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.

Daniele Nardi (l.) and Tom Ballard in Islamabad

Daniele Nardi can not keep his hands off Nanga Parbat yet. Already for the fifth time the 42-year-old climber from Italy tries his luck in winter on the 8125-meter-high mountain in Pakistan. Nardi and his 30-year-old British climbing partner Tom Ballard arrived in the capital Islamabad, from where they travel on to the north of the country. The team will also include Pakistani mountaineers Rahmat Ullah Baig and Kareem Hayat. Their goal: a new route to the eighth highest mountain on earth via the so-called “Mummery Rib”. In 1895, the British pioneer Albert Frederick Mummery had dared the first serious attempt on an eight-thousander via the 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.

“A dream, not an obsession”

Mummery Rib in the Diamir Face (arrow)

Last time Nardi had been at Nanga Parbat in 2016, but he had been hopelessly at odds with the other climbers who where attempting the mountain that winter. After his premature departure, Italian Simone Moro, Spaniard Alex Txikon and Pakistani Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” had succeeded the first winter ascent of the eight-thousander. “Has Nanga become an obsession for me?,” Daniele asked himself recently in a radio interview. “No, I say that quite frankly. My thoughts concentrate much more on the Mummery spur, on this innovative path. It’s my big dream, not an obsession. Rather, it is the passion for an idea, and even more for a style, to understand the mountain and life.” According to Nardi, Ballard and Co., they want to ascend in Alpine style, i.e. without a chain of high camps and without bottled oxygen.

The six large north faces of the Alps in winter

Ballard (l.) and Nardi on Link Sar

The Italian and the British had been together on their first common expedition to Pakistan in summer 2017. On the still unclimbed 7041-meter-high Link Sar, they had reached an altitude of 5,700 meters in the Northeast Face. After an avalanche had hit their tent, they had abandoned their attempt. Tom Ballard is the son of British mountaineers Jim Ballard and Alison Hargreaves. In 1995, his mother had scaled Mount Everest without bottled oxygen and three months later also K2. On the descent from the second highest mountain on earth, the 33-year-old – like five other climbers who had reached the highest point too – had died in a storm. In 1993, Hargreaves had been the first person to climb the six large north faces of the Alps (Eiger, Grand Jorasses, Matterhorn, Petit Dru, Piz Badile and Cima Grande) in the same summer. In 2015, her son Tom was the first to repeat this feat in winter.

Luis Stitzinger on a mountain above his home town of Füssen

Without him, I couldn’t call myself a first ascender. Luis Stitzinger was the expedition leader of the German operator “Amical alpin” in summer 2014, who led us to maximum success on the 7,129 meter high Kokodak Dome in western China: All 16 team members reached the summit – not least thanks to Luis’ experience and circumspection. Stitzinger already stood on eight eight-thousanders: Cho Oyu (in 2000), Gasherbrum II (2006), Nanga Parbat (2008), Dhaulagiri (2009), Broad Peak (2011), Shishapangma (2013), Manaslu (2017) and Gasherbrum I (2018). He scaled them all without bottled oxygen, six of them together with his wife Alix von Melle.

This Sunday, Luis will celebrate his 50th birthday, “under palm trees on a sandy beach,” he tells me laughing. With Alix, he treats himself to a three-week holiday in the Greek climbing paradise of Leonidio: “I gave it to myself for my birthday.” I spoke to him before he left to Greece.

Luis, half a century old, doesn’t even an experienced mountaineer get a bit dizzy?

Luis (2nd from left) the day before our summit bid on Kokodak Dome (in 2014)

The number five in front is a bit frightening at first sight. On the other hand, I had a year to get used to the idea. And if you think it back and forth, you also realize that this transition is only defined by man and that it is not razor-sharp. It is only a number. I still feel good. 50, that sounds a bit like close to retirement. But I actually don’t feel that way at all.

If you now compare yourself with Luis, who was 25 years old, do you still recognize yourself?

Yes, but of course I have also changed over time. I wouldn’t want to be 25 again because I feel much more confident now. I can enjoy things much more than I did then. If I could transport myself back in time, I would rather head for 36 or 38 years.

Why this age?

Because then you have already gained some experience in life. Also professionally I felt I had arrived. In my private and sporting life, that was an age at which I was well on my way and I was at one with myself. At mid-30s, you’re no longer a greenhorn, but you’re not really old either.

His skis always in the luggage

50 years is a mark to look both back and forward. Let’s first look back! Is there an achievement in your mountaineering career that you would like to highlight?

I like to think back to Nanga Parbat in 2008. We experienced there three times as much as others, because we were really on the mountain three times. First we reached the summit with the “DAV Summit Club” team via the Kinshofer route on the Diamir side of the mountain. Then I tried with my mountain companion Josef (Lunger) to traverse the Mazeno Ridge. We got to the Mazeno Col, but then we had to descend because we ran out of gas and food. And finally I succeeded a ski descent down the central Diamir flank.

With Alix on the summit of Manaslu

You climbed your first eight-thousander, Cho Oyu, in 2000. From your point of view, how has mountaineering in the Himalayas and the Karakoram changed over the past 18 years?

On certain mountains there are much more climbers en route than back then, it has generally become more expensive and therefore more elitist. On some mountains only rich people are able to afford an expedition. The scene of the operators has changed too. Formerly there were only a few bigger companies, now there is a large number of operators. More and more local companies are taking over the market. They organize huge expeditions of several hundred people on the mountain – as for example on Manaslu in fall 2017.

In the meantime, Asians have also discovered high-altitude mountaineering for themselves. There are many people on the way, some of them inexperienced, who need comprehensive support. The change of style, away from the great eight-thousander expeditions of the early days towards individual mountaineering, which Messner, Habeler and others initiated, has reversed again.

That sounds as if you are concerned.

Queue on Manaslu

It doesn’t please me because it’s a very tippy thing in my eyes. It is safe as long as these inexperienced expedition members are massively looked after and the people in charge do the right things at the right time. But what if it happens too late or for some reason there is no support any more? Then it quickly becomes a dangerous all-or-nothing gamble. I expect a bigger accident to happen at some point. It will come inevitably.

Do you think such an accident would change anything?

I don’t think so. If you see, for example, how the expedition rules in Tibet have now been tightened, it’s actually completely into the wrong direction. Individual climbers are restricted, because the Chinese authorities see those who play their own game as a danger – even if they have the game under control and know what they are getting into. On the other hand, the authorities perceive as safe what the big operators are doing there: massive deployment of Climbing Sherpas and mountain guides in order to give the inexperienced clients as much staff as possible. For the authorities this is the path to the future. In case of an accident, there would probably be even more requirements for the operators, but individual mountaineering would hardly be strengthened again.

In high camp on Gasherbrum I

You are also working as a mountain guide for commercial groups. How do you resolve this conflict for yourself being part of the system on the one hand and realizing the negative aspects on the other hand?

Sometimes it is a tightrope walk. As German operators, we still have a slightly different tradition. The commercial expeditions in our country have developed out of group trips. The members are regarded more as self-reliant mountaineers and have to lend a hand. This is sometimes quite different with American or many Nepalese operators: There clients are kept on short rope and are of no account.

This year you scaled your eighth eight-thousander, Gasherbrum I in the Karakoram. How difficult or easy was it for you, or to put it another way: Did you feel that the ravages of time took their toll?

It was very exhausting, due to all the snow and because we were only a team of two. The other climbers had all descended in the storm of the previous day. Gianpaolo (Corona) and I were the last ones in the high camp and just tried it. It was 13 or 14 hours of stomping through deep snow. Although it was so exhausting, I really felt very good. Also in the days after I was not as burnt out as on some other mountains before.

Ascent to the summit of G I

Let’s look ahead! What goals do you still set in your mountaineering career?

At the age of 50 it’s not over yet! I still have some goals. I have not set myself an age limit. I just look at how I’m doing at the moment and then decide. Specifically, I’m planning to tackle Mount Everest again in spring 2019 from the north side (his first attempt there in 2015 failed because the mountain was closed after the earthquake in Nepal)– first as a mountain guide, as a work assignment. Maybe I can do something on the mountain myself afterwards with (Austrian) Rupert Hauer – a good friend of mine who leads another group on Everest.

Without bottled oxygen?

Yes, if possible without it.

Are the 14 eight-thousanders still a topic for you?

I have scaled eight of them so far, there are still six missing, that’s quite a lot. Usually, I try one mountain per year, and it doesn’t work every time. So six outstanding eight-thousanders means several years. I don’t know if I’m running out of time. I’m interested, but there are other things that might appeal to me even more, e.g. to climb a challenging route on an eight-thousander.

P.S.: Alix von Melle will not accompany Luis to Everest next spring, she is indispensable in her job.

Tamara Lunger at the IMS

“I often wish I had been born a hundred years ago,” says Tamara Lunger. “When I hear the 90-year-olds talking, I think to myself: Oh, they were still adventurers! Today we are only pussies compared to them.” Yet, in 2010, at the age of 23, the professional climber from South Tyrol stood on the summit of the eight-thousander Lhotse, as the youngest woman at that time, and in 2014, she scaled K2, the second highest mountain on earth, without bottled oxygen.

During the “International Mountain Summit” in Brixen I am hiking with Tamara from the Latzfonserkreuz downhill. Her parents are keeping the alpine hut up there. We talk about Tamara’s adventures of the past years. The 32-year-old is a honest soul and doesn’t mince her words: “People tell me: ‘You can talk easily, you can live what gives you pleasure.’ However, sometimes there is something negative in my pleasure that I have to accept and learn from. That’s actually what’s important.”

Close to death

Tamara (2nd from l.) with the winter first ascenders of Nanga Parbat, Alex Txikon, Simone Moro and Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” (from l.)

In February 2016 in Pakistan, Tamara Lunger turned around just below the summit of Nanga Parbat. She was only 70 meters short of fame to become the first woman among those who succeeded winter first ascents of an eight-thousander. During the whole summit day she had felt bad, she quasi had dragged herself up the mountain. Then God spoke to her, Tamara tells me: “Normally I always get what I ask for. But that day, ten hours of praying did not help. Then I knew there was something wrong.” She turned around. In the descent she slipped. “It was my experience closest to death so far. I also talked to the Lord when I fell: ‘I didn’t think it would happen so early now. But if that’s the way it has to be, I’m ready, and that’s okay.'” After 200 meters Tamara stopped slipping in loose snow.

Much learned

She survived with injuries of her shoulder and ankle. In the following weeks she was in pain, not allowed to do any sports. And the media hassled her with interview requests. It was a “difficult time”, says the climber. “It was only with time that I understood what Nanga Parbat had given me.” Now she knows that it doesn’t always have to be the summit, says Tamara. “I also learned a lot about myself. For example, how I behave in fear of death. Do I panic or remain calm? Can I still think clearly? These insights are extremely important because they are part of the game in our profession or vocation.”

Lack of respect

A strong team: Tamara Lunger with Simone Moro (r.)

Her next eight-thousander expedition in spring 2017 led her to Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world. With her team partner and mentor Simone Moro, she wanted to traverse all peaks of the massif. However, this did not happen because Moro’s health did not play along. The experiences in the base camp, which the two professional climbers shared with members of commercial expeditions, spoiled climbing eight-thousanders for Lunger for the moment. “It’s incredible what some people are doing there,” says Tamara and shakes her head. “I was partly ashamed of them. The only thing they wanted was to get up somehow. They no longer have any respect, neither for the mountain, nor for other people. In the high camps people are stealing.”

Never again a base camp with others

A Sherpa of the Nepalese operator “Seven Summit Treks” had felt pretty bad on the mountain, unable to descent. “The boss of the Sherpas didn’t give a damn. He preferred to play around with his mobile phone on Facebook instead of helping.” That was so much against her principles that she was losing all her strength, says Tamara: “I swore to myself at the time: No more going to a base camp with other people! I hope I can pull it. In the future, I will approach the mountains in winter or from another side, with a base camp where I have my peace.

Relief in the cold of Eastern Siberia

During the first winter ascent of Gora Pobeda

Last February, Lunger and Moro succeeded the first winter ascent of the 3,003-meter-high Gora Pobeda (also known as Pik Pobeda) in the ice-cold Eastern Siberia at temperatures of minus 50 degrees Celsius. After the failure on Manaslu in winter 2015, her turnround on Nanga Parbat in winter 2016 and her unsuccessful attempt on Kangchenjunga in 2017, she felt under great pressure, Tamara says. She tried to enjoy every step in the beautiful nature of Siberia and not to think about what any people expected of her. “I did that relatively well and it really set me free. When I arrived at the summit, I breathed a sigh of relief. At last!”

Living what she feels

In her future adventures she wants to listen more to her inner voice, Tamara Lunger reveals: “I try to live what I feel. I can’t tell what I’ll do tomorrow or in a week from now. I am currently searching.” And she is not only fixated on the mountains. “I would also like to set off with a sailboat.”

In the Rupal Face

“To paraphrase Shakespeare: living on without summit or voting for death.” This is how Marek Holecek described the decision that he and his team mate Tomas Petrecek had to make last Sunday at the exit of the mighty Rupal Face, 300 meters below the summit of Nanga Parbat. Gusts of wind of up to 100 kilometers per hour blew over the 8,125-meter-high mountain in Pakistan, the ninth highest in the world. After six days in the wall, the two Czech climbers decided to turn around.

Like cabriolet trip without windscreen

Marek Holecek (l.) and Tomas Petrecek (r.) in base camp

“Now, it is a certainty that 4,000 meters can be climbed down, without one step with the forehead to the valley,” Marek described on lidovky.cz the descent through the extremely difficult south face of the eight-thousander. It was like a cabriolet trip without a windscreen in the ice storm, the 43-year-old said: “You’ll find out how frozen fish fillets feel.”

The main thing is to survive!

According to his words, they lost everything on the mountain, food, ice screws, bolts, rope, “many pounds of our weight, nerves”. But, said Marek: “We are back and still alive.” Holecek and Petrecek had planned to climb without bottled oxygen through the Rupal Face, traverse the summit of Nanga Parbat and descend into the Diamir Valley on the west side of the mountain – like the South Tyrolean brothers Reinhold and Günther Messner did in 1970. Günther Messner had died in the Diamir flank at that time.

In summer 2017, Holecek had opened a new route through the Southwest Face of the eight-thousander Gasherbrum I in the Karakoram, climbing in Alpine style with his compatriot Zdenek Hak.

David Göttler

They have two homes. German professional climber David Göttler and his partner Monica Piris spend the winter in Chamonix am Mont Blanc, the summer in Monica’s native northern Spain, between the towns of Bilbao and Santander, “where Spain is still really green”, David enthuses. This summer, as reported, Göttler had returned from Pakistan empty-handed. Bad weather had put a spoke in the wheel of him and his teammate, Italian Hervé Barmasse, on the 7,932-meter-high Gasherbrum IV in the Karakoram. Yesterday Göttler celebrated his 40th birthday in Spain – not in the mountains, but on the construction site, as he tells me, when I belated congratulate him: “I have finished my training room. So it was a good day.”

40 years, David, that’s a mark. Many ook back then on their lives or make plans for the future. You too?

For me it was just a normal birthday. However, you are thinking a little bit about the fact that now perhaps the middle of life has been reached. I don’t feel I’ve missed anything or done something wrong. But I’m also looking forward to the next 40 years. My father turns 79 next winter and is still every day en route in the mountains, paragliding, snowboarding or climbing. If I have only inherited a little bit of these genes, then I still have 40 more good years ahead. Especially in high-altitude climbing I can still do amazing things in the next few years. And I’m looking forward to it.

David with Ueli Steck (l.) in spring 2016

Did you yesterday also think of Ueli Steck, with whom you tackled Shishapangma South Face in spring 2016? Last year, he fell to his death on Nuptse – at the age of forty. Are you worried about overtightening the screw yourself one day?

I always try to deal with the risk very consciously – as Ueli did too, by the way.  I thought of him yesterday, but more with my future in mind: It would have been so nice to be able to plan new goals with him.

What goals have you set for yourself?

First I plan to run a marathon in the lowlands in a respectable time. I will probably do this at the beginning of December. In the longer term, for the next five years or so, I want to tackle some of the eight-thousanders. Gasherbrum IV, where Hervé and I were this summer, is also still on the list.

Yoga in base camp

Which eight-thousanders do you have in mind?

I have not yet decided in which order to approach them. But one of the eight-thousanders on my list is Kangchenjunga, where, on the fascinating north side of the mountain, my eight-thousander career began in 2003. I would like to make another attempt there. Then Nanga Parbat, a super exciting mountain, where I was already once in winter (in 2014 he had reached an altitude of 7,200 meters with Polish climber Tomek Mackiewicz). Mount Everest without bottled oxygen is also still a goal for me, even though there are so many people on the highest of all mountains. I would like to try out how the 400 more meters of altitude feel compared to the other eight-thousanders I have scaled so far (David has reached the summits of five 8000er so far: Gasherbrum II, Broad Peak, Dhaulagiri, Lhotse and Makalu). Also Gasherbrum I, which I viewed this summer from G IV, still offers many possibilities for new or unusual trips beyond the normal route.

With Herve Barmasse (r.)

You were with Herve Barmasse on Gasherbrum IV. What did you experience?

It was a super strange season in the Karakoram due to the weather. People may have been blinded by the news that there were more summit successes on K2 than ever before. But commercial climbing has meanwhile also reached K2: There are fixed ropes from the bottom to the top, many Sherpas are in action, breaking the trail and pitching up the camps. Almost all summitters used bottled oxygen. Things looked very different on the other eight-thousanders. On Gasherbrum I and Gasherbrum II, for example, only two climbers each reached the summit: Luis Stitzinger and Gianpaolo Corona on G I, Adam Bielecki and Felix Berg on G II. Bad weather and resulting adverse conditions on the mountain also made Gasherbrum IV difficult for us and prevented a real summit attempt.

How high did you get?

We reached our highest point during our acclimatization phase at 7,100 meters, just below the East Face. During the summit attempt we only got to Camp 1 at 6,000 meters. It snowed all night and still in the morning, there was no visibility. Because of too high danger of avalanches we then turned back.

En route on Gasherbrum IV

There were many other climbers besides you who returned home empty-handed too because of the persistently bad weather. As in the last years, the conditions in the classical summer season in the Karakoram were problematic. Shouldn’t one arrive later in the year because of the effects of climate change?

We discussed this topic in base camp. Maybe we really shouldn’t climb during these “old school weather windows” when the best conditions used to be in the past. Climate is changing. Not only high precipitation, but also too hot and dry summers are rather bad for many climbing projects. I think we might really have to experiment in the future and travel to the Karakoram at other times. In the classical summer season it seems to become more and more difficult.

Kim Mi-gon

This summer’s first summit success on an eight-thousander in Pakistan has been reported. The Pakistani expedition operator “Summit Karakoram” informed that South Korean Kim Mi-gon, Taiwanese Lu Chung-han and Sanu Sherpa from Nepal had reached the 8125-meter-high summit of Nanga Parbat on Monday. The 45-year-old Kim thus completed his collection of the 14 eight-thousanders, it said.

Just another climb

Nanga Parbat

At the beginning of his expedition, the Korean had already thanked all those who had supported him on his way since 1998. “I don’t know how many people helped me to go to the Himalayas in 20 years,” Kim wrote on Facebook in early June. “People say Nanga Parbat will mean a lot to me. But for me it’s just another climb I like.”

A lot of snow on Gasherbrum II

A short snowfall break in the Karakoram – or, as Felix Berg describes it from Gasherbrum II with a twinkle in his eye “a small good-weather disturbance”. Time for the climbers to stuck their noses into the wind and to reconsider their plans. Dominik Müller, head and expedition leader of the German operator Amical alpin has decided to strike the tents on the 8,051-meter-high Broad Peak and to return home. “All the equipment from Camp 1 was recovered,” Dominik writes on Facebook today. “Just now it’s snowing again, and during our ascent there were some avalanches!” The porters have been ordered for Sunday.

Stitzinger: “Too much snow in the flanks and couloirs”

The Amical team led by Luis Stitzinger, who wanted to first climb the 7,082-meter-high Urdok Kangri II, threw in the towel too. “It’s been snowing for days since we arrived at the base camp. There is now half a meter of fresh snow, and up to one and a half meters at 6,000 or 7,000 meteres,” Luis writes on Facebook. “The route looks elegant, but there’s too much snow in the flanks and couloirs.” For the next three days more than half a meter of fresh snow is expected, says Luis adding that they’ll finish the expedition early: “I’ve never experienced such a season with so constant bad weather in the Karakoram.”

Like Russian Roulette

Alex Gavan (l.) and Tunc Findik (r.)

Snowfall has also increased the risk of avalanches on the other eight-thousanders in Pakistan. Continuing the ascent would be like “Russian Roulette”, Romanian Alex Gavan wrote three days ago. Alex and his Turkish team partner Tunc Findik had interrupted their activities on Nanga Parbat. The two want to climb the 8125-meter-high mountain without bottled oxygen.

Bargiel and Golab move to the K2

On the eight-thousander Gasherbrum II, the Poles Andrzej Bargiel and Janusz Golab declared their acclimatization over – “due to heavy snowfall. Time to move on to K2 base camp and focus on our main goal,” writes Bargiel on Instagram. The 30-year-old is planning the first complete ski run from the 8611-meter-high summit of K2. Last year, Bargiel failed on the second highest mountain in the world – because of bad weather.

Göttler and Barmasse want to climb G IV Southwest Face

Gasherbrum IV

The German climber David Göttler and the Italian Hervé Barmasse are probably glad to have made their way to the Karakoram rather late in the season. Both are still on their trekking. They definitely haven’t missed anything so far. Göttler and Barmasse want to first climb the Southwest Face of the 7,925-meter-high Gasherbrum IV – in pure Alpine style, i.e. without bottled oxygen, high camps and high altitude porters.

Broad Peak Base Camp in deep snow

Summer in the Karakorum? At the moment it feels more like winter, at least in terms of precipitation. For days Mother Holle has been shaking out her mattress over Pakistan’s highest mountains. “Snowfall all day long”, writes Dominik Müller, head and expedition leader of the German operator Amical alpin at the foot of the eight-thousander Broad Peak. “Our base camp is slowly turning into a winter landscape. Avalanches barrel down from the slopes every hour!” The Austrian expedition leader Lukas Furtenbach, from Broad Peak too, takes the same lime: “Tough weather conditions this year”. The situation on the other eight-thousanders in Pakistan is not different. No matter if from the neighbouring K 2, Gasherbrum I and II or Nanga Parbat – the same messages everywhere: Lots of snow, high avalanche risk.

Mike Horn: “Very dangerous”

South African adventurer Mike Horn threw in the towel on Nanga Parbat last weekend.  “It has been snowing at Base Camp for 12 days now and above 7000m there is a lot of snow. This makes the mountain very dangerous,” the 51-year-old wrote on Instagram, adding that the situation was to worsen since the weather forecast was also bad for the next days: “The mountain will stay here so we can always come back to amazing Pakistan.” Mike had been one of the first climbers to arrive in Nanga Parbat Base Camp in early June.

Even more snow

Meteorologists expect snowfall to continue until Thursday inclusive, so the avalanche risk is likely to increase further. An overhasty start onto the mountain before the fresh snow has settled could be fatal. Climbers therefore need patience – and a good entertainment program in the base camp.

Nanga Parbat

The spring season on Nepal’s highest mountains has segued almost seamlessly into the summer season on Pakistan’s eight-thousanders. The first expedition teams have reached the base camps. The South African adventurer Mike Horn arrived on the Diamir side of Nanga Parbat a week ago. In the meantime, the 51-year-old and his teammates have already climbed up to 5,900 meters. Maya Sherpa is tackling the 8125-meter-high mountain too. In May, the 40-year-old Sherpani had had to turn back on Kangchenjunga at about 8,500 metres. Less than 100 meters of altitude difference had been missing to the summit. With the Romanian Alex Gavan and the Turkish Tunc Findik, two other well-known climbers have set off for Nanga Parbat. The 36-year-old Gavan, who failed on Dhaulagiri in spring, has so far scaled six eight-thousanders.  For the 46-year-old Findik, Turkey’s most successful high-altitude climber, Nanga Parbat would be his twelfth of the 14 eight-thousanders if successful.

Goal: Entering new territory on Gasherbrum

The Gasherbrum massif

The two Poles Adam Bielecki and Jacek Czech as well as the German Felix Berg will be on the road in the Gasherbrum massif. The trio will acclimatize on the 8,035 meter-high Gasherbrum II, afterwards the three climbers will try to open a new route via the East Face of the 7925-meter-high Gasherbrum IV.  Another possible destination is the still unclimbed 6,955-meter-high Gasherbrum VII. In May, Felix Berg had summited the eight-thousander Cho Oyu in Tibet without bottled oxygen. In spring 2017, Bielecki and Berg together with the Canadian Louis Rousseau and the British Rick Allen had tried to climb the Annapurna Northwest Face, but had had to give up because of bad weather.

Eight-thousander No. 8 for von Melle and Stitzinger?

Alix von Melle (r.) and Luis Stitzinger

The German mountaineering couple Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger – both have seven eight-thousander summit successes on their account – also head for the Gasherbrum massif. The 46-year-old and her three years older husband want to climb Gasherbrum I, also known as Hidden Peak, in Alpine style from the south. They have their skis with them. Before that, Alix and Luis try to first climb the 7082-meter-high Urdok Kangri II with a team of the German expedition operator Amical alpin.  Luis will lead the group.

Several expedition teams pitch their tents at K2 (8,611 meter) and neighbouring Broad Peak (8,051 meter). As in summer 2017, the Pole Andrzej Bargiel has planned the first complete ski descent from the summit of K2, the second highest mountain in the world.

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa

His secret of success? “Actually this is my job, because I run a company. So I need to lead my clients to the summit,” Mingma Gyalje Sherpa tells me as we sit opposite each other in a café in Kathmandu. In recent years, the 31-year-old has blossomed to the high-flyer among the Sherpas. In fall 2015, he succeeded the first ascent of the West Face of the 6685-meter-high Chobutse in Rolwaling, his home valley – and he did it alone. It was the first solo ascent of a Sherpa in Nepal. Even as an expedition leader, he made headlines. In 2017, no one climbed so often above the magical 8,000-meter-mark as Mingma. The head of the expedition operator “Imagine Trek and Expedition” entered the death zone six times: on Dhaulagiri, Makalu, K2, Broad Peak and twice on Nanga Parbat. Four times he reached the summit (Dhaulagiri, Makalu, K2, Nanga Parbat), the fifth ascent on Broad Peak is disputed. “I will return to this mountain this year,” Mingma announces. “Actually I am quite sure that we made the summit. But this time, I want to reach the highest point of Broad Peak without any doubt, on the one hand to end the debate, on the other for my own satisfaction.”

Better conditions in fall

On Nanga Parbat in summer 2017

Also on Nanga Parbat, Mingma had made a second ascent in last year’s fall because he had not been sure whether he had really found the highest point in bad weather during his first summit attempt in summer. More than three months later, he reached the summit beyond doubt with several clients. “Conditions were much better in September than in summer,” says Mingma. “Perhaps it is really the formula for success in the future to tackle this eight-thousander later in the year.”

First Lhotse, then Everest

Everest (l.) and Lhotse (in the middle)

At the beginning of April, Mingma will set off for a Lhotse-Everest expedition. First, he wants to lead two Chinese clients to the 8516-meter-high summit of Lhotse, then seven Chinese to the top of the 8850-meter-high Mount Everest. As in the previous year, the Sherpa is looking to be successful early in the season: “I am quite sure that we will be the first team on the summit of Lhotse. We are planning to reach it at the end of April or in the first week of May.” He then wants to turn to Everest that he has already scaled five times (with bottled oxygen). The prospect of a crowded normal route does not deter Mingma. “It’s okay for me,” says the expedition leader. “We take only very experienced Sherpas and make sure our teams are not too big.”

Good Climbing Sherpas cost money

Mingma on the summit of K2

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa does not like expedition operators who offer dumping prices. “Low budget means low safety. If you want to have experienced and well-trained Climbing Sherpas and thus more safety, you also have to pay them better,” says Mingma, who himself has a mountain guide certificate of the UIAGM (International Federation of Mountain Guide Associations). “The discounters should know that they are dealing with the people’s life. Actually, we need minimum standards for expedition operators, but I’m skeptical that we’ll ever get them.”

“Other rules are required”

Mingma puts little hope in the government. The new rule, which has meanwhile been overruled by the Nepalese Supreme Court, no longer to grant permits to double amputees and blind climbers, is discriminatory, says the Sherpa: “There are a lot of disabled climbers who are more capable than non-disabled.” Other rules are required to reduce the number of summit aspirants on Everest, finds Mingma: “So if someone wants to climb Everest, he must have scaled another eight-thousander before. Or he must have at least the qualification of climbing 7,000 meters.”

Goal: All 8000ers without breathing mask

Solo on Chobutse (in 2015)

For now Mingma Gyalje Sherpa puts his personal ambitions as a climber on the backburner. But that does not mean that he has given up his big dream. The 31-year-old wants to become the first Nepalese who has scaled all 14 eight-thousanders without bottled oxygen. “There are still three left in my collection,” says Mingma, meaning Mount Everest, Gasherbrum II and Shishapangma. If we add Broad Peak (see above), it would be four. “This year, I have to focus on leading my clients safely on Everest. That’s why I can not do it without breathing mask. But maybe I’ll try it in 2019.”

Elisabeth Revol at the press conference in Chamonix

“We could have saved Tomek.” With this sentence, the French mountaineer Elisabeth Revol has triggered a debate. Could her Polish rope partner Tomek Mackiewicz still be alive, whom, suffering from severe high altitude sickness and slowblindness after their summit success on Nanga Parbat, she had had to leave at 7,200 meters, if the rescue at the end of January had started faster? On the late evening of 25 January, Revol had made several emergency calls. “It’s a race against the clock when you set off a rescue,” Elisabeth said at a press conference in Chamonix on Wednesday. “It took, in fact, 48 hours for something to happen. So clearly I have a lot of anger inside of me – and Tomek could have been saved if it had been a real rescue carried out in time and organized.”

Price forced up
The anger of the 37-year-old is expressively directed neither against the climbers of the Polish K2 winter expedition, who had ascended in high speed and brought her back to safety, nor against the helicopter pilots, but against the Pakistani organizers of the rescue operation. Ludovic Giambiasi, a friend of Revol, had tried from France to launch the search for the two climbers in distress. He spoke of “delays and problems”. So the price was forced up from $ 15,000 to $ 40,000, “cash, on the table”, said Ludovic. According to their own information, the government of Gilgit-Baltistan province has set up a commission to investigate the allegations.

Climbers in difficulties have to descend

Revol was flown out by helicopter

Compared to Nepal, where helicopter rescue from the highest mountains is privately organized and now works with Western support quite professionally, Pakistan still lags behind. The Pakistani military has been strictly controlling the air traffic in the Northern Areas due to the tensions with India lasting for decades. Rescue Operations are conducted by Askari Aviation, a subsidiary of the Army Welfare Trust. The helicopters are provided by the army and flown by former air force pilots. For a rescue on the long rope from heights above 7,000 meters, as it is now practiced almost routinely on Mount Everest, the gutted special helicopters, used in Nepal, are missing as well as the staff specializing in this dangerous way of rescue. In 2005, a Pakistani helicopter team succeeded in bringing the Slovenian top climber Tomaz Humar on the rope from 6,000 meters in the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat down to safety. However, such operations are not routine in Pakistan. Expeditions, whose members have been running in great difficulties, are explicitly required by Askari Aviaton to make an effort to bring the climbers down to a safe height for helicopter landing below 5,500 meter.