Denis Urubko on Kangchenjunga

Mount Everest is still awaiting the first ascent this spring. But summit successes are reported from other eight-thousanders. The Russian climber Denis Urubko sent a message that he reached the 8586-meter-high summit of Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain on earth, today at 9:40 a.m. local time. As Denis also his companions, the Polish climber Adam Bielecki, the Spaniard Alex Txikon and the Russians Artyom Brown and Dmitri Sinev, should have started the descent. Bielecki, Txikon and Sinev had previously made a summit bid but had returned from 8350 meters. Initially Urubko and Co. had wanted to open a new route through the North Face. Obviously, it was more of a variant of the British North Ridge route which Doug Scott, Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker had climbed in 1979.

The old man did it again

Carlos Soria on the top

Several successes have been reported from the normal route on the south side of Kangchenjunga. Noteworthy was the ascent of the Spanish climber Carlos Soria. With 75 years, he is now the oldest climber who has ever reached the summit of Kangchenjunga. Soria is already holding the records as the oldest summiter of K2 (65 years), Broad Peak (68), Makalu (69), Gasherbrum I (70) and Manaslu (71). And he wants to complete the 14 eight-thousanders. Three are still missing: Shishapangma, Annapurna and Dhaulagiri. The Finn Samuli Mansikka and the Italian Marco Camandona also summited Kangchenjunga, both apparently without bottled oxygen. For Mansikka it was the eighth, for Camandona the sixth eight-thousander.

Too late

Alix (r.) and Luis on Makalu

On Makalu, the German couple Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger turned back on 8250 meters on Saturday. “We could twist and turn it as much as we wanted, the time was too close to reach the summit in daylight”, Alix and Luis wrote in their expedition diary. If everything fits they want to make a second attempt around 24 May. Their German companion Florian Huebschenberger was more lucky. The 27-year-old reached the highest point at 8485 meters together with the Swiss climber Mike Horn on Saturday.

Last weekend there were also summit successes on Cho Oyu and Dhaulagiri. Last Wednesday four climbers of a French military expedition summited Shishapangma, after they had climbed via the South Face.