Ralf Dujmovits above Everest North Col

Tired and disappointed. That’s not only the way Ralf Dujmovits feels, he also sounds like this. The 55-year-old climber from Germany talks quietly and slowly, when he tells me via satellite phone about his failed summit attempt on Everest without bottled oxygen. On Saturday, Ralf had turned around at an altitude of 8,580 meters, just before the Second Step, the most striking rock step on the Northeast Ridge: “That was bitter.”

Ten minutes in a cove

As planned before, he set off at 1 a.m. from Camp 3 at 8,300 meters, along with the Sherpa Namgyal Lama. “We advanced quickly,” Ralf reports. Then it began to snow and it got windy. He and his companion sought shelter in a cove. “I was quickly loosing body warmth. I’ve been thinking for ten minutes. And it was clear to me: If I go on, I will suffer frostbite.”

“Extremely difficult decision”

View to the summit

The head said no – and the gut feeling? “The decision was extremely difficult for me. After all, I had decided beforehand that it should be my last attempt,” says Ralf. “It was totally disappointing to do the opposite of what I was about to do. Until then almost everything had worked perfectly. And then on the decisive day, the weather was simply not on my side.”

Bottled oxygen on descent

Frustrated, Ralf returned to Camp 3, where he took a rest for an hour. “Namgyal advised me to breathe bottled oxygen in order to remain concentrated on the further descent. That’s what I did. At that moment I didn’t give a damn, the attempt had failed anyway.” Dujmovits descended to the Advanced Base Camp on Saturday and to the Chinese Base Camp at 5,300 meters on Sunday: “I was wiped out when I arrived there. But that was also a result of my disappointment.” After all, he had previously spent a great deal of time and effort trying to fulfill his dream. “Now I have to get along with it.”

Jornet “from another planet”

Kilian Jornet on Everest

Ralf Dujmovits takes his hat off to the performance of the Spaniard Kilian Jornet, who climbed Everest twice within a week: alone, without bottled oxygen, at speed. “He’s from another planet, an incredible strong performance. I’m really happy for Kilian.” His opinion on Adrian Ballinger’s ascent without supplemental oxygen is quite different. “Jornet and Ballinger are worlds apart,” says Ralf. “The performance counts for me only if the summit was achieved independently and on someone’s own. I must be still master of my body, and master of my head. Everything else has nothing to do with mountaineering.”

 “On the short rope”

The American had a whole team around him, says Ralf – not only his partner Cory Richards, but also an Ecuadorian mountain guide and two Sherpas who carried the technical equipment to be present in the social networks in real time: “It’s only about publicity.” On the descent, Ballinger was led by the Ecuadorian “on the short rope”, says Ralf Dujmovits, adding that he has not read anything about that: “So much about honesty. Things are simply omitted in public. For me, that’s lying.”

Update 30. May: Ballinger’s team has reacted to the report: “I climbed Everest with him all the way up and down from BC, and I can say that he was never short roped on the descent as Ralf wrongly affirms on this interview”, wrote the Ecuadorian Esteban Mena (see his comment below the post). “This information is not correct and should be corrected immediately.” It‘s his word against Ralf‘s.

Northern route on Everest

Mount Everest has shown his teeth again on the past weekend – just on the day when eight climbers were on their summit push without bottled oxygen. Contrary to expectations, on Saturday wind gusts and snowfall in the summit area made the ascent difficult. The result: two summit successes without breathing mask on the north side, one on the south side. Two climbers, who used supplemental oxygen at all and reached the highest point at 8,850 meters. And three summit aspirants, who turned back because of concerns for their health.

Wenzl’s eighth eight-thousander

Latorre, Wenzl and Graziani back in BC (from l.)

All of these mountaineers have arrived safely in the base camps – which is the most important of all news. The only one who reached the summit on Saturday from the south without bottled oxygen was the Austrian Hans Wenzl. For the 46-year-old Carinthian, Everest was his ninth eight-thousander after Broad Peak, Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum I and II, Manaslu, Cho Oyu and Makalu. He climbed them all without supplemental oxygen. According to Spanish media reports, Wenzl reached the summit around Saturday noon, a few hours after Ferran Latorre, who – as reported before – finally had used a breathing mask because of the adverse weather conditions. By summiting Everest, the 46-year-old Catalan completed his eight-thousander collection. Ferran had climbed the other 13 eight-thousanders without the use of bottled oxygen. The Frenchman Yannick Graziani turned back at 8,500 meters – his countrywoman Elisabeth Revol “halfway” to the summit, as she wrote today on Facebook: “But it was an incredibly beautiful and intense adventure.”

Double ascent without breathing mask

Kilian Jornet on Everest

On the north side, the Spaniard Kilian Jornet climbed up to the summit on Saturday for the second time in a week without the use of bottled oxygen: in a single push from the Advanced Base Camp at 6,400 meters. After 17 hours he reached the summit. It had been hard to move fast, the 29-year-old said: “I think summiting Everest twice in one week without oxygen opens up a new realm of possibilities in alpinism and I’m really happy to have done it.” Without diminishing Kilian’s really great performance in any way – Pemba Dorje Sherpa succeeded a double ascent of Everest within a week already in 2007, at the time also ascending from the north.

“Only pain and gratitude”

Ballinger on the summit

The American Adrian Ballinger, who reached the roof of the world for the seventh time, but for the first time without supplemental oxygen, was happy too. “So much more to say, but my brain isn’t ready to process anything more than pain and gratitude right now,” wrote the 41-year-old on Instagram. His companion Cory Richards, who did not feel good during the ascent, used bottled oxygen to support Ballinger on the way up to the summit.

Turned back ahead of Second Step

The German Ralf Dujmovits, according to his own words, reached an altitude of 8,580 meters, just ahead of the Second Step, the most striking rock step on the Northeast Ridge. The 55-year-old decided to abandon his summit attempt when he began to lose feeling in his hands and feet due to the wind and snowfall – a careful decision. For the eighth time, Ralf had tried to reach the summit without supplemental oxygen. On his successful climb in fall 1992, the only German so far who has summited all 14 eight-thousanders, had used bottled oxygen in bad weather above the South Col. Dujmovits had climbed the other eight-thousanders without breathing mask.

Does Kuriki try it again?

On Sunday, the Japanese Nobukazu Kuriki ascended to Camp 2 at 6,400 meters on the south side of Everest. After his failed attempt on the West-Ridge last week, the 34-year-old had announced that he wanted to climb up again. The weather forecast predicts for the next days light snowfall and wind with speeds between 20 and 30 km/h.

Ralf Dujmovits, in the background Mount Everest

If everything works, there could be a “topless” party on the summit of Mount Everest next Saturday. Some climbers who want to scale the highest mountain on earth without breathing mask have started their summit attempts. Among those who set off from the Advanced Base Camp on the Tibetan north side was Ralf Dujmovits. The 55-year-old, so far the only German who has scaled all 14 eight-thousanders, wants to succeed in his eighth attempt climbing Everest without supplemental oxygen. In his successful attempt in fall 1992, Ralf had used a breathing mask above the South Col, due to bad weather. All other eight-thousanders he had climbed without bottled oxygen. His plan now: today North Col (7,050 m), tomorrow Camp 2 (7,700 m), on Friday Camp 3 (8,300 m) and on Saturday “hopefully towards the summit” (8,850 m), as Ralf writes to me: “I am confident, I feel good and I think that the extremely warm temperatures (probably minus 20 degrees Celsius) might help me.”

Another speed ascent of Kilian Jornet?

The Americans Adrian Ballinger und Cory Richards have the same schedule as Dujmovits. In spring 2016, Richards had reached the summit without bottled oxygen, Ballinger had had to turn back. There is continuing speculation that the Spaniard Kilian Jornet might set off for a second attempt to improve his ascent time from last Monday. Despite of stomach ache, the 29-year old had run and climbed from Rongbuk Monastery at 5,100 meters up to the summit in only 26 hours – without breathing mask.

Unstoppable Revol

South side of Mount Everest

Also on the Nepalese south side, some mountaineers who want to climb without bottled oxygen have chosen Saturday as summit day. In case of success the Spaniard Ferran Latorre would complete his eight-thousander collection and then would have scaled all the 14 highest mountains on earth without breathing mask. Yannick Graziani and Elisabeth Revol, both from France, want to ascend without supplemental oxygen too. Elisabeth seems to be unstoppable this spring. On Makalu she had reached the foresummit, afterwards she had made it to the summit of Lhotse.

Kuriki down, not up

The Japanese Nobukazu Kuriki, also en route without breathing mask, who originally wanted to reach the summit already on Thursday, descended from his camp at 7,200 meters on the West Ridge to a lower camp, due to physical problems. That was announced by the team of the 34-year-old that had informed some hours earlier Kuriki had started climbing further up. The Japanese wants to make the first solo ascent on the Hornbein Route: via the West Ridge, crossing into the North Face, through the Hornbein Couloir to the summit. This would be the first re-run of the route which the Americans Tom Hornbein and Willy Unsoeld had opened in 1963 (with bottled oxygen). In a failed attempt on the same route in fall 2012, Kuriki had suffered severe frostbite so that nine of his ten fingers had had to be amputated.

Four more dead

The Kathmandu-based newspaper “The Himalayan Times” reports that four climbers were found dead in their tent on the South Col – two Sherpas and two foreign clients. Presumably they died of suffocation. This recalls an incident last year on Makalu  , where two Sherpas from a German expedition team had died in a high camp of carbon monoxide poisoning. Thus the number of this spring’s fatalities on Everest has risen to ten.

Mount Everest

The summit of Mount Everest was probably quite crowded today. From the north side, maybe 60 climbers tried to reach the highest point on earth at 8,850 meters, Ralf Dujmovits wrote on Instagram. The number of summit aspirants on the Nepali south side might have been much higher. Dujmovits, the so far only German who has climbed all 14 eight-thousanders, wants to reach the summit of Everest without bottled oxygen. The 55-year-old plans to wait for the current run being over and only then start his own attempt: “At my age climbing without supplemental oxygen one needs to climb at a very steady pace – can’t speed up for overtaking (loosing too much body warmth) or can’t wait at typical cueing points (loosing body warmth by just waiting).”

With stomach age to the summit

Kilian Jornet on ascent

Last midnight, Kilian Jornet has reached the summit of Mount Everest – “in a single climb without the help of oxygen or fixed ropes”, his team wrote on Facebook. 38 hours after the start of his speed climb at Rongbuk Monastery at an altitude of 5,100 meters, the 29-year-old was back in the Advanced Base Camp. There he decided not to return to Rongbuk Monastery as previously planned but to end his speed project at the ABC because of health problems. “Until I reached 7.700 m, I felt good and was going according to my planning, but there I started to feel stomach ache,” Kilian was cited. “I guess due to a stomach virus. From there I have moved slowly and stopping every few steps to recover. However, I made it to the summit at midnight.”

Holzer completes “Seven Summits”

According to the Kathmandu-based newspaper “The Himalayan Times”, more than 70 climbers have been on the highest point on Sunday. Among them was the team of the Austrian expedition operator Furtenbach Adventures, including the blind climber Andy Holzer and his two companions Wolfgang Klocker and Klemens Bichler. “We are so happy. It’s done,”Andy wrote in an email to his wife Sabine. “It was extremely hard. Eight hours for the ascent, five hours for the descent to Camp 3.”

Andy Holzer (2nd from r.) with his companions

The 50-year-old had already been on the south side of Everest in 2014 and on the north side in 2015. Both climbing seasons had ended prematurely, 2014 because of the avalanche disaster in the Khumbu Icefall killing 16 climbers, 2015 because of the devastating earthquake in Nepal. “We are very proud, it really was a four-year program,” said Holzer. “Three times on Everest, it has cost a lot of money, many disappointments, and now we have finally reached the summit.” With his success on Everest, Andy has also completed his “Seven Summits” collection, that is, he has scaled the highest mountains of all continents. He is the first blind mountaineer to have reached the summit of Mount Everest from the Tibetan north side. The first blind man at all on the highest mountain on earth, the American Erik Weihenmayer, had ascended from the south in 2001.

The 26-year-old Anja Blancha also belonged to the successful Furtenbach team. She will be listed now as the youngest German female climber on Everest. Anja replaces Claudia Bäumler, who had been successful in 2002 as a 33-year-old, told me Billi Bierling from the “Himalayan Database”.

R.I.P.

Four dead

On Sunday, not only successes, but also fatalities were reported from Everest. An American and a Slovak, both 50 years old, died on the south side, a 54-year-old Australian on the north side. An Indian climber, who was missed on the Nepali side, was meanwhile found dead near the South Col.

Polish summit successes, Revol on top of Lhotse

Polish Media report, that on Sunday the Pole Janusz Adamski  summited Mount Everest climbing alone, without bottled oxygen ascending from the North, descending to the South. His compatriot Rafal Fronia reportedly  scaled Lhotse without supplemental oxygen.

According to her own words, the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol reached the summit of the Lhotse already on Saturday. “I did the summit, I could only send a message 30m down after doing it, because too much wind at the top, I even lost my glove (He flew away) to send a message!,” Elisabeth wrote on Facebook. “Happy.” Less than two weeks ago, Revol had tried to scale Makalu, but had turned back at the 8,445-meter-high fore-summit because of too much wind.

Update 24 May: The Pole Adamski has meanwhile admitted that Sherpas carried tents for him to Camp 1 and 2 and that he used bottled oxygen above Camp 3. Obviously he had no permit for his traverse to the Nepalese south side.

Update 9 June: I have removed the information that Andy Holzer completed his Seven Summits collection. The Austrian confirmed reports that, in 2008, he had reached on Denali, the highest mountain of North America, not the main summit but only the Kahiltna Horn, the 70m lower foresummit. “The temperature was far below 40 degrees minus, and for me it was known at the time and now that this point was and is valid as a ‘bad weather peak’,” Holzer wrote to bergsteiger.com. Strange reasoning.

Nobukazu Kuriki

Nobukazu Kuriki has changed Everest sides. The 34-year-old Japanese today reported on Facebook from Gorak Shep, the 5207-meter-high last inhabited settlement below Everest on the Nepalese south side. Apparently, Kuriki has managed the necessary formalities with the Nepali authorities. Previously, Nobukazu had pitched his tent on the Tibetan north side: on the Central Rongbuk Glacier below Everest North Face. The reason for his change of location, says Kuriki, was that he had changed his previous plan for the ascent. Originally, the Japanese had wanted to climb the North Face, solo and without bottled oxygen, via the so-called “Supercouloir Route”, a system of gullies that stretches almost through the entire wall.

Too much blue ice

Kuriki’s scheduled route

In the lower part of the wall, however, there is currently a lot of blue ice, writes Kuriki on Facebook. Because he lost nine of his ten fingers due to frostbite in his Everest attempt in fall 2012, it is too dangerous for him to climb there, says Nobukazu. That’s why he now wants to ascend from the south side to the West Ridge, from there crossing into the North Face and climbing via the Hornbein Couloir to the summit. “Actually, this route is the one I tried in fall 2012,” writes Kuriki. “I feel like I’m still there at that time.” He plans to leave Gorak Shep on Friday, hoping to reach the summit on 23 May, next Tuesday. Then, according to the weather forecast, the wind from the west will have calmed down, says Kuriki. It is his already seventh attempt on Everest. Six times he had tried in vain to reach the summit, five times from the Nepali, once – last year – from the Tibetan side.

More than 2000 m of height in six hours

Kilian Jornet on Everest

Kilian Jornet, who, like Kuriki, had also failed on the north side in fall 2016, is currently acclimatizing on the Tibetan normal route for his speed attempt without bottled oxygen. On Monday, the Spaniard told on Facebook, that he had climbed within six hours from the Advanced Base Camp at 6,300 meters to an altitude of 8,400 meters. “Good vibrations,” the 29-year-old stated. Kilian had prepared himself for his Everest project with an ascent of the eight-thousander Cho Oyu – in heavy snowfall and very bad visibility: “Honestly, I am not sure that this was the summit as I could only see my feet, but I was at some point around.”

Ralf Dujmovits above Everest North Col

Everybody is writing about how crowded Mount Everest is. “The mountain is almost completely deserted,” Ralf Dujmovits tells me today via satellite phone. The only German who has so far climbed all 14 eight-thousanders has just returned from his second acclimatization climb on the Tibetan north side of Everest. He spent a night in Camp 2 at 7,700 meters, then he descended, as scheduled, to the Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at 6,300 meters.

Fixed ropes up to 8,300 meters

Sherpas on descent from Camp 3

The ABC is, of course, only temporarily deserted. “Almost all have descended further down,” says Ralf. Before their first summit attempt, the members of the commercial expeditions were to breathe “thicker air” in the so-called “Chinese Base Camp” at 5,200 meters or even further down. According to Dujmovits, the route has been secured with fixed ropes up to 8,300 meters, on Thursday or Friday the work should be completed up to the summit. There are about 140 climbers from abroad on the north side, in addition about as many Sherpas – only half as many mountaineers as on the Nepalese south side of Everest, where a total of around 750 foreign and local climbers are en route.

Regeneration at 6,300 meters

View down to the North Col (on the left Cho Oyu)

“I will take a three, four days break to regenerate completely,” says Ralf. “I will stay here in ABC and will not descend further down. I see no reason for that. I feel really well. Let’s see how the weather is developing.” The 55-year-old wants to make one more attempt – his eighth – to scale Everest without bottled oxygen. During his summit success in fall 1992, he had used a breathing mask above the South Col, in bad weather. Dujmovits had summited the other 13 eight-thousanders without supplemental oxygen. Only on Everest, he failed again and again – for different reasons. In his “definitively last” attempt, he treats himself to a safety feature: Ralf has engaged Mingma Sherpa, a Sherpa from the Khumbu area, who will be carrying a bottle of oxygen for the German – just in case of an emergency. Should he be forced to use the bottle, Ralf wants to descend immediately.

Hardly wind

Evening mood in Camp 2

It does not look like this at the moment. “I am quite confident,” says Ralf. After his pre-acclimatization trip in the Khumbu, where he had scaled the six-thousander Cholatse along with his partner Nancy Hansen, he feels “in an above-average good shape”. The night at 7,700 meters, however, was “mixed”, admits Dujmovits. “I had probably eaten something wrong before.” This morning he had packed up in snowfall and descended: “It has been nearly windless for days. That’s why clowds are forming, and it begins to snow.”

Visibility to the feet

The partly heavy snowfalls in the Himalayas have thwarted some summit attempts on eight-thousanders. So the German climber Thomas Lämmle, who wants to scale Makalu without bottled oxygen, today turned around in Camp 3 at nearly 7,500 meters. The Spaniard Kilian Jornet, meanwhile on the way to Everest, in his own words reached on Sunday in heavy snowfall a point on Cho Oyu he thought to be the highest: “Honestly, I am not sure that this was the summit, as I could only see my feet, but I was at some point around (the summit).”

Kilian Jornet (r.) and Emelie Forsberg (l.) in Kathmandu

“I feel really acclimatized and strong in altitude,” said Kilian Jornet – already before he set off towards the Himalayas last weekend. As a training for his eight-thousander expedition, the speed specialist had climbed along with his Swedish girl friend Emelie Forsberg in Norway, and the day before their departure both had started at the Trofeo Mezzalama in Italy, one of the classic races for ski mountaineers in . Kilian had won second place in a team with the Swiss Martin Anthamatten and Werner Marti, Emelie had won the women’s competition along with the Swiss Jennifer Fiechter and the French Laetitia Roux. Jornet and Forsberg traveled via the Nepalese capital Kathmandu to Tibet. Within the next two weeks, they want to climb Cho Oyu, with an altitude of 8,188 meters the sixth highest mountain on earth. “If everything goes well, we could be on the summit on 7 or May,” said Emelie, for whom it is the first experience on an eight-thousander. And Kilian adds: “For me, it will be good preparation for Everest because I’ll be better acclimatized when I get there.”

Light and fast

Kilian Jornet on Everest in 2016

The 29-year-old Catalan specified his plan for a speed climb of the highest mountain on earth. He is aiming for the summit at the end of May. This time, Jornet will be accompanied on Everest only by the cameraman Sébastien Montaz-Rosset. He wanted to climb up to the summit either via the Norton or the Hornbein couloir, Kilian said, “of course, depending on the conditions.” At first, he plans further acclimatization trips starting from the Advanced Base Camp at 6,300 meters. Then Jornet wants to return to Rongbuk Monastery at 5,000 meters, the last permanently inhabited settlement below the summit. From there he plans to climb the mountain, if possible, in a single push, without the use of bottled oxygen. “Light and quick. There are people who think it’s madness,” said Kilian, “but for me the mountain is a space where everyone should be free to do what they think they can do. I like to travel light so I can be quick. In this way, we spend less time at altitude and suffer less fatigue, although we are aware that it makes the expedition more risky.” In fall 2016, the snowmasses on Everest had prevented Jornet from doing a serious speed attempt at all.

Steck: “Great conditions”

Ueli Steck above Camp 2

Ueli Steck is also a fast man, who by the way has already speed climbed together with Jornet. The Swiss top climber has been on the south side of Mount Everest for almost two weeks now. The 40-year-old has just spent two nights in Camp 2 at 6,400 meters. “Beautiful weather and warm,” Ueli writes on Facebook. “I was taking the chance to go and have a look towards the West Shoulder. Conditions are great so far. But you never know, it can change until in one month!” According to Ueli, his climbing partner Tenjing Sherpa suffered frostbite. “Hopefully frostbite is getting better soon, so that we can be together on the mountain again.” Steck wants to do a spectacular Everest-Lhotse traverse this spring: via the rarely climbed West Ridge and the Hornbein Couloir to the summit, then down to the South Col and (via the variant opened in 2010 by the native Kazakh Denis Urubko) to the 8,611-meter-high summit of Lhotse – as always on his eight-thousander projects without supplemental oxygen. In this combination, the traverse has never been tried. “That would be my dream,” Ueli told me before the expedition. “But I am also realistic and experienced enough to know that it can only work if very, very much matches. There must be perfect conditions and the weather must be good and stable. I think it’s important to have ideas, but in the end you have to decide on the mountain what is possible and impossible.”

Kuriki (2nd from l.) in Everest Base Camp

Actually, both wanted to return to the highest mountain on earth next fall. But the Chinese put a spoke in their wheels. The authorities in Tibet will not issue any permits for Mount Everest in fall 2017. For this reason, the Japanese Nobukazu Kuriki as well as the Spaniard Kilian Jornet join the crowd of those who want to climb Everest from the Tibetan north side this spring. The 34-year-old Kuriki has already arrived in Chinese Base Camp at 5,200 meters. Kuriki has announced that he wants to climb up to 7,500 meters on the normal route. Subsequently, he wants to try again to climb through the North Face, solo and without bottled oxygen.

Seventh attempt

Kuriki in the Everest North Face last fall

Last fall, Kuriki had capitulated at an altitude of 7,400 meters before the snowmasses in the wall. It had been his first attempt on the north side of the mountain. Previously, he had failed five times on the Nepalese south side, always in fall. In an attempt via the West Ridge in 2012, he had suffered such severe frostbite that nine of his fingers had to be amputated, only stumps were left. “It’s not over yet,” Kuriki announced almost defiantly before his now seventh attempt.

Speedy to the summit?

Kilian Jornet on Everest in 2016

Kilian Jornet still has all his fingers. The 29-year-old Catalan had failed last fall at his first attempt on Everest. Kilian had originally planned to climb the highest mountain in a single push after acclimatization, from the Rongbuk Monastery (located about 30 kilometers from the Advanced Base Camp below the North Col), speedy, without bottled oxygen and Sherpa support. However, this had not happened. According to his own information, he had ascended with his companions on the normal route up to 7,950 meters when the snowmasses on Everest had stopped also him.

With his girlfriend

Kilian Jornet

His plan has not changed. For the time being it remains Jornet’s secret how he wants to realize his speed ascent if so many summit aspirants will be on the mountain as this spring. Again Jornet is accompanied by the Spanish top climber Jordi Tosas. The team also includes Kilian’s girlfriend, the Swedish mountain runner and ski mountaineer Emelie Forsberg. Their trip will start next weekend.

Kilian Jornet

I was right on track with my feeling yesterday: The Spanish climber Kilian Jornet gives up due to the snow masses on Everest. The 28-year-old announces that he will return from the highest mountain on earth without having climbed it. Bad weather conditions forced him to abandon his plan to speed climb Everest via the North Face, says Jornet: “During the first few weeks we were acclimatising well and the conditions were good. However, when we were getting ready to prepare the attempt the weather began to change. There were some heavy snow storms and a large accumulation of snow. As a result, although we were in good physical shape, there was a high risk of avalanches and in the absence of good safety conditions it was impossible to climb.”  

„We would change some things“

Snowy Everest North Face

Jornet says, though “there’s a sense of frustration because we’re well acclimatized and we feel good“, he is satisfied with his experience on Everest: “Being alone on Everest is incredible as there was no one else there. Now we’ll go home to recover and plan the future. I think that if we come back, there are some things we would change, but it’s been a great experience and a good lesson for next time.” Jornet has spent three weeks at Base Camp acclimatizing and preparing his climb. As reported, Kilian wanted to speed climb Everest: in a single push from the Rongbuk monastery to the summit, without bottled oxygen and Sherpa support. Now only the 34-year-old Japanese Nobukazu Kuriki is left on Everest who has announced an attempt to climb through the North Face, solo and without breathing mask.

Everest North Face (now)

I know this view. But how different is Mount Everest looking now this fall. The Japanese climber Nobukazu Kuriki has pitched his Advanced Base Camp (ABC) exactly where our tents stood eleven years ago. In spring 2005, I accompanied the Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, the German Ralf Dujmovits and the Japanese Hirotaka Takeuchi to Everest North Face and reported from ABC at 5,500 meters on DW Radio and the Internet on the progress of the expedition.

Having survived a cerebral edema

North Face (in 2005)

Originally, the trio had planned to climb via the so-called Supercouloir route to the summit at 8,850 meters: in the lower part through the Japanese Couloir (first climbed by the Japanese Shigehiro and Ozaki fin 1980), in the upper part through the Hornbein Couloir (named after the US climber Hornbein, who was in 1963 along with his compatriot Unsoeld the first who dared to climb into the steep North Face at an altitude of about 7,600 meters). The conditions in the wall made it impossible, the three professional climbers turned to the normal route. In the end the expedition failed because Hiro suffered from a cerebral edema above 7,000 meters, which he survived with luck. Seven years later, in 2012, Takeuchi became the first Japanese who climbed all 14 eight-thousanders.

High danger of avalanches

In spring 2005, the wall was significantly less snowy than now. Nobukazu Kuriki has announced that he would try to reach the summit of Everest via the “Great Couloir”, solo and without supplemental oxygen. The Australian climbers Tim Macartney-Snape and Greg Mortimer had opened the route “White Limbo”  through the Norton Couloir in 1984, without breathing masks. At that time the wall was also covered in snow. Since then the route has not been repeated.

The 34-year-old Japanese has already been at the foot of the wall and spoke of high danger of avalanches. As reported before, Kuriki is trying for the sixth time to climb the highest mountain in the world in the post-monsoon period, for the first time, however, on the north side. He had got a first impression of the North Face in 2012. In this failed attempt via the West Ridge he had suffered so severe frostbite that later nine fingers had to be amputed almost completely.

Jornet: “A lot of snow”

The Spaniard Kilian Jornet is informing the public significantly more incommunicative than Kuriki about the progress of his Everest expedition, also on the north side. “We continue with the acclimatization,” the 28-year-old tweeted a week ago. “There’s a lot of snow, but everything is okay.” Since then there has been silence. Kilian wants – as you could also read in my blog – to speed climb Everest: in a single push from the Rongbuk monastery to the summit, without bottled oxygen and Sherpa support. It is possible for both Kuriki and Jornet will get stuck in the snow or they will battle through it. So it will remain interesting.

Nobukazu Kuriki

He is going to make it a round half-dozen. For the sixth time, Japanese Nobukazu Kuriki wants to tackle Mount Everest in the post-monsoon season. The 34-year-old says, he is planning to climb the highest mountain on earth solo, without bottled oxygen, this time via the Tibetan north side. Last year Kuriki had tried to reach the summit from the Nepalese south side – and had failed on Everest for the fifth time: He climbed up to 8,150 meters, about 200 meters above the South Col, before he abandoned his summit attempt due to deep snow and strong winds.

Only one complete finger

After his Everest attempt in fall 2012

In an attempt via the Everest West Ridge in fall 2012, Kuriki had suffered severe frostbite. Nine fingers had to be amputated; only stumps were left – and only one complete thumb. Last spring, the Japanese tried to climb the Annapurna South Face, but didn’t reach far due to bad weather. To finance his new Everest adventure, Kuriki launched a crowdfunding. The targeted amount of the equivalent of almost 160,000 Euros was significantly exceeded.

Patience is needed

Kuriki 2015 on Everest

The Spaniard Kilian Jornet has already traveled to the Himalayas a week ago. As reported before, he also wants to climb Everest from the north, without bottled oxygen – and in a single push. He is targeting an ascent in mid-September. “You need to go for it so if conditions are good and if I’m feeling good, I should try,” said Kilian. “But it’s important to have the patience to wait for this good moment.” Nobukazu Kuriki should also bear that in mind.
The last ascent to the top of Everest in fall dates six years ago: In October 2010, the American Eric Larsen and five Sherpas reached the highest point at 8,850 meters.

Kilian Jornet (l.) and Ueli Steck (r.) on the Eiger

Ambitious or overwinded? The climbers’ scene is discussing the upcoming Everest project of the Spaniard Kilian Jornet. As reported before, the 28-year-old Catalan will set off to Tibet next Sunday to climb or rather run up the highest mountain on earth, within his project “Summits of my life”. The plan sounds crazy: if possible in a single push from Rongbuk Monastery to the 8850-meter-high summit; without bottled oxygen and Sherpa support; if the conditions on the mountain are right, on a seldom climbed route (Norton or Hornbein Couloir); and as if all that were not enough, in the monsoon. Of course, this evokes memories of Reinhold Messner’s legendary Everest solo in 1980. But Jornet will not be climbing alone. And he is a completely different type of climber than the South Tyrolean was at that time.

Hard training

North side of Mount Everest

Jornets strength is not his climbing technique but in particular his endurance and speed. As ski mountaineer, trail runner and skyrunner, Kilian has set many records – including on Aconcagua, with 6962 meters the highest mountain in South America. However, Everest is another 1888 meters higher, and the Spaniard has never before been on an altitude of more than 8,000 meters. He had trained hard for the project in the Himalayas, Jornet wrote on Facebook: “This year I’ve been doing a lot of alpinism and during the last months I’ve been trying to be in altitude, between the Alps and Colorado, in order to do a lot of mountaineering.”

Together via the Eiger North Face

Meeting in the Khumbu (2.v.r. Hélias Millerioux)

“I know Kilian a little,” Ueli Steck writes to me, after I have asked him to assess Jornet’s chance of success on Everest: “He is extremely fit and strong. And he is realistic. He knows what he is getting himself into.” The Swiss top climber and the Spanish skyrunner met in the Himalayas in fall 2015. Steck was then waiting – as it later turned out, in vain – for better conditions on the 7804-meter-high Nuptse East, where he planned to climb the extremely difficult route via the Southeast Pillar for the first time in Alpine style. At that time, Jornet was in the Khumbu too. Ueli and Kilian spent a little time running and climbing together. After returning from Nepal they met in Switzerland and climbed via the Eiger North Face, Steck ahead, followed by Jornet.

Late love for trail running

Ueli after the Eiger Ultra Trail

Unlike the Spaniard, Ueli has discovered for himself trail running rather late, but since he did, he is fired up for this mountain sport. During the acclimatization period in the Khumbu for his Shishapangma South Face expedition last spring, Ueli ran – along with his German climbing partner David Goettler – many kilometers at high altitude. In mid-July the 39-year-old for the first time joined a mountain run over a distance of more than 100 kilometers: Ueli finished the Eiger Ultra Trail (101 km, 6700 meters in altitude) in an impressive 26th place.

“If necessary, several attempts”

“Clearly, in such a project you need good conditions and also a bit of luck,” says Steck with a view to Jornet’s Everest project. “If you try such ambitious projects, the chance of failure is significantly higher than if you ascend on the normal route with bottled oxygen.” However, a success of the Spaniard on Everest is quite possible, writes Ueli: “Basically I believe Kilian can make it. He just has to try it now, and if it doesn’t work, once again next year. Kilian is realistic enough. I definitely know that.”

Kilian Jornet

It sounds as if someone overextends himself completely. On Sunday next week (7 August), the Spaniard Kilian Jornet wants to ​​set off to Tibet to climb Mount Everest. Not in the “usual” way but speedy, in a single push, without bottled oxygen and Sherpa support, on a seldom used route, during the monsoon season. And the 28-year-old has never before been above 8,000 meters. Plenty of reasons to be skeptical and suspect that it just could be a cleverly arranged PR stunt – were it not for Kilian Jornet and his partner on the mountain, Jordi Tosas.

Many speed records

Extremely fast

The Catalan is in a way the “Forrest Gump of the mountains”. He runs and runs and runs – and has been celebrating successes in a row, whether as ski mountaineer, trailrunner or skyrunner. Jornet has set many records. So at the end of 2014, it took him only eight hours and 45 minutes to run from Horcones at 2,900 meters via the normal route to the 6,962-meter-high summit of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America, and back down in about four hours. After twelve hours and 49 minutes Jornet reached the starting point again. He doesn’t only break records, he “powders” them. In 2013, the 1.71 meter tall Spaniard needed just four hours and 57 minutes to climb up and down Mont Blanc from Chamonix, and it took him two hours and 52 minutes for ascent and descent of the Matterhorn from the Italien side. In summer 2014, he needed eleven hours and 48 minutes to climb up Denali, with 6,194 meters the highest mountain in North America, and ski down from the summit.

Pre-acclimatization in the Alps

Now he wants to tackle the highest of all mountains within his project “Summits of my life”. “Everest will probably be one of the most demanding climbs I’ve ever faced,” says Kilian. “It will be a great learning experience, from how my body reacts to the high altitude to how to apply the Alpine approach to the mountain. I’ve been preparing for this challenge for months and I’m keen to get started.” Jornet and his team will stay a few days in the Alps at altitudes above 4,000 meters, before they start to Asia. “It can make you weaker if you spend several days acclimatizing yourself on the mountain,” says Kilian. “With this type of acclimatization we can begin the challenge with more energy and a better chance of success.”

Up to every trick

Jordi Tosas

Jornet is accompanied by the Spanish top climber Jordi Tosas. The 48-year-old describes himself as a “nomad, one of those that make a living in the mountains of our planet”. Jordi is up to every Himalayan and Karakoram trick. In 2004, he was a member of the Spanish team on K 2 that first succeeded to repeat the “Magic Line” via the Southsouthwest Ridge which had been first climbed in 1986 and is said to be one the most difficult routes on the second highest mountain on earth. Later Tosas inter alia opened new routes on the seven-thousanders Palung Ri (in 2006) and Jannu (in 2007) and via the North Face of the eight-thousander Cho Oyu (in 2011), each of them climbing solo. “The day when we attack the summit we think there won’t be anyone else on Everest,” says Jordi. “Thanks to the monsoon the fixed ropes will be covered with snow. And Everest will only allow you one chance.” The French cameramen and guides Sébastien Montaz-Rosset and Vivian Bruchez complete the team.

Light and fast

Tibetan north side of Everest

Kilian Jornet will set off at the highest permanently inhabited settlement on the north side of Everest, the Rongbuk Monastery. From there it is about 30 kilometers to the Advanced Base Camp below the North Col. Depending on the conditions on the mountain, Jornet and Tosas are planning to ascend through the Norton or Hornbein Couloir to the highest point on 8,850 meters. Both want to take as little as possible with them. “With light equipment we can advance quicker, although we know this increases the risk”, says Kilian. “We’re aware of this risk and we’re taking it because ultimately this is the way we like to approach the mountain.” Whatever will happen, it sounds extremely exciting.