Heidi Sand (in Patagonia last November)

Impossibly Heidi Sand could have foreseen that Denali would change her life in this way. When the German mountaineer and sculptor descended from the summit of the highest mountain of North America (6,190 m) in 2010, the then 43-year-old suddenly had strong stomach pain. Soon after the shattering diagnosis: advanced colorectal cancer. After the emergency surgery, chemotherapy followed. “If I survive, I want to reward myself with an eight-thousander,” Heidi then promised herself – and fulfilled this dream of her life: On 26 May 2012 the mother of three children stood on the summit of Mount Everest.

Meanwhile Heidi Sand has passed the critical five-year mark after her cancer diagnosis. She is considered to be cured – and has realized further climbing projects after having summited Everest. In autumn 2013, for example, Heidi scaled Cho Oyu without using bottled oxygen and in spring 2014 she stood on top of Makalu (with breathing mask). With Billi Bierling, Heidi shares the honor of having been the first German women to reach the summit of Makalu. Sand dedicated her three successes on eight-thousanders to her children, for her husband remained the Eiger North Face which she succeeded to climb a year ago, in December 2015. And last November, she tackled, along with the Swiss mountain guide Lorenz Frutiger, the legendary granite giant Fitz Roy in Patagonia – in vain, the weather put a spoke in their wheel. I asked the 50-year-old four questions about her climbing.

Heidi, what do you owe to the mountains, especially Mount Everest?

At Mount Everest (© Athlete / Bob Berger)

It is simply an incredible feeling to be able to stand on the highest point on earth. Knowing that your mental strength and physical fitness have brought you up there. Every new summit gives me a new perspective – not just the surrounding area, but also particularly on myself, on my life. It gives me strength and confidence.
I set the goal of climbing Everest during the chemotherapy, and this goal drew me out of my valley. Do not sit down and fall into self-pity, get up! Move and find the light at the end of the tunnel!

As a cancer sufferer you cheated death. Has this experience made you more courageous or at least more willing to take risks in the mountains?

I am now focusing more on things that really matter to me, which are close to my heart. We owe it to ourselves and the others to make use of every day. You have only one life. Use it!
I am not more willing to take risks than before. But since I am now more often in the mountains and pursue my goals more consistently, I take, at large, higher risks, but it’s worth it.

Heidi on Fitz Roy

After Everest you also climbed Cho Oyu and Makalu. That’s it? Or are you planning to scale other eight-thousanders?

I had a score to settle with Cho Oyu and in addition wanted to climb an eight-thousander without bottled oxygen. Makalu is climbed far more rarely than Everest and is a technically much more challenging mountain. Each project was planned in detail, but of cause sometimes things happen that can not be foreseen. So I was very lucky to be able to climb all three of them. At the moment I don’t want to say that I will never again climb an eight-thousander. We will see what the future holds. But there are many more mountaineering challenges for me, which are defined not only by altitude, such as the Eiger North Face (which I climbed on 20 December 2015), Fitz Roy in Patagonia, Mount Foraker in Alaska and many other mountains in the Alps and worldwide.

What pattern do you use to select your mountain destinations?

I don’t have any sophisticated strategy. A mountain destination must be attractive to me. Emotionally, visually, because of its history or its mountaineering challenge. There are usually several of these factors.
On the descent from Everest, I fell in love with Makalu. This overwhelming rock pyramid had beckoned to me. It is also considered to be a difficult 8000er, because of his height and technical challenges. The Eiger North Face – at the foot of which I had often been skiing and devoured the book “The White Spider” (by Heinrich Harrer about the first ascent of the wall in 1938) – of course fascinated me because of its tragic history. Only when I have found such a mountain, I start out to plan and prepare the project.

Heidi Sand (© AthletenWerk/Bob Berger)

Heidi Sand knows how it is to accept a seemingly hopeless fight. “Since my cancer, I have a special relationship with probabilities and chances”, the 49-year-old German climber and sculptor write to me. “You have to believe in yourself and you should use any chance, no matter how small it is.” In 2010, Heidi was diagnosed with colon cancer at an advanced stage. She accepted the fight. Two years later, she climbed Mount Everest. In 2013, she summited Cho Oyu, her second eight-thousander. The following year, Sand and Billi Bierling were the first German women on top of Makalu. Now Heidi is committed to a climate protection project called “25zero”. During the upcoming climate summit in Paris, the Australian adventurer Tim Jarvis and his team want to point out the consequences of climate change for 25 still glaciated peaks at zero latitude, around the Equator. If nothing is done, says Jarvis, no ice or snow will remain on these mountains at the latest in 25 years – therefore “25zero”.

Six peaks on three continents

Mount Stanley

While a new climate change agreement will be debated in Paris starting next Monday, “25zero” teams will climb six mountains with melting glaciers in equatorial areas: Carstensz Pyramid (4,884 meters) in Indonesia, Mount Stanley (5,109 meters) in Uganda, Mount Kenya (5,199 meters), Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895 meters) in Tanzania, Chimborazo (6,268 meters) in Ecuador and Nevado del Tolima (5,215 meters) in Colombia. By sending live reports and pictures of these mountains, the adventurers want to show the decision-makers in Paris the already dramatic situation quite plainly. “I have decided to climb Mount Stanley, because the Rwenzori Mountains are particularly bad hit by climate change”, says Heidi. She will climb along with Tim Jarvis, the founder of “25zero”, and the Briton Ed Wardle. After his expedition with his Australian compatriot Peter Treseder in 1999, Jarvis was holding the world records for the fastest unsupported trip to the South Pole and for the longest unsupported Antarctica journey for a few years. Even after that, he made headlines with various expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic. Wardle is a filmmaker and mountaineer who has scaled Everest already three times.

Glaciers in retreat

There is no more time to be lost, believes Heidi Sand. “When you’re for instance in Grindelwald in the Swiss Alps, you can see it quite clearly. 100 years ago, the great Grindelwald Glacier still ranged to the village. Today the glacier has melted so far that you must hike up six hours from the village”, says Heidi. “This year, the north faces in the Alps resembled south faces – hardly any ice or snow in the walls. So I had to postpone my next big project, the Eiger North Face, to next year.”

Optimist

Again and again, climate conferences have failed in the past. There was nothing more than hot air at the end. What makes Heidi confident that these Paris negotiations might end otherwise? “If I did not believe in the success and did not have an optimistic attitude that enabled me to achieve my goals, I would not take part in ‘25zero’”, Heidi replies. “We all have the belief and optimism to do our part to a better world.”

Heidi Sand (2012 on Everest)

Super Sunday on Makalu. Two German female climbers reached the 8485-meter-high summit of the fifth highest mountain in the world on 25 May: Heidi Sand and Billi Bierling. Both were members of the team of Himalayan Experience. Therefore I am tempted to say that both are the first German women on Makalu.Heidi Sand was motivated to do high altitude mountaineering by a serious illness. When she was 43 years old, the sculptor from the town of Stuttgart she got the devastating diagnosis: colon cancer. She swore: If I survive, I will scale Mount Everest. Both happened. Heidi fought the cancer and reached the top of the world in 2012. In 2013, she scaled Cho Oyu – and now at the age of 47 years her third eight-thousander Makalu.

Billi’s fourth eight-thousander

Billi Bierling

Many know Billi Bierling as the assistant of the legendary Himalayan chronicler Elizabeth Hawley. But the 46-year-old, who was born in the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany, is not only living and working in Nepal but also climbing the highest mountains. In 2009, she scaled Mount Everest. In 2010, Billi was the first German women on top of Manaslu, in 2011 of Lhotse. For her first three ascents of eight-thousanders she used bottled oxygen. In fall 2011, Billi summited Manaslu again, this time without oxygen mask. In fall 2012, she tried to climb Makalu without bottled oxygen but had to turn around at 7900 meters. In 2013, Bierling scaled the 7861-meter-high Nuptse – and now Makalu. “I never thought i’d make it. It’s such a long and hard climb!”, she wrote on Twitter. Congratulations, Billi – and of course, Heidi!

Actually, the German couple Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger had planned a second summit attempt on Makalu for last weekend after the first had failed. By now we have not heard anything from them. Having skaled six eight-thousanders, the 43-year-old Alix is the most successful German woman on the highest mountains of the world.