Shishapangma

A chewing gum is not getting better by chewing it endlessly. There must come a time to spit it out. Stories are a similar ballgame. At a certain moment everything has been devoured a 1000 times. Then you should have the courage to draw a line under it before it becomes a never ending story, which is still only annoying. This will be my last blog post on the avalanche on Shishapangma which happened on next Saturday, exactly two years ago. Maybe not yet everything is said, but in my view it’s enough to close the chapter – and hopefully learn from it.

False impression

It was good that Martin Maier – as reported – kicked off the debate with his interview with the German magazine “Bergsteiger”. Now we have a fairly accurate idea of what really happened at that time, and in some details it defers from what had been previously reported. He wanted to correct this false impression, Martin said in a TV documentary of the German broadcaster “Bayerischer Rundfunk” (BR) on the events on Shishapangma in 2014, “because things that were said have been published somewhere and are accepted by the people as true and as a fact.”

Basti Haag (l.) and Andrea Zambaldi (r.) died in the avalanche

The avalanche had killed the German Sebastian Haag and the Italian Andrea Zambaldi. Like the two, Maier had been swept down the slope 600 meters deep but unlike his climbing partners he had remained lying on the snow surface. In the end he was able to escape, seriously injured, by his own strength to the high camp. Benedikt Boehm and the Swiss Ueli Steck, who had had a lucky escape from the accident, had seen no possibility to traverse to the avalanche cone and had already descended when Martin reached the high camp.

Boehm: “I’m sorry”

Maier proved with pictures that had been taken with a high resolution camera from Base Camp: It was not Basti Haag who did the trail-breaking when the avalanche swept down – as Benedikt Boehm later said in various interviews – but Boehm himself. After long hesitation, Benedikt commented in the BR documentary for the first time on the accusation that he possibly had wanted to blame Haag for the accident. “If it has been understood this way, I’m very, very sorry,” Benedikt said. “It was never my intention to accuse anyone of having triggered the avalanche. Even if a single foot was decisive for what happened, it’s completely irrelevant, because we five had made a joint decision to go up there, of our own accord and of our own risk.” However, Boehm didn’t say why he had not corrected his first statements earlier – as Maier, according to his own words, had repeatedly asked him to do.

“Worst moment”

Bene Boehm (r.) and Basti Haag on Shishapangma

Also new was the information that Boehm and Steck had recognized from above that one of three other climbers was lying on the snow. “We have seen a colored dot,” Ueli told BR. “There was someone lying out there, you could see that. First he was moving, then he stopped and just lay in the snow.” Due to the great danger of avalanches, Boehm and Steck had decided not to traverse into the slope. “For me it was the worst thing I have ever experienced”, said Ueli. “You see someone down there, and you cannot get there.” In the BR film also Boehm described the decision to descend as “the worst moment of my life. I later did not want to go into detail because this story is so deep inside me. But in retrospect this was a mistake.”

“Very own responsibility”

He is still blaming himself for not having traversed to the avalanche cone to help Martin, Ueli Steck writes on his website under the headline “My principles on the mountain”: “I thank him for not reproaching me for that. I’m going to use the experience of this accident for similar decisions – which hopefully will never be necessary.” However, accidents like the avalanche on Shishapangma cannot be completely ruled out. “Mountaineering is one of the few activities that are not fully regulated, and thus each individual is allowed to determine the risks he is willing to take,” Ueli wrote. “But freedom also means responsibility. We all know that in the end we have to bear our very own responsibility for the risks of this beautiful sport.”
And what else can we learn from the debate about the avalanche on Shishapangma? One should stick with the truth, says Martin Maier. Absolutely!

Advanced Base Camp on Shishapangma

24 September 2014, 6.55 a.m.: Five men are climbing at 7,900 meters towards the summit of the eight-thousander Shishapangma when the avalanche releases. The Germans Sebastian Haag and Martin Maier and Italian Andrea Zambaldi are swept several hundred meters down the slope. German Benedikt Boehm and Swiss Ueli Steck have a lucky escape and get away from the snow masses. The 36-year-old Haag and the 32-year-old Zambaldi die. Maier miraculously survives and is able to escape by his own strength to the high camp. The news of the incident first appears in my blog. The first interviews about the avalanche with Bene Boehm and Martin Maier can also be read on “Adventure Sports”.

“Time does not heal everything”

More than one and a half year later, Martin has opened up a debate on the incident by giving an interview to the German magazine “Bergsteiger”. The 41-year-old industrial engineer is in his own words still suffering from long-term effects which are not only health problems: “Time does not heal everything – neither injuries that have remained to this day nor the sadness and bitterness about the fact that people want to increase their self-esteem at the expense of others.” Maier accuses the other two survivors of the avalanche, Boehm and Steck, of not having told the truth and of having abandoned him too quickly.

Who was where?

Using pictures that had been made with a time-lapse camera from Base Camp, Maier documented that Benedikt Boehm was walking ahead of the group when the avalanche released (see video).

Benedikt had told me three weeks after his return in an interview: “Basti (Haag) was breaking the trail and went a bit away from the ridge. He just turned to me when suddenly the entire slope began to move. It just broke off. (…) I could jump to the side because I was close to the ridge. Ueli too, who was just below me.” After I had published the interview, Boehm asked me to remove two passages (one is quoted at the beginning of the video) that might have created the impression that Haag was to blame for the incident. I complied with his request – also with regard to Sebastian’s parents, who had just lost their second son on a mountain.
However, the key message still remained, which Benedikt had confirmed during the interview once more: “I was already in Basti’s track, but then I turned around instinctively and walked a few steps out of the slope.” I requested Boehm to comment on Maier’s accusation that he had “constructed things that are simply not true”. Benedikt replied that he first wanted to clarify the whole issue directly with Martin and then go public. According to him, a joint TV appearance is scheduled at the end of July or at the beginning of August.

Steck: “Closer to the ridge”

At the trade fair ISPO in Munich in February 2015, more than four months after the accident, Ueli Steck had described to me the situation at the moment of the avalanche in this way: “It was only luck that Beni (Boehm) and I were standing a bit further up. We also stood in the avalanche zone, but just a little bit on the side where not so much snow slipped away.” Just after the expedition he had given a similar statement to the Swiss newspaper “Sonntagszeitung”. The picture now published in the German magazine “Bergsteiger” shows that the Swiss top climber was ascending as second last of the group. This is not inconsistent to his previous statements, Ueli writes to me: “What I wanted to express was that I was from my perspective further up towards the ridge – and not above the others. I have told exactly what the picture shows.”

Rescue attempt delayed?

Basti Haag (l.) and Andrea Zambaldi (r.) died in the avalanche

Maier’s second allegation weighs even more serious: Boehm and Steck had seen that someone was lying on the snow. With their categorical statement via walkie-talkie that it was impossible to traverse to the avalanche cone, they had at least delayed, even almost prevented a rescue or recovery action, said Martin in the interview of the magazine “Bergsteiger”: “I don’t even want to say that they themselves had to help me. But they could have said, we are not able to do it because we think the avalanche danger is too great instead of: There is no chance, any rescue attempt is hopeless.”

Boehm: “Most difficult decision of my life”

Boehm and Steck disagree. Boehm told the German newspaper “Sueddeutsche Zeitung”, it had been “the most difficult decision of my life that will haunt me for the rest of my life” not to traverse to the avalanche cone. Maybe, says Benedikt, he should have expressed more differentiated on radio and later also to Norbu Sherpa, who had climbed up to meet them, but he “had certainly not wanted to prevent a rescue operation”.

Steck: “I was lucky, others less so”

As well as Boehm, Steck points out that they had tried everything to get across. Alas avalanche danger cannot be measured, Ueli writes to me: “I have discussed back and forth with Suzanne (Hüsser from the expedition operator Kobler & Partner) what we should do.” Someone, who back then heard Steck’s radio message at Base Camp, told me that the Swiss climber was “emotionally really down”. “I find it absolutely incorrect to point a finger at us in retrospect”, Ueli writes to me. “It’s easy to judge afterwards those who were on the mountain and had to take the decision in this situation.” It was wrong to ascend at all, says Ueli. “The fact that we all together triggered an avalanche was the mistake for which we have to bear the consequences. I was lucky, others less so.” In fall 2014, no climber had reached the summit of Shishapangma due to the snow masses on the mountain.

Maier: “Needed but undesirable in media presentation”

During acclimatization

Initially Steck had wanted to climb the eight-thousander along with his wife Nicole. The Swiss had joined the “Double 8” expedition team only for this summit attempt. The expedition’s goal: speed ascent on Shishapangma, ski descent from the summit, cycling with mountain bikes to Cho Oyu, speed ascent and ski descent. The expedition had initially been media-accompanied by the German Internet portal “Spiegel online”. Maier was the only non-professional climber in the team, his name was not mentioned in the reports. Reading his name for the first time in the first message of Benedikt’s team about the accident I wondered: Who is Martin Maier? and then googled him. “On the day of the second summit attempt I had broken the trail almost 1,000 meters high from Camp 1 to Camp 3,” Maier said in the “Bergsteiger” interview. “So I was probably a needed, but in the media presentation undesirable member of the expedition.”

Please objectively!

There is a heated debate about Martin’s allegations in the climbing scene. I have often been requested to take up position. Several newspapers reported about the dispute. Terms like “mountaineer’s honor”, “lie”, “guilt” and “false pride” are used. Among those who now play the role of judges most have spent fall 2014 in their warm living rooms. Some of them have probably never been on a high mountain, let alone have experienced there extreme situations. I have hesitated for a long time and wondered if I should comment on the case. But the debate has taken on a life of its own, and I can not pretend that it doesn’t take place. Some issues must be clarified, especially between Benedikt and Martin. I hope that it will happen at an objective level.

Martin Maier

Survived! On 24 September, Martin Maier was swept down 600 meters by an avalanche on the eight-thousander Shispapangma in Tibet. It was not only his friend Benedikt Boehm who called it a “small miracle”, that the 39-year-old climber from Munich did not die. The avalanche had released not far below the summit. The German ski mountaineer Sebastian Haag and the Italian Andrea Zambaldi were also caught by the avalanche and, in contrast to Maier, buried by the masses of snow. Both climbers died. Boehm and the Swiss Ueli Steck were just able to rescue themselves, when the entire slope began to slip off.

Martin Maier is recovering slowly but surely from the injuries he suffered in the accident. The engineer is not a professional climber, but has already gained a lot of experience on expeditions, inter alia to the Patagonian ice cap and to some 6000ers in South America. In 2012, he climbed the 8163-meter-high Manaslu in Nepal, the eighth highest mountain in the world. Martin told me his really incredible story of survival on Shishapangma:

Martin, how are you doing now?

I still have to struggle with many aftermaths of the avalanche and the whole tragedy, with my injuries that are yet to cure. And then of course there are always the thoughts with the friends who have died.

Which injuries did you suffer?

I had a traumatic brain injury with a cerebral hemorrhage, which led to a disorder of balance and coordination. To this day, I see double, what is caused by an injury of a cranial nerve. In addition, I had ruptures in both knees and in one ankle.

You have been swept down several hundred meters by the avalanche. Do you remember anything?

I can remember up to the moment when I saw an edge of the glacier approaching at great speed. Then I lost consciousness.

Did you think about anything in those first moments of the avalanche or did you only react instinctively?
Both, but the instinct prevailed. It took time until I realized what was happening. I lost the ground under my feet and with the increasing masses of snow I felt like moving in the surf. I did not realize what was really going on. The whole thing began slowly, with a slipping, and it developed extremely fast. I could only react. Instinctively, I threw away my sticks. Then I fumbled for the buckle of my rucksack, was able to open it and threw away the rucksack too.

That may have saved your life. When the avalanche came to a halt, you were lying unconscious on the snow for hours. What did make you wake up again?

I don’t know. I woke up like after a long, deep sleep. I felt thrown back into the nothingness of my human existence, compared to the forces of nature. I could see the summit and the sun shining above.

Despite your injuries, you searched for Basti Haag and Andrea Zambaldi.

I saw equipment on the avalanche field: a stick, gloves, a rucksack. A few feet away from me, Andrea’s arm was protruding beyond the snow. At this moment I really became aware of what had happened.

Did you try to dig for your two friends?

The snow on the avalanche cone was frozen hard like concrete. I touched Andrea’s hand hoping that he was still alive. I tried to dig out his face. But it made no sense at all, the snow was rock-hard. I looked for traces leading out of the avalanche cone, to see if perhaps anyone had been able to save himself before. But that was not the case.

Did you realize at that moment that you had to save yourself and could not wait for rescue?

I had known before that I was on my own, like probably anyway at this altitude. I had seen Basti in the avalanche when it released, Andrea at the bottom. So I knew that both were definitely buried. After having lain on the avalanche for six or seven hours, I assumed that Beni and Ueli had been killed too.

Despite your injuries you were able to reach Camp 3. How far was it from the avalanche cone?

Maybe 500, 600 meters. It took a long time until I could orient myself, everything seemed surreal. I even thought about descending to the Tibetan plateau, to the area not covered by snow. But I quickly realized that it would be the wrong way for certain and that I had to find Camp 3 instead.

I was able to discover a landmark on the ridge I remembered from the ascent. I was sure that I would find our tent by walking beyond that landmark. I was not walking normally. I got up, fell down, tried to get back on my feet, crawled. My mind was working, but my body did not obey.

Did you meet your teammates in Camp 3?

No. The tent was badly damaged by the storms of the past few days. We had pitched the tent during our first summit attempt and had not stayed there during our second try. The tent was torn, inside half a meter of snow. I scooped it out with my hands. Completely exhausted, I fell into the tent and fell asleep again. At night I woke up because I was cold. I had no sleeping bad, no torch, no lighter, nothing to drink. In the morning, after I had made it through the night in reasonably good condition, I tried to descent by my own. But as I stepped out of the tent, I immediately fell down a few meters. I was just glad that I had not slipped off the ridge. I realized that I had to rest before the next try. I sat down in the tent, then I found a lighter and melted snow for drinking. At about 10 a.m. Norbu Sherpa arrived. He had climbed up all the way from basecamp and shouted from a distance whether anyone was there. I was very happy to see him.

Advanced Base Camp on Shishapangma

How do you deal with your dramatic experience? Do you ponder on it day and night?

No. I have come to terms with it, as far as possible. I have no nightmares or lingering memories. Of course, I’m giving thought of it. Daily I’m forced to deal with it because the insurances want information or friends call me, who want to know what happened. Although this phase is very exhausting, I am able to handle the tragedy. I have always been aware of the dangers of mountaineering, and what has happened, is very sad, but it’s probably part of this sport.

Do you also see it as a small miracle that you survived?

I am well aware that I was very lucky. I had a guardian angel that made sure that I came to rest on the avalanche and was not buried after I had lost consciousness. But the rest was my own struggle for survival, against the forces of nature. After I had woken up, I went back for my own. I survived the cold and all ordeals. Those were my own efforts.

On the other hand, I feel a deep gratitude to all the people who have helped me in this situation: Thomas Kaempf who climbed from base camp to a mountain opposite to get a view on the avalanche cone. He saw that someone was moving towards Camp 3 and thus encouraged the many helpers. Suzanne Huesser, who coordinated the rescue from below. Above all Norbu, who climbed up to me. And Carlos Martinez, the Spanish expedition doctor who gave me medical treatment during the descent from Camp 2. I do not know how to thank all the people.

You have nearly died, will you be the same when you will return to the mountains?

I don’t know. Due to the injuries, I still had no opportunity to go to the mountains. But of course, the avalanche was a dramatic experience. I can imagine that I will experience many things more intense and more consciously.

But you won’t give wide berth to the mountains?

Definitely not!

Will you celebrate your birthday twice a year now?

No, I have only one. (laughs)

Benedikt Boehm

Time is relative, depending on how you feel about it. Already three weeks ago? Only three weeks? This is the length of time that has passed since the avalanche on the eight-thousander Shishapangma in Tibet. On 24 September, the German ski mountaineer Sebastian Haag and the Italian Andrea Zambaldi died in an avalanche that released not far below the summit. Martin Maier, who was also swept away by the masses of snow, survived. Benedikt Boehm and the Swiss Ueli Steck were able to escape the avalanche. I call Benedict at home in Munich.

Benedict, it’s now three weeks since the avalanche on Shishapangma went down. Have you been able to come to terms with the accident?

No, not really. Immediately after the avalanche, I was involved with the rescue of Martin Maier, who had survived the avalanche as if by magic. It took two days, then we headed back home. Now I am busy again in my incredibly wonderful life that I am able to live here. As the manager of a relatively large sports brand, there are many tasks to complete, if you’ve been away for so long. That does not leave much time to come to rest. I had this time only during a couple of hours doing sports in the mountain early in the morning or late in the evening.

Bene Boehm (r.) and Basti Haag on Shishapangma

Where exactly did the avalanche release?

Almost exactly at 7,900 meters, 100 meters below the summit. We could already see the highest point, it seemed within reach. It was 6.30 a.m., the sun was rising, soon it got warmer, from -30 to -20 degrees Celsius. The mood in the team was great. We had left all key points behind us. We supposed that we would reach the summit all together no later than 8.00 a.m. We tried to climb near the summit ridge. We had left our skis further down, because we had seen that there was too much snow on the slope. Basti made the track, he moved slightly away from the ridge to shorten the way. Basti just turned to me when suddenly the entire slope began to move. It just broke off. There was no bang or something like that. I noticed that I was loosing the ground under my feet. First the snow was moving eerily slow, but then it accelerated suddenly. I could jump to the side because I was close to the ridge. Ueli too, who was just below me. But the other three had no chance to escape.

Martin Maier was – as Basti Haag and Andrea Zambaldi – swept away by the avalanche. How did he succeed in saving himself?

We lost sight of our three friends, because the avalanche slipped down a convex glacier area. We could only see the avalanche again when it stopped about 600 meters below in a trough. It was a huge avalanche that started small, but spread enormously, like an upside down “V”. Martin was incredibly lucky. Possibly it saved his life that he was able to take off his rucksack and throw away his sticks. When the avalanche came to a halt, he was lying on the surface. He was also lucky because he suffered no very severe injuries. He had a head injury, no open wound, a haematoma. He was lying unconscious for seven hours, then he woke up. He found the strength to reach Camp 3, despite a torn ligament in his knee. All in all it is a small miracle that he survived.

He was really swept down 600 meters?

Yes, Martin was lying on the snow at the avalanche cone. First he did not know where he was and what had happened. But then his memory returned. He even looked for Basti and Andrea, but could not find them.

Ueli and you spent hours trying in vain to get into the avalanche zone. Was it impossible to recover the two buried climbers?

We could not climb down the path of the avalanche, it was too steep and too dangerous. My idea was to descend to an altitude of 7,300 meters and to traverse the avalanche slope with skis. Ueli was rightly skeptical because of the avalanche risk. Nevertheless we tried it, but it was cracking everywhere, the slopes were overloaded with snow. At that moment I realized that I had to return. I thought: I have two young sons, and it is no help to anyone if I risk my life. The chance to rescue our buried friends was very, very low. It had taken us about 45 minutes to descent to Camp 3 and we would have needed another hour to reach the avalanche cone. One and three quarter hours, much too long for someone who is buried under a blanket of snow that is as tightly compressed as concrete. Apart from that we had no shovels for digging. Once again we climbed up 100 meters and tried to get across there. But the risk was too great. It would not have been impossible, but very, very dangerous. The Sherpas, who had climbed up to help us, said immediately that they would not enter the dangerous avalanche zone.

On top of Gasherbrum II, their first 8000er, in 2006

At your first summit attempt, you had returned slightly below the later scene of accident due to the great danger of avalanches. Have you also discussed this time, if you should climb on or not?

At our first attempt, the avalanche risk was not the main reason why we turned around. We thought that we were able to control the risk, if we stayed on the ridge. On 18 September, we had just no more energy to climb on. The snow on the ridge was so deep that we sank into it up to our chests.

Before your second attempt, you said that would be definitely your last. Have you set yourself under too much pressure?

It is difficult to know. Pressure is also important. If you are not motivated to the last during such projects at the eight-thousanders, you will not succeed. You need this pressure that pushes you and tells you to do your very best. But of course you also have to keep cool. We have proved this ability, for example in 2012 on Broad Peak, when we returned only 20 meters below the main summit because it was too dangerous.

Ueli and you were really lucky.

Definitely. I was already in Basti’s track, but then I turned around instinctively and walked a few steps out of the slope. Somehow I realized: No, I will not enter this slope. It was an inner decision, consciously or unconsciously, I don’t know.

After the accident, Reinhold Messner criticized you in an interview to have sold your project as a record attempt.

I have always dissociated myself from the word “record” in connection with what I’m doing in the mountains. Records make sense on a 100-meter track, but not on an eight-thousander, where the conditions can change completely from day to day. I have always tried to be fast on the mountain to be safer, not to break any record. In relation to our project “Double8” we never used the term “record” or “world record”. I’ve heard it for the first time after my return. It’s annoying. But you can not blame the media for using these words. If the headline contains the term “world record”, probably eight out of ten Internet users will click on the article, using “Double8” perhaps one.

Best friends: Basti (l.) and Bene

2012 on Manaslu, Sebastian and you narrowly escaped an avalanche. At that time 11 climbers died. Now you’ve lost Basti, your best friend and climbing partner, in the avalanche on Shishapangma. What does this mean for your future as a professional mountaineer?

I don’t know yet. A companion like Basti is not replaceable. Going to the limits like we do, you need someone whom you can trust blindly, who shares the same values, ​​and who is on the same wavelength. We talked about everything, politics, culture, business, whatever, but not about any mountain stories. We just did not want to be one-sided. I really do not know yet what the future will bring. Anyway, I had tried to reduce the risk by choosing Shishapangma and Cho Oyu for our project. Basti had preferred Dhaulagiri. But I had told him: It’s too dangerous. I will no more ski down such steep faces with incalculable risks. I did it before, but now I have a family.

Ueli Steck

Ueli Steck has done his share to lift the fog that formed around the avalanche on the eight-thousander Shishapangma one and a half week ago. Benedikt Boehm and he were a little bit higher on the slope, “when suddenly a snow slab released and swept down the three climbers below us, Sebastian Haag, Andrea Zambaldi and Martin Maier”, said Ueli in Kathmandu in an interview with the Swiss newspaper “Sonntagszeitung”. “The snow slab released almost silently. It was eerie.” Maier was able to dig himself out. “He had no serious injuries, was able to descent and meet the rescue team. He is in Germany now.”

All attempts to enter the avalanche area and search for the buried climbers Haag and Zambaldi were unsuccessful. “It was too risky. We would have caused new avalanches”, Steck said. “Finally, we had to descend. In desperation you must not make mistakes that can jeopardize other people.”

No hara-kiri action

Therefore it did not make sense to try to recover the two bodies from an altitude of 7500 meters, said Ueli, who turned 38 yesterday. “The risk for the search team would be too great. Unfortunately.” Ueli was also asked if he thought that he had a partial responsibility for the death of Basti Haag and Andrea Zambaldi. “Each of the five climbers could decide whether he took part or not. Nobody is responsible for the other”, Steck answered. “We all were there, because we wanted to be there. It could as well have been me who was swept away by the avalanche.”

Ueli came to defence of Boehm and Haag who had the idea for the project “Double8” – to climb and ski down the eight-thousanders Shishapangma and Cho Oyu and to cycle from one base camp to the other: “For sure it was no hara-kiri action. There were no extremely dangerous walls they wanted to climb. I call it an attractive, inspiring project. Even though it had a tragic end.”

On his homepage, Benedikt Boehm expresses his condolences to Basti Haag’s family – and remembers the minutes before the accident: “Just before an avalanche snatched Sebastian Haag and Andrea Zambaldi from life, the summit of Shishapangma glistened in the rising morning sun. A moment of happiness. One of the many Basti and I experienced together.”