Ueli Steck

He looks forward, not back. “I will never forget what happened on Everest in 2013,” the Swiss top climber Ueli Steck tells me. “But I believe I will have absolutely no problem with it. It’s over. I’m very motivated and I’ll go with a very good feeling.” In spring 2013, a Sherpa mob had attacked Steck, the Italian Simone Moro and the Briton Jonathan Griffith and had threatened them with death. This spring, Ueli will return to the highest mountain on earth. His goal: the traverse of Mount Everest and Lhotse. The 40-year-old will climb with Tenji Sherpa, with whom he had already scaled Everest without bottled oxygen in 2012. The 24-year-old belongs to “a new generation of Sherpas, who really enjoy climbing and are not only interested in doing business,” says Ueli. “I’m really looking forward to being en route with him.”

As reported, Steck had completed an intensive training camp with the German David Goettler and the Italian Hervé Barmasse in the Khumbu area in February. Subsequently, Ueli returned to Switzerland for a few weeks. He will set off to Kathmandu on 8 April.

Ueli, during the training Camp in Nepal in February you ran and climbed a total of about 250 kilometers with 15,000 meters in elevation. How much has been added since then?

Mountain run in the Khumbu region (down Cho La to Gokyo,  in the background Gokyo Ri)

I am not quite sure. I have no longer made such a large scale, but focused on intensive training. However, last week I made another 10,000 meters in elevation. So probably a total of 25,000 meters have been added.

What does this intensive training look like?

Mainly, I do interval and threshold training. These are relatively short units of physical stress, but with a high pulse frequency. This is to push the maximum pulse.

How is your current physical condition?

If you ask me today, it’s actually perfect. I can not change many things anymore, it is only fine-tuning. I can not manage a big increase in performance before I leave. But at the moment I am in top form, my performance parameters are actually sensational. Very likely, I will now do it this way every year.

Ueli (l.) and Tenji on the summit of Island Peak

How will you continue your acclimatization in Nepal?

I will go straight to Everest Base Camp. As I see it, I might ascend to Camp 2 [at 6,400 meters] on the second day after arrival and spend some time there. For me, it is also important that I have slept two nights on the South Col at almost 8,000 meters before it really starts. But for sure, I will also climb up to the West Shoulder during acclimatization to see how the conditions are.

Do you still prefer doing the traverse via the West Shoulder?

It would be the most elegant if we are able to traverse the summit ascending via the Hornbein Couloir, then descending to the South Col and up to the summit of Lhotse. That would be my dream. But I am also realistic and experienced enough to know that it can only work if very, very much matches: There must be perfect conditions and the weather must be good and stable. I think it’s important to have ideas, but in the end you have to decide on the mountain what is possible and impossible.

Everest (l.) and Lhotse (in the centre)

The Everest-Lhotse traverse has never been achieved without the use of supplemental oxygen. How high do you assess the chance of success?

There must something be going quite wrong, so that the traverse via the normal route turns out to be impossible. But we’ve seen it last year on Shishapangma: If the weather doesn’t fit, you have just no chance. You never know beforehand how high the chance really is. But I believe I am able to succeed.

Many expect a record spring season on Everest, meaning that the mountain will be really crowded. This doesn’t sound like ideal conditions for an ambitious project such as a traverse.

It doesn’t have any influence how many people are on the mountain. It doesn’t matter if the people get stuck in a traffic jam on the fixed rope. You do not need to use it and can climb on the side.

Could it be your tactics to schedule the summit attempt as early as possible in the season?

Early in the season, there is often the problem that it’s still very cold. If you go without bottled oxygen, however, it should be relatively warm. Therefore, it’s most likely not an option to set off early. I’ll go rather late. Let the first weather window pass by, then most climbers have already been on the summit, and it will become calmer on the mountain. I think, this is the more likely option.

Nobukazu Kuriki

He is hell-bent. “I think the chance is there because the wind is weak”, Nobukazu Kuriki reported via Facebook from his Camp 3 at 6,800 meters in the North Face of Mount Everest. The Japanese wants to reach the summit solo and without bottled oxygen, in the upper part of the wall via the Hornbein Couloir. “The oxygen saturation of my blood is 81 percent and very stable,” the 34-year-old climber said and announced that he would continue to climb up still that Thursday evening (local time). If everything goes smoothly, he believes that he can possibly reach the summit on early Friday evening (local time). For Saturday, according to Kuriki, bad weather is expected.

With nine finger stumps

Everest North Face

The Japanese has already proved in 2012 that he is ready to go to the extreme if necessary. At that time, he suffered severe frostbite during a solo attempt via Everest West Ridge, where he, in his own words, had reached an altitude of about 8,000 meters. He had lost nine of his ten fingers. However, Kuriki returned to Everest, with his nine remaining finger stumps and only one intact thumb. The current attempt is already his sixth on the highest mountain on earth, all of them in fall season. In 2015, Nobukazu climbed up to 8,150 meters on the normal route on the Nepalese south side of Everest before deep snow and strong winds had forced him to turn around. “I will enjoy climbing including all the hardship that comes with it,” he had written to me before. Will he this time be rewarded for his perseverance? Hopefully he will not overwind the screw.

Nobukazu Kuriki

That sounds like a dance on a volcano, although Mount Everest isn’t one. According to his team Nobukazu Kuriki has started climbing the snowy Everest North Face. The 34-year-old Japanese wants to climb via the Hornbein Couloir to the 8850-meter-high summit, it said. Probably the “Supercouloir” route is meant, which combines the Japanese Couloir in the lower part with the Hornbein Couloir in the upper part of the wall. The route was opened by the Japanese climbers Tsuneo Shigehiro and Takashi Ozaki in spring 1980. “I am fully focused and start now”, Kuriki said by radio. In recent weeks Nobukazu had repeatedly explored possible ascent routes from the bottom of the wall and referred to high avalanche danger. For this reason, Kilian Jornet – as reported – had abandoned his Everest expedition. The Spaniard, known for his high-speed climbs, to his own words had climbed on the Tibetan normal route up to an altitude of 7,950 meters.

Mountaineers from lovesickness

Snowy Everest North Face

Nobukazu Kuriki has announced to climb Everest solo and without bottled oxygen. He is trying for the sixth time to scale the highest mountain in the world in the post-monsoon period, for the first time, however, on the north side. He had got a first impression of the North Face in 2012. In this failed attempt via the West Ridge he had suffered so severe frostbite that later nine fingers had to be amputated almost completely. In 2014, he had summited with only one remaining intact finger the 8051-meter-high Broad Peak in Pakistan. By the way, the Japanese became a climber from lovesickness. His girlfriend, a passionate mountaineer, had jilted him. To find out what she had wanted for Kuriki himself began to climb – he says, anyway.

Update, 2.30 p.m.: Kuriki reports to this team that he has climbed up to 6,800 meters where he will spend the night. He says, he is “quite worried” about the snow conditions in the couloir.