Miss Hawley in her home in Kathmandu

When I saw the Beetle, I knew I was right. I knew the street, but had no house number, only a rough description of where Miss Hawley is living in Kathmandu. But there it stood in the courtyard: the light blue VW Beetle, built in 1963. “The car is right, of course. Those Beetles are just incredible durable,” says the legendary chronicler of Himalayan mountaineering. For decades, the US-American has driven with the light blue car in front of the hotels in Kathmandu to interview climbers about their expeditions in the Himalayas. However, the 92-year-old is no longer driving her Beetle by herself, she has a driver. “I can’t drive a car with a walker”, says Elizabeth Hawley and grins. Since she broke her hip, she is not quite as mobile as before.

More braggarts

Miss Hawley has been living in Kathmandu since 1960. Since then, she has collected more than 4000 expeditions in her chronicle “Himalayan Database”. At the beginning she worked for the news agency Reuters. “At that time mountaineering was becoming a very important part of a foreign correspondent’s job in Nepal”, Hawley recalls. From Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first ascenders of Mount Everest, through to the clients of commercial expeditions – the chronicler has met all types of climbers. I should like her to tell whether there is more fibbing among today’s climbers. “Has the percentage of liars per expedition that gone up? I don’t think so,” says Miss Hawley. “Maybe the commercial climbers rather brag about it.”

Kind of fishy

The highest mountain she ever climbed was only about 1,000 meters high, tells the old lady, “in Vermont in New England. It was just a walk. A mountain? No, it was like the hills around Kathmandu.” Nevertheless, again and again the American was able to unmask climbers as liars who previously had claimed to have scaled eight-thousanders or other high mountains in Nepal. She checked it with the other teams who were on the mountains, other got tangled up in contradictions: “Some of them sounded really a kind of fishy. But I’m sure I missed a lot.”

On the back of a Sherpa

North side of Everest

Miss Hawley depicts the “interesting” case of the Japanese climber Tomiyasu Ishikawa, who ascended Everest from the north side in 2002. The 65-year-old was then “the oldest to reach the summit but had he really climbed it? How many realized the distinction,” Miss Hawley asks. The Japanese became tired in the summit area. “He got to the summit on the back of a Sherpa.” She considers an age limit for old Everest climbers – as it was announced by the Nepalese government in 2015 – for needless but pleads for stricter rules for young people: “Certainly young kids should not be climbing mountains, certainly not Everest. They are not strong and developed enough, physically and mentally.”

Held on the table

Miss Hawley is eagerly awaiting the upcoming spring season. “I’m quite curious about what happens this year,” she says. “I think probably the numbers will not be very great partly because people are afraid of earthquakes. We still have aftershocks occasionally.” She experienced the devastating quake on 25 April 2015 in her home. “I sat at a table, just held on. You wait until it’s over and carry on.” Like many people in Nepal, Miss Hawley speaks of an even stronger earthquake that could hit the country in the near future. “I hope I am near my strong table again,” says the 92-year-old, laughing.

Her successor

Billi Bierling

Step by step she wants to hand over her work on Himalayan Database to her German assistant Billi Bierling. “Maybe she knows it, maybe she doesn’t. We work very well together. She is good, she is crazy, she is fast,” says Elizabeth Hawley who can not even imagine retiring completely. “It depends on how it works out. I’ll probably criticize her. Well, I hope I don’t.”

Without airs and graces

Recently, the Nepalese government has dubbed a six-thousander “Peak Hawley”. “No mountain should be named after any individual and certainly not for me,” Miss Hawley plays it down. She should take it as an honor, I reply. “Okay, but It’s a funny kind of honor”, Hawley says, giggling. She also can not base anything on nicknames. I mention “Mama Himalaya”, “Miss Marple of Kathmandu” or “Sherlock Holmes of the mountains”. Miss Hawley grins: “Actually I never heard any of them, you can keep them. There was a book and a documentary film about me called ‘keeper of the mountains’. I don’t know that I keep them. I am just a chronicler.”

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.

How much helicopter should be allowed on Everest?l

The spring season on Mount Everest is over, but not the discussion about what happened at the highest mountain in the world. The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has set up a committee to clarify whether, when and how often helicopters were used to airlift team members of the Chinese female climber Wang Jing and the Brazilian-American Cleo Weidlich to Camp 2 at 6400 meters. On 23 May, Wang was the first person who reached the summit of Mount Everest this spring, just before the first successes from the north side were reported. Weidlich originally planned to climb Lhotse, but in her own words she made no real attempt to reach the summit.

Pilot confirmed passenger transport to Camp 2

According to the newspaper Himalayan Times the Italian pilot Maurizio Folini has confirmed that he has flown Wang Jing from Base Camp to Camp 2 on 10 May and also picked her up again there by helicopter on 25 May. After returning to Kathmandu the Chinese woman reportedly claimed that she never used a helicopter to reach Camp 2. Only two Sherpas had been flown up, she said. “This would seem to be a distinction without a difference since they were helping her ascent”, the legendary chronicler of Himalayan mountaineering, Elizabeth Hawley, writes to me. So far only rescue flights were allowed higher than Base Camp. This spring the Nepalese government had only made an exception to let fly out material from Camp 2 after the premature end of all expeditions.

Good idea

Miura after his return to Base Camp by helicopter

I had written to Elizabeth Hawley because I hesitate to call Wang Jing’s summit success a complete ascent of Everest and wanted to know how the 90-year-old U.S. chronicler deals with this climb in her “Himalayan Database”. “You have raised a good point about climbers using helicopters to fly over dangerous terrain in their ascents”, answered Miss Hawley. “We at the Database think we need to add a new category of caveats perhaps called aviation-assisted climbs. That category would also include Yuichiro Miura’s climb of Everest in spring 2013, when he flew out of Camp II to Base Camp to avoid the Icefall. And Cleo Weidlich’s attempt on Lhotse this spring.” I think, it’s a good idea. After the action of the 80-year-old Japanese Miura who had set a new age record last year, I had already asked in my blog how much helicopter should be allowed on Everest. After the avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall on 18 April which killed 16 Nepalese climbers this question could be more urgent than ever.

Update 8 June: Wang Jing meanwhile admitted that she had used a helicopter on Everest. “The Sherpas have great mental pressure and they were reluctant to step into that place”, Wang said in an interview of China News Service. “I knew our decision could discount the climbing efforts. However, I would like to accept the losses for the sake of safety.”

Ines Papert

And it was a first ascent at all! On 13 November Ines Papert was the first person who set foot on the 6718-meter-high Pig Pherado Shar in Nepal, also known as Likhu Chuli I. Billi Bierling, staff member of the legendary Himalayan chronicler Elizabeth Hawley, writes me that the Frenchwoman Cecile Barbezat and Nawang Dorje Sherpa on 21 October 1960 were at the top of Likhu Chuli II, “which conversely means that Ines made the first ascent of Likhu Chuli I.” This was the result of a research that her French colleague Rodolphe Popier made in the library of the French Alpine Club (Club Alpin Français).

Text-image-gap

Likhu Chuli is on a 12-rupee-stamp

“It’s very clear they went to Likhu II by the west ridge and not to Likhu I”, says Rodolphe, who has reviewed the report of Barbezat, written more than half a century ago: “The text mentions a difficult climb up and no traverse at all between two summits. There are clear pictures taken under their claimed summit showing the Trakarding NW glacier straight down with the Tsho Rolpa lake (Gauri Shankar and Melungtse in the background) and from their summit showing South west ridge of Likhu 2 (still virgin and wrongly mentioned as south ridge). Even the picture of the summit taken from their Basecamp mentions their west ridge route on the right with no clear distinction of the both summits.” In other words: The informations in the text do not match the images. Barbezat and Nawang Dorje have claimed another summit than the one they really climbed. According to Billi Bierling the error in the database of Miss Hawley will be corrected immediately. And Ines Papert will be listed as the climber who made the first ascent of Likhu Chuli I. Congratulations, Ines!

P.S. While I’m at it: All the best, Miss Hawley! Sorry, I missed your 90th anniversary on 9 November.

Ines Papert

It’s getting even more exciting: Maybe German climber Ines Papert has climbed the 6718-meter-high Pig Pherado Shar in Nepal firstly after all. Billi Bierling, staff member of Himalayan chronicler Elizabeth Hawley, has drawn my attention to this option. The mountain is also known as Likhu Chuli I. I had referred to a note in Hawley’s database that a French team led by Robert Sandoz had already climbed the 6000er near Namche Bazaar on 21 October 1960. Billi writes that the French climbers maybe instead reached the summit of the 6659-meter-high Likhu Chuli II (Pig Pherago Nup). So the question is: Likhu Chuli I or II? “The database says ‘I’, but we believe that it is a mistake!”, writes Billi. The research is going on. If there is any news from Kathmandu, I will of course inform you. By the way: first ascent or not, the performance of Ines Papert deserves our applause anyway.