Alexander Huber on Choktoi Ri

Still crazy after all these years. This title of a song by Paul Simon could also stand above the lives of many climbers – if they have survived their daring adventures into old age. Being a little crazy – and I mean that in a positive way – is just part of the game. Alexander Huber, the younger of the two Huber brothers, will celebrate his 50th birthday this Sunday.

The list of his successes is long. Thus Alexander opened several rock climbing routes in the eleventh degree, climbed (with his two years older brother Thomas, Toni Gutsch and the US-American Conrad Anker) for the first time through the West Face of the 7,108-meter-high Latok II in the Karakoram in 1997, stood one year later without bottled oxygen on the summit of the eight-thousander Cho Oyu or climbed free solo difficult routes in the Alps such as the “Hasse-Brandler-Diretissima” through the North Face of Cima Grande (in 2002) or the “Schweizerführe” at the 3,838-meter high Grand Capucin in the Montblanc region (in 2008). Last summer, Huber and his German climbing partner Fabian Buhl opened a new 2,200-meter-long route via the South Buttress of the 6,166-meter-high Choktoi Ri in the Karakoram (see video below).

Alexander lives with his wife and three children on a farm near Berchtesgaden. I called him a few days before his big birthday.

Alexander, you are about to turn 50. Is that a day like any other for you?

Alexander at the trade fair “Outdoor” in 2017

It’s certainly not a day like any other, because I’m well aware that another decade has passed. But it won’t be a special birthday for me, I already know the feeling from my previous big birthdays.

If you compare yourself today with Alexander, who was 25 years old, do you still recognize yourself?

I still absolutely recognize myself as I was then. You go your own way in life. There are many things that change, some things remain the same. Maybe I’d like to be 25 again, but my sense of reality tells me that it won’t happen that way. And it’s not like everything was better at the age of 25. There are also things that are better at 50.

Have your priorities changed?

The priorities are constantly changing. This is a completely normal process in life. It would be a miracle if it wasn’t so.

Have you become more cautious?

Yes, in the sense that I no longer do the wild actions like at the age of 25 or 35. That also has a lot to do with my sense of reality. I know that I pulled things off at a level I don’t have anymore. That means I can’t top the things I’ve already realized anyway. And that’s why I just take it easier and do the things that are possible for me.

Last summer you opened with Fabian Buhl a new route via the South Buttress of the six-thousander Choktoi Ri. How good did it feel – after some failed expeditions in the Karakoram?

Such a success always feels good. It’s fun to reach the summit. That’s the reason why you set off at all. But it is quite normal in the life of a climber that there are actions that don’t lead to success. Especially on larger expeditions, I have a success rate that is well below 50 percent. If you can’t cope with that, you have no business going to these mountains with ambitious goals. If anybody claims to be a “Mister 100 Percent Success”, I can only say: Well, then he never really tried to push himself to the limit. I prefer to keep pushing my limits and taking a setback from time to time instead of trying things that are easy to get.

But on Choktoi Ri, it ran smoothly for you.

Yes, although we had a difficult season due to the meteorological conditions. Also in the Karakoram you notice the impact of global warming. There was a lot of bad weather this year. But in terms of tactics we performed extremely well, so that in the end the result was success. Only a single wrong tactical decision would have meant that we would not have made it. We did well, but also had the bit of luck that you need.

Fabian is 28 years old, more than 20 years younger than you. Were you already a little bit in the role of the mentor, who passes on his experience?

With Fabian Buhl on top of Choktoi Ri

Sure, that’s the role you automatically take on. Of course I am a mentor of Fabian. But in the end I was looking for a competent climbing partner for my idea. One of Fabian’s strong points is that he is incredibly motivated, has incredible fun while climbing and is not afraid of anything, he really enjoys every effort. That’s exactly the kind of partner you need on a mountain. This is the only way it can work.

Was it perhaps also a model for you for the next few years to be en route in a team of only two?

I’ve done that before, so it’s not a new model for me. In principle, I prefer to be on the road in a team as small as possible. But it also depends on the goal. To tackle, for example, Latok II in a team of two, would almost mean to ignore the danger of the mountain. If something happens, you have only a minimum safety reserve.

Is there a highlight in your climbing career that stands out and that you particularly like to remember?

I am happy that I was able to set my highlights in very different fields of climbing and that I have always kept alpinism alive and interesting for me. It all started for me on top level with alpine sport climbing. Today I can’t imagine being a sports climber with the same enthusiasm again, it would probably have become much too boring for me. But if you look at what alpinism is all about – be it in Antarctica, Patagonia, the Yosemite Valley, the Dolomites, doing speed climbing, free solo climbing, difficult alpine routes, expeditions, eight-thousander, sports climbing in the eleventh-degree – then all you can say is: Cool to have such a sport that can be interesting on top level even after thirty years.

Extreme climbing, here in Mount Asgard on Baffin Island

Let’s look ahead, what goals do you still set yourself as a climber?

I only set myself medium-term goals. In the long run I can only say: I want to be happy with what I do. But what exactly will that be? I don’t know. It will happen. I am lucky to have come through my climbing almost injury-free. I’m still healthy, nothing hurts me, and that’s why I continue to go to the mountains. But of course it can look completely different from one day to the next.

Is there already a concrete project for 2019?

The only thing I know for sure is that I will not go on expedition. I still want to climb various routes here at home in the Alps. But the concrete project for 2019 is not to travel to the Himalayas or the Karakoram.

And how will you spend your birthday?

Like every year. I’ll celebrate my birthday with my friends.

Dani Arnold during his stay in Cologne

Once again, he has almost sprinted up a wall. Last August, Swiss Dani Arnold climbed the Grandes Jorasses North Face solo and without rope in the new record time of 2:04 hours. In 1938, it had taken the first climbers (led by Italian Riccardo Cassin) three days to complete the route via the Walker Spur. Since 2015, the 34-year-old is also holding the speed record for climbing the North Face of the Matterhorn (1:46 hours). Dani had made his first bang in 2011 when he broke Ueli Steck’s record in the Eiger North Face by 20 minutes and reached the summit after 2:28 hours. Steck had regained the best time in 2015 (2:22 hours).

Dani Arnold is a mountain guide and lives with his wife Denise in the canton of Uri in the 4,000-person village of Bürglen, where more than 200 inhabitants (no joke, he confirmed it to me) bear the name Arnold. I met Dani in my hometown Cologne – before his appearance as the main speaker of the Cologne Alpine Day.

Dani, how do you like the name “Usain Bolt of the classical north faces in the Alps”?

I think it’s a bit exaggerated. I am certainly very fast, but there are many other very, very good climbers. I think it’s just not true that I’m the best.

Grandes Jorasses North Face

But perhaps the fastest. After all, you hold the speed record on two of the three classic north faces in the Alps. When you climb so fast, do you sometimes get into a state of intoxication, like when running, when at some point a flow sets in and everything seems to go by itself?

Yes, there is such a feeling. I then feel free and light. If you, for example, climb the Waterfall Chimney, the Fragile Band and the Fragile Crack in the Eiger North Face, it usually takes you a lot of time. But when you’re doing it solo and at speed, you just follow one spot after the other. And then you really have the feeling that it’s fast.

Last summer you climbed the Walker Spur on the Grandes Jorasses in two hours four minutes, 17 minutes faster than the previous record holder Ueli Steck. You climbed completely without rope and other security equipment. How much risk is allowed from your point of view?

It’s not possible without risk, that’s quite clear. On the other hand, it was my goal to climb the Walker Spur without any security equipment. It was just to be the mountain and me. I first had to find out: Do I dare at all? Is it still safe? Then I decided upon this route. And I never had the feeling that I was taking a huge risk. I don’t think you can say in general that less equipment means higher risk.

How did you prepare yourself? Did you know every climbing move of this route?

The route is 1,200 meters long. I have the talent to remember places and climbing moves very well. I know, for example, how the grips look like at the Rebuffat-Corner, one of the difficult spots, and which hand I have to use on which grip. You also need a “rolling planning”, as I call it,  and a lot of self-confidence.

In the wall

You once said that there was a right to risk. What did you mean by that?

If you live for something, prepare seriously for it and then enter a danger zone, society will not accept that. I don’t think that’s right. After all, you don’t just approach these things negligently, out of ignorance or stupidity. If you really prepare yourself for something and take it seriously, you can also take a little risk, because it’s one hundred percent worth it.

Dealing with your speed records means also coming across the name Ueli Steck, because it was his records that you broke. He fell to his death at the age of 40 last year on Nuptse. Was that a warning, a reminder for you?

He did exactly the same as I do now. And of course you immediately think: Hej, that can also happen to you. I believe every accident – not only Ueli’s, but also those of other climbers – remains in the brain. That doesn’t mean that you are going a completely different way now. But I’m sure that I take not as much risk now as I did five or ten years ago.

Dani shortly before leaving the wall

When climbing at the highest level, there is always the danger of overtightening the screw one day. How do you protect from this?

The danger of going a step too far at some point is obvious. This also scares me a little, because of course I always try to reach the optimum and a little bit more. In order to counteract this, I go fishing, for example, or I simply spend time with friends and family, where we don’t talk about the subject of climbing at all. That helps me to get away from it a bit. Otherwise everything would be about climbing and also about this more, more, more. I have to have other thoughts and also to leave it well enough alone.

In the general public you are known above all because of your speed ascents. And yet you are a complete climber. For example, you are one of the first winter ascenders of Cerro Egger in Patagonia and you were also on expedition with the Huber brothers in the Karakoram. Does it bother you that you are often reduced to speed climbing in public?

It bothers me a bit. On the other hand, speed climbing allows me to make a living from climbing because there are enough lectures and sponsors. That’s why it’s important. When I do a 90-minute lecture on an evening, I use the fame for speed climbing to tell my heart stories, for example about mixed climbing in Scotland, these very, very difficult climbs.

Dani Arnold (3rd from r.) in 2015 with Thomas and Alexander Huber, their Pakistani companion Rasool, Mario Walder and Seppi Dabringer (from right)

Will you go on big expeditions again in the next few years?

Definitely. In terms of difficulty and speed, things won’t go on this way forever. Then new stories on new mountains in unknown regions will come up. With the Huber brothers I really found two great guys with whom I really enjoy traveling. This is almost more important to me than being extremely strong. You have to have a good time together. And that’s what we have.

Would an eight-thousander also be interesting for you?

Certainly. Up to now I never felt the need to climb up there, but it’s developing slowly. I would like to experience what it feels like.

Do you have a dream destination, a mountain you absolutely still want to climb?

Actually not. The Eiger North Face, for example, wasn’t this one and only goal for me. I have many, many ideas. When it becomes more concrete in preparation, I focus on a mountain. And then it suddenly becomes my mountain, and there is no other one.

Dani while ice climbing in the Helmcken Falls in Canada

You have climbed the three big north faces of the Alps solo and at great speed, so a circle has closed – unless you want to regain the Eiger record. Are you going to tick off speed climbing now?

With the record in the North Face of the Grandes Jorasses, it’s a bit over. Most likely I won’t go back to the Eiger again. But I want to keep the whole topic open. I don’t really have a concrete speed project at the moment, but that can change suddenly for me. I think I haven’t quite finished that yet.

When will we see you again on a big expedition?

In winter I want to go ice climbing in Russia or China. I have never been there in high winter. I also want to meet the people living in these extremely cold regions. That fascinates me too. There are certainly cold fingers there! (laughs)

Can you climb a mountain just completely normal, without any ulterior motive on an extreme route?

Yes, there are those days when I have no ambitions and can just enjoy it. I still love this being outside. 

Camp 1 on Kokodak Dome (2014)

Actually, the tent is a place of refuge and security. And most of the time I felt safe when I lay in my tent in the mountains. But there were exceptions. For example in 2004 during my reportage trip to K2, when I woke up suddenly in the base camp at the foot of the second highest mountain on earth, because the glacier made noises under my tent floor, as if it wanted to devour me in the next moment. Ten years later, during the first ascent of the seven-thousander Kokodak Dome in western China, we pitched up Camp 1 at 5,500 meters at a quite exposed spot – and I wondered: What happens if a real storm is raging here? That’s what I remembered when I learned of the death of Italian Simone La Terra on Dhaulagiri earlier this week.

Bad feeling

Dhaulagiri

A violent gust of wind had blown the 36-year-old with his tent from a height of about 6,900 meters from the northeast ridge into the depths. His team partner Waldemar Dominik was an eyewitness of the accident. The Pole had had a bad feeling about the place that Simone had chosen and had searched for an alternative spot. When he returned, he saw from close by how the tent was caught by the gust. Dominik descended to the base camp and sounded the alarm. The body of La Terras was found and recovered the next day at an altitude of 6,100 meters.

Buried by avalanches

Manaslu

It is not uncommon that climbers die in their tents. Objectively, the highest risk of death in the tent is the Grim Reaper coming in the form of high altitude sickness. But as in La Terra’s case, there can also be dangers from outside. In the history of Himalayan mountaineering many climbers lost their lives because they were caught by avalanches while lying in the tent. Just remember the avalanche on 22 September 2012 on the eight-thousander Manaslu, which hit two high camps in the early morning and killed eleven climbers.

One step away from tragedy

Alexander (r.) and Thomas Huber in summer 2015 in the Karakoram

Alexander and Thomas Huber had better luck in summer 2015 on the 6946-meter-high Latok III in the Karakoram. The Huber brothers and their teammates Mario Walder and Dani Arnold were almost blown out of the wall by the blast wave of an ice avalanche. “We were lucky that we had dug out a small platform to position the tents perfectly. The small snow edge of this platform has saved our lives. Otherwise we would have been blown away,” Alexander Huber told me then. “It was much, much closer than I ever imagined. And that’s shocking.”

Blown along the ledge

Also the third ascent of Kangchenjunga in 1979 by a British expedition was not far away from a “tent tragedy”, when a storm broke loose in the summit area. “At 1.30 a.m. on 5 May the wind changed direction and rapidly increased in violence which snapped the centre hoop of the double-skin tunnel tent,” Doug Scott wrote at that time. “The team soon had their boots and gaiters on but at 2.30 a.m. the tent was blown two feet (about 60 centimeters) along the ledge.” The climbers left the tent on the double. A little later, it was torn by the storm and disappeared in the depths.

P.S.: After the first summit success of the 8000er spring season on Lhotse, one more from another eight-thousander was reported on Thursday. “The Himalayan Times” reported that Chinese Gao Xiaodan and her Climbing Sherpas Nima Gyalzen Sherpa, Jit Bahadur Sherpa and Ang Dawa Sherpa had reached the 8,485-meter summit of Makalu, the fifth highest mountain on earth. The 35-year-old from Lanzhou City, located in northwestern China, had not used bottled oxygen, it said. In spring 2017, Gao had scaled Mount Everest and three days later Lhotse too, both with breathing mask.

Alex Honnold

At the latest since today, Alex Honnold knows what is the opposite of free solo: The “Press Walk” of the International Mountain Summit. The 32-year-old can neither move freely nor is he alone. On the Plose, the home mountain of Bressanone in South Tyrol, about sixty reporters, camera men and photographers are bustling around the American top climber. “Crazy,” says the 32-year-old with a smile in his face. Since 3 June, his name resounds not only throughout insiders of the climbing scene but worldwide. On that day he pushed into a new dimension. Alex succeeded the first free solo – means climbing alone and without any rope – through the legendary 900-meter-high granite wall of El Capitan in the Yosemite Valley. He climbed via the route “Freerider”, which had been opened by Alexander Huber in 1995 and had been free climbed for the first time by Alexander and his brother Thomas in 1998. For comparison, the ascent with ropes for belaying had taken the Huber brothers more than 15 hours.

Modern nomad

Up for every fun

Alex Honnold does not correspond to the stereotype of an extreme climber. He wears his hair short, does not drink alcohol, does not smoke and is a vegetarian. For many years he has been living as a modern nomad, quite modest in a mobile home which he uses to drive from rock wall to rock wall. For five years, he has been supporting with his foundation environmental projects around the world. Despite his coup on the El Capitan, he does not show any airs and graces.

Already during the ascent to the mountain restaurant Rossalm, where the organizers of the IMS have scheduled a press conference with Honnold, I manage to ask Alex some questions – according to the motto “walk and talk”.

Alexander and Thomas Huber as well as Tommy Caldwell compared your free solo on El Capitan with the first moon landing. How did you personally feel after having completed your project?

I found it similar. As a younger person I dreamt that would be the craziest thing I’ve ever done. But then, as I actually did it, I felt relatively normal because I spent so much time preparing that it felt like reasonable. I mean it was really special to me, but did feel like relatively normal. Anyway it’s complicated. I wouldn’t have been able to do something like that if I didn’t make it feel normal. But at the same time climbing El Cap without rope feels pretty crazy.

Alex Honnold: Pretty crazy

Was there any moment of doubt during your climb?

No, I was just 100 percent climbing. I wouldn’t have started without being totally committed. I spent a lot of time working on it. I spent nine years actually dreaming about it.

Many people wonder whether free solo climbs are responsible, especially this one in a 900-meter-high, extremely steep wall. What do yo answer them?

I thought it was responsible. I was going to make good decisions, doing my best. I think I’m pretty intentional about the risks that I’m going to take.

Alex Honnold: Intentional about the risks

Was it for you a kind of life project?

For me, it was very much like a life dream, definitely the biggest inspiration in my whole life.

Climbers on El Capitan

After having fulfilled this long dream, did you have to go through a mental valley?

I don’t know. If so, I am in the valley right now, because it was only a couple of months ago and I am still a sort of processing and looking for my next inspiration, what my next project is. There is a film about it coming next year. I am still talking about El Cap all the time. It doesn’t feel like the past.

You did a lot of amazing climbs before this free solo, for example the Fitz Traverse along with Tommy Caldwell. For this climb in Patagonia in February 2014, you were later awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of the climbers”. How do you value the free solo on El Capitan if you compare it with the Fitz Traverse.

I mean, the Fitz Traverse was an amazing climbing experience, because it was with Tommy. He is a great friend, a great partner. The Fitz Traverse has never been like my big lifetime dream whereas freerider was something I was thinking about for years and years. Freerider was my personal private dream, the Fitz Traverse was more Tommy’s idea, because I had never been in Patagonia so I didn’t have any special agenda. Tommy said, we should do this. Then we did and it was an amazing experience, but I hadn’t built it up ahead that time.

What exactly did you to prepare for your free solo on El Capitan?

For many years beforehand it was more the mental, the imagining, the dreaming, the thinking about whether it was possible. And the last year beforehand, it was more the physical preparation, memorizing the moves, the rehearsal, and the actual training to get fit.

So you had every step of this climb in your mind before you started into the wall?

I had definitely every step that matters. Not the easy stuff, but the hard stuff I had fully memorized.

What was mentally the most difficult part of the climb?

Probably the biggest step was just believing that it’s possible. Because for years I thought how amazing it would be to do it but never really thought that I could. So I think the biggest mental step was like believing that I actually could and then starting the actual work.

Alex Honnold: The biggest step

And when you set off into the wall, you left everything behind?

I wouldn’t have started unless I was ready. By the time I got into the wall everything was in order.

“Compared with El Cap, the Dolomites look like pieces of garbage”, says Alex

Why did you choose “Freerider” and not another route?

It’s the easiest route on El Cap. (laughs) It’s not that easy but the other ones would have been harder.

Thomas Huber told me, he hoped that you would now stop free soloing because you probably die if you continue to push your limits.

I agree, if you constantly push, it gets more and more dangerous. But Alex (Huber), for example, was constantly pushing himself in different ways but staying safe. I think it’s possible to continue the challenge yourself without going to far.

Alex Honnold: Not going too far

So it was not your last free solo?

No, I did some in the Dolomites a couple of days ago, (laughs) but very easy ones. I think in my mind the free solo on El Cap was the hardest thing ever, because I can’t really think about anything more inspiring. But in the past, like in the last ten years, when I thought of things that were hard and I was proud of, I always had six months or a year between things that I was excited on. So we’ll see.

Alexander Huber

Ogre has on the Huber brothers almost the same effect as the singing of the Sirens in Greek mythology: the two German top climbers can hardly escape the call of this fascinating granite giant. Time and again in their long careers Alexander and Thomas Huber have set off to the Ogre massif in the Karakoram or the nearby peaks of the Latok group. In 1999, they failed in their attempt to climb the 7,285-meter-high Ogre I. Thomas succeeded the second ascent of the mountain in 2001, along with the two Swiss Urs Stoecker and Iwan Wolf. The first ascent was made almost 40 years ago, on 13 July 1977 by the British climbers Chris Bonington and Doug Scott. The descent became a drama with a happy end: Scott broke both ankles, Bonington two ribs. Nevertheless, both of them, supported by the other team members, reached the base camp one week after their summit success – one of the great survival stories on the highest mountains in the world.

Easier doing it with friends

Yesterday Alexander Huber set off to Ogre. His team includes the two East Tyroleans Mario Walder and Christian Zenz and the Swiss Dani Arnold. With Dani (and Thomas Senf), Alexander had opened a new route through the Matterhorn North Face last March. With Mario and Christian, he had succeeded  the first ascent of a route on the mountain Ritterknecht in East Greenland in summer 2016. “It’s good to be on the road with partners you know,” says Alexander Huber. His three companions are not only good, competent climbers, but also friends, says the younger of the two Huber brothers. “You have to spend a lot of time together, often moments of tension. The better the human chemistry fits, the better it is.” I talked with the 48-year-old about his expedition before he left for Pakistan.

Alexander, you are heading to Ogre, a seven-thousander in the Karakoram. What exactly are you planning?

Ogre I (l.) and Ogre II, the East Pillar leads from col to the left

We would like to climb the East Pillar. This route has not yet been completed. (Several attempts on the east side of Ogre failed, e.g. in 1992, a Spanish team turned around in a snowstorm at 6,500 meters.) But it is not so much the idea to create a first ascent on this mountain, but to reach the summit at all. It is one of the most exclusive peaks of our planet, one of the most difficult spots to reach. Thomas realized the second ascent of Ogre in 2001, since then there was only one further ascent (in 2012 by the Americans Kyle Dempster and Hayden Kennedy). That shows, this is not an easy summit, but that’s exactly why we want to go there.

Only three ascents – and there was no lack of attempts, there were well above 20 expeditions on this mountain. What makes it so difficult?

The Ogre is simply an incredibly complex mountain with many objective dangers, arising from the seracs, which are practically on all sides. That’s why the East Pillar is our goal – because, from my point of view, it is free from objective dangers. Seen from a distance, I believe we can avoid all the seracs on this route. We will see what happens in reality. But I hope that we can explore and realize the maximum safe way to the summit of Ogre.

Ogre means “man-eater”. Does this mountain justify its name?

The first ascenders of Ogre, Bonington (l.) and Scott (in April 2015)

Actually you cannot really say that. There was an accident in which a climber was killed. (On a German expedition, which tried in 1993 to climb via the Ogre South Pillar, the Swiss Philipp Groebke fell to death.) However, it’s certainly not the man-eater in itself. For this, the mountain is too challenging. Meaning that all of those who try to climb Ogre are  competent, strong climbers who know exactly what they are doing. Usually mountaineering becomes dangerous when incompetent people try to reach a summit. The best example of this in the Himalayas is surely Mount Everest. There will be a lot of fatalities in the future too because many people want to climb the mountain without having the necessary skills. In this respect, Ogre doesn’t deserve its name. It’s not a man-eater.

However, Ogre is not its original name, but Baintha Brakk. Baintha is a meadow on the edge of the Biafo Glacier, from where the highest point of the mountain can be seen as the dominant peak. Brakk means peak. So it is the peak that you can see from the meadow Baintha. In any case, I think we should return to the original names of the mountains. Mount McKinley is Denali, Mount Everest from the Tibetan side Chomolungma, from the Nepalese side Sagarmatha, K 2 is Chogori, and Ogre is Baintha Brakk.

Alex, Mario and Dani (from l. to r.) on the summit of the six-thousander Panmah Kangri in 2015

The past summers in the Karakoram were very warm. This led to the failure of many expeditions. What kind of weather will give you a real chance on Ogre?

If we have the same conditions as two years ago (then the Huber brothers were en route with Mario Walder and Dani Arnold in the Latok group), when the zero-degree line was at 6,500 meters and higher over several weeks, we will get into trouble again. I think mountaineering will change in the future due to climate change anyway. The mountaineers have to adjust to this. If the zero-degree line continues to move up, we will have to switch to the fall or spring season. I have now chosen the summer season again, because I am convinced that on the way to the summit of Ogre it is important that you do not have low temperatures in the summit area. Perhaps we are lucky that this time the conditions fit. The weather is difficult to interpret. But these are the challenges we are now confronted with.

You have already canceled an expedition to Pakistan in 2014 because of the explosive political situation. Do you go there again with a queasy feeling?

Unfortunately, you cannot travel in Pakistan like you did 20 years ago. I have been able to get to know Pakistan at a time when the division did not exist between the Western world and the Muslim, Arab world. At that time you could move freely in this country. If you are traveling across the countryside today, you can never be sure that there will not be any terrorist attacks, especially against tourists. That’s why there is no more tourism in Pakistan. The people who still travel to the country are exclusively mountaineers who have a very specific goal. When we go there, we are really undercover on the road, which means we are not visible.

Latok I (2nd mountain f.l.)

A footballer would say: The ball wasn’t round. “The expedition has definitely run roughly,” Thomas Huber tells me about his trip to Latok I in Pakistan. As reported, the older of the two Huber brothers, along with German climbers Toni Gutsch and Sebastian Brutscher, had planned to tackle the north side of the 7145-meter-high granite giant in Karakoram this fall –only a few weeks after his 16-meter-fall from a rock face and a subsequent brain surgery. So the unbalance of the expedition began. “We could not get together as a team because I was so busy with my situation after the fall and the head injury,” Thomas concedes. “Nevertheless the motivation was high, and from my point of view the team fit perfectly. We maintained this euphoria, to Skardu, to Askole, to our Base Camp on the Choktoi Glacier. When we got there, everyone agreed: This is the place per se for climbing in highest perfection. But then everything ran differently.”

Only the skies

First, Thomas Huber’s help was needed in a rescue operation on nearby Ogre II (6,950 meters). The US climbers Kyle Dempster and Scott Adamson were missing, after they had started to climb the North Face of the almost 7000er some days ago. “I had met them last year,” says Thomas. “They were really cool guys. They belonged to the best alpinists in the US.”
Huber knows the mountain massif well. In 2001, he succeeded, along with Swiss climbers Iwan Wolf and Urs Stoecker, the second ascent of Ogre I and the first ascent of Ogre III.
Thomas flew by rescue helicopter twice – in his pocket his emergency medication, because he did not know whether he would be able to stand the flight up to an altitude of 7,200 meters with his head injury. The 49-year-old had no problems, but there wasn’t any sign of the two missing climbers: “We searched the planned ascent route through the North Face, the summit region, the Northwest Ridge, via which they wanted to descend, even the crevasses at the foot of the wall. We did not find anything, really nothing.” Except for the skis of the two Americans at the access of the route.

The next rescue

Max Reichel’s rescue

Huber, Gutsch, and Brutscher climbed once more via the Northwest Ridge up to 6,200 meters, but again they didn’t discover any sign of Dempster and Adamson. The trio had to descend when the weather suddenly turned bad. The search was canceled. After all, the three Germans were now well acclimatized to tackle their own project on Latok I. “But the rescue operation had been on my mind all along, so much that I could not think of normal climbing during this first phase of the expedition.” Even in the second phase, that didn’t change. Max Reichel, the cameraman of the team, suffered from high altitude sickness due to a protracted myocarditis. Doctors in Germany said that he had to be brought back to civilization as soon as possible. Thomas accompanied his friend to a point 40 kilometers downhill, 1,000 meters lower. There Max asked Thomas to return to Base Camp to tackle his project. “That freed me completely,“ says Huber. „I just wanted to think of climbing, nothing else.”

Cold shower

He returned to Base Camp full of euphoria. There, however, a new “cold shower” awaited him – the last one. Huber’s team partners Gutsch and Brutscher told him that they were not willing any more to climb the North Face. “They said they had a bad feeling and didn’t see any chance to climb through the wall under these circumstances. They did not even want to try it.” Thomas Huber fell into a deep emotional hole: “Sadness, total disappointment, also rage. I just could not believe that at a moment’s notice they said they wanted to go home. I could not understand it.” From his point of view the conditions were “acceptable”: “Of course they were not optimal. The area was snowy, it was relatively cold. But there were no real avalanches in the wall, only spindrift. In addition, I thought that the situation would change in a positive way during some days of good weather. And the meteorologists predicted good weather.”  It was pointless for him to try to persuade the other two climbers, says Thomas: “I cannot set off to climb the wall with such partners, who have been mentally already at home for a long time.”

When the mountain gets bigger and bigger

Thomas Huber

For the 49-year-old, it was a deja vu. Also in 2015, his teammates – his brother Alexander, Swiss Daniel Arnold and Austrian Mario Walder – had outvoted him to abandon their Latok I expedition. “I cannot blame anyone saying: Thomas, maybe something is wrong with you,” says Huber. “It’s now 5-1 against me. And these five are really five top climbers. That beats me.” Maybe it is a question of mentality, says Thomas: “I am just someone who speaks less but rather goes to the mountain to learn what it offers and how to deal with it. There is often a lot of discussion in Base Camp. And I notice that during these discussions the mountain is mentally getting bigger and bigger and in the end impossible.” The momentum then falls by the wayside, Thomas means: “The big crux at Latok is not the wall, but the man. The secret of these walls is what they make out of people by and by. They have such a great power and charisma. On the one hand they are magnetic, on the other scary. You require considerable strength to remain defiant.”

The critical point

Despite his frustration, Thomas Huber has not yet banned the Latok I North Face out of his mind, but he does not yet want to set a date for another attempt. “I’m not afraid of this wall and this mountain. I know I’ll be back,” says Thomas. “I’m just afraid that I’ll be back with a team that again says: No, we don’t want to go.” In hindsight, it was a mistake to set off without having climbed a lot together before, Thomas believes: “These mountains belong to the most difficult in the world. If you tackle these mountains, you must be a team already before setting off. You must know how the others work. You also have to know the abysmal depths of their mind. Only then can you go to the limit.” Why then doesn’t he choose his brother Alexander as his partner, with whom he has already climbed and experienced so much in the mountains? “My brother does not want to go to the North Face, that’s perhaps the critical point,” says Thomas.

Thomas Huber will set off again

Incredible – that describes Thomas Huber’s current life quite aptly. No wonder that the 49-year-old German top climber uses this word very often when we talk on the phone. Thomas was, as he himself says, “incredibly lucky” when he survived his 16-meter-fall from a rock face on 5 July. He recovered so “incredibly fast” that he – as initially planned before his fall – will shortly go “with incredible joy” on expedition to Pakistan. Truly incredible! The aim of the travel is the north side of the 7,145-meter-high granite giant Latok I in the Karakoram. Huber’s team includes Toni Gutsch – who, in 1997, first climbed the West Face of Latok II (7108 m) along with the Huber brothers and US climber Conrad Anker – and Sebastian Brutscher.

Legendary failure

The German trio will share their Base Camp with the Americans George Henry Lowe, Jim Donini and Thomas R. Engelbach who want to climb a bit on the six-thousanders in this area. Lowe and Donini, both now older than 70, made history on Latok I in 1978: Along with George’s cousin Jeff Lowe and Michael Kennedy, they opened the route via the Latok I North Ridge. 150 meters below the summit they had to turn back in a storm. “The most remarkable failure in alpine history”, Thomas Huber says appreciately. The four US climbers spend 26 (!) days in a row on the ridge before they returned completely exhausted, but safely to Base Camp.

Thomas during hypoxia training

Thomas, you’ll leave shortly to Pakistan, only a few weeks after your 16-meter-fall and surgery on your head? How can that work?

It was a skull fracture, which was fixed so that I could expect no permanent damage. We then made some medical tests, working with neurologists. I prepared myself for high altitude with a special program by Markus Goebel. By reducing oxygen you can thereby simulate altitudes of up to 6,000 meters. We have repeatedly measured the brainwaves and made MRIs. The result: It had no effect on my brain, no edema have developed. The doctors have given me a so-called “self-reliant release.” They said: “Thomas, in the end it’s up to you to decide it.” I have prepared step by step for this moment. Actually I haven’t been thinking of the expedition, I simply wanted to recover. With the energy that I have received from outside, from my personal environment, I recovered so incredibly fast that I now have the courage to start this expedition. I say yes to this expedition. But nobody has to worry about me. I have also the courage to say no at any moment. If I feel that it doesn’t work physically, I’ll say no.

You meanwhile did some climbs again. How did it feel?

Still a bit shaky. The three (broken) spinous processes of vertebrae have still not grown together optimally. I have to be patient. But I am already able again to carry a backpack. I climbed along with my son through the Watzmann East Face, via the “Wiederroute” up to the central summit. I also did a lot of mountain running. I can do all this without pain, without vertigo, without headache. Only the asymmetric strain of my back while climbing is still a bit painful from time to time.

Has the inner cinema started when you climbed, in the sense that you remembered your fall?

Only once for a short time. There is an automatic role in our climbing hall. After you have climbed up, you sit down in a loose strap and are moved back down to the floor. There I hesitated for a short moment. I looked down, 15 meters, exactly the height I had fallen down. First I climbed back. My daughter was with me and said: “Next time you sit down!” I did, and it was fine. If I am belayed, I have no problems. The fall happened because the rope was a non-standard one, it had been cut off. I was incredibly lucky and I gratefully accepted it. Therefore I have no nightmares or inner cinema in the sense that I would think: “Oh God, what happened?” I am grateful and happy that I am still alive and can look forward. For me this now means going to Latok I. I am still far from thinking of a summit success. Maybe I’ll reach the top, maybe not.

The North Face of Latok I

Actually the mountaineering season in the Karakoram is coming to an end. Why are you so late?

The Latok I North Face gets a lot of sunshine, because it also has an east component. From 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. there is constantly sun. Therefore we decided to go in fall, when the sun is much lower. Only when the wall is in the shadow, you have a chance to climb through it. Otherwise it’s impossible. I have looked at the weather information. There is also acceptable weather in fall, and it’s just colder.

You have now spoken about the North Face, earlier reports said you wanted to complete the route via the North Ridge. What exactly are you planning to do?

There is always far too much talk in advance. You have to face the wall, and then you take exactly the way that seems to you the coolest and best. Perhaps the North face is possible, maybe the North Ridge is the only possible way in this time of the year and in these conditions. You always have to be flexible. If you focus too much on a single goal on such a mountain, leaving no alternatives, you will most likely come back without summit success. On such mountains you may have a plan, but then you have to look for new ways, because the conditions are constantly changing.

Thomas at Latok I in 2015

Regardless of whether the North Face or the North Ridge of Latok I, both were too hard nuts to crack for dozens of expeditions. Is it possible at all to speak about a chance of success on the north side of this mountain?

No, you can’t. But in mountaineering it’s itching to go where many have failed before. That’s why I back then went to the Ogre, an incredible mountain. (In 2001, Thomas succeeded, along with Swiss climbers Urs Stoecker and Iwan Wolf, the second ascent of the 7,285 meter-high-mountain in the Karakoram). Similarly, I see the Latok I North Face. This is a very nice goal. Perhaps inspired by the fact that so many did not make it, you think you climb it first due to your experience, your skills, maybe your luck. That’s enormously attractive.

Do you think that you’ll now, after your fall, enjoy even more to be on the road, regardless of whether you’ll be successful or not?

I’ll travel there with incredible joy. It is a tremendous gift. Whether I get to the top of Latok I or not, the very fact to be under way now at that place is beyond all description. I take this joy and energy with me. Sometimes you have to leave behind the high expectations and say: “Now I no longer think of what I want to achieve, I just go on my journey and engage in the project.” I have a wonderful team. And I believe that if this energy is setting up a dynamic process you can do crazy and great things. But even if I return home without summit success, I will do it with a laughing heart, because I may be healthy again – and wild.

Thomas Huber (in 2014)

Approximately 1.8 seconds. That was the time it took when Thomas Huber fell 16 meters deep from a rock face on the Brendlberg in the Berchtesgaden region in Bavaria – now two weeks ago. As previously reported, the 49-year-old German top climber, the older of the two Huber brothers, landed on soft forest floor. As it turned out later, Thomas suffered a skull fracture and had to undergo surgery immediately. The doctor’s reassuring prognosis afterwards: no permanent damage. Meanwhile, Thomas has left the hospital and is recovering at home. I have phoned him.

Thomas, first things first: How are you?

I’m doing very well. I am aware of the immense luck that I had. I received it gratefully. I don’t look back what could have happened, I’m just happy that it happened the way it happened. Of course, it would have been better if I had avoided it and the accident had not even happened. But that’s what’s happening in climbing. I felt totally safe in my routine, and that’s often where the devil is in.

The rock face on the Brendlberg

Are all your injuries curable?

It’s like a miracle that nothing more happened to me. That’s what the surgeons have told me too. After all, I fell 16 meters deep, we have measured it. All my injuries are curable. And it seems I’ll be 100 percent fit in the near future.

16 meters, that’s as high as one and a half single-family houses. Have you still thought anything during your fall or was it just pure instinct?

All was instinct. You do no longer think but only act. At every second I was fully conscious and obviously I have instinctively done everything right. But I was no longer able to control it. It happened so quickly and it was so surprising. You are then no longer in reality, it is like being on a second level, where only your body reacts and makes you survive in the end. I had 1,000 guardian angels. I’m sure there was anything that has made me survive. Otherwise I would not have been able to get back on my feet afterwards and walk down the mountain without help. I’ve not a single bruise. I have suffered only the skull fracture, a dislocated finger and a few broken spinous processes of vertebrae that had scraped over the rock.

Thomas after the surgery

You have probably abseiled already ten thousands of times in your life. One wonders how this incident could happen to you at all? Was it just a short moment lack of concentration?

No, the routine was to blame. When you are climbing a wall for the first time, it is frightening, not only on El Capitan, but also on Brendlberg, even though this wall is only 70 meters high but very steep, very alpine. I have been constantly climbing there in the last two months and have opened several routes. The wall has become for me a kind of a living room, I felt totally comfortable there. It was my second home, my summer job before the expedition. We filmed in the route “Watzmannflimmern”, which is a (difficulty) 9+. I wanted to fix a rope for the cameramen. When I had trained in the route that I finally climbed during the preceding months, I had always used a 60-meter rope. It was long enough to get to the ledge, five meters were still left then. But the rope, I used now, belonged to a friend. I did not know that it was cut off.
I abseil and remove three quickdraws from the first pitch of a neighboring route. Everything is good, I abseil to the ledge. And – tamm! – I fall. I was really fully concentrated. It was another story that was responsible, just the full routine that everything had always gone well during the previous months. Just like a master carpenter who, after 10,000 cuts with a circular saw, cuts off his finger.

Going to climb on

It was very close, you have cheated death. Do you ask yourself: Do I continue as before?

If you are not able to deal with a story, you really have to ask this question. But if you are aware of this immense luck you had and if you are grateful that you are staying alive, then you can continue to go the mountains. You simply always have to be aware of what you are doing. The most dangerous thing is when you think you have everything under control. I have learned from my accident: Actually you must not rely on anyone or anything except on yourself. Put on your harness and check that the buckle is closed! Even if it is routine, look always at it, as a backup! Even though I have abseiled there for the 20th time, a new rope means just a new situation. Michael Schumacher (the Formula 1 record world champion had a serious ski accident in 2013)  has not fallen so deep as I did, and alas he is not well. Others fall half a meter deep and may be dead. I just say: Thanks, thanks, for staying alive.

Initially you had planned to travel along with some friends to the seven-thousander Latok I in Pakistan to tackle the legendary North Ridge route. Of course, this plan is out-of-date now. What will you do now?

Actually, I don’t want to talk about it now. I’m under medical treatment. I just had a first EEG, which was very positive. Now let’s see that I recover and get perfectly healthy again. Too often, people make the big mistake to look too far into the future. I look at the present. And I am just happy now and grateful that I am still living.

Thomas Huber is on his feet again

“I already feel a lot better again,” Thomas Huber writes to me from the hospital in the Bavarian town of Traunstein. If that’s not good news! After all, the 49-year-old German top climber – as reported yesterday – had fallen twelve meters deep from a rock face on the Brendlberg near the village of Scheffau. According to the German website bgland24.de, the accident happened when Huber was abseiling. Thomas was standing on a small ledge, unclipped from the belay to take another rope, when he lost his balance. This could have ended in catastrophe. Probably owing only to “1000 guardian angels” (Thomas) and his instinct, nothing worse happened to him.

No permanent damage

Thomas landed “like a cat” on the soft forest floor, he told bgland24.de. Huber was even able to walk along with his climbing partner Michael Grassl to the place where the ambulance was waiting. However, the diagnosis at the hospital in Traunstein was alarming: skull fracture. Thomas immediately had to go under the knife. It was a surgery without complications. The doctors’ prognosis is positive: No permanent damage. The other injuries – broken or partially fractured spinous processes of a few vertebrae – will heal. If everything goes well, Thomas will be able to leave the hospital next week.

Alexander Huber in Innsbruck

The Huber brothers will continue to go on joint expeditions, but probably not to Latok I. Whereas Thomas Huber raved about the still unclimbed North Face of the 7,145-meter-high granite mountain in the Karakoram when I met him three weeks ago, his younger brother Alexander seems to have definitely written off the project due to their experiences last summer. I talked to the 46-year-old climber at the Alpine Trade Fair in Innsbruck last week.

Alexander, on Latok III, during your acclimatization for climbing the North Face of Latok I, you were are almost blown out of the wall by the blast wave of an ice avalanche. Your brother told me that never before it had been so close. Have you felt like he did?

It was definitely close. We had noticed the serac and therefore placed our camp far away from it. We were lucky that we had dug out a small platform to position the tents perfectly. The small snow edge of this platform has saved our lives. Otherwise we would have been blown away. In this respect, our risk management worked. But it was much, much closer than I ever imagined. And that’s shocking.

Did this extreme experience break your morale to tackle your original goal, the North Face of Latok I?

Yes, it broke our morale. But even if the serac had not collapsed, we would have noticed the bad conditions on the mountain the next day. We would have realized that it was impossible to climb further up and that we shouldn’t be there under such conditions and at such high temperatures.

Alex, Mario and Dani (l. to r.) at the summit of Panmah Kangri

What is your feeling when you remember this expedition?

I can accept it very well because it even was as it was. Mario (Walder), Dani (Arnold) and I climbed a small six-thousander at the end. In respect of mountain sports, that was not relevant at all because it was one dimension of difficulty lower than Latok I. But for me, it was a wonderful experience that I will always associate with this trip to Pakistan. To my mind, the expedition has got a name now: first ascent of Panmah Kangri, 6,046 meters, a beautiful free-standing mountain. Even though it is not extreme, we just have to be satisfied that finally everything turned out all right. We couldn’t achieve more than we did. If you have a problem dealing with this, you shouldn’t go to the mountains. We are doing an outdoor sport where the conditions decide whether we can climb or not. If you don’t want this, you have to look for another sport.

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Last year, you had already planned to go to Latok I but then called off your expedition due to the uncertain political situation in Pakistan. How did you experience the country this time?

In Baltistan, it was peaceful. In my view, there was no danger in the mountains. You can’t compare the situation there with this on Nanga Parbat. Whereas Nanga Parbat is easily accessible, the mountains of the Karakoram are remote and in addition located in a Shiite region where the Taliban are usually not as strong. I felt very safe in Baltistan. But if it had been possible, I would have avoided traveling on Karakorum Highway. Terrorism is a cold danger that you don’t sense. It only turns to be hot when it happens. You are traveling there in a state of continuing uncertainty. We didn’t notice any danger on Karakorum Highway, we saw nothing. But that doesn’t mean that it is really safe.

Alexander (r.) and Thomas – in the Karakoram last summer

Are you still fired up for the North Face of Latok I?

It is clear to me: The North Face of Latok I is so incalculably dangerous that I feel no more motivation to tackle it. I’m looking for other difficult goals without this incalculable risk.

Do you speak as a family father?

No, that has nothing to do with the fact that I have a family. I do love my life and want to experience it. Also in the past, I back-pedaled when I thought that the goals were too dangerous.

It’s a sign of strength to be able to do so.

I mean, this is absolutely necessary. Gamblers have never got far in the mountains. It is still possible to become well-known very quickly with relatively little skills but high willingness to take risks. But there are enough examples to prove that it doesn’t go well for a long time.

Charly Gabl

“I’m retired, but not tired or unhappy”, says Karl, called “Charly” Gabl. “You should not slow down from hundred to one. As on the road, that would be fatal.” Four years ago, the Austrian meteorologist retired, but the 68-year-old weatherman is still advising many professional climbers during their expeditions in the Himalayas or Karakoram. “I’m doing this voluntarily. For example last summer, I advised the Huber brothers on Latok I where they did not succeed due to the warm weather and were almost killed by an ice avalanche”, Gabl told me when I met him at the Alpine Trade Fair in Innsbruck last weekend.

“No one is immune from stumbling”

The Austrian team led by Hansjoerg Auer that first climbed the South Face of the 6,839-meter-high Nilgiri South in the Annapurna massif at the end of October, had previously seeked advice from Charly too. On the descent – as reported – Gerry Fiegl, obviously suffering vom altitude sickness, lost his balance and fell to death. The weather was not to blame for the accident, says Gabl: “There was no precipitation, it was sunny, even though there was a strong wind. But stumbling is always possible.” Charly cites the example of a mountain guide colleague who fell to death on Annapurna Fang, a secondary peak of the eight-thousander, because his crampons entangled in his gaiters.“No one is immune from stumbling. This is one of the the biggest dangers in the mountains”, says Gabl.

Most accidents while hiking

The Tirolyan should know. For ten years now, he has been president of the “Austrian Council for Alpine Safety”. More and more people are killed in mountain accidents in the Alps. This is mainly due to the fact that so many people are going to the mountains, Gabl explains, adding that their number has finally increased tenfold since the 1950s. “Most of the dead are hikers, half of them dying after heart attacks. But it is precisely the hikers who are predestined to slip or stumble.”

Travel to Nepal!

Summit of Sarbibung (centre)

Why do professional climbers still contact him to get weather forecasts? “Because I am a high altitude climber too and know what the point is”, says Charly Gabl. In 1970, he skied down Noshaq (7,492 m), the highest mountain in Afghanistan, for the first time ever. “I have scaled almost 50 summits higher than 5,000 meters so far”, says the famous weatherman. Three years ago, he, aged 65, climbed to the top of Putha Hiunchuli (called Dhaulagiri VII too, 7,246 m) in Nepal (where, incidentally, I myself had to turn around in 2011, about a hundred meters below the summit). Just recently, Charly was back in Nepal again and reached the highest point of Saribung Peak (6,328 m), during a trek through the ancient kingdom of Mustang. “What a beautiful summit”, Charly enthuses about his trip to Nepal. Despite the devastating earthquake six months ago, the infrastructure was working properly, says Charlie. Everything was well organized. “I can only say: Guys, travel to Nepal! During these 18 days, I and my wife ensured jobs for ten people. This is very important.”