Alex Txikon on the Abruzzi route

What bad luck! Only with delay Waldemar Kowalewski from Poland – as reported – had joined the team of the Spaniard Alex Txikon. And now the K2 winter expedition has already ended for the 45-year-old. Kowalewski had been hit by a stone or a block of ice on his left collarbone on his descent from Camp 1 at about 6,100 meters to the Advanced Base Camp. “He had to go down at a slow pace but he feels calmer now at Base Camp,” Txikon’s team announced after the incident. Waldemar was flown out to Skardu today. Then the rescue helicopter picked up another Pole from Txikon’s team: Marek Klonowski had heart problems and could therefore no longer stay in the base camp at the foot of the second highest mountain in the world. He hopes to be able to return in about ten days.

Two tracks on one route?

Climber from the Pivtsov team

Alex Txikon has now finally decided to make no attempt via the still unclimbed K2 East Face. The ascent through the wall was “impossible” because it was too dangerous, the 37-year-old said. The team had equipped their route to Camp 2 at 6,700 meters via the Abruzzi Spur, Alex’ team said. It is not clear to me why this was necessary. After all, the team from Kazakhstan, Russia and Kyrgyzstan, led by Vassiliy Pivtsov, had already secured this route before. “Near us, Sherpas are fixing ropes parallel,” Pivtsov’s team informed on Sunday. Is Txikon’s team trying to signal that they are climbing  independently of the other team? On the same route? If the cap fits, wear it. According to Pivtsov and Co., they reached an altitude of 6,800 meters today. Tomorrow they want to climb further up.

Tent disappeared

Camp 2 after snowfall

On Nanga Parbat Italian Daniele Nardi, Briton Tom Ballard and their Pakistani companions Rahmat Ullah Baig and Karim Hayat do not have to worry about a possible competitive situation. They are alone on the mountain. The recent heavy snowfalls – a meter and a half of fresh snow in three days – have set the team back in their efforts to open a new route via the striking Mummery Rib in the Diamir Face. After Nardi and Ballard reached again Camp 3 at 5,700 meters yesterday, they searched in vain for the tent they had left there on their last ascent. Today, Tuesday, they wanted to be back at base camp to discuss how to proceed.

Moro and Pemba Sherpa give up on Manaslu

Shovel for all you’re worth

Meanwhile, Simone Moro and his Nepalese partner Pemba Gyalje Sherpa have abandoned their winter expedition on the eight-thousander Manaslu and let themselves be flown out of the base camp by helicopter. “Over the last few days the aim of reaching my fifth summit in winter was transformed into surviving this situation,” Simone writes today on Facebook. It would take at least two or three weeks of sunshine for the six meters of fresh snow to settle, says the Italian adding that the weather forecast is anything but good. For Moro, it was a deja vu: Also in winter 2015, Moro had fled from the snow masses on Manaslu, at that time in a team with the South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger.

Igloos in K2 Base Camp

Bad weather forces the climbers of the winter expeditions on the eight-thousanders K2 and Nanga Parbat in Pakistan and on Manaslu in Nepal to inactivity. The team from Kazakhstan, Russia and Kyrgyzstan led by Vassiliy Pivtsov returned to K2 Base Camp yesterday after the seven climbers, according to their own words, had fixed ropes on the classical Abruzzi route up to an altitude of 6,300 meters. The Spaniard Alex Txikon’s team has not yet ascended, but built in the base camp three igloos, in which a total of ten to 14 people can sleep. Alex was thrilled after his first igloo night.

“Best night of my eight winter expeditions”

Alex Txikon in front of his sleeping place

“In the dining tent we had temperatures of minus 13 degrees Celsius, in the normal tent minus 26 degrees, but in the igloo we slept at minus five degrees,” reported the 37-year-old. “I must say it was the best night of my eight winter expeditions. When you go from the dining tent to the igloo, all your muscles freeze, your hands get stiff and the wind blows in your face. But when you enter the igloo, silence returns, the sound of the wind disappears.” The team is considering building igloos in the Advanced Base Camp (ABC) too.

Even longer snowfall at Nanga Parbat

Daniele Nardi during the ascent

On K2, the second highest mountain on earth, snowfall is predicted at least until Wednesday morning local time, at Nanga Parbat possibly even until the weekend. There the Italian Daniele Nardi and the British Tom Ballard had reached an altitude of 6,200 meters last week in their attempt to completely climb through the so-called “Mummery Rib”, a striking rock spur in the Diamir Face, for the first time. “Well, what did you expect? It is winter on the ninth highest peak in the world. No picnic,“ Tom wrote on Facebook.

Crevasse stops Moro and Pemba

We can’t go on here

Also on the eight-thousander Manaslu in Nepal no other picture: “Snow, snow, snow …,” writes Simone Moro today from the base camp. “Hopefully it will stop soon, but as per the weather forecast by Karl Gabl (a well-known meteorologist from Austria) it will snow till 29th.” On Sunday, the 51-year-old Italian had let us known that he and his Nepalese climbing partner Pemba Gyalje Sherpa were forced to rest and think about a new plan because of the bad weather: “There’s maybe one way to avoid the problems we faced today.” The two had climbed up to 6,400 meters, but had then been stopped by a crevasse that, according to Simone, “can be overcome only with ladders (that we don’t have and in any case we would not use).”

Daniele Nardi in Camp 3

While the winter expedition teams at the eight-thousanders K2 and Manaslu have only just moved into their base camps, the Italian Daniele Nardi and his three companions on Nanga Parbat are in a more advanced phase. Today Daniele, the Brit Tom Ballard and the two Pakistani mountaineers Rahmat Ullah Baig and Karim Hayat ascended again to Camp 3 at 5,700 meters, directly below the Mummery Rib. Five days ago, the four climbers had deposited a tent there and then returned to base camp.

Second attempt

Position of Camp 3 below the distinctive Mummery Rib

Tom and Karim broke the trail, Daniele and Rahmat followed carrying heavy equipment, Nardi’s team wrote today on Facebook. “Today it was really hard to get from Camp 1 to Camp 3 with a 30kg backpack on our shoulders and the wind that was not helping us”, Daniele told by radio. “When we reached the tent, we found it submerged under snow. We worked hard to put things straight again.”

Nardi and Co. want to climb the complete Mummery Rib for the first time. In 1895, the British pioneer Albert Frederick Mummery had dared the first serious attempt on an eight-thousander via the distinctive rock spur in the Diamir Face. With the Gurkha Ragobir he had reached an altitude of 6,100 meters. Nardi tries this route for the second time: In winter 2013, he had climbed with the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol up to about 6,400 meters.

K2 Base Camp reached

K2 team from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

Meanwhile, the seven climbers of the K2 winter expedition from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have set up their base camp at an altitude of around 5,200 meters at the foot of the world’s second highest mountain. After arriving there yesterday, four team members turned towards Advanced Base Camp today, but were unable to reach the spot due to bad weather.

Today the two Poles Marek Klonowski and Pawel Dunaj reached K2 Base Camp too, as the first climbers from the team of the Spaniard Alex Txikon. The majority of the members, including Txikon, are expected there on Wednesday. Waldemar Kowalewski,, the third Polish climber, will join the team in a few days. The 45-year-old has scaled three eight-thousanders so far: Mount Everest in 2014, Lhotse and Broad Peak in 2017. According to the chronicle “Himalayan Database”, he reached the 8,125-meter-high Subpeak of Manaslu in 2016.

Moro and Pemba Sherpa at Manaslu Base Camp

Base camp at the foot of Manaslu

The Italian Simone Moro and the Nepalese Pemba Gyalje Sherpa have moved to their base camp at the eight-thousander Manaslu in western Nepal. After having previously climbed the six-thousander Mera Peak in the Khumbu region to acclimatize, they yesterday were flown by helicopter from Kathmandu directly to the base camp at 4,800 meters. “Due to the snow porters cannot walk till here,“ Simone wrote on Facebook on Monday. “Weather conditions are good, definitely better than 2015. Of course, it’s a bit cold. Today it’s minus 25 degrees Celsius. Let this adventure begin!” In 2015, the 51-year-old and the South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger had failed on Manaslu due to the enormous snow masses of that winter.

Update 16 January: Daniele Nardi and Tom Ballard climbed on the Mummery Rib up to 6,200 m and deposited equipment there. Alex Txikon and Co. have reached K2 Base Camp.

Alex Txikon (l.) and Simone Moro in Lhukla

Several winter expeditions in the Himalayas and Karakoram started in the first days of the year. Two of the three climbers who had succeeded the first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat in 2016 met in Lhukla in Nepal, however now with different goals: The Spaniard Alex Txikon wants to tackle K2 in Pakistan, the last remaining eight-thousander to be climbed for the first time in the cold season, the Italian Simone Moro is drawn to Manaslu again. The 51-year-old and the South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger had failed on the 8167-meter-high mountain in western Nepal in 2015 because of the enormous snow masses of that winter. This year, according to the Kathmandu-based newspaper “The Himalayan Times”, Moro plans to climb with the Nepalese Pemba Gyalje Sherpa on the normal route without bottled oxygen. In order to acclimatize, they wanted to climb the 6,476-meter-high Mera Peak in the Khumbu region.

Also two Poles in Txikon’s K2 team

Alex Txikon meanwhile travelled with his Sherpa team to Islamabad. There he meets his Spanish climbing partner Felix Criado and other compatriots from the K2 expedition team – as well as the Poles Marek Klonowski and Pawel Dunaj. Both have participated several times in winter expeditions to Nanga Parbat. “We will certainly not play the first fiddle if we play the fiddle at all,” said Pawel in an interview with the Polish radio station “RMF 24”. “But we will try to support Alex as much as we can.”

Only seven climbers left in Pivtsov’s team

Pivtsov’s team in Islamabad

While Txikon’s team grew, the K2 winter expedition team from Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan shrank from eleven climbers – as originally planned – to seven, due to lack of money. Now the experienced Kazakh Vassily Pivtsov, who has already scaled all 14 eight-thousanders, will lead only six climbers: the Russians Artem Brown, Roman Abildaev and Konstantin Shepelev, the Kazakh Tursunali Aubakirov and Dmitry Muraviov and the Kyrgyz Mikhail Danichkin. The mountaineers from the former CIS states are on their way to Northern Pakistan.

Nardi and Ballard in Camp 1

Daniele Nardi on Nanga Parbat

Still in the old year the Italian Daniele Nardi and the Brit Tom Ballard arrived in the base camp at the foot of Nanga Parbat. As reported, they want to climb together with the two Pakistani Rahmat Ullah Baig and Kareem Hayat the 8125-meter-high mountain on a new route via the Mummery Rib in the Diamir Face, which has not yet been mastered. They already reached Camp 1 at 4,700 meters.

Queue on Manaslu

I had a déjà vu. When I saw the pictures of the queue of people who climbed up towards the summit of the 8163-meter-high Manaslu this fall, I winced again. Just like in 2012, when Ralf Dujmovits, Germany’s most successful high-altitude mountaineer, photographed the queue of Everest summit candidates on the Lhotse flank. How the pictures resemble each other! No wonder, since Manaslu has turned more and more into “Fall’s Everest” in recent years: Several hundred mountaineers pitch up their tents in the base camp, the route is secured up to the summit with fixed ropes. And if the weather is fine, it’s getting narrow at the highest point.

More than 200 summit successes, one death

Crowded summit

According to the newspaper “The Himalayan Times”, at least 120 foreign climbers and more than 100 Sherpas accompanying them reached the summit of the eighth highest mountain on earth this fall. One death was to be lamented. A 43-year-old Czech is missing. After his summit success, his trail was lost.

Soria fails for the ninth time

The other eight-thousanders offered in the catalogues of commercial operators this fall were much less crowded. While in Tibet low double-digit summit successes were reported from Cho Oyu and Shishapangma, the highest point of Dhaulagiri, located like Manaslu in western Nepal, remained untouched this fall. Two and a half weeks ago, a 24-year-old Sherpa was killed in an avalanche on this eight-thousander.

Soria has to return once again

“I have never experienced Dhaulagiri with so much snow and so dangerous”, said the Spaniard Carlos Soria on desnivel.com after he had abandoned his expedition. The 79-year-old tried his luck on the 8167-meter-high mountain for the ninth time. Next spring Carlos wants to return to Dhaulagiri once again. Apart from this mountain, only Shishapangma is still missing in his eight-thousander collection.

Too much snow on Dhaulagiri

“The tropical storm from Pakistan, which had been raging here in the Marshyangdi Valley for more than 48 hours, left a lot of snow on our route for which we had worked so hard,” wrote the German mountaineer Billi Bierling, who made her way back to Kathmandu with the team from the Swiss operator “Kobler & Partner”. Also the Spaniard Sergi Mingote, who, after his summit success on Manaslu, actually wanted to attach Dhaulagiri, packed up because of too high avalanche danger.

Manaslu (l.) and Pinnacle East (r.)

The first summit success of the fall season on the eight-thousanders is reported from the 8,163-meter-high Manaslu. Dawa Sherpa from the Nepalese expedition operator Seven Summit Treks writes on Facebook that four Sherpas of their team have fixed the ropes up to the highest point. Besides Mingma Tenjing Sherpa, Gyaljen Sherpa, Tenjing Chhombi Sherpa and Temba Bhote, the Spaniard Sergi Mingote and the Brazilian Moeses Fiamoncini reached the summit. Mingote confirmed the summit success – also on Facebook – and added: “I am fine.” Last summer, Sergi scaled Broad Peak and then K2 in Pakistan, without using bottled oxygen. After Manaslu, the 47-year-old professional climber wants to tackle the eight-thousander Dhaulagiri even this fall, also located in western Nepal.

Almost 200 foreign summit aspirants

Now that the fixed ropes are laid up to the summit, there should be lots of success stories from Manaslu in the next few days. Almost 200 foreign mountaineers have been granted permits for this season to climb the eighth highest mountain in the world. This continues the trend of recent years: Among the clients of commercial expeditions, Manaslu has turned into “Fall’s Everest” in terms of popularity.

Camp 1 on Kokodak Dome (2014)

Actually, the tent is a place of refuge and security. And most of the time I felt safe when I lay in my tent in the mountains. But there were exceptions. For example in 2004 during my reportage trip to K2, when I woke up suddenly in the base camp at the foot of the second highest mountain on earth, because the glacier made noises under my tent floor, as if it wanted to devour me in the next moment. Ten years later, during the first ascent of the seven-thousander Kokodak Dome in western China, we pitched up Camp 1 at 5,500 meters at a quite exposed spot – and I wondered: What happens if a real storm is raging here? That’s what I remembered when I learned of the death of Italian Simone La Terra on Dhaulagiri earlier this week.

Bad feeling

Dhaulagiri

A violent gust of wind had blown the 36-year-old with his tent from a height of about 6,900 meters from the northeast ridge into the depths. His team partner Waldemar Dominik was an eyewitness of the accident. The Pole had had a bad feeling about the place that Simone had chosen and had searched for an alternative spot. When he returned, he saw from close by how the tent was caught by the gust. Dominik descended to the base camp and sounded the alarm. The body of La Terras was found and recovered the next day at an altitude of 6,100 meters.

Buried by avalanches

Manaslu

It is not uncommon that climbers die in their tents. Objectively, the highest risk of death in the tent is the Grim Reaper coming in the form of high altitude sickness. But as in La Terra’s case, there can also be dangers from outside. In the history of Himalayan mountaineering many climbers lost their lives because they were caught by avalanches while lying in the tent. Just remember the avalanche on 22 September 2012 on the eight-thousander Manaslu, which hit two high camps in the early morning and killed eleven climbers.

One step away from tragedy

Alexander (r.) and Thomas Huber in summer 2015 in the Karakoram

Alexander and Thomas Huber had better luck in summer 2015 on the 6946-meter-high Latok III in the Karakoram. The Huber brothers and their teammates Mario Walder and Dani Arnold were almost blown out of the wall by the blast wave of an ice avalanche. “We were lucky that we had dug out a small platform to position the tents perfectly. The small snow edge of this platform has saved our lives. Otherwise we would have been blown away,” Alexander Huber told me then. “It was much, much closer than I ever imagined. And that’s shocking.”

Blown along the ledge

Also the third ascent of Kangchenjunga in 1979 by a British expedition was not far away from a “tent tragedy”, when a storm broke loose in the summit area. “At 1.30 a.m. on 5 May the wind changed direction and rapidly increased in violence which snapped the centre hoop of the double-skin tunnel tent,” Doug Scott wrote at that time. “The team soon had their boots and gaiters on but at 2.30 a.m. the tent was blown two feet (about 60 centimeters) along the ledge.” The climbers left the tent on the double. A little later, it was torn by the storm and disappeared in the depths.

P.S.: After the first summit success of the 8000er spring season on Lhotse, one more from another eight-thousander was reported on Thursday. “The Himalayan Times” reported that Chinese Gao Xiaodan and her Climbing Sherpas Nima Gyalzen Sherpa, Jit Bahadur Sherpa and Ang Dawa Sherpa had reached the 8,485-meter summit of Makalu, the fifth highest mountain on earth. The 35-year-old from Lanzhou City, located in northwestern China, had not used bottled oxygen, it said. In spring 2017, Gao had scaled Mount Everest and three days later Lhotse too, both with breathing mask.

Hans Kammerlander on Manaslu

That’s it. Hans Kammerlander closes the book Manaslu. “I had a nice, very good time here on this mountain. That was worth it,” said the 60-year-old South Tyrolean, after he and his North Tyrolean team partner Stephan Keck had decided last weekend to abandon their late fall expedition to the eighth highest mountain in the world (8,163 m). “I have made peace with Manaslu. Above all, I’ve finished this part of my way. That was what I had planned. It was never really about the summit itself. That would have been a highlight at best.”

High avalanche danger

Above camp 1 (© Stephan Keck)

The two climbers were on Saturday on their way to Camp 2 at 6,600 meters, when they, in Stephan Keck’s words, “sunk in the powder snow up to the armpits”: “I probably do not have to explain to anyone how strenuous, slow and therefore dangerous it is to move under these conditions.” Because of the snow masses and the consequential high avalanche danger, they pulled the emergency brake. “If we tried it, it would have been Russian roulette and probably all of us would have lost our lives,” Kammerlander said.

Coping with trauma

His team partner also realized that Hans’ main goal was to cope with his Manaslu trauma of 1991. Kammerlander had taken the decision to end the expedition “quite relaxed”, Stephan Keck wrote in his blog: “It becomes clear that he rather wanted to return to Manaslu itself than to scale his 13th main summit of an eight-thousander.”

With ups and downs

Too much snow on Manaslu (© Stephan Keck)

On an expedition led by Kammerlander 26 years ago, his two friends Friedl Mutschlechner and Karl Großrubatscher had been killed in severe weather during a summit attempt. Hans had declared at the time that he would never return to Manaslu. He now revised his decision for shootings for a film that is to be released in the cinemas in November 2018 – “a portrait of my life, with ups and downs,” as Kammerlander had told me last spring.

No further attempt

Even if a summit success of Kammerlander more than a quarter of a century after the 1991 tragedy would had given the film a special point, the film crew will nevertheless return with impressive footages: of a base camp that was no longer overcrowded like just a few weeks earlier, of a lonesome Manaslu in a snow dress – and of a protagonist who returns home safe and sound and has made peace with the “Mountain of the Spirit”. Kammerlander definitely ruled out another summit attempt next spring.

Ascent (red) and descent route (green)

Who says that there are no playgrounds for top climbers in the Himalayas anymore? Yury Koshelenko and Aleksei Lonchinskii have erased a blank spot on the map of the six-thousanders. 0n 28 October the two Russians succeeded the first ascent of the 6,538-meter-high Phungi, located west of the eight-thousander Manaslu in Nepal. The 54-year-old Koshelenko and  Lonchinskii, aged 35, climbed on a rather direct route through the about  1,500-meter-high Southeast Face of the mountain. It took them three days for the ascent in Alpine style and two more days for the descent on a different route.

Sharp ridge

At the summit ridge

According to Yury, they entered the wall with ice passages of 60 to 80 degrees in good weather on 26 October. After the second bivouac, five pitches below the summit ridge, the weather deteriorated rapidly. It became very cold and windy, Koshelenko reports. Over the sharp, corniced firn ridge the duo worked their way to the summit, which they reached on 28 October at 4:30 pm. The descent through an icefall in bad weather was sometimes tricky, reports Yury.

Piolet d’Or winner

Yuri Koshelenko (r.) and Aleksei Lonchinskii

Koshelenko and Lonchinskii belong to the elite of Russian climbers. Both were already awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of the climbers”: Koshelenko in 2003 for his first ascent of 7,804-meter-high Nuptse East via the Southeast Pillar (with Valerij Babanov), Lonchinskii for the first ascent of the Southwest Face of the 6,623-meter-high Thamserku (with Alexander Gukov).

This is where the biogas plant is to be built

There are things that stink to high heaven – quite literally. For example, if up to 1000 climbers, high altitude porters, cooks, kitchen helpers and other staff relieve themselves for two months during the spring season in the base camp on the Nepalese south side of Mount Everest. The number of 12,000 kilograms of faeces has been reported for years, which seems to me rather low. The removal of the human waste from Everest Base Camp has been regulated for a long time, in contrast to the faecal problem in the high camps. The excrements from the toilet tents of the expeditions are collected in barrels and carried downwards by so-called “shit porters” – until 2014 without exception to Gorak Shep, the next small settlement, located  about five kilometers from the base camp, now also further down the valley. There the faeces have been tipped into pits thus posing a great danger to the drinking water. The International Climbing and Moutaineering Association (UIAA) has now awarded an environmental protection project which could make an important contribution to tackling the problem.

Groundbreaking scheduled for spring 2018

Project manager Garry Porter

The “Mountain Protection Award 2017” of the UIAA goes to the “Mount Everest Biogas Project”. Two Americans, the expedition manager Dan Mazur and Garry Porter, a former engineer of the aviation group Boeing, had founded the project in 2010. In Gorak Shep the faeces from Everest are to be collected in dense containers and used for a biogas digester. The technical challenge is to maintain the required temperature for the digester at the partial extreme cold at an altitude of 5,200 meters. This problem appears to have been solved. “Our engineering and architectural design is sound and we have high confidence in it,” says project manager Garry Porter. “It is now time to put theory to test.” The groundbreaking is scheduled for next spring – if the fundraising is successful by then. In this case the plant in Gorak Shep will probably be completed in winter 2018/19, and the lodge owners could cook with biogas instead of wood or Yak dung.

Faeces problem not only on Everest

Further customers of the technology should also be found in other areas of the Himalayas and the Karakoram. So the base camp at the foot of the eight-thousander Manaslu had Everest proportions this fall. The faecal barrels might have been full there too – if the human waste has been carried away at all.

Luis Stitzinger (l.) and Alix von Melle (r.) on the summit of Manaslu

“Despite the premonition, we were utterly amazed at what happened there,” says Luis Stitzinger after his return from Manaslu. “This was a true tent city in the base camp.” As reported earlier, the 48-year-old had led a team of eight of the German expedition operator Amical alpin to the 8,163-meter-high summit in Nepal last Saturday. Along with Luis, his 46-year-old wife Alix von Melle, reached the highest point. For both, it was their seventh eight-thousander and the sixth which they scaled together, all without bottled oxygen. At the beginning of the expedition eleven of the 14 members of the Amical team had become infected with flu by ill porters. “It was a bad start,” says Luis. “Some members had to abandon the whole thing. It was a pity.” I reach Luis on the phone at a hotel in Kathmandu:

Luis, first of all congratulations on your seventh eight-thousander. How did you experience your summit day?

The late ascent was due to the flu epidemic. But it was also partly calculation. At the top summit days between 26 and 28 September, there was such a “cattle drive” that we certainly wouldn’t have had any fun if we were forced to participate. Fortunately, however, the weather remained stable for a very long time. I was told that last year there had been two possible summit days. This time we had a long good weather window of two weeks.

Queue on Manaslu

We had positioned ourselves far back,  what in the end was good luck. We got free range, there were hardly any people left. Last Saturday, 30 September, was a good summit day. In the morning it was still a bit windy, so we did not set off before 4.30 a.m. But already on the first plateau the wind was blowing only with 15, 20 km/h.

Besides us, there were only about half a dozen climbers, a few Spaniards and Russians. Due to the great amount of mountaineers before, the track was very well beaten. At the beginning of the season, a rope fixing team of the operator Seven Summit Treks had secured the key passages of the route up to the summit. Therefore the ascent to the summit was for us quite relaxed and due, to the weather, even a real pleasure.

View from the summit

All of your team ascended without bottled oxygen. This seems to have become the exception on Manaslu.

We were already on Manaslu in spring 2012. Then most were climbing without supplemental oxygen. This was quite different now in fall 2017. Three quarters of the climbers, if not even more, were using bottled oxygen. We were a little bit shocked to see people who climbed with breathing mask already above Camp 1 (at 5,700 meters). I’ve even seen people descending with oxygen from Camp 1 to Base Camp.

There is a new type of expedition clients on the road. There were a lot of Chinese mountaineers who did not spare neither cost nor effort to get to the summit. Or Russian operators who did everything in a big way: partly two Climbing Sherpas per client, bottled oxygen above Camp 1, and also during the night. There is a different wind blowing.

This huge mass of climbers on a mountain, such as Everest, Cho Oyu or now on Manaslu, also leads to a de-personalization of the whole thing. Twice equipment was stolen from our tents. If someone steals crampons from high camp, it must be clear to him that for the victim of the theft the ascent is over, at least for that day.  I find that very annoying.

This sounds almost like a description of the excesses on Everest.

I would say that Manaslu is the new Everest. This is not exaggerated. Of course, it is also because Tibet was closed this fall season. But I believe that many operators, who are offering  this luxury version, have discovered Manaslu as a supposedly easy eight-thousander.

On the ascent

Was there any agreement between the operators,  who is climbing when to avoid traffic jams on the route?

No, I did not know about it. They have simply chosen the best day and set off. Especially on these peak days there were a lot of traffic jams, in particular on the difficult passages between Camp 1 and 2 as well as between Camp  3 and 4. That reminded me of the pictures from Everest. I believe there were problems and displeasure among those who were not able to move forward because of the slow groups.

Against this background it was good fortune that there was a lower risk of avalanches this fall.

There was almost no danger of avalanches this fall. It was snowing heavily only once or twice, but the fresh snow compacted immediately.

Lately, there have been reports from mountaineers that the effects of climate change can also be seen clearly on Manaslu. You were already there in 2012. Can you confirm this impression?

In 2012, we were on Manaslu in spring, when the snow of winter was still there, now in fall, so this cannot be compared.  But you can see that the glacier is retreating. On Manaslu North, for example, there are a lot of rocky spots where, a few years ago, still were complete ice slopes.  Everywhere water is running. You can clearly see the effects of climate change on Manaslu.

Manaslu

The “Mountain of the Spirit” is close to my heart. It is simply because I spent more than a month at the foot of Manaslu ten years ago. Since then, I have had a personal relationship with this impressive eight-thousander in Nepal. In spring 2007, I reported from the base camp at 4,850 meters about a commercial expedition. Once I myself climbed up to Camp 1 at 5,700 meters. At that time we – expedition leader Ralf Dujmovits and eleven clients as well as a team of two from Austria – were the only people on the mountain. We could not imagine (and would not have liked) then that Manaslu would mutate into the “Mount Everest of fall season”.  In the current season about 500 climbers populated Manaslu Base Camp. Nearly 200 summit successes have been reported so far – being noticed that this time mostly pictures were published that had been taken on the highest point and not, as in previous years, on a spot below. Among those who reached the 8,163-meter-high summit there were two climbers with whom I had been en route on other mountains.

Eight-thousander no. 7 for Stitzinger and von Melle

Alix von Melle (r.) and Luis Stitzinger (l.)

Luis Stitzinger, my expedition leader during the first ascent of Kokodak Dome in western China in summer 2014, led a team of the German operator Amical alpin to the summit of Manaslu last Saturday. According to Luis, all eight members of the group were climbing without bottled oxygen. For the 48-year-old, it was the seventh eight-thousander, all scaled without breathing mask. His wife, Alix von Melle, now has the same record. No other woman from Germany has stood on more eight-thousanders  than the 46-year-old. Alix and Luis have summited six of their seven eight-thousanders together.

Breathing mask partly already above Camp 2

Sergio Zigliotto on top of Manaslu

Climbing Manaslu without using supplemental oxygen has become the exception rather than the rule, confirmed another of my former companions.  “90 percent are using O2 above Camp 3 (at 6,800 m),” Sergio Zigliotto wrote to me. “I saw Chinese climbers using O2 already above Camp 2 (6,400 m).”  With the 51-year-old Italian, I had shared the tent at the seven-thousander  Putha Hiunchuli in western Nepal in fall 2011. At that time Sergio had reached the summit while I had had to turn about hundred meters below the summit. Last Wednesday, Zigliotto stood on top of Manaslu. Sergio had wanted to ascend without bottled oxygen, but used it on the last 200 meters  below the summit due to health problems.

On the short rope

Queue on Manaslu

“It was very hard, but wonderful. On 27 September at 10 a.m. , I was standing on the highest point of Manaslu at 8,163 meters,” Sergio wrote. “I found the perfect day for the summit. It was a clear and sunny day. There were just me and other 4 people, hence no problems of traffic due to excess of people.” On that day a total of about 50 people had reached the summit, he said: “I saw many Chinese going on the short rope up and down. It was really sad to see.”  Everest conditions on Manaslu. That is why the “Mountain of the Spirit” is not only close to my heart, but also weighs on  my mind.

Carlos Soria on Dhaulagiri

The probably fittest of all seniors among the high altitude climbers must still wait for his 13th eight-thousander. Because of too much snow on the mountain Carlos Soria declared his expedition on the 8,167-meter-high Dhaulagiri for finished. During the ascent of the 78-year-old Spaniard and his companions to Camp 1, some avalanches had swept down not far away from the climbers, Carlos indicated on Facebook, adding that the high risk of avalanches would continue in the upper parts of the mountain. Moreover, the fixed ropes which they had laid before had been buried by fresh snow. “Because of all these adversities, we have no choice but to abandon our Dhaulagiri expedition for this season,” said Soria. A first summit attempt had failed one and a half weeks ago at an altitude of about 7,800 meters, because Carlos and Co. had missed the right route while the fog had become stronger.

Two are still missing in his collection

Dhaulagiri

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 Annapurna (77). On Dhaulagiri, he has now failed seven times, most recently last spring. The 8027-meter-high Shishapangma is also missing to complete his eight-thousander collection. If he succeeds, Carlos would be by far the oldest man who stood on all 14 eight-thousanders. This “record” is held by the Polish climber Piotr Pustelnik, who scaled his last eight-thousander in 2010 at the age of 58.

Summit wave rolls on Manaslu

Manaslu (l.) and Pinnacle East (r.)

After all, Carlos had Dhaulagiri almost for himself this fall. On Manaslu, which is not far away, nobody can claim this at the moment. About 500 (!) climbers have pitched their tents in the base camp there. On Monday last week, the first summit successes had been reported from the 8,163-meter-high “mountain of the spirit”. Yesterday and today, several teams posted on the social networks that they had reached the highest point too. And the big summit wave is now rolling. Among those who set off for their summit attempt, are the German couple Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger. Both have so far climbed six eight-thousanders, five of them together. Yesterday, a 46-year-old British had died on Manaslu. After he had abandoned his ascent due to symptoms of severe high altitude sickness, he passed away on the descent somewhere above 6,000 meters.

Manaslu

Once again, Manaslu turns to become the “Everest of the fall season”. The base camp at the foot of the eighth-highest mountain on earth (8,163 meters) will soon be reminiscent of the tented village at the highest of all mountains in spring. According to the newspaper “The Himalayan Times”, the Nepali Ministry of Tourism has issued at least 135 permits to foreign mountaineers o climb Manaslu. Assuming that there will be on average one local Climbing Sherpa per one climber from abroad and some latecomers, probably between 300 and 400 people – including kitchen staff – will be arguing for the best pitches in the base camp. And the normal route via the north-east flank of the mountain might become crowded.

One reason for the big rush on Manaslu is the decision of the Chinese authorities from the beginning of June to cancel the fall season 2017 in order to “adjust and improve” the rules for mountaineers. That was the official reason. Unofficially, it is speculated that the leadership in Beijing considers unrest in Tibet possible during the Chinese Communist Party Congress, which takes place only every five years, in mid-October.

Next attempt of von Melle and Stitzinger

Alix von Melle (l.) and Luis Stitzinger

Manaslu is a popular alternative destination when China closes its borders to Tibet for foreign mountaineers. Already in fall 2012 and 2015, , many operators had offered expeditions to Manaslu instead of the cancelled ones to the Tibetan eight-thousanders. The “Mountain of the Spirit” has meanwhile been summited almost 1000 times. Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger are among the summit aspirants this fall. Manaslu is still missing in the eight-thousander collection of the German couple. The 46-year-old Alix and the 48-year-old Luis have climbed six eight-thousanders so far, five of them together. In fall 2012, both had reached an altitude of just below 8000 meters on Manaslu. In the current season, Luis leads an expedition of the German operator Amical alpin.

Soria again on Dhaulagiri

Compared to Manaslu, the eight-thousanders Dhaulagiri (8,167 meters) and Lhotse (8,516 meters) might be much more lonely this fall. After his unsuccessful attempt last spring, the Spaniard Carlos Soria, aged 78, tackles Dhaulagiri again. In case of success, it would be his 13th eight-thousander. Then only Shishapangma would be missing. Carlos scaled his first eight-thousander, Nanga Parbat, at the age of 51. The high-performance senior already holds the age records on K 2 (aged 65), Broad Peak (68), Makalu (69), Gasherbrum I (70), Manaslu (71), Lhotse (72), Kangchendzönga (75) and Annapurna (77).

Korean-Spanish attempt on Lhotse South Face

Lhotse South Face

Like Soria on Dhaulagiri, the South Korean Sung Taek Hong launches another attempt on Lhotse South Face. In fall 2014 and 2015, Sung’s attempts to climb through the more than 3000-meter-high, extremely difficult wall on a partly new route had failed. This time, the 51-year-old is joined by the 49-year-old Spaniard Jorge Egocheaga. Jorge is a very experienced high altitude climber who has summited all 14 eight-thousanders. Only on Everest he used bottled oxygen.

Hans Kammerlander

He wants to draw a final line. Late next fall, the South Tyrolean Hans Kammerlander wants to climb the 8163-meter-high Manaslu in Nepal, leaving his trauma of 1991 behind. During a summit attempt, his two friends Friedl Mutschlechner and Karl Großrubatscher had died in a thunderstorm. At that time Kammerlander declared that he would never return to Manaslu. In the years before, Hans, at the side of Reinhold Messner, had written alpine history. Thus the two succeeded the first eight-thousander double traverse on Gasherbrum I and II in Pakistan in 1984 – in Alpine style.

“No alpinism”

Kammerlander has so far climbed twelve of the 14 eight-thousanders. In 1996, he skied down from the summit of Mount Everest via the Tibetan north side. Hans, however, had to take off his skies several times because it was a season with little snow. Meanwhile the 60-year-old has lost any interest in what happens on Everest. “I’m not following this. For me normal Everest ascents have nothing to do with alpinism. Supplemental oxygen, prepared mountains and the Sherpas make everything clear,” the 60-year-old told me. “But everyone should do it as he thinks it’s right. But he should leave no garbage there. He has to leave the mountain clean, then it’s okay for me.” I spoke to Kammerlander about his upcoming Manaslu project, which he wants to realize along with the North Tyrolean mountain guide Stephan Keck.

Hans, Manaslu means “mountain of the spirit”. Does Manaslu still weigh heavily on you?

Manaslu (l.) and Pinnacle East (r.)

Yes of course. If you face such severe blow of fate as I did on Manaslu, where I have lost my two very close friends at that time, such a mountain weighs heavier on you than mountains where you experienced your greatest successes, such as Everest or Nanga Parbat.

You said at the time: This experience was so traumatic that I never want to return the Manaslu. Why now this change of mind?

I really did not want to go back. I always thought this would only reopen the old wounds. A few years ago (in 2006) in an attempt on (the 7350-meter-high) Jasemba in Nepal – we were a team of two – a very good friend of mine (Luis Brugger) fell to death when abseiling. The next year I was there again, and I successfully completed the ascent along with Karl Unterkircher. I’ve found: It’s better to go forward instead of sticking your head in the sand and stop everything. The idea arose to return to Manaslu, without any pressure to perform, trying quite relaxed to scale to the mountain thus finishing a path. This is what we will try this year. We’re gonna make a big movie. It should not be sensational but go in depth. It will be a portrait of my life, with ups and downs. And Manaslu will be the main theme.

Strong rope team: Hans (l.) with Reinhold Messner in 1991

You once wrote that you felt complicit in the death of your two friends for many years, and that you were no more able to feel happy in the mountains. Are you meanwhile at peace with yourself?

Yes, absolutely. But, of course, it’s clear: As an expedition leader, you always feel a little guilty. I wanted to give my friends the chance to climb an eight-thousander, as Reinhold Messner did with me when I was a young climber. Then we do not reach the summit and the two top friends have accidents. Though it’s not your fault, you are very depressed. Nevertheless I would like to tell people now: No matter what happens to you in life, go forward! If someone falls down the stairs and gets injured, he can not avoid stairs for a lifetime. In this cinematic portrait we will show not only brilliant successes but also the deep pain I suffered very often in life: by the loss of friends, by a serious car accident for which I had to take the blame. These were very serious, unintended cuts. They all will come to light in this film.

You brought up the car accident at the end of 2013, when a young man was killed. You drove under the influence of alcohol, and you received a two-year suspended sentence in 2015. Can one get rid of such a story at all?

If you make a mistake, you do not want to make it. Then it happened, and you have to try to live with it. Of course, no one in the world knows how many people’s lives I’ve saved as a mountain rescue man. And then you make a mistake and you are blamed, not for everything, but a big part of. It was unintended, and that’s what you also must be able to live with. That’s hard. If you made a mistake and something dramatic happened, this is very, very, very hard. Because you have no credit from the public. As a well-known person you are reduced on this mistake. This is very, very bitter.

Camp 1 on the north side of Manaslu

Let’s go back to Manaslu. Since last December you are 60 years old. How do you prepare for your first eight-thousander expedition for over 15 years?

I will not prepare in a special way. I have an incredible routine. I know exactly what my body is able to do and what not. This expedition should have nothing to do with performance. For me personally it should only be a path that I would like to finish. Perhaps I will be successful. In this case I would be very well balanced in my mind and could say: Now you can retire. Now you have reached your great goals on the mountains. Over the years, I just stalled the Manaslu project, postponed it and never again set myself this task.

Are you going to climb without bottled oxygen?

Supplemental oxygen was always out of question for me. I do not need it. Of course, I trust myself to climb this mountain, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken the project into consideration. I am still relatively fit. And there have been many older ones at great altitudes, who have not had much experience. I have it. So I do not have to run like mad now to get me into shape.

Do you want to ascend via the north side of Manaslu, as in 1991?

I would like to go to the South Face. I still prefer a steep wall rather than a long and easy but exhausting walk.

Climbing via the south side would also have the advantage that you could avoid the masses, which you will surely meet on Manaslu in fall. For sure 99 percent of the climbers will be on the north side.

This has really changed a lot. At the time we were alone on Manaslu. But that’s not an issue for me, anyway, because I will leave only in November and go into the winter. Then there is no one left, and we will have the mountain for ourselves. There will certainly be more wind and coldness, but the weather will probably be more stable. I took all this into account. I do not want to ascend in such a mass.

In case of success, the 14 eight-thousanders would be within your reach. Besides of Manaslu, you are still lacking Shishapangma, where you were “only” on the Central, not the Main Summit. Would that be an issue for you?

If I reach the summit of Manaslu, I – for me personally – would have completed the 14 eight-thousanders. Because the (8008 meters high) Central Summit of Shishapangma indeed is an eight-thousander. At that time Shishapangma was my training summit for Everest. I really blew it. I climbed directly to the Central Summit, saw a few prayer flags on an ice axe and didn’t cross via the ridge to the Main Summit, which is a few meters higher. I am not interested in it, the number 14 was never an issue for me. In case of success at that time I had the chance to become the fourth climber on all 14 eight-thousanders. I am interested in other stories, trying something new, not only being listed.