Everest Southwest Face

What did Nobukazu Kuriki really intend on Everest? This question has been bothering me ever since the 35-year-old Japanese climber was found dead on 21 May at an altitude of about 6,600 meters. Nobukazu had made a secret of his exact plan in the weeks before. He wanted to climb through the Southwest Fall, his office said after Kuriki’s death. Solo and without bottled oxygen, as he had claimed for himself? If Nobukazu had only fulfilled one of these two conditions, he would have already made Everest history.

Only one Southwest Face success without breathing mask

Nobukazu Kuriki (1982 -2018)

Since the first ascent by the British Doug Scott and Dougal Haston in fall 1975, only about 30 climbers have successfully climbed the Southwest Face – only once without bottled oxygen: Jozef Just was the only climber of a four-man Slovak team to reach the summit in fall 1988. During the descent he and his three other team mates died. There had never been a serious solo attempt on the steep and dangerous Southwest Face before Kurik’s entry into the wall. The Slovak Vladimir Strba had announced that he would tackled it solo in spring 2017, after he had had to turn back in the wall the year before with his compatriot Zoltan Pal at 7,200 meters. However, Strba then switched to the normal route. The 48-year-old died of high altitude sickness on the South Col after climbing up to the South Summit at 8,750 metres without breathing mask.

How sick was Kuriki really?

Against this background alone, Kuriki’s chances of success had to be rated as extremely low – even if he had been in top form. However the Japanese wasn’t. After arriving at base camp, he suffered from severe cough and fever. Two days before he died, Kuriki said he still had a slight cough, adding that it was almost gone. Kuriki entered the wall and pitched up his tent at 7,400 meters. There he assured by radio that he would be careful. He must have gotten worse at night. The next morning, his team informed that Kuriki was ill and was therefore descending. After that, there was no sign of life from him. Members of the camera crew, who were to film his ascent from the slopes of Nuptse, searched for him and finally found Nobukazu. “Considering condition of his body, it can be assumed that he probably slipped 100 to 200 meters,“ Kuriki’s office said.

Having set the bar even higher than lower

Kuriki at 6,800 m in the Everest North Face in fall 2016

Did Kuriki really believe that he could master the Southwest Face? The Japanese climber Ken Noguchi told the newspaper “Asahi Shimbun” that he doesn’t think so: “It seems to me that at some point, his goal was no longer about stepping foot on the summit but exposing himself to the toughest conditions imaginable and sharing that with people.” Also on his seven previous attempts on Everest, six of them in fall, Kuriki often seemed to overestimate his abilities. In 2012, he suffered severe frostbite during an attempt via the West Ridge. Nine of his ten fingers had to be amputated. Nevertheless, he returned to Everest, first to the normal route on the south side, where he was alone in 2015, then to the North Face, finally to the Southwest Face. Instead of setting the bar lower, Kuriki even increased his ambitions.

Unrealistic goals

“He would have had a good chance of ascent without oxygen if only he had taken the Southeast Ridge (the normal route),” said Yasuhiro Hanatani, a climber and friend of Nobukazu, “but that would have meant not doing it solo.” Obviously Kuriki was also under pressure. A Japanese friend of mine told me that the local media had lost interest in the 35-year-old over time because he always made big plans that realistically did not promise success. Maybe Nobukazu Kuriki finally overtightened the screw – which often ends deadly on the highest mountains on earth.

Everest Southwest Face

Everest hard way. So the two Slovakian climbers Zoltan Pál and Vladimir Štrba had named their expedition on the south side of the highest mountain on earth. They wanted to reach the 8850-meter-high summit via the difficult route through the Southwest Face, which had been opened by Doug Scott and Dougal Haston in 1975. In contrast to the legendary British climbers, the two Slovaks planned to climb the route in the wall if possible in Alpine style: without Sherpa support, fixed ropes, high camps and also without bottled oxygen. Now they have run into difficulties in the wall.

Eye injury

At an altitude of about 7200 meters, Štrba and Pál were hit by an avalanche, said the operator Utmost Adventure, who had organized the Slovakian expeditions. “Vlado is physically fine, Zoli was hit in the eye and can not see properly,” their Base Camp team informed on Facebook. A rescue team of four Sherpas will try to help the Slovaks down to camp 2, from where they are expected to be flown down by helicopter on Wednesday. Due to the still unsettled weather, rescue helicopters could not take off today.

The two Slovaks are the only climbers this spring on the Nepalese south side who want to ascend on an extremely demanding instead of the normal route. According to his own account, Štrba scaled Cho Oyu in 1997 and tried his hand at the eight-thousanders Makalu, Dhaulagiri, Annapurna and Broad Peak without reaching the summit. Pál has so far climbed several seven-thousanders.

Update 11 May: The two climbers are in C 2, thus safe. Now they only have to wait for the rescue helicopter to be flown out.

Chris Bonington

He was knighted to Sir Chris Bonington but he kept his feet on the ground. The 80-year-old Briton, a true living legend in mountaineering, is still a friendly man who is always speaking frankly. I was able to verify this at first hand when I met him last week in Chamonix where he was awarded the Piolet d’Or for his life achievements in the mountains.

Chris, what does the “Career Piolet d’Or” mean to you?

It means a huge amount, because this is an award for my peer group. And in it I’m joining some of the finest and best climbers in the world [Walter Bonatti (awarded in 2010), Reinhold Messner (2011), Doug Scott (2011), Robert Paragot (2012), KurtDiemberger (2013), John Roskelley (2014)], many of whom of course are good friends as well. So it means as much as any award I ever had.

You are 80 years old and you are still climbing, most recently in Catalonia in Spain some weeks ago. Please tell me your secret?

I am climbing very modestly. And I think it’s because I always kept climbing. I think, this is the secret, for everyone. You actually see now more and more grey hairs climbing walls in the mountains and hills. My standard steadily drops, but that doesn’t matter. I still love climbing and being out in the outdoors. And I love the companionship with my friends.

Does it become more and more difficult to bring in line your body and mind?

(Laughs) Without a shadow of doubt! The greatest joy of climbing is when you are at the absolute height of your powers and you got all the kind of thrill that a good athlete has, so you got complete command of your body and you are drifting up climbs. As you get older, you creak up them. So that isn’t that kind of physical euphoria. But what there is, is still the love of the mountains. There is the enjoyment of actually being there. And I think you start savoring your friendships even more.

Bonington: Still the love to the mountains

On Shivling in 1983

You have done so many extraordinary climbs. What was the most important for you personally?

There is no doubt about it: Annapurna II which was the first Himalayan peak I ever climbed [in 1960], and it’s only a hair’s breath below 8,000 meters [7937 meters]. And in fact it’s a very fine peak, about ten miles as a crow flies from Annapurna I. Inevitably your first ever expedition to the Himalayas is very special. But when it’s such a fine peak and to be able to climb a peak that is only just under 8,000 meters on your very first expedition, that really is something.

Then leading the expedition to the South Face of Annapurna [in 1970] and then to Everest Southwest Face [in 1975], it was a huge organizational role. Certainly the Everest Southwest Face was the greatest intellectual as well as physical challenge that I faced. You are the organizer, the planner, the leader. I do it so because maybe I have a chance to go to the top but that was very low on my priority list.

And then just for sheer joy and fun it was a much smaller peak, a mountain called Shivling [in 1983]. I made the first ascent of the West Summit with a great mate of mine, Jim Fotheringham. This was a totally spontaneous ascent. We grabbed the opportunity through getting a free flight to Delhi to take part at a tourism conference and then we went to climb it. It was five days up in Alpine style, one day down, very committing, a beautiful sharp pointed peak. And that to me is what climbing is all about. I was very glad having led my bigger expeditions. In the last 35, 40 years I have really been going for much smaller expeditions, smaller peaks and the whole variety of wonderful adventures.

This year we’ll celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the first climb through the Southwest Face of Everest by Doug Scott and Dougal Haston. Back then, in 1975, was it difficult for you not being able to climb because you were the expedition leader?

No, because in a way the expedition was my baby. It was my vision and concept. Then I got together the group of superb climbers to actually complete it. And therefore I had always seen very clearly in my mind that my first priority was the success of the expedition and not just the success of getting to the top of the mountain, but also the success of doing so harmoniously. And from that point of view it was a wonderful expedition. And the only very serious cloud of course was the fact that in the second attempt we lost Mick Burke.

Bonington: The Everest Southwest Face Expedition was my baby

Till now there are only a few other routes through the Southwest Face of Everest – maybe because it’s too difficult?

It’s interesting actually. I think in addition to our route there is only the Russian one and one or two smaller variations. But I mean, the obviously challenge that nobody has done is a direttissima. That is to go straight up the middle of the rock band and thus straight up to the summit. The way we did was a bit like the way the North wall of the Eiger was first climbed. We found the easiest way, a kind of “serpentining” our way up the mountain. But still now I think there have been only four ascents even of our route.  

Many things have changed on Everest. What do you think about nowadays climbing on Everest?

I mean, thank goodness, I got up it when I did. And also thank goodness that in 1985 when I finally did reach the summit of Everest with a Norwegian team, that was the last year that the Nepalese government only allowed one expedition on a route at a time. That meant, in 1985 we had the Western Cwm to ourselves. It was wonderful. I think now it is an inevitable development. I think you could compare it with the history of Mont Blanc. It seemed as inaccessible in the late 18^th century as Everest did to Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary in 1953. Then the natural development is: A first ascent is made. Then other ascents are made. Then there is a commercial opportunity and guides start guiding people up. And very quickly on Mont Blanc you got the situation that the ordinary route was being climbed regularly. And it was inevitable that exactly the same thing would happen on Everest. Whether just how you manage it, is the big problem. At the moment it’s a kind of anarchic situation where these hundreds of people are going for it every year and where is a certain amount of conflict, a lot of perhaps unnecessary deaths. But that, you know, will be sorted out in the fullness of time.

Bonington about nowadays climbing on Everest

Chris with Don Whillans (l.) in Patagonia in 1963

If you should give a tip to young climbers, would you say: Don’t go to Everest?

I’d say definitely: Avoid it! I’d say to young climbers: The joy of climbing in the Himalayas is exploration. And of course there are literally thousands of unclimbed peaks in the Himalayas. You are not going to get famous climbing them. The problem is, they haven’t got even names, and they are just spot heights. But you get all the joy of exploration by actually going up the valley where people haven’t climbed before and just find your way up and climb a peak.

You have lost so many friends in the mountains. Are climbers in a way forced to handle death more than other people?

It’s a very dangerous sport. If you have the adrenaline junkies which we are and if you want to take that to the extreme and go out to the outer limits inevitably there is going to be a high casualty rate. And there is a high casualty rate amongst extreme climbers at altitude as there are amongst for instance base jumpers, wingsuit fliers and so on. I think it’s not people who have got a death wish. It’s something that people are turned on by the huge excitement, euphoria of taking your body and yourself to the absolute limit to achieve an objective. I think that is the prize you’ve got to be prepared to pay. We may be selfish, we may be unrealistic, but I think you do need adventurers in the world.

Bonington: You need adventurers

Are you now thinking of your own death more often than in earlier days?

No, I don’t. I think I’m essentially an optimist. I’ve got to be one because there were at least ten times where I shouldn’t have come out of it. I’m not afraid of death, but I love life.