Ines Papert

If a good mood could be converted into electricity, Ines Papert right now wouldn’t need any socket at home. I can literally hear the beaming face of the 42-year-old German top climber on the phone when we talk about her success at the 5842-meter-high Kyzyl Asker in the border area between Kyrgyzstan and China. Along with her 28-year-old Slovenian rope partner Luka Lindic, she has opened – as reported – a spectacular route through the Southeast Face of the mountain. A line where many top climbers had previously failed, she herself twice.

Ines, how does it feel to have fulfilled  a dream in the third run (after 2010 and 2011)?

Really good would be an understatement. (She laughs) There are actually no words for it. I still wake up sometimes in the morning and think: Was this just a dream? The moment up there was very emotional, though brief. We knew the weather turned and we quickly had to climb down again. There was not much time to enjoy it. But it’s still an unforgettable experience.

Ines and Luka Lindic on the summit of Kyzyl Asker

You have been for the first time en route with Slovenian Luka Lindic and returned with such a big success. Did it just fit?

Kyzyl Asker was still hard to digest after I had failed in 2011 for the second time. It was clear to me that I should have a better team if I try it again. I did not want to leave it to chance, I just had to listen to my inner voice. When I showed Luka a picture of the wall at an event of our joint sponsor, I immediately felt his enthusiasm. In the meantime, I can recognize whether such emotions rise from deep conviction or from cool calculation that it might be good for his vita. I immediately realized that Luka was serious. Of course, I have followed his expeditions during the past years. You couldn’t wish for a better climbing partner for such a project. There were actually no causes of friction between us. We didn’t have to communicate a lot on the mountain. It was just clear how to tackle it.

Did you have to motivate each other?

This wasn’t necessary at all. We were highly motivated from the beginning when we saw how good the conditions were compared with my two previous attempts. We arrived, made our acclimatization tour, waited in a blizzard for two days and then immediately used the first good weather window. There weren’t any long waiting periods, problems with high altitude or any other ones.

Ines climbing in perfect ice

You finished a line that had been a too hard nut to crack for many expeditions before. You yourself had also failed twice. What was the secret of success this time?

I had considered that it was more favorable to travel from China to the mountain. That was what Nicolas Favresse and Sean Villanueva had done for the first time in 2013 when they had first climbed the South Pillar to the right of our route. Until then, we thought we had to travel via Kyrgyzstan. From the Chinese side, you don’t have to carry your baggage over 16 kilometers across a 5,200-meter-high pass to Advanced Base Camp, as you have to do in Kyrgyzstan. In addition, you set off in China at an altitude of 2,900 meters and can acclimatize much better than in Kyrgyzstan, where you first have to go by car up to 4,000 meters. So we had a shorter access and more elevation to acclimatize.
The second secret of success was our team. Luka is just incredibly fast. We perfectly complemented each other and were able to speed up. For us it was clear that we had to climb almost the entire 1,200 meters difference in altitude to the summit ridge on the first day.
And then the good conditions! During my first attempts the conditions had been really difficult. Then we had at least M 8 pitches. Such a difficult mixed climbing takes much more time than now in a closed ice line, which is only interrupted a few times by rock sections.
Another success factor was that we had only one backpack. We have done it in a light style. We had only a two-person sleeping bag, no reserve of gas and food, only the absolutely necessary clothing.

Uncomfortable bivouac

Did you have to go to your limit when climbing?

Actually, I was only at my limit high up in the wall. It’s really tough if you have only one backpack. I don’t know whether I would do it again. Perhaps it would be better to divide the equipment, between a light backpack for the leading climber and a heavier one for the second. We took turns at leading every few pitches. The passages in which I was the second and had to carry the heavy backpack were the most exhausting ones. Finally Luca once more accelerated. I might have bivouacked already one, two pitches below. But we were looking for a place to sit on reasonably. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen.

The success proved you right, even if you have spent a very cold night.

But this only worked because we didn’t have to climb a lot afterwards. After this night neither of us would have been able to climb once more in the same difficulty as before.

The new route via the Southeast Face

Where do you rank this success in your career?

Actually, very, very high up. (She laughs) I simply like the Alpine style best. You are flexible and fast, you can also use small time windows. This style was simply suggested for our line. I am certainly quite proud.
I have been also very happy about various comments on Facebook, by climbers who had previously tried in vain to climb the route. This is the greatest reward at all. Someone could have also been pissed and could have written: This was actually my line, it was reserved for me. You can see that, by and large, the climbing community works well, that we don’t grudge each other a success. This was a nice experience.

And now you feel empty and don’t know what to do next?

No way! I always have a lot of ideas. I don’t even know when to realize it all. My life is not enough for that. We had a little time left in China at the end of our expedition to create a list of possible goals for the next time.

In other words, you’re going to climb with Luka again?

For sure, we already have very concrete plans.

Papert (l.) and Lindic on top of Kyzyl Asker

Some mountains act to certain people like magnets. They exert an almost magical pull, even if they are as difficult to reach as the Kyzyl Asker in the border region between China and Kyrgyzstan. For the third time, the German top climber Ines Papert traveled to the 5842-meter-high mountain to try to climb a new route via the difficult Southeast Face, which she just couldn’t get out of her mind. In 2010 and 2011 Ines had failed, now she returned with a success. “I am the happiest person on the planet. It keeps me smiling for a bit longer,” Papert writes on Facebook. Three weeks ago, the 42-year old climbed along with the 28-year-old Slovenian Luka Lindic through the wall to the summit of Kyzyl Asker. In the past years the 1200-meter-high couloir had been a too hard nut to crack for several expeditions. Papert and Lindic baptized their new route “Lost in China”. For the first time Ines had traveled to the mountain not from Kyrgyzstan but from China. This made the expedition so distinctive, she writes: “The language, the culture, the time spent and the vastness of the country often gave us the impression of being lost.”

Almost easy

The new route via the Southeast Face

On 30 September at 5 a.m., Ines and Luka climbed into the Southeast Face. “We knew we had to make progress quickly to reach the summit ridge that same day. Otherwise, the predicted good weather window would close and we would have to retreat or be caught in a snowstorm.” In 2010, Ines had to turn around 300 meters below the summit because of heavy snowfall and avalanches. This time, she found quite different conditions: “Neither Luka nor me had climbed such a perfect ice and mixed route at an altitude this high before. The same route had cost us incredibly much time in 2010 because of the difficult conditions. This time it seemed almost easy.”

Tough bivouac

Ines climbing the wall

They climbed until 10 p.m. and bivouacked two pitches below the summit ridge. In painstaking work, they prepared with their ice axes a small seat. “We were protected from the wind but still exposed and far from comfortable.” The two climbers spent a frosty night on the ledge. “Luka said it was one of the toughest bivys. I had already experienced nights like these twice here on Kyzyl Asker,” writes Ines. At noon the next day, Papert and Lindic reached the cornice-covered summit. The Slovenian let the German climber go ahead. She had invested so much energy into this mountain, now Ines fulfilled her dream: “I was speechless and simply happy to experience this moment. Luka arrived and I could see joy in his face as he stood next to me.”

One of the best lines

Luka in action

Lindic belongs to the young generation of strong Slovenian climbers. In 2015, Luka was awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of the mountaineers”, along with his countrymen Marko Prezelj and Ales Cesen. Last summer, Luka and Ales had succeeded the only fourth climb of the difficult Northwest Ridge of the almost-eight-thousander Gasherbrum IV (7,932 meters) in Pakistan. Lindic has enjoyed the expedition with Ines Papert. “One of the best lines I climbed so far,“ the 28-year-old writes on Facebook. “Thank you Ines for the idea and great times.”

Pik Lenin

“There are no easy mountains and certainly no easy seven-thousanders.” I remember very clearly these words of my Austrian expedition leader Herbert Wolf in 2011, on the 7,246-meter-high Putha Hiunchuli (Dhaulagiri VII) in Nepal. I had to turn around 150 meters below the summit because the weather conditions were deteriorating and I was too late. What Herbert meant, was the fact that the conditions can change even an apparently easy mountain into a difficult and dangerous one.
Commercial expedition operators often call Peak Lenin in Kyrgyzstan an “easy seven-thousander” or an “entry seven-thousander”. On 7 August, a Russian mountain guide died on the 7,134-meter-high mountain in the Pamirs.  It was a combination of difficult conditions and negligence that led to his death. Three other members of the expedition, which had been organized by a Kyrgyz agency, were lucky enough to survive the accident. I have first-hand information.

Without ice axe and helmet

Hundreds of climbers have been trying to climb Peak Lenin this season. Reports from various expeditions say that the weather conditions in recent weeks have been unusually bad: Heavy snowfall, wind and cold made the success rate on the mountain decrease from about 20 percent to two percent in July. “In the morning of 7 August, we were the first group to climb via the normal route from Camp 1 at 4,400 meters across the snow-covered and crevassed glacier to Camp 2 at 5,300 meters“, a member of the rope team of four told me. He survived the incident and wants to remain anonymous. According to his words, the Russian mountain guide was an experienced man who had already summited eight-thousanders. But apparently, he took the ascent across the glacier lightly. “He had neither a helmet nor an ice axe. He took a 40-meter rope, but insisted on paying out only 20 meters.” Later that proved fatal.

No chance to react

On the glacier

First they were able to jump across some narrow but deep crevasses. But then, at about 5,000 meters, the team reached a big crevasse, into which the wind had blown a lot of snow. “Due to the short rope distance between us, two climbers were simultaneously crossing the snow bridge when it broke”, said the climber. “It was happening so fast. We others were not able to react because of the short rope connection and were also pulled down into the 20- meter-deep crevasse.”
The Russian mountain guide hit the ground with his head forward and died on the spot. Another team member was hit by the guide’s crampons and suffered serious cut injuries. The fall of the other two climbers ended on the side of the crevasse, one injured his knee, the other miraculously remained intact.
Other rope teams realized that the group had suddenly disappeared in the crevasse. About two hours later, all were recovered from the crevasse and flown out by helicopter.

“Gross negligence”

“If we had used the full length of the rope – we repeatedly dunned the mountain guide for doing so –, only one team member would have stood on the snow bridge and in case it broke, we would had a chance to stop the fall”, said the expedition member, adding that the equipment with which the Russian mountain guide set off was insufficient for the prevailing conditions at Peak Lenin. This also applied to the food that had been deposited in the high camps. “That was gross negligence”, said the climber. “You should really look carefully under whose care you put yourself on such an expedition.”

Tragedies on Pik Lenin

Memorial stone for the victims of the ice avalanche in 1990

Peak Lenin was first climbed by a Soviet-German expedition in 1928. The mountain was repeatedly the arena for tragedies. In 1974, eight Russian female climbers froze to death in a storm. In 1990, the mountaineering accident with the most fatalities ever occurred on Peak Lenin: An earthquake triggered an ice avalanche that buried a high camp completely. 43 climbers died, only two survived. So much for “easy seven-thousander”.

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.