grandchildren will carry it on. The people can barely be described as open to strangers. It’s not quite like feeling welcome. I am no longer one hundred percent sure that the assassination in the basecamp was really committed by the alleged Taliban. I am saying this quite frankly, I have strayed far from my original conviction.

What are you planning next?

This year I will be travelling a lot. At the end of February I will go to Tierra del Fuego to produce a TV documentary about the Indians living there. We (he, his wife Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Ralf Gantzhorn and Rainer Pircher) also want to climb Monte Sarmiento. After that I will stay two days at home before starting to Mount Everest .

North side of Mount Everest

In order to finally reach the summit without oxygen, in the fourth attempt?

It will definitely be my last attempt. I’ll try it again, this time on the north side .

As a member of an international expedition?

In the basecamp I ‘m probably with others, but on the mountain I want to act completely independently and to choose the route that fits best. I won’t put myself under any pressure. It would be great to climb up via the upper part of the Norton couloir, but I am keeping all options open. I am not worried about my fitness. I hope I will be successful this time. I’ll do my best.

Way back to basecamp

Ralf Dujmovits’ concerns were not deceptive. The day after he and his Polish companion Darek Zaluski had decided to cancel their winter expedition on the Diamir side of Nanga Parbat, they narrowly escaped an ice avalanche. The two climbers had just build down their Camp 1 at 4900 meters below the Kinshofer route and were on their descent when the avalanche went down. “We were very lucky!”, Ralf writes to me. The 52-year-old and Darek arrived in basecamp safe and sound. As reported Dujmovits had abandoned his plan to climb Nanga Parbat via the Messner route because of the high risk of ice avalanches.

Daniele’s second attempt

The basecamp on the Diamir side will remain empty only for about two weeks. Then the Italian Daniele Nardi will pitch up his tent there. The 37-year-old from the town Sezze near Rome will try to climb Nanga Parbat solo and in Alpine style via the Mummery ridge. He is starting his expedition so late because he wants to avoid competitive situations on the mountain, says Daniele: “I don’t want to climb with the idea to run on the mountain, the most important thing is the style.” Last winter Nardi had climbed on Nanga Parbat in a team with the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol. They had reached a height of 6000 meters.

First night in Camp 1

Simone climbing up to Camp 1

Meanwhile on the Rupal side the Italian Simone Moro and the German David Goettler are acclimatizing. The two climbed up to Camp 1 to spend a first night at 5100 meters. The Polish team “Justice for all”, the first expedition this season in Pakistan, had reached a height of 5500 meters already on 26 December.

Police escort for mountaineers

Safety first on Nanga Parbat. “All the time we were driving on Karakoram Highway, we had a police escort,” says Ralf Dujmovits. “In front and behind of us there was a pickup each with two policemen sitting on a bench on the loading area. They held their Kalashnikovs in firing position.” Ralf calls me from Chilas, a small town on the Indus, about 50 km as the crow flies from 8000er Nanga Parbat. Because the baggage of his Polish companion Darek Zaluski did not arrive in time they had to stay in Islamabad one day longer than initially planned. On Saturday Ralf and Darek want to distribute the loads to their porters, who then shall set out to Diamir basecamp. “I think I will stay in Chilas tomorrow, because I still have to complete some formalities”, says Ralf. “If everything goes as scheduled, we will arrive at basecamp in three days.”

Policemen will stay in basecamp

At this place terrorists had shot eleven climbers at the end of June. The Diamir side had kept closed for expeditions all summer long. Dujmovits and Zaluski will be the first climbers who set up their tents at Diamir basecamp after the assassination. “Two to three policemen will accompany us”, Ralf reports. “And they will probably stay in basecamp throughout the expedition.” Ralf wants to use the first weather window to start a summit attempt. As reported the 52-year-old German has acclimatized on Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America, for three weeks. Darek Zaluski will accompany him only in the first flatter glacier sections which are heavily crevassed. Above 5000 meters Ralf wants to climb solo. There have already been 17 winter expeditions to 8125-meter-high Nanga Parbat, all failed.

Nanga Parbat

The Taliban attack on the basecamp at the Diamir side of Nanga parbat has left even Pakistan experts stunned. „We have been caught cold“, Eberhard Andres told me. He is working for the German trekking agency Hauser Exkursionen and is responsible for trips to Pakistan. „It was really the first time that something like this has happened.“ Last weekend Taliban terrorists had attacked the Diamir basecamp and killed eleven climbers: three Chinese, three Ukrainians, two Slovaks, a Lithuanian, a Nepalese and a Pakistani. The attack was of „a completely new quality“, Dominik Müller, head of the agency Amical Alpin, said to me. Swiss expedition organizer Kari Kobler is shocked as well: „We knew that Pakistan can be a dangerous place. But not in the north!“ All of them expect negative consequences for mountain tourism in Pakistan, which had just began to get back on its feet after lean years as a result of the tense political situation. 

Nanga Parbat expedition 2014 will be cancelled

„The assassination changed the whole situation,“ Kari Kobler said. „This is really bad for Pakistan.” He has heard that the army would send 70,000 more troops to the region. „But that’s just a drop in the ocean.“ Kari told me that he fortunately had no clients on Nanga Parbat just now. „We will cancel the planned expedition to the mountain in 2014. You can not do that.“

Hauser has to react more quickly. Actually on 8th July a group should start to Pakistan to trek around Nanga Parbat. „It doesn’t make sense now to take any risk on Nanga Parbat“, Eberhard Andres said. He is in contact with the clients to look for alternatives. „But it would be wrong to say we close the chapter Pakistan for years.“ According to Andres trips to Pakistan were „fully booked“ in 2013. The fascinating mountains of the Karakoram had increasingly been considered as an insider tip among trekkers and as an alternative to the classic routes in Nepal. „It has gotten about that one did not feel endangered on the spot.“

Police escort on Karakoram Highway

But this feeling could now be lost on Nanga Parbat. „We have to wait and see what the Pakistani government is doing,“ Dominik Müller said. The head of Amical had visited Nanga Parbat previously three years ago and had felt the situation in the Diamir valley to be problematic. „There were conflicts between the clans.“ Dominik said, there was no military post in the region. „An officer was referred to us but didn’t accompany us to the mountain.“ Due to this experience Müller had not taken Nanga Parbat into the Amical program for 2013. „For me the region seemed to be too hot.“ Dominik told me that this year for the first time all expedition groups had got police escorts on the Karakoram Highway in the area around the town of Chilas near Nanga Parbat.

If possible by plane

The organizers from Germany and Switzerland point out that the situation in the more northern areas, around the other four 8000ers of Pakistan, is still safe. The local agencies were now trying to take all mountaineers and trekkers from Islamabad directly by plane to the city of Skardu and back – instead of using buses on the Karakoram Highway. The German Foreign Office has issued a „partial travel warning“ after the attack on Nanga Parbat. The goverment in Berlin advises tourists „to inform themselves fully on the current security situation with Pakistan’s tour operators and authorities before traveling to Gilgit-Baltistan.“