Ines Papert

It’s getting even more exciting: Maybe German climber Ines Papert has climbed the 6718-meter-high Pig Pherado Shar in Nepal firstly after all. Billi Bierling, staff member of Himalayan chronicler Elizabeth Hawley, has drawn my attention to this option. The mountain is also known as Likhu Chuli I. I had referred to a note in Hawley’s database that a French team led by Robert Sandoz had already climbed the 6000er near Namche Bazaar on 21 October 1960. Billi writes that the French climbers maybe instead reached the summit of the 6659-meter-high Likhu Chuli II (Pig Pherago Nup). So the question is: Likhu Chuli I or II? “The database says ‘I’, but we believe that it is a mistake!”, writes Billi. The research is going on. If there is any news from Kathmandu, I will of course inform you. By the way: first ascent or not, the performance of Ines Papert deserves our applause anyway.

Ines Papert on the summit of Pig Pherado Shar

Great success for Ines Papert: The German top climber tells on Facebook that she and Thomas Senf have opened a new route through the north face of 6718-meter-high Pig Pherado Shar in Nepal. The mountain is located near Namche Bazaar, the main village of the Khumbu region close to Mount Everest. The 39-year-old woman climber reached the summit alone. “Unfortunately Thomas couldn’t climb to the highest point because of incipient frostbite on his toes”, Ines writes on the Facebook page of one of her sponsors. “It was the coldest adventure of my lifetime.”

Firstly climbed in 1960

With her spontanous meanwhile removed statement on Facebook  that she has been the first who ever climbed Pig Pherado Shar, Ines was probably wrong. According to a report of the Himalayan chroniclers Elizabeth Hawley and Richard Salisbury in a publication of the American Alpine Club Pig Pherado Shar was firstly climbed 53 years ago. Hawley and Salisbary write that a French team headed by Robert Sandoz reached the summit of the mountain, which is also known as Likhu Chuli I, on 21 October 1960 “via the steep, difficult west ridge“.

Plan was changed

Originally, Ines Papert and Thomas Senf wanted to open a new route through the north face of 6487-meter-high Tengkangpoche. Why they changed their plan, we will certainly find out in the next few days. The Swiss Ueli Steck and Simon Anthamatten had firstly climbed via the Tengkangpoche North Face in 2008. For this performance they were awarded in 2009 with the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar” for climbers.