The “Mustache Gang”: Degoulet, Guigonnet, Millerioux (from l. to r.)

The “Mustache Gang” has struck in Nepal. The French climbers Helias Millerioux, Frederic Degoulet and Benjamin Guigonnet, who call themselves “Le Gang des Mustaches”, opened in Alpine style a new route through the South Face of Nuptse. “Jippie, it’s done! They did it!”, the Base Camp team of the trio posted yesterday on Facebook, adding that the three climbers had reached the 7,742-meter-high summit. They did not mean the 7861-meter high Nuptse I, but Nuptse Nup II, also called Nuptse Northwest. Helias, Frederic and Benjamin had entered their route last Friday. After six nights in the wall they reached the highest point.

Fourth complete route via the South Face

New French route on Nuptse

The South Face of Nuptse, which was now mastered on a new route by the “Mustache Gang”, is considered to be extremely difficult. A British-Nepalese expedition led by Chris Bonington made the first ascent of Nuptse I via the South Face in 1961. In 2003, the two Russians Valery Babanov and Yuri Kosholenko succeeded the first ascent of the 7804-meter high-Nuptse East climbing via the South Pillar. In 2008, the French Stephane Benoist and Patrice Glairon-Rappaz opened another South Face route in Alpine style, ending in the upper part of the wall in the Bonington route.

Nanga Parbat

The Karakoram remains unpredictable. The climbing season in Pakistan is slowly but surely coming to an end – and the number of summit successes is manageable. On Nanga Parbat the Spaniard Ferran Latorre, the Frenchman Hélias Millerioux and the Bulgarian Bojan Petrov reached the highest point at 8,125 meters. “Seven intense days, but it was worth it,” tweeted Latorre (see also the video below). It was the 13th eight-thousander for him, he climbed all of them without bottled oxygen. Now only Mount Everest is still missing in the collection of the 45-year-old. Ferran wants to tackle it in spring 2017. Bojan Petrov has scaled so far eight of the 14 highest mountains in the world. Nanga Parbat was after Annapurna and Makalu his third eight-thousander this year.

Avalanche on K2

The season on K2, with a height of 8,611 meters the second highest mountain on earth, will probably remain without any summit success. After an avalanche had completely destroyed Camp 3 at 7,315 meters four days ago, the commercial expeditions began to strike their tents on the “King of the Eight-thousanders”. Thank goodness the climbers were still below Camp 3, when the avalanche swept down.

An 8000er for acclimatization

Gasherbrum IV

Eight summit successes were reported from the 8,034-meter-high Gasherbrum II. On Broad Peak, so far only the two Slovenians Luka Lindic and Ales Cesen have reached the highest point at 8,051 meters – very early in the season and as acclimatization (!) for an even more ambitious goal: climbing the West Face of the 7932-meter-high Gasherbrum IV. The “Shining Wall” has been climbed only twice: for the first time in 1985 in Alpine style by the Austrian Robert Schauer and the Pole Wojciech Kurtyka and in 1997 by a Korean team. Lindic and Cesen belong to the young generation of very strong Slovenian climbers. In 2015, they were awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of mountaineering”, along with their compatriot Marko Prezelj for their first ascent of the North Face of the 6,657-meter-high Hagshu in northern India.