Hansjoerg Auer

“The ability is the measure of what you are allowed to do,” the free climbing pioneer Paul Preuss (1886-1913) wrote – freely translated – more than a hundred years ago. Hansjoerg Auer is able to do a lot and is therefore a well-deserved winner of the “Paul Preuss Award”, which is annually given to an extraordinary climber in the tradition of the legendary Austrian. “Auer belongs undoubtedly to the best climbers in the world,” said Reinhold Messner during the award ceremony at the International Mountain Summit (IMS) in Bressanone last weekend. Meanwhile, Hansjoerg Auer has set off from his native Oetztal for a new adventure. In the far east of Nepal, the Austrian, along with his countryman Alex Bluemel, wants to first climb the North Face of the almost 7,000-meter-high Gimigela Chuli East. The mountain is hidden behind the eight-thousander Kangchenjunga, the third-highest mountain on earth.

Hansjoerg, do you take failure into account?

Of course. If you go off the trodden track on an expedition, so many things might go wrong. But that’s why it’s so much fun because you can not write the expedition report at the beginning.

But you may also experience nasty surprises – like on your last expedition to Annapurna III this spring, where you spent five weeks more or less in bad weather.

Nevertheless, we have not returned empty-handed. We have collected a lot of information about the project and we want to come back again. Next time we will do many things in another way and better. Maybe we are able to succeed. Often you have to approach to a goal by answering open questions. In difficult projects this can take several years. If I go on a frequently climbed mountain, I only need to google.

Masherbrum (in the centre)

One of the major unsolved problems in the Himalayas and Karakorum is the Northeast Face of Masherbrum (7,821 m) in Pakistan. David Lama, Peter Ortner and you have tried it in 2014 but have not been able to advance much further than to the bottom of the wall. Do you have this project still in mind or do you concentrate on more achievable goals?

If you are constantly going on expeditions, you can not always try very, very difficult projects. You have also to choose projects that are manageable to find your confirmation by success. If you’re going somewhere year by year, where the odds are very low, it will wear you down in the long run. But the Masherbrum project is still alive. Whenever we meet, we talk about it. The date when we’ll try it again is still open. But for me it’s clear that the wall is not climbable on the direct line we had originally planed. We will have to compromise. Masherbrum is really extremely dangerous. You can not try it every year. If you do so, you won’t come home someday.

In the South Face of Nilgiri South

About a year ago, you first climbed the Southface of Nilgiri South (6839 m) in Nepal, along with Alex Bluemel and Gerhard, called “Gerry” Fiegl. Gerry suffered from high altitude sickness and fell to death on the descent from the summit. Do you, for this reason, post the expedition as failed?

Of course, it is not a successful expedition, because that would mean that all climbers, who set off, later returned. We can not undo this accident. It was one of the saddest moments of my career. If a friend with whom you started to climb falls to death right in front of your eyes, it is horrible. But even on the summit, we hadn’t any feeling of happiness because we realized that something was wrong with Gerry. We had to traverse the summit because the descent via the ascent route was much too difficult. We had hoped that Gerry’s condition might change for the better due to the euphoria of having reached the summit. And we managed to descend relatively far down. But in the end the accident could not be avoided. These difficult climbs in high altitude are only possible by reduction: reduction of equipment, of weight – and of safety too. There is simply no longer a large safety buffer.

During the frist ascent of the 7000er Kunyang Chhish East in Pakistan

The public quickly forgets such accidents. But you have to live with it. Is it possible at all to come to terms with such an event?

I believe you can not forget it for the rest of your life. You are shaped by such an extreme experience. Gerry will also be missing in ten years. There are many memories, because we were so often together en route. It’s quite normal that the public forgets. But we don’t want to forget it. We have to accept it in a certain way. We were given someone with whom we were allowed to take many actions. We would have liked to do it longer, but maybe it was predetermined and just had to happen this way.

Has the incident made you more cautious?

It was, of course, a dramatic experience. It has made me reflecting about myself, but my basic personality is not so extremely influenced that I would say: I stop it. Finally climbing is my life. Of course, it was not easy to go on expedition to Annapurna III last spring. The moments are the same: the airport in Kathmandu, the hotel, the base camp. The mountain is located not far from Nilgiri South. And we have set off for climbing Annapurna III on the day exactly half a year after Gerry’s fall to death. You can not simply fade out these memories.

Free Solo in the Marmolada South Face

You are moving on a narrow ridge doing these extreme projects. If you climb free solo (Hansjoerg i.e. made headlines worldwide when he climbed the difficult Fish route through the South Face of Marmolada in the Dolomites for the first time free solo in 2007), almost any mistake inevitably would lead to death. Do you feel how far you can go?

I have started very early to climb solo. I have a good feeling for that. And only in this case I really do it. In high altitude it is much more difficult, because things can happen which you don’t expect. If you have not experienced it by yourself, it is, for example, hard to imagine how fast high altitude sickness can develop. Up there you are not allowed to live out your ambition excessively because that can lead to death. You have to be more honest with yourself than in the Dolomites or other mountains of the Alps.

In other words, you have to learn to put the brakes?

You have to know when it is enough. Of course I can not turn around at the first sign, otherwise I would never get far. But I must have to realize if it was the last sign.

Restrain ambition in high altitude

The projects are created in your head, you are planning them for a long time, you focus on them. Do you still have the sense to perceive the country and the people on your expeditions and to enjoy the fact that you are traveling in a foreign world?

Honestly, mostly not. I am so focused on my projects that there is little time left. But I have started to travel once a year, always in December, to a city in Europe for a weekend, without climbing equipment, simply to visit it. For me, this is a big step. Not only mountains, walls, shadow, ice, snow and rock.
If you are constantly en route for many years, you have to be careful not to lose your footing. You are so focused on your projects that you begin to believe they are necessary for life. You return from an expedition and feel that everyone should be interested in it. Of course adventure stories are always interesting, but you have to keep both feet on the ground and be aware: There are other important things.

Nobukazu Kuriki

It would have been a real bang. And probably the headline was already prepared: “Historical Everest climb with only one complete finger”. But this headline will be put away in a drawer until further notice. Nobukazu Kuriki has abandoned his first summit attempt on Everest. “I tried hard taking all my energy, but it took too much time to move in the deep snow”, the 33-year-old Japanese tweeted. “I realised if I kept going, I wouldn’t be able to come back alive.” It is still unclear how high exactly he climbed. According to his GPS signal messenger, he did not reach the South Col. Kuriki had made his “last Camp”, as he wrote, at about 7,700 meters, at about the level of the Geneva Spur, 200 meters below the South Col. From there, it would have been a real marathon stage up to the 8,850-meter-high summit – in particular because the Japanese was climbing solo above Camp 2, not using bottled oxygen, and the route was neither prepared nor secured with fixed ropes.

Solo above 6,400 meters 

South side of Everest

Strictly speaking, it would not have been an Everest solo climb anyway because Kuriki had climbed on the route through the Khumbu Icefall that had been prepared by the “Icefall Doctors”, and he had been accompanied up to an altitude of 6,400 meters. But when at all is a climber truly alone on Everest, especially on the normal route? So Kuriki’s attempt was really quite close to a solo climb. The only pure one in Everest climbing history, that was successfully finished without breathing mask, was made by Reinhold Messner. The South Tyrolean scaled the highest mountain on earth in August 1980, in the midst of monsoon, thus outside of the climbing season, solo and on a new route from the north side. 

Only one complete finger

Kuriki after his Everest attempt in fall 2012

It was already Kuriki’s fifth attempt to climb Mount Everest in fall. In October 2012, the Japanese had made headlines worldwide when he had tried to reach the summit via the rarely tried West Ridge. The then 30-year-old said that he had to turn back at about 8,000 meters because of a storm. On his descent, Kuriki sent an emergency call. Sherpas climbed up to him, and the Japanese was flown by rescue helicopter from Camp 2 at 6,400 meters to a hospital in Kathmandu. Kuriki suffered severe frostbite. Nine fingers had to be amputated; only stumps were left – and only one complete finger.

One more try?

Will Kuriki dare another attempt? He would have enough time for it. But the question arises, whether he is able to recover sufficiently for a second attempt and to build up the necessary tension and concentration for a new start. The last Everest ascent in fall without bottled oxygen took place 22 years ago. On 9 October 1993, the Frenchman Hubert Giot succeeded. The first climber ever who reached the summit of Everest in the post-monsoon-period without breathing mask was a German: Hans Engl on 14 October 1978.

Update 28 September: Kuriki reportedly wants to try it again. “He is staying at base camp for a few days but will try again for the summit starting 1 October”, Tikaram Gurung, managing director of Bochi-Bochi Trek, which is handling Kuriki’s expedition told AFP. “He is in good physical condition and experienced no major problems on the climb.”

Pilots in continous operation

All climbers from the high camps on Mount Everest are safe. In the morning the last 17 climbers, who had been stranded at Camp 1 at 6,100 meters, nine Sherpas and eight foreigners, were flown down to the valley by helicopter. An official of the Nepalese Tourism Ministry said, more than 200 climbers had been rescued on Everest. It was the most extensive rescue operation in the history of high altitude mountaineering. According to department reports, at least 19 climbers, including five foreign nationals, have been confirmed dead in two avalanches. It seems that this figure also includes three Sherpas who reportedly died in the Khumbu Icefall during an aftershock on Sunday.

Messner: “Two-class rescue”

Reinhold Messner

Discussions were caused bay a statement of climbing legend Reinhold Messner. The 70-year-old South Tyrolean sees a two-class rescue in Nepal. “It’s cynical that there is such a hype about the climbers on Mount Everest, who can buy this climb for 80,000 to 100,000 dollars”, Messner said in a German radio interview. There were enough doctors and food on Everest, Messner added. Furthermore the mountaineers could fly out by helicopter. Elsewhere, the aid was needed more urgent: “A much bigger disaster happened in the Kathmandu Valley and in the canyons around the capital.”

That’s true, of course, but in contrast to this area, helicopter rescue on Everest has been established for several years. It just runs like clockwork. Furthermore, not all climbers who were rescued were rich men or women from abroad, but also less well-off Sherpas – many of them injured. Any rescue of a person, whether with a big or small budget, is good news. And I’m sure that the helicopter rescue pilots now fly on to other regions in order to help. My thanks and respect to all these pilots who were deployed tirelessly – and to all the others who lend their helping hands during the rescue.

German operator Amical abandons expeditions in Tibet

In the Chinese Base Camp on the Tibetan north side of Everest the discussions between Chinese officials and expedition leaders continue. An end of all expeditions is still possible. The Chinese government fears further aftershocks. The office of German expedition operator Amical alpin informed me, that its Everest expedition in Tibet was abandoned. Expedition leader Dominik Mueller wants to stay at base camp for the present and then accompany the Sherpas of his team back to Kathmandu. Amical also stopped his Cho Oyu expedition referring to an order of the Chinese government.

Hans Kammerlander

The South Tyrolean mountaineer Hans Kammerlander has been involved in a car accident with a tragic end near his home village Sand in Taufers. According to media reports from South Tyrol, a 21-year-old man lost control of his car. It grazed three oncoming cars before it crashed head-on into a van that was driven by Kammerlander. The 21-year-old died at the scene. Kammerlander and four other persons, who were injured too, were taken to hospital. Stol.it reports that Kammerlander broke his right leg. The 56-year-old was under shock, it said. His van was completely destroyed.

Double traverse

Kammmerlander has climbed twelve of the fourteen 8000ers, all without bottled oxygen, seven of them together with Reinhold Messner. With him Kammerlander succeeded in 1984 the first (and till this day not repeated) double traverse on 8000ers, in Alpine style, i.e. without the help of Sherpas, without high camps, fixed ropes and oxygen mask. In the Karakoram in Pakistan Messner and Kammerlander summited Gasherbrum I, descended on another route to a col, from where they directly climbed up to the top of Gasherbrum II and downhill via another route. After eight days, they returned to basecamp. It was a milestone of climbing on the 8000ers. Get well soon, Hans!