David Göttler

They have two homes. German professional climber David Göttler and his partner Monica Piris spend the winter in Chamonix am Mont Blanc, the summer in Monica’s native northern Spain, between the towns of Bilbao and Santander, “where Spain is still really green”, David enthuses. This summer, as reported, Göttler had returned from Pakistan empty-handed. Bad weather had put a spoke in the wheel of him and his teammate, Italian Hervé Barmasse, on the 7,932-meter-high Gasherbrum IV in the Karakoram. Yesterday Göttler celebrated his 40th birthday in Spain – not in the mountains, but on the construction site, as he tells me, when I belated congratulate him: “I have finished my training room. So it was a good day.”

40 years, David, that’s a mark. Many ook back then on their lives or make plans for the future. You too?

For me it was just a normal birthday. However, you are thinking a little bit about the fact that now perhaps the middle of life has been reached. I don’t feel I’ve missed anything or done something wrong. But I’m also looking forward to the next 40 years. My father turns 79 next winter and is still every day en route in the mountains, paragliding, snowboarding or climbing. If I have only inherited a little bit of these genes, then I still have 40 more good years ahead. Especially in high-altitude climbing I can still do amazing things in the next few years. And I’m looking forward to it.

David with Ueli Steck (l.) in spring 2016

Did you yesterday also think of Ueli Steck, with whom you tackled Shishapangma South Face in spring 2016? Last year, he fell to his death on Nuptse – at the age of forty. Are you worried about overtightening the screw yourself one day?

I always try to deal with the risk very consciously – as Ueli did too, by the way.  I thought of him yesterday, but more with my future in mind: It would have been so nice to be able to plan new goals with him.

What goals have you set for yourself?

First I plan to run a marathon in the lowlands in a respectable time. I will probably do this at the beginning of December. In the longer term, for the next five years or so, I want to tackle some of the eight-thousanders. Gasherbrum IV, where Hervé and I were this summer, is also still on the list.

Yoga in base camp

Which eight-thousanders do you have in mind?

I have not yet decided in which order to approach them. But one of the eight-thousanders on my list is Kangchenjunga, where, on the fascinating north side of the mountain, my eight-thousander career began in 2003. I would like to make another attempt there. Then Nanga Parbat, a super exciting mountain, where I was already once in winter (in 2014 he had reached an altitude of 7,200 meters with Polish climber Tomek Mackiewicz). Mount Everest without bottled oxygen is also still a goal for me, even though there are so many people on the highest of all mountains. I would like to try out how the 400 more meters of altitude feel compared to the other eight-thousanders I have scaled so far (David has reached the summits of five 8000er so far: Gasherbrum II, Broad Peak, Dhaulagiri, Lhotse and Makalu). Also Gasherbrum I, which I viewed this summer from G IV, still offers many possibilities for new or unusual trips beyond the normal route.

With Herve Barmasse (r.)

You were with Herve Barmasse on Gasherbrum IV. What did you experience?

It was a super strange season in the Karakoram due to the weather. People may have been blinded by the news that there were more summit successes on K2 than ever before. But commercial climbing has meanwhile also reached K2: There are fixed ropes from the bottom to the top, many Sherpas are in action, breaking the trail and pitching up the camps. Almost all summitters used bottled oxygen. Things looked very different on the other eight-thousanders. On Gasherbrum I and Gasherbrum II, for example, only two climbers each reached the summit: Luis Stitzinger and Gianpaolo Corona on G I, Adam Bielecki and Felix Berg on G II. Bad weather and resulting adverse conditions on the mountain also made Gasherbrum IV difficult for us and prevented a real summit attempt.

How high did you get?

We reached our highest point during our acclimatization phase at 7,100 meters, just below the East Face. During the summit attempt we only got to Camp 1 at 6,000 meters. It snowed all night and still in the morning, there was no visibility. Because of too high danger of avalanches we then turned back.

En route on Gasherbrum IV

There were many other climbers besides you who returned home empty-handed too because of the persistently bad weather. As in the last years, the conditions in the classical summer season in the Karakoram were problematic. Shouldn’t one arrive later in the year because of the effects of climate change?

We discussed this topic in base camp. Maybe we really shouldn’t climb during these “old school weather windows” when the best conditions used to be in the past. Climate is changing. Not only high precipitation, but also too hot and dry summers are rather bad for many climbing projects. I think we might really have to experiment in the future and travel to the Karakoram at other times. In the classical summer season it seems to become more and more difficult.

Three 8000ers at a glance: Mount Everest, Lhotse, Makalu (from l. to r.)

It is only a number, but one that plays an important role in the world of high altitude climbers. Everyone who has scaled all 14 eight-thousanders counts in the scene – even more if he or she has managed it without bottled oxygen. The circle is still quite exclusive: According to 8000ers.com, the website of the German Himalayan chronicler Eberhard Jurgalski, 34 climbers have completed the collection, 15 of them completely without breathing mask. This list could be extended this spring.

Not by hook or by crook

Nives Meroi and Romano Benet

Nives Meroi and Romano Benet from Italy are trying to scale Annapurna. In case of success, the two 55-year-olds would be the first couple to reach together all the summits of the 14 highest mountains in the world – without the use of bottled oxygen and Sherpa support. It is their third attempt on Annapurna after 2006 and 2009. “In both cases we abandoned our attempts because the conditions were too dangerous. I and Romano are experts in the ‘art of escape without shame’,” Nives told me last year. “We`ll face it again this way.” Means: not by hook or by crook.

Latorre’s mission

Ferran Latorre

Only Mount Everest is still missing in the eight-thousander collection of the Spaniard Ferran Latorre. He climbed the other 13 without breathing mask and he will try it on Everest too. Latorre selects the ascent via the Nepalese south side. “Everest is my mission, Everest is my dream,” the 46-year-old Catalan wrote on Facebook and quoted from the song “Mission” of his favorite band “Rush”: “We each pay a fabulous price for our visions of paradise. But a spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission.“

Make amends

Ralf Dujmovits on Cholatse

Ralf Dujmovits has not yet given up his dream. The 55-year-old has already scaled all 14 eight-thousanders, as the first and so far only German climber, but only 13 of them without bottled oxygen. In 1992 on Everest, Ralf used a breathing mask above the South Col. He feels this was a mistake that has to be wiped out. After his successful acclimatization on the six-thousander Cholatse in the Khumbu area, Dujmovits will fly to Lhasa on Saturday and travel from there to the Base Camp on the Tibetan north side of Everest. It will be, in his own words, “my definitively last attempt” to complete his eight-thousander collection without supplemental oxygen.

Strong oldie

Carlos Soria (r.) in front of Dhaulagiri (with Sito Carcavilla l.)

Peter Hamor is also only one peak away from his 14-eight-thousander-happiness without supplemental oxygen. The 52-year-old Slovak wants to climb Dhaulagiri this spring – as well as the Spaniard Carlos Soria, who could very soon appear as the oldest climber in the “14er club”. Dhaulagiri would be the 13th eight-thousander for the 78-year-old. If he is successful, only Shishapangma would be missing. Carlos scaled his first eight-thousander, Nanga Parbat, at the age of 51. The high-performance senior already holds the age records on K 2 (aged 65), Broad Peak (68), Makalu (69), Gasherbrum I (70), Manaslu (71), Lhotse (72), Kangchendzönga (75) and Annapurna (77). Soria has been staying in the Base Camp at the foot of Dhaulagiri. The climbers expect a few days of bad weather “as usual in these mountains”, twittered his team: “Now it’s waiting and waiting for the moment.”

Update 25 April: There is currently so much going on in the Himalayas, that I have overlooked another climber, who can make the 14 eight-thousanders full this spring. The Iranian Azim Gheychisaz plans to climb Lhotse, without breathing mask. He has climbed the other 13 without bottled oxygen, last in 2016 Everest. It was his second summit success on the highest mountain on earth, after he had first climbed it using a breathing mask.

8000ers in the Karakoram

When I was a small boy I wanted to be an astronaut. Maybe the reason was that the first moon landing in 1969 was at the same time my first television experience. Then I was six years old. In our neighbors’ house several families were jostling around a small black and white television, which was the only one in our street block. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins – the astronauts of Apollo 11 were my heroes. I dreamed of jumping over the lunar surface by myself, watching the earth as a blue ball in the distance. Until today the universe has not lost for me anything of the fascination that I already felt as a child.

The US space agency NASA is not just looking into space, but also from there to our good old earth. It has now published an article with the most important facts about the 14 eight-thousanders adding satellite images of the highest mountains. I want to share these pictures with you – to make you feel a bit like astronauts.

P.S. This time I have sorted the mountains not by altitude but by their fatality rates (look at the percentage).

[See image gallery at blogs.dw.com]