The Vinson Massif

“Morale is waning, that’s clear,” Dominik Müller, head of the German expedition operator Amical alpin, tells me when I talk to him about the situation in Mount Vinson Base Camp. As reported, a total of 48 mountaineers, including a five-member Amical team, have been stuck there in bad weather for a week and a half now. Food is running out slowly but surely. “Our Christmas dinner was bizarre, sweet mashed potatoes with jam and cinnamon,” wrote Jürgen Landmann, one of the German climbers, on Facebook on Christmas Day. “We built a small chapel and a Christmas tree out of snow. We also took a group picture with all 48 mountaineers here in the base camp.”

No information about emergency plans

Vinson Base Camp in good weather

After all, an Ilyushin cargo plane was able to fly from Punta Arenas in southern Chile to Union Glacier Camp on the edge of Antarctica. However, the bad weather at Mount Vinson prevents airplanes from taking off and landing at the base camp. “We have been eating only one warm meal a day from rations of which the expiration date passed a year ago,” wrote Manuel Möller from the Amical team on Christmas Eve. “ALE (Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions – the US company that organizes the flights to and from Antarctica) apparently has no Plan B. And the atmosphere here in the camp is slowly getting more nervous.” It is unlikely to have improved over the holidays – especially as the meteorologists are predicting snowfall at Mount Vinson for the coming days. So the adjourned game continues. “Our expedition leader Willi Comploi says we’ll have to come up with something soon if the team can’t be taken out in the next few days,” says Dominik Müller, who, in his own words, tried several times in vain to get information from ALE about possible emergency plans.

O’Brady succeeds in solo crossing Antarctica

O’Brady at his destination

Meanwhile the US adventurer Colin O’Brady has successfully completed his solo crossing of Antarctica over a distance of almost 1500 kilometres, without any support. “Day 54: Finish line!!! I did it,” the 33-year-old wrote on Instagram and posted a picture which, according to him, showed him on the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. Almost two months ago, O’Brady had started with his sled from Union Glacier – at the same time as British Louis Rudd, who is expected at the finish line in a day or two. The first unsupported solo crossing of Antarctica had been achieved by Norwegian Borge Ousland at the beginning of 1997. He had overcome a distance of 2845 kilometers (!), also using a kite to move faster.

Union Glacier Camp

Update 28 December: Breathe a sigh of relief! The climbers who were stuck for a week and a half at Mount Vinson could be flown out to the research station at Union Glacier. “The atmosphere is correspondingly cheerful,” writes Manuel Möller from the Amical alpin team to me.

Update 29 December: On Friday Lou Rudd completed his solo crossing too.

Spantik (the normal route

It was close, damn close. “We were very, very lucky,” writes Patrick z’Brun to me. The mountain guide was part of a Swiss team that escaped a tragedy by a hair’s breadth on the 7,027-meter-high Spantik in the Karakoram this summer. The day after their arrival, the climbers were just setting up their base camp. “Suddenly someone shouted ‘Rock, rock’,” reports Patrick. A large boulder rushed through a couloir directly towards the base camp. Nearly 200 meters ahead of the camp, the boulder divided into two pieces without them changing direction: “Two kitchen tents and a sleeping tent were sheer shaved off. The two rocks rushed past two climbers by a hair’s breadth.” According to Patrick’s words, an expedition member just managed to save himself by jumping behind a small wall on which the kitchen tent had stood. An eight-second video of the incident documents how lucky the group was:

“Definitely traumatized”

“As an emergency measure, we determined escape routes for each individual and established a permanent night watch,” writes Patrick z’Brun. “During the night there was another rockfall, but it did not cause any damage. The people (including the porters) were definitely traumatized and partly refused to go back into the tents.” The next day the Swiss climbed further up to take a look at the danger zone. “On site – at about 4,800 meters – we realized that this was only a prelude. Up there, there were still a lot of boulders waiting, and we discovered some cracks,” reports the 56-year-old, who had climbed Mount Everest in 2008. “It was only a matter of time before the next incident happened.” The Swiss packed up – and later found a nice alternative destination nearby: they succeeded in the first ascent of a 5633-meter-high summit, which they named “Swiss Sherpa Peak”.

A “good-natured mountain” so far

Mountain guide Patrick z’Brun

Spantik – first climbed by the Germans Reinhard Diepen, Edward Reinhard and Joachim Tietze via the southeast side in 1955 – has been a popular destination for commercial expeditions for years. Kari Kobler, whose company had organised the Swiss team’s trip this summer, described the seven-thousander to me as “a mountain that had been really good-natured so far”. It remains to be seen whether Spantik will continue to appear in the “Kobler & Partner” program in the future. An alternative location for the base camp and also a route variant are to be examined.

According to Patrick z’Brun, local porters pointed out that until ten years ago the base camp had regularly been pitched up further down the glacier and that even earlier, mountaineers had climbed via an eastern ridge directly to Camp 1 in order to avoid the danger zone.

Climate change sends its greetings

The risk of rockfall in the Karakoram has been increasing in recent years. “It is becoming more and more a problem due to climate change”, confirms Dominik Müller, head of the German expedition operator “Amical alpin”. “Areas that were still covered with snow a few years ago are snowless now, with more and more debris appearing.”

Being warned now

In the three days before their arrival at the foot of Spantik there had been heavy rain for three days, writes Patrick z’Brun. “We noticed (especially after the rockfall) that there were many stones lying around in the base camp. But we hadn’t thought too much about it.” But from now on, Patrick says, nobody can say any more: ‘You couldn’t know that.’

A lot of snow on Gasherbrum II

A short snowfall break in the Karakoram – or, as Felix Berg describes it from Gasherbrum II with a twinkle in his eye “a small good-weather disturbance”. Time for the climbers to stuck their noses into the wind and to reconsider their plans. Dominik Müller, head and expedition leader of the German operator Amical alpin has decided to strike the tents on the 8,051-meter-high Broad Peak and to return home. “All the equipment from Camp 1 was recovered,” Dominik writes on Facebook today. “Just now it’s snowing again, and during our ascent there were some avalanches!” The porters have been ordered for Sunday.

Stitzinger: “Too much snow in the flanks and couloirs”

The Amical team led by Luis Stitzinger, who wanted to first climb the 7,082-meter-high Urdok Kangri II, threw in the towel too. “It’s been snowing for days since we arrived at the base camp. There is now half a meter of fresh snow, and up to one and a half meters at 6,000 or 7,000 meteres,” Luis writes on Facebook. “The route looks elegant, but there’s too much snow in the flanks and couloirs.” For the next three days more than half a meter of fresh snow is expected, says Luis adding that they’ll finish the expedition early: “I’ve never experienced such a season with so constant bad weather in the Karakoram.”

Like Russian Roulette

Alex Gavan (l.) and Tunc Findik (r.)

Snowfall has also increased the risk of avalanches on the other eight-thousanders in Pakistan. Continuing the ascent would be like “Russian Roulette”, Romanian Alex Gavan wrote three days ago. Alex and his Turkish team partner Tunc Findik had interrupted their activities on Nanga Parbat. The two want to climb the 8125-meter-high mountain without bottled oxygen.

Bargiel and Golab move to the K2

On the eight-thousander Gasherbrum II, the Poles Andrzej Bargiel and Janusz Golab declared their acclimatization over – “due to heavy snowfall. Time to move on to K2 base camp and focus on our main goal,” writes Bargiel on Instagram. The 30-year-old is planning the first complete ski run from the 8611-meter-high summit of K2. Last year, Bargiel failed on the second highest mountain in the world – because of bad weather.

Göttler and Barmasse want to climb G IV Southwest Face

Gasherbrum IV

The German climber David Göttler and the Italian Hervé Barmasse are probably glad to have made their way to the Karakoram rather late in the season. Both are still on their trekking. They definitely haven’t missed anything so far. Göttler and Barmasse want to first climb the Southwest Face of the 7,925-meter-high Gasherbrum IV – in pure Alpine style, i.e. without bottled oxygen, high camps and high altitude porters.

Broad Peak Base Camp in deep snow

Summer in the Karakorum? At the moment it feels more like winter, at least in terms of precipitation. For days Mother Holle has been shaking out her mattress over Pakistan’s highest mountains. “Snowfall all day long”, writes Dominik Müller, head and expedition leader of the German operator Amical alpin at the foot of the eight-thousander Broad Peak. “Our base camp is slowly turning into a winter landscape. Avalanches barrel down from the slopes every hour!” The Austrian expedition leader Lukas Furtenbach, from Broad Peak too, takes the same lime: “Tough weather conditions this year”. The situation on the other eight-thousanders in Pakistan is not different. No matter if from the neighbouring K 2, Gasherbrum I and II or Nanga Parbat – the same messages everywhere: Lots of snow, high avalanche risk.

Mike Horn: “Very dangerous”

South African adventurer Mike Horn threw in the towel on Nanga Parbat last weekend.  “It has been snowing at Base Camp for 12 days now and above 7000m there is a lot of snow. This makes the mountain very dangerous,” the 51-year-old wrote on Instagram, adding that the situation was to worsen since the weather forecast was also bad for the next days: “The mountain will stay here so we can always come back to amazing Pakistan.” Mike had been one of the first climbers to arrive in Nanga Parbat Base Camp in early June.

Even more snow

Meteorologists expect snowfall to continue until Thursday inclusive, so the avalanche risk is likely to increase further. An overhasty start onto the mountain before the fresh snow has settled could be fatal. Climbers therefore need patience – and a good entertainment program in the base camp.

Dominik Mueller

The Everest climbers are in the starting blocks. In four weeks, the majority of them will travel to Nepal or Tibet. The final decision of the Nepalese government, whether and, if so, how exactly the permits of the prematurely terminated spring season 2014 are valid for 2015, is still to be made. Dominik Mueller, head of the German operator Amical alpin, doesn’t have to worry about that.  The 43-year-old leads an expedition to the Tibetan north side of Everest. His team will include not only “normal” clients but also three top-class mountaineering professionals from Germany. Ralf Dujmovits, so far the only German who climbed all eight-thousanders, wants to scale Everest without bottled oxygen – together with the Canadian Nancy Hansen. Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger plan to do the same. The German couple has so far climbed six eight-thousanders. Dominik Müller worked as an expedition leader on six of the 14 highest mountains. He reached the summit of Cho Oyo twice. “During the other expeditions, I had to put aside my personal interests being the leader”, Dominik told me. This time on Everest this could be different.

North side of Mount Everest

Dominik, soon you will be on your way to Mount Everest. Is this still something special for you?

Actually, each eight-thousander is special to me. But on the one hand Everest is simply the highest mountain. On the other hand it challenges me as an operator because there is a lot to organize, more than on other mountains.

There was a lot of discussion about Everest after last year’s events on the Nepalese south side. Did you find any change in the client behavior?

No, concerning the level of demand. But I have to point out that we don’t offer expeditions on the south side, just because of the dangers of the route. We only offer the Tibetan north side.  But it can be confirmed that more climbers tend to go the north side, because more operators are present there. I think it all depends on who is offering what where? The client follows the operator.

Have the Chinese driven up the prices?

The Chinese have been doing it in the recent years – not only on Everest, but also on the other eight-, seven- and six-thousanders in Tibet. They just try to get the maximum.

Ralf Dujmovits

This time, you have a rather unusual expedition group. There are not only clients, as they are usually found on commercial expeditions. The professional climbers Ralf Dujmovits, Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger bought themselves into your expedition. Does that make it special?

Of course. On the one hand, the professionals want to be free in their actions on the mountain. On the other hand the clients want to be attended in the best possible way. That may create some little tension. On the other hand, the average clients, of course, benefit from these experienced climbers. You won’t find so much concentrated competence at base camp in the near future.

Does this enable you to restrain a bit concerning your responsibility?

No, I am fully challenged. I want to attend the clients as well as the professionals in the best way possible, doing all the organizing, even those little things that have to be done on-site.

But this time, you will be also allowed to think a bit of yourself, won’t you?

My goal is to try Everest without bottled oxygen. We have a very good support team for our clients that will attend them in an optimum way. Thus I think I should have some freedom to do my thing.

Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger

Will it be your first attempt on Everest?

Yes. When I do find the time, I’ll climb together with Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger. It’s important that we are on the mountain not in a large group but in small teams. Then everyone can acclimatize individually and choose his own speed, depending on how he is doing. This is one of the keys to success on this mountain.

Apropos large groups.  There will be many of these on Everest. Do you have a plan how to avoid the crowds on the route, a special trick?

There can’t be any special trick, because you’re always depending on the weather conditions. But you may climb in a slightly counter-cyclical way by starting a little earlier or later when the good weather window opens. An advantage of the northern route is that there are not so many traffic jams, because you can overtake better. There are fewer bottlenecks than on the south side.

Let’s look into the future. If you want to play the prophet, what is going to happen on Everest in the next few years?

Hard to say. In Nepal, quite a lot is changing. The Climbing Sherpas exert massive pressure on the government. I welcome that. We are only guests in a foreign country, these people need to be properly insured. Regarding the route, we’ll have to wait and see what happens next. It is discussed whether using ladders or even whether to set up two tracks, one for the ascent, one for the descent. There are many ideas but still nothing concrete.

Much traffic on Everest

Some operators want to transport material to Camp 1 or 2 by helicopter. What do you think about this?

This is ambiguous. On the one hand you trust in the work of the Climbing Sherpas, on the other hand you cut their possibility to do their job. Finally, they also live on the material transports. For me, an ascent is only a true ascent, when we manage it without technical help from outside, means also without helicopters. Whether “by fair means” or with bottled oxygen, you should walk up and down the mountain by foot.

Are there still people who previously climbed only one or two mountains and want to scale Everest next?

We get such requests. But then it is the duty of us organizers to tell them: Listen, you’re not ready! Finally, it is also about people’s life. You don’t have to do everything for money, it’s also our job to advice the clients honestly.

But the operators have not been pursuing a uniform line so far.

That is precisely the problem. The client should carefully consider with whom he goes on expedition. He should consider how much experience an operator has on high mountains and how serious he advises.

P.S.:  I say goodbye now for a week to relax and ski in the Alps :-). Then I’ll be back for you. And here’s a bit of Everest to enjoy and dream:

Dangerous Khumbu Icefall

No matter how likely something seems to be, things may turn out quite differently. For many years, most climbers on the Nepalese side of Everest thought that the route through the Khumbu Icefall, which led – seen from below – along the left hand side directly below the West Shoulder, was safe. Until 18 April 2014 when a huge ice avalanche released and killed 16 Nepalis. The Sherpas revolted, the season was over before it had begun. This spring, the route is to be relocated further away from the West Shoulder, about 40 meters to the centre of the Icefall. Ang Dorjee Sherpa, president of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Commitee (SPCC), which is responsible for the route, said to the Himalayan Times, he expected that the clients need three to four hours more to reach Camp 1. Although the new route is not as risky as the old one, it is more difficult, says Ang Dorjee. Not all are convinced that this is the last word.

Really safe?

„The Everest Icefall ‘route change’ announced by Nepal is not a solution. It’s an excuse to maintain the status quo“, US expedition leader Adrian Ballinger wrote on Twitter. The head of the expedition operator Alpenglow decided, in response to last year’s events on the Nepalese side, to switch to the Tibetan north side of Everest. There he will meet, among others, Dominik Mueller, head of the German operator Amical alpin, who also will lead an expedition from the north side.

He is „very skeptical that, on the bottom line, this route is really so much safer,” Dominik replies when I ask him what he thinks about the new route on the Nepalese side. „They try with all means to declare the ascent as safe as possible.“

Back to the roots

Dominik Mueller

Mueller points out that even in past times the route had led via the centre of the Icefall. In this basin, the glacier is moving much faster and is therefore unpredictable, says Dominik. Because of the increasing glacier melt it had been decided to move the route more to the left side – for safety. „So back to the roots, without looking at the change of the glacier?“ Dominik expects a significant higher risk for the Icefall Doctors while they set up the route through the center of the Icefall. And they will have more work to maintain the way through the ice labyrinth during the season because the glacier moves faster in the centre. More material such as ladders and fixed ropes are needed, Mueller says: „This will make it more expensive, while simultaneously the number of climbers on the south side will decrease.“ Dominik believes that it will be difficult to master the balancing act to find the perfect route: „On the one hand as far as possible in the centre, far enough away from the West Shoulder. On the other hand as close as possible to the left side, where the flow rate of the glacier is lower. If it works, it would be a good and neccessary step to make the south side of Everest more attractive and safer again.“ Hard to say how likely that is.