The 6,142-meter-high Shiva in northern India

Shiva has rough edges. On the one hand he is the god of creation for the Hindus. But he is also feared for the fact that he smashes everything to bits, if he is in a real peeve. The same applies to the 6,142 meter-high mountain of the same name in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Sometimes Shiva attracts the world’s best climbers with its steep walls and beautiful shape, then again it is unruly – as the Swiss climbers Stephan Siegrist and Jonas Schild as well as their photographer Dominic Fischer had to experience this fall. Siegrist, aged 45, and the 26-year-old Schild had actually planned to climb the North Face of the mountain. But somehow everything went wrong.

At a snail’s pace

Lots of snow

First, the Indian kitchen team that had traveled ahead erroneously set up the base camp on the south side of Shiva instead of the north side. The climbers lost time because they had to go around the mountain to get to the foot of the Shiva North Face. Then the weather changed. For days it snowed down to 2,500 meters above sea level. “We were stuck,” writes Stephan Siegrist. “Through 60 centimeters of fresh snow we finally reached a place at 3,900 meters on 26 September, suitable for a base camp.” Two days later they started to the foot of the wall. “Partially sinking down to the hip, we fought like snails towards the foot of the North Pillar. Without backpacks we reached an altitude of 5,000 meters on the same day, crossing below a serac. We felt good.” But again it began to snow. For days. Avalanches swept down into the valley.

“Senseless, dangerous, fun-free”

Stephan Siegrist climbing a crack

The conditions on the mountain worsened daily, reports Stephan. Finally the team pulled the rip cord and gave up their plan to climb the North Face of Shiva. “With the amount of fresh snow, it would have been anything but climbing, a senseless, dangerous digging in the snow without any fun,” says Siegrist. The trio started another attempt in the direction of the still unclimbed Shiva West Ridge, but the same picture over there: “Again we sank into the deep snow. For the next two hours we slowly dug our way forward until it became clear that it was senseless here as well. It was frustrating.” The Swiss broke down their tents. At the end of the expedition there was still a little consolation. In the lower Jobri-Nala valley, Jonas Schild mastered a 20-meter-long finger-wide crack on an overhanging wall (which he rated as grade 8a+ on the French difficulty scale). “I think it’s the hardest crack climb in India right now,” Jonas writes on Facebook.

Piolet d’Or 2013 for Shiva route by Fowler and Rampsten

Shiva, which was so stubborn this fall, was first climbed in 1988 by a Japanese women’s expedition from the south via an easier route. The team also included Junko Tabei, the first woman to climb Mount Everest. In November 2012, the two British Mick Fowler and Paul Ramsden mastered the extremely difficult Northeast Ridge of Shiva. In 2013, they were awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of the Climbers”, for this amazing climb.

The West Face of Cerro Kishtwar (© Stefan Schlumpf)

They have been on the road for the last three weeks and are expected to have meanwhile arrived at the destination of their expedition. The Swiss climbers Stephan Siegrist and Julian Zanker and the German Thomas Huber want to tackle the still not mastered West Face of the 6155-meter-high Cerro Kishtwar. The mountain, located in the Indian part of the crisis region Kashmir, has been scaled only three times so far. In 1993, the British Mick Fowler and the American Steve Susted succeeded the first ascent via the Northwest Face. In 2011, Siegrist, his Swiss countryman Denis Burdet and the Austrian David Lama reached the summit of Cerro Kishtwar as the second rope team, after opening a new route on the edge of the West Face. The third ascent was made in 2015 by the Slovenes Marko Prezelj and Urban Novak, the American Hayden Kennedy and the Frenchman Manu Pellisier. They were awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of the Climbers”, for their first ascend of the South Face.

Always in his mind

He just could not get the West Face, “the largest still unclimbed rock face in the Kashmir Himalaya”, out of his head since 2011, Stephan Siegrist wrote to me before leaving to India. “At that time we climbed an ice route on the right side of the main wall. Again and again I looked at this amazing wall. The idea of ​​tackling this line did not let me off.” According to Stephan, the trio is also planning to free climb some rope lengths of the route. The 44-year-old has infected Thomas Huber with his enthusiasm. The older of the Huber brothers was raving to me about “one of the most beautiful, coolest unclimbed walls of the world”, with best quality of granite: “When I saw pictures of the Cerro Kishtwar West Face, I said: Actually, this is the second Cerro Torre,” the 50-year-old told me.

Instinct required

Thomas Huber (left) and Stephan Siegrist

The third in the trio is the Swiss climber and mountain guide Julian Zanker, who was already en route with Siegrist in the Indian part of Kashmir in fall 2016. Both were then temporarily detained by the Indian police because they were wrongly accused of having used a satellite telephone. The use of private satellite equipment is prohibited in India because of the fear of terrorist attacks. “Concerning weather you have to rely on your instinct again. This will be very exciting,” said Huber. “We have drawn up a strategy, and I believe it will work.” He really likes to be on the road with Stephan Siegrist, says Thomas: “Stef is an incredibly great rope partner. You always have fun with him in the base camp and on the mountain. There is always something to laugh about. But he knows exactly when it gets serious. And then he pushes it through.“

“Live as intensively as possible!”

Siegrist and Huber have something less pleasing in common. Both suffered fractures of the scull after falls. Stephan had to abandon an attempt on the eight-thousander Makalu in 2013 due to the long-term consequences of the injury he had sustainde several years ago. Since then, he has chosen his goals mainly on difficult six-thousanders. Thomas had suffered a skull fracture at the beginning of July 2016 when he had fallen 16 meters deep from a rock wall in the Berchtesgaden region. He had received an emergency surgery. Only a month later, he had set off for an expedition to a seven-thousander in Pakistan. “I just accepted this incredible fortune. I do not question that. And this is the reason that I’m well,“ Thomas told me recently. “I’m no longer afraid of my death. The more important thing is: Live now, as well, as intensively and as beautifully as possible!”

Piolet d’Or winners Mick Fowler (r.) and Paul Ramsden

The tireless have done it again. The British Mick Fowler and Paul Ramsden once again set climbing highlights, but, for a change, they were separately under way, with other team partners. Fowler, meanwhile 60 years (!) old, succeeded, along with his countryman Victor Saunders, the first ascent of the North Buttress of the 6100-meter-high Sersank in the North-Indian part of the Himalayas. Paul Ramsden and Nick Bullock climbed the North Face of the 7046-meter-high Nyainqentangla South East in Tibet for the first time. Last April, Fowler and Ramsden had won the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of the climbers”, for their first ascent of the 6571-meter-high Gave Ding, a remote mountain in northwestern Nepal. It was already the third “Golden Ice Axe” for the successful British team of two.

Reunited after 29 years

Fowler and Saunders (l.) on top of Spantik in 1987

“Sersank ticked,” Fowler wrote from the North Indian city of Manali in the state of Himachal Pradesh. “Five days to climb the north buttress and an eight day round trip from base camp. Absolutely brilliant.” 29 years ago, Fowler and Saunders had climbed together for the last time: In 1987, they succeeded the first ascent of the so-called “Golden Pillar” (which really looks golden in the sun), the Northwest Pillar of the 7027-meter-high Spantik in Pakistan. Then they went their separate ways. Saunders later climbed Mount Everest six times as a mountain guide. Working on a book project, Mick and Vic reunited and decided to climb together again.

Monster Matterhorn

Summit selfie of Ramsden and Bullock (r.)

It took Ramsden (born in 1969) and 50-year-old Bullock five days to first climb the North Face of Nyainqentangla South East. The wall “was almost impossible to describe without using superlatives,” Nick wrote on his website. “It was a dream, it had runnels, ice, fields of snow, arêtes – the face twisted and turned in some warped massive monster Matterhorn way”. Nick called the face a “mouth-puckering 1600 m”. On the fifth day after leaving Base Camp, the British team reached the summit and needed another day for the descent via the East Ridge. The first ascent of Nyainqentangla South East had been made by the Austrians Stefan and Erich Gatt via the south side of the mountain in 2001.

Stephan Siegrist

Who says that there is nothing left to explore! During their expedition in northern India this fall, the Swiss mountaineers Stephan Siegrist, Dres Abegglen and Thomas Senf first climbed three shapely mountains, all of them almost 6,000 meters high: Bhala (also called “Spear”, 5,900 m), Tupendeo (5,700 m) and Te (translated “Crystal”, 5,900 m), each of them on challenging routes. Indian Kashmir is still regarded as an insider tip among climbers. Because of the conflict with Pakistan, the mountain area had been closed to foreign visitors for a long time, until it was reopened in 2003. “The region was simply somewhat forgotten”, Stephan Siegrist tells me. The 42-year-old top climber has become almost an expert for Kashmir in recent years.

Stephan, three first ascents during an expedition cannot be matched by many other climbers. Have you been on a roll?

The motivation was very high. We climbed the first two peaks rather quickly. It is a great advantage that the time you need to acclimatize for altitudes up to 6,000 meters is much shorter, you almost don’t need any time. And the weather conditions were great.

“Crystal” – with the distinctive secondary peak

How did it happen that you climbed as many as three mountains?

First we climbed Spear. We had a picture that showed this mountain from the north side. It was technically much easier than we had thought before. Then we set off to climb Tupendeo. We still had time, the weather was fine. So we tried it three days later and were successful. We found that it was exactly the mountain we had seen and photographed from Kishtwar Shivling last year. After two and a half weeks the good weather was over and it was snowing for a week. But we had still enough time left, our expedition was planned to take six weeks. Further down the valley, there was another very aesthetic, distinctive mountain, the Crystal. Our primary goal was not the main summit but the secondary peak that really looks like a crystal. It has steep rock walls on all sides and a snow cap. After we had made it up to the top, we abseiled and climbed up to the main summit.

Siegrist, Senf and Abegglen (l. to r.)

That sounds like real adventure. Did you feel like explorers?

Yes, that’s exactly what we are interested in. It’s not just about performance but adventure and experience too. We have not looked for the simplest possible routes. There would have certainly been easier ones. We also wanted to test our abilities. Then it may happen that your attempt is a complete flop. I think we do some kind of exploring where a good performance is needed too.

There is only a single village in this remote valley. I assume that it is very rarely visited by western climbers. How did the local people receive you?

It is still an adventure to visit remote villages like Kaban in this Kashmiri valley. Especially the children have most probably never before seen a Westerner wearing these funny clothes and carrying climbers’ equipment. We are always trying to take enough time for these contacts. We had a liaison officer who spoke the language of the locals. The people there are extremely helpful. Immediately, you are invited to eat and spend the night in the village. The locals are also interested in what you are going to do. But they can hardly understand why you want to climb this or that mountain.

Stephan in action

You’ve been in Indian Kashmir, a political conflict area. Didn’t you worry about your safety?

I was in this region for the third time now since 2011. There are members of three religions, living absolutely peacefully in their separate valleys. But on our way back, there was a new conflict between Muslims and Hindus. You must be aware that you are traveling in a not entirely stable region. If you behave not arrogant but quite normal and cautious, you – as a visitor from the west and as a Christian – are not affected. But it’s no longer really dangerous. In Kathmandu, it is no less dangerous. I would even go there with my family.

In 2014, you found your destination for this year’s expedition. Did you pick out a new goal again?

There are still very interesting mountains in the north.

Means that you have not been there for the last time?

(He laughs) It is very possible.

Run on scarce petrol

At last! Many Western governments have now canceled their general travel warning for Nepal that they had imposed after the 25 April earthquake. Instead, they are now only warning not to travel to certain regions of the Himalayan state. So the German Foreign Office called the trekking regions Langtang and Manaslu problematic areas, where access “is not possible or only with considerable difficulties”. The British Foreign Office advises against traveling  to these regions too and calls in addition the districts Sindhupalchowk and Dolakha. From the perspective of the German Government “particular caution is advised” when traveling in these or other areas that were hit hard by the quake. The US Department of State notes that “the frequency and severity of aftershocks have greatly diminished”, but encourages travelers “to consult carefully with their travel and trekking agencies for current, location-specific information and to heed warnings of potential danger”.  All those governments point to a new problem in Nepal – a political one.

Everything is short in supply

For two weeks, the border to India is next to closed due to political protests in the Terai districts. Fuel, gas, basic food, medicine – everything is running short in Nepal. “Several hotels are serving sandwiches and salad only. Many small restaurants already had to close”, Michi Muenzberg writes from the capital Kathmandu. “At normal mealtimes thick trails of smoke are billowing through the streets, as people are cooking on open fires.”

Stranded in Kathmandu

Michi Muenzberg (r.) in Kathmandu

Three years ago, the German woman, who is living in the small town of Wilthen in Saxony, traveled to Nepal for the first time. Since then, the country has become her second home. Michi founded a private aid project, “Hope for Nepal”. She arranges school sponsorships for Nepalese children and supports a children’s home in Kathmandu. Now Michi traveled to Nepal again to help the earthquake victims. But she is stranded in Kathmandu for two weeks because of the border blockades in the Terai districts.

No material transports possible

“Sure, we could rent one of the few still driving taxis, but that would generate horrendous costs so that it would be simply useless. And the transportation of construction materials could not be done this way”, Michi writes. “I feel very sorry for the people in these areas who were hoping that things turned better after the monsoon. There is an urgent need to build shelters for winter and sanitary facilities. How, in any way, can we manage this?”

The North Face of Kangchenjunga

Even if it may seem in spring again as though there was only Mount Everest, it is also worth looking to other eight-thousanders. A highly qualified team has been formed to open a new route via the north face of Kangchenjunga: Denis Urubko and Artem Brown from Russia, Adam Bielecki from Poland and the Basque Alex Txikon. Urubko has initiated the project. Denis, who was born in Kazakhstan but is now a Russian citizen, wants to draw a definite line under the past year which was so unfortunate for him.

Achieved nothing

Denis Urubko

“What have I realized in 2013? To be honest, just nothing”, Denis wrote in his blog at the turn of the year. “It was full of pain, horror and destroyed hopes. After the death of Alexei Bolotov I was unable to face myself in the mirror, I was ashamed and hurt.” Urubko and Bolotov had planned to open a new route via the Southwest Face of Mount Everest in spring 2013. But not far away from basecamp, Bolotov fell to death. He had been abseiling, when the rope broke on a sharp edge of rock. The 50-year-old, one of the best and most experienced climbers of Russia, fell down about 300 meters and died instantly.

Like a grail

Adam Bielecki

The Polish climber Adam Bielecki has to overcome a trauma too. In March 2013, after he and three fellow countrymen had succeeded in making the first winter ascent of Broad Peak, Maciej Berbeka and Tomasz Kowalski died during the descent. Later the Polish Mountaineering Association (PZA) accused Bielecki for having let his companions down when he started descending alone before the others. This did not conform with the ethics of mountaineering, said the final report of the PZA. Adam defended himself: “I was near to panic and fighting for my life.” Now Bielecki only wants to look forward. A dream could come true on Kangchenjunga, the 30-year-old climber said in an interview with off.sport.pl: “A new route into terra incognita, where really nobody still has left his footprints! This is like a grail for many travellers or mountaineers.” Before the Broad Peak winter expedition Bielecki – in 2012 with his compatriot Janusz Golab – had also made the first winter ascent of Gasherbrum I.

Eight-thousander No. 11?

Alex Txikon in front of the Lhotse face

At that time the Basque Alex Txikon belonged to the team of the Austrian Gerfried Goeschl that tried to climb G I on a different route and to traverse the summit. Txikon abandoned the last summit attempt while Goeschl, the Swiss Cedric Haehlen and the Pakistani Nisar Hussain continued to climb up. They are missing since then.  In 2013 Txikon and José Manuel Fernández succeeded in making the first winter ascent of the shapely 6000er Laila Peak in Pakistan. The following spring, Alex stood on the summit of Lhotse which was his tenth of the 14 eight-thousanders. Kangchenjunga is still missing in the collection of the 32-year-old climber, who has also been making headlines as a basejumper. The fourth member of the team, the Russian Artem Brown, is still a dark horse in the high-altitude climbing scene.

Kangchenjunga is located on the border between Nepal and the Indian state of Sikkim. With 8586 meters it is the third highest mountain in the world. Today’s normal route runs via the south side of Kangchenjunga, where also the British climbers George Band and Joe Brown made the first ascent in 1955. The first route on the north side was opened in 1977 by an Indian expedition.