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.

Manaslu in Nepal

It’s show time in the Himalayas. After all climbers should have completed their acclimatization on the eight-thousanders, the first summit successes have been reported. Yesterday Romanian Horia Colibasanu and Slovak Peter Hamor reached the 8163-meter-high summit of Manaslu via the normal route on the northeast side – without bottled oxygen and Sherpa support. Actually this ascent was only for acclimatization. The two plan to climb the mountain a second time, on a new “long and difficult route” (Colibasanu) on the north side of the mountain.

Nepalese south side of Cho Oyu

Without breathing mask

The first summit successes were also reported from Cho Oyu in Tibet. According to the expedition operator Summit Climb, Lhakpa Gelbu Sherpa and American David Roeske reached the highest point on 8,188 meters on Sunday, without bottled oxygen.

First attempt abandoned

On Shishapangma, Swiss Ueli Steck and German David Goettler have abandoned their first attempt to climb a new route through the South Face. “We are back in basecamp. Weather was not what we expected”, Ueli writes on Facebook. “The season is not finished yet. We are still motivated and we keep trying!”

Slovaks on Everest are safe

On Mount Everest, two narrow good weather windows for summit attempts are emerging: between 14 and 16 May and on 19 and 20 May. Several teams on the south side want to take the very first chance. Meanwhile, the two Slovakian climbers Zoltan Pál and Vladimir Štrba are safe again. As reported, the duo had been caught by an avalanche during their attempt to climb through the difficult Southwest Face. Pál was injured in his eye. The rescue team managed to bring them back to Camp 2, from where they were flown by helicopter to Kathmandu today.

Update, 4 p.m.: According to Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA,) today nine Sherpas of the rope-fixing team reached the summit of Everest from the Nepalese side of the mountain.