Jost Kobusch in Alaska

US President Donald Trump has also slowed down Jost Kobusch with his shutdown of the federal administration. The German climber was suddenly standing in front of a locked door in Talkeetna in Alaska. Jost read on a sign behind the glass pane that the rangers’ office was closed “due to the lapse in funding of the federal government budget”. The Denali National Park administration sent an email to the 26-year-old informing him that he would probably not receive any more news due to the shutdown for the time being. “Just watch the news,” he was recommended.

“Government bullsh..”

Kobusch had planned to climb solo the 6,190-meter-high Denali, the highest mountain in North America, this winter. He had completed all the formalities – except for the visit to the Ranger station in Talkeetna. One and a half years preparation a dog’s breakfast. “It’s kind of a very big failure,” Jost told the Canadian TV station KTVA (see the video below). “It’s one thing if you are on a mountain and its windy and you are forced to return by storm. It’s another thing if you are forced to return because of some government bullshit.” In order not to have to travel home to Germany empty-handed, Kobusch at least wanted to climb the 3,773-meter-high mountain Kahiltna Queen in winter. But that didn’t happen either, the avalanche danger was too great. “I’ll come back next year,” Jost announced.

In 2015, Kobusch had become well known all over the world. The young German had shot a video of the giant avalanche – triggered by the devastating earthquake on 25 April 2015 – which had destroyed the base camp on the Nepali side of Mount Everest and had killed 19 people. In spring 2016, Kobusch scaled Annapurna, his first eight-thousander – without bottled oxygen. In fall 2017, Kobusch, climbing solo, succeeded the first ascent of the 7296-meter high Nangpai Gosum II in eastern Nepal. Last fall, Jost according to his own words opened a new route on the Carstensz Pyramid, with an altitude of 4,884 meters the highest mountain in Oceania. Denali should become his next solo attempt on one of the “Seven Summits”, the highest peaks of all continents. But Trump couldn’t care less about climbers. But who does he actually care about?

Hypoxia training at home for Mount Kilimanjaro

Mount Kilimanjaro is calling. In three weeks I will set off for the highest mountain in Africa. Of course I want to reach the summit at 5,895 meters. But that’s not the only reason for the “Kilimanjaro Summit Challenge”. The other 23 expedition members and I will also participate in a research project of the Philipps University Marburg on altitude sickness. The doctors who will accompany us will take blood samples and examine us daily. Also psychological tests are planned. The risk of suffering from high altitude sickness on Mount Kilimanjaro is quite high. Finally, the summit aspirants overcome an altitude difference of more than 4,000 meters in just a few days. About 70 percent of the Kibo tourists say they suffered from symptoms of acute altitude sickness.

Breathing thin air at home

Immediately after training: oxygen saturation 87 percent, five minutes later 98 percent again

I live in Cologne at about 50 meters above sea level, the Alps are about 600 kilometers away. So I miss the opportunity to just climb a mountain and breathe thin air. Even before my previous expeditions, I had good experiences with hypoxia training, back then in special gyms. Now there is a generator in my home, which I can specifically use to filter out a part of the oxygen from the air. Through a mask I inhale the oxygen-poor air thus simulating a higher altitude. So I am not only able to breathe thin air during training and at rest, but even sleep in a special small tent in “high altitude”.

Thomas Huber, Jost Kobusch …

Meanwhile, some commercial expedition operators are also using such equipment to give their customers the opportunity to acclimatize before the expedition. I borrowed my device from Markus Göbel. The 41-year-old sports scientist who lives in Sonthofen in the Allgäu region, does not only lend this equipment, but also creates training plans. His clients included the German top climber Thomas Huber and high altitude mountaineer Jost Kobusch.

Markus, it feels like hypoxia training has come into fashion.

It has been increasing.  Six and a half years ago I started with two devices. Meanwhile I receive more and more inquiries. These travel destinations are popular. Some people have never had anything to do with high altitude and are glad that they can prepare themselves at home. The others have experience with the training and know it helps them.

What is the body to believe when doing hypoxia training?

Mount Kilimanjaro

In principle, the same as on the real mountain. There the oxygen molecules in the air are further apart due to the lower air pressure, so I am only able to breathe fewer molecules. With the hypoxia device, the generator filters the oxygen out of the surrounding air via a membrane. To simulate an altitude of 4,000 meters, we then have instead of 21 percent only 13 percent oxygen content. So the molecules are missing just like on a real mountain. The effect is even stronger because here we have to breathe against the normal ambient pressure. This means that the oxygen saturation at real 4,000 meters are slightly higher than at the artificial altitude. So the training effect is even stronger than at the real altitude.

Does the body remember that?

He has to adapt to the lack of oxygen just as on the real mountain. I can not sleep in the hypoxia tent at 4,000 meters all of a sudden, but have to gradually increase the height. So I start, for example, at 2,300 meters and then increase each night by 300 meters, also taking breaks to regenerate. The body remembers the acclimatization for ten to 14 days. I ensure that the customers really use the system until the day of departure, so the gap does not get too big.

Commercial operators report that expeditions which doesn’t take more than four weeks can be sold well, longer ones are more and more problematic. Does this increase the need for hypoxia training?

That’s exactly what it’s about. You anticipate at home the time that is missing on the spot. E.g. for Mount Kilimanjaro, I do two to three weeks altitude training at home and then spend a week there. In total that’s three to four weeks. According to high altitude medicial findings, this is the period of time I need to reach the summit of an almost 6,000-meter-high mountain safe and sound – leaving out other factors such as possible illnesses like diarrhea ond cold, or the weather. I think that customers who have completed an altitude training before a Mount Kilimanjaro expedition have a 95 to 98 percent chance of success.

Thomas Huber doing hypoxia training

Is hypoxia training meanwhile accepted by professional climbers too?

I already had some. (laughs) But they are not knocking my door down. I think, and I find it’s alright, that they don’t want to peddle it. It’s not about saying I’ve done altitude training, so now I’m running up the mountain fast. It is simply a training method to prepare for a mountaineering destination. I do not necessarily have to tell it everyone and their dog and maybe increase the peer pressure to reach the goal. They just do not shout it from the rooftops when they do it.

Kobusch’s route on Nangpai Gosum II

“The feeling was more than overwhelming to stand in a place that no one ever entered before me,” writes Jost Kobusch about his first ascent of the 7296-meter-high Nangpai Gosum II in the east of Nepal. As reported, the 25-year-old German had scaled the till then fourth-highest unclimbed mountain on earth two weeks ago. “Such ascents are still pure, real alpinism,” Jost writes to me. “This is exactly the direction I want to take – because a solo on a route with other climbers is not a real solo. I would like to enjoy alpinism in its purest form. For me, this is the maximum of minimalist mountaineering.” In the meantime, Kobusch has also given details of his route, which he graded to me as “TD”, which means “very difficult” (in the International French Adjectival System (IFAS) ,TD stands for “Tres Difficile”, with sustained snow and ice at an angle of 65-80 degrees and rock climbing at grade V and VI). He was en route with a very small team: the Nepali cook Ngima, kitchen helper Phurba and cameraman Raphael Schardt, who, according to Jost, only joined him once on the way to the Advanced Basce Camp (ABC) at the beginning of the expedition, later only filming with a large telephoto lens from the Base Camp.

Near-accident

Difficult conditions

He had originally planned to ascend via the route through the South Face, where a team of French mountain guides had failed two years in a row, Jost reports. At an altitude of about 6,300 meters, Kobusch nearly fell out of an ice flank. The strong sunlight caused the ice screw and the ice tool, which he had used for belaying at the stand, to be “melted out within 20 minutes”. An “only on the half way hammered in piton” saved his life.

Waist-high snow

Kobusch on top of Nangpai Gosum II

Jost descended to the Base Camp and decided to set off for a “light and fast solo” on a different route. After having left the Advanced Base Camp at 5,600 meters and having spent one night in Camp 1 (6,400 meters) and the next in Camp 2 (6,840 meters), he reached the highest point of Nangpai Gosum II on the third day. On the final part of his climb he once again had to clench his teeth, says Jost: “The plateau on top let me struggling through almost waist deep powder to the summit which I reached on 3 Oktober at 10.25 am. Wind speeds of shortly up to 60km/h made my stay at this untouched place short though.” The first ascent of Nangpai Gosum II,  Jost writes to me,  “is for me personally the beginning of many further expeditions in this style: No support above the base camp, all alone on a route and of course (also on higher mountains) no bottled oxygen.”

Annapurna without bottled oxygen

Kobusch (r.) with summit certificate

For the Westphalian Kobusch – born in Bielefeld, where the highest point called “Auf dem Polle” is not a mountain, but a 320-meter-high knoll – it was the second great success of his career as an high-altitude mountaineer. In spring 2016, Jost had scaled his first eight-thousander, Annapurna. A year before, Kobusch had become well known all over the world. The young German had shot a video of the giant avalanche – triggered by the devastating earthquake on 25 April 2015 – which had destroyed the base camp on the Nepali side of Mount Everest and had killed 19 people.

Kobusch on top of Nangpai Gosum II

A blank spot less on the map of the highest mountains: According to his own words, the 24-year-old German climber Jost Kobusch made the first ascent of the 7,296-meter-high Nangpai Gosum II. The mountain, till then the fourth highest unclimbed peak of the world, is located in the border area between Nepal and China, not far from the eight-thousander Cho Oyu. The slightly higher Nangpai Gosum I (7,351 meters) is also known as Jasemba, in Nepal it is officially called Pasang Lhamu Chuli, named after the first Nepali woman on Mount Everest. “I’ve been climbing very fast. Shortly below the summit it got once again exhausting because there was a lot of deep snow,” Jost said in a podcast published on his website. “Standing up there was liberating. All these pains, the efforts before, suddenly subsided. I think I had not really believed that it would work.”

Almost fallen down

Jost in Kathmandu

Kobusch had had to abandon a first attempt on his originally planned route. “It was too dangerous,” said Jost. “In sunshine I reached a place where the ice had become so thin and fragile that it just wasn’t safe anymore. I almost fell there. At that moment I thought the whole expedition had failed.” He then decided to climb on a different route where “it worked relatively well”, Kobusch reported, adding that he hadn’t spent much time on the summit of Nangpai Gosum II: “When I was up there, my focus went down immediately. I thought: Get me down of here!”

On Annapurna in 2016

In Annapurna Base Camp in 2016

In spring 2016, Jost had scaled his first eight-thousander, Annapurna. Shortly below the summit, he had been playing blitz chess with another climber. A year before, Kobusch had become well known all over the world. The young German had shot a video of the giant avalanche – triggered by the devastating earthquake on 25 April 2015 – which had destroyed the base camp on the Nepali side of Mount Everest and had killed 19 people.

Jost Kobusch in Annapurna Base Camp

It sounds like an April fool’s joke with a month’s delay. Before the German Jost Kobusch – as reported – reached the 8,091 meter-high summit of Annapurna on 1 May, he, according to his own words, played a game of chess against the Israeli climber Nadav Ben-Yehuda just below the highest point. “We had previously played at least two games every day at Base Camp during the periods of bad weather,” says Jost. So the idea of a chess duel at the top was born. Nadav, who used bottled oxygen, reached the highest point just before Jost, who climbed without breathing mask. “When we met just below the summit, I said to him: Wait! We still have to play a game of chess,” the 23-year-old German tells me. “We played on my smartphone, 20 meters below the summit.”

Some pretty stupid moves

The game turned into a kind of blitz chess. “We did it fast, fast. After seven minutes one of us won.” Kobusch does not reveal who. “This is a matter of honor.” To play chess in extremely thin air at 8,000 meters, says Jost, was “as if you try drunken to solve a math problem: in slow-motion, sometimes with pretty stupid moves.” Kobusch wants the game to be registered in the “Guinness Book of Records” as the highest ever played chess game. An American climber made a video of the chess game and can also testify it.

Seen climbers where none were

On ascent to Camp 4

For the 23-year-old, the summit success on Annapurna was his first on an eight-thousander. “Up to the top, I found it relatively easy but on the descent I got problems,” says Jost. On the eve of the summit day, due to the icy cold it took him plenty of time to melt snow. “Two hours for one and a half liters of water. And I shared it. So I had only 750 milliliters for the whole summit day.” Totally dehydrated and exhausted, he briefly hallucinated: “I saw climbers descending where none were.” Kobusch recovered and safely reached the Base Camp.

Maybe next year to Lhotse

At home in Germany, he is already making new eight-thousander plans. “Today I thought to myself that I still have a permit for Lhotse, maybe I could go there again next year.” Last year, he had wanted to climb the fourth highest mountain in the world. However, on 25 April the Base Camp at the foot of Everest and Lhotse had been hit by a huge avalanche that had been triggered from the seven-thousander Pumori by the devastating earthquake in Nepal. 19 people were killed. The video (see below) of the avalanche, which Jost had made, spread like wildfire around the world. As a long-term goal, Kobusch wants to climb all 14 eight-thousanders, if possible without breathing mask. “I hope that I can climb also the high eight-thousanders without oxygen.”

His chess partner on Annapurna, Nadav Ben-Yehuda, had made headlines in 2012. The Israeli turned around just 300 meters before the summit to rescue Turkish climber Aydin Imrak who had collapsed. Ben-Yehuda helped Imrak down to Camp 4 at the South Col and suffered frostbite himself.

Annapurna I (l.)

That was an exceptional weekend on Annapurna. According to the Nepalese newspaper “The Himalayan Times” a total of 30 climbers reached the 8091-meter-high summit. That makes 12 percent of the about 250 summit successes on Annapurna to date. The tenth highest mountain in the world is considered the most dangerous of the 14 eight-thousanders. Already 72 mountaineers have lost their lives on this mountain.

Kobusch’s first eight-thousander

Among the 14 foreign climbers, who reached the highest point last weekend, was German Jost Kobusch. For the 23-year-old, it was the first summit success on an eight-thousander. Kobusch had made headlines worldwide last year: with his video of the avalanche that had hit Everest Base Camp after the earthquake and killed 19 people. Compared with the young German, Spaniard Carlos Soria, who was also on top of Annapurna last weekend, is an “old hand” in two respects: It was his eigth-thousander number twelve – and Carlos has already 77 years under his belt. He is simply unstoppable.

As fit as a fiddle

Carlos Soria

Soria was a late bloomer on eight-thousanders. He climbed his first, Nanga Parbat, aged 51 – and picked up pace at an age when many retire. Carlos holds the age records at K 2 (65 years old), Broad Peak (68), Makalu (69, there he climbed solo and without bottled oxygen), Gasherbrum I (70), Manaslu (71), Lhotse (72), Kangchenjunga (75)  – and now on Annapurna (77) too. Theoretically, Soria, now well acclimatized, could even try to climb Dhaulagiri. The 8167-meter-high mountain is located only about 25 kilometers as the crow flies from Annapurna. The other eight-thousander which is still missing in the “best ager”’s list of summit successes is Shishapangma. If he does these two remaining jobs, Carlos will be by far the oldest man who stood on all 14 eight-thousanders. So far, this “record” is held by Polish climber Piotr Pustelnik, who scaled his last eight-thousander in 2010 at the age of 58.

Update 17 May: Carlos Soria has abandoned his attempt on Dhaulagiri and postponed the project to 2017. “The conditions are quite complicated,” Carlos was quoted on Twitter.

Jost, what did you think this week when you heard about the new earthquake in Nepal?

I was sitting in front of my computer and received on Facebook a message from a friend who wrote: We survived. Till then I had not heard anything about it. I immediately wrote to all my Nepalese friends whether they were doing well. A friend, who normally replies promptly, did not answer, neither in the evening nor the next morning. I started to get worried. Fortunately, she replied after all. She wrote that they were now living in a tent, because it was safer. That made me a little bit nervous. I’ll soon go to Nepal. I worry about my own safety.

The avalanche from Pumori

Almost three weeks ago, you survived the avalanche that hit the Base Camp at the foot of Mount Everest. 19 people were killed. How narrow was it for you?

If you look at it from the outside, it may look as though it was not narrow. But in the moment, when I was right inside the avalanche, I thought for a minute that I would die.

The avalanche came out of nowhere. Were you able to think anything or did you react instinctively?

Absolutely instinctively. You don’t think in this situation. It is a mixture of experience and instinct.

How did it look like at the Base Camp after the avalanche?

I had fled behind a tent. When I came back, I found a completely different world. Everything was covered with ice, tents were crushed, prayer flags were lying on the ground.

What did happen afterwards? Was there pure chaos?

We mountaineers are accepting the risk. Therefore, most of us are mentally better prepared for such things and react with certain professionalism. It was not pure chaos. People just tried to organize the rescue operation. All wondered what just happened. And all knew it was something big. The next step was a certain depression. Everyone realized that his dream was gone, at least for this year. Silence covered the Base Camp.

Rescue in Everest Base Camp

Were there still climbers who said we don’t care, we want to continue climbing despite the earthquake and the avalanche?

Yes, I was one of them. And there were quite many others. However, we quickly realized that we were too optimistic. The main problem was the aftershocks. We had information that they should continue for two weeks. For two weeks we would not be able to do anything, for two weeks there would be the risk of collapsing seracs in Khumbu Icefall. I quickly realized that due to the lack of time I would not have any chance to reach the summit, Camp 4 would be the maximum.

Durbar Square after the quake

How did you experience Nepal on your way back?

First the tragedy was still far away. But when I walked out and reached Lobuche [a settlement about eight kilometers from Base Camp], I saw the first collapsed walls. Later we also passed houses that were completely destroyed.  Back in Kathmandu, I visited the places I knew from before, e.g. the Durbar Square, where only bricks are left. It made me realize how comparatively insignificant was what we had experienced at Everest Base Camp and that other people need much more attention and help.

Why do you want to return to Nepal at the end of May?

I want to help making progress. I will support various fundraising campaigns by visiting their projects, taking pictures for them and being their local contact. And I want to lend a hand where it is possible.

Do you have special manual skills?

My father has been running a carpentry. Thus I grew up with the craft practicing it every once in a while. I prefer to work directly with Nepalese people. I don’t want to be the white man who has money in his pocket and distribute it. I want to build up something in a team with local people.

Your video of the Everest avalanche was the first one that was published. Suddenly there was a huge global media interest. How did you experience this?

First I had not heard anything about it. It took me eight hours to upload the video at the Base Camp. A few hours later, it had two million hits, then five, seven, twelve, 14, 16 million [Meanwhile, more than 22 million]! When we saw that our video was shared so often we felt almost euphoric. That was a strange feeling. For us, this video was actually only a testimony that we had survived the avalanche.

Last year, you scaled Ama Dablam, climbing solo. This year you initially had planned to attempt Lhotse, again solo and without bottled oxygen. Do you still want to do it?

Actually, I’ve noticed this year that it’s too crowded on Everest. I had to wait for three hours in a traffic jam in the Icefall. And I was in Camp 1 only once in four weeks. Despite the frustrations I still find the project very exciting. But my feeling right now is rather that I’ll do something else.

Will that be your climbing style for the future: solo, without breathing mask?

It is somehow my niche. I really like these solo climbs. To do it alone and unsupported, is unusual and the most challenging way.

Rescue on Everest

Day three after the devastating earthquake in Nepal: The death toll in the country has risen to almost 4,000, and it is continuously increasing. An end of the bad news is not in sight. Still information focusses on the most heavily hit capital Kathmandu and the region around Mount Everest. From the other regions of the country, messages are barely trickling in. German trekkers report that debris flows also occured on the Annapurna Circuit on Saturday. Many trekkers are reportedly waiting on their way around the eight-thousander Manaslu for being evacuated by helicopter. The base camp at the foot of Annapurna was hit by an avalanche on Saturday. “It just about buried us in our tents, we had to use our knives to cut our way out. After that, myself and two sherpas had to do a rescue of a teammate”, Canadian mountaineer Al Hancock said.

Helicopter airlift

At Mount Everest, the rescue of the climbers, who were stranded at Camp 1 above 6,000 meters, is standing just before the end. Only 15 mountaineers are still waiting to be flown to the valley by helicopter. All Monday long, there was an  airlift to Camp 1, where initially about 150 climbers had been cut off from descent. Continously the helicopters started and landed. The “Icefall Doctors” have stopped their work on the route through the Khumbu Icefall for fear of aftershocks. Reportedly, three Sherpas died in the ice labyrinth during an aftershock on Sunday. It is still not clear how many climbers were killed in Everest Basecamp by the huge avalanche from Pumori, that was triggered by the earthquake on Saturday. Figures currently vary from 16 to 19. German climber Jost Kobusch survived. The 22-year-old took this video of the avalanche:

Stop on the Tibetan north side of Everest?

North side of Everest

The situation on the Tibetan north side of Mount Everest is unclear too. The official news agency Xinhua reports that China has cancelled all expeditions this spring. Xinhua relies on a high-ranking official who said that more aftershocks were expected next month. Today, Chinese officials discussed with the expedition leaders in “Chinese Base Camp”. According to my information, there will be another meeting on Tuesday morning. The German couple Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger has abandoned their Everest expedition on the north side on their own accord.  “We cannot turn a blind eye to the suffering thas happened (in Nepal)”, Alix and Luis write on their homepage. “Moreover, we do not want to be the reason why Nepalese helpers, cooks and Climbing Sherpas have to stay here and cannot go home to their families to see if everything is alright.”