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.

Habeler (r.) and Messner (in 1975)

It was a real pioneering act – greater than its effect. Next Tuesday, 40 years ago, the South Tyrolean Reinhold Messner and the North Tyrolean Peter Habeler were the first people to reach the 8,850-meter-high summit of Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. They proved that it was possible. However, it did not become usual thereby. According to the climbing chronicle Himalayan Database, the highest mountain in the world has been scaled 8,219 times so far, but only 202 times without breathing mask. This corresponds to a share of 2.5 percent. Also this year it will hardly be higher.

“Are we still thinking clearly?”

South side of Mount Everest

There had been a lot of critics and skeptics in the run-up, Reinhold Messner once told me in an interview. That spurred him. “Basically, I just wanted to make an example then, to give it a try. I did not know how far I would come.” Even during their ascent on 8 May 1978, Habeler and he still doubted whether they would get out of this number without suffering any harm, said Messner: “At every break, we looked at each other: Are we still thinking clearly? Is it still responsible or not?” At minus 40 degrees Celsius, in a storm, they fought their way up. “In the final phase we reached the summit really more on our knees and hands than walking, otherwise we would have been blown off the ridge,” reported Messner.

Gotta get down!

Peter Habeler today

For Peter Habeler, it was in his own words “a very emotional moment” when they finally stood on the roof of the world. However, he could not enjoy it. “I remember being scared,” Habeler said when I met him a few months ago. “I was very restless because I wanted to go down. I thought: Oops, how can I get down the Hillary Step, without belaying? We had noticed on the ascent that the snow was there in a bad condition. I feared a step could break off and I would fall into the depth. But somehow it worked.” After returning home, he was surprised by the huge media coverage, Habeler said: “It was a real hype.”

Tied mountain

Reinhold Messner

Even today, there is still an Everest media hype, only that it rarely has to do with ascents without bottled oxygen, but rather with the mass of climbers who tackle the highest of all mountains year after year. “If there are a thousand people in the base camp and 540 of them want to set off during a single good weather window, I feel uneasy about it,” said Habeler. “That’s not my way of climbing mountains.” The two former pioneers agree on this point. “Nowadays, I certainly wouldn’t climb Everest without bottled oxygen,” Reinhold Messner told me on the occasion of his 70th birthday in September 2014.  “At my age I don’t want to die in the mountains, after working for 65 years to do everything I can to not die there.  To head up Everest with two oxygen bottles and two Sherpas, one at the front and one at the back, is not my idea of fun.”

Jerzy Kukuczka (1948 – 1989)

One of the all-time best high altitude climbers would have celebrated his 70th birthday this Saturday. But he missed this day of honor by more than 28 years: In fall 1989 Jerzy Kukuczka died at the age of 41 in an accident on Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain on earth. The Pole had previously scaled as the second climber after Reinhold Messner all 14 eight-thousanders. At times it looked as if Kukuczka could even snatch away the crown from Messner, but then the South Tyrolean closed the eight-thousander match with his ascents of Makalu and Lhotse in fall 1986. Just one year later, in September 1987, when the rather publicity-shy Kukuzczka completed his collection, Messner honored him with the words: “You are not the second, you’re great.”

Milestones

Memorial plaque at the foot of Lhotse South Face

In less than eight years – Messner took twice as long – Kukuczka climbed all 14 eight-thousanders and wrote alpine history: four winter first ascents, two of them in 1985 within three weeks (on Dhaulagiri and Cho Oyu), the first ascent of the South Pillar of Everest and of the South Face of K2, the first solo ascent of Makalu – to name only a few milestones. Only on Mount Everest, he used bottled oxygen. In 1988, the International Olympic Committee declared Messner and Kukuczka honorary Olympic champions. Messner refused the medal, Kukuczka accepted it.

Fall to death on Lhotse

Even after Jerzy had completed his eight-thousander collection, the highest mountains in the world did not get out of his mind. For fall 1989, Kukuczka actually planned to traverse all peaks of the Kangchenjunga massif, but then he changed his mind. With his countryman Ryszard Pawłowski, the 41-year-old tackled the legendary, at that time still unclimbed Lhotse South Face. On 24 October 1989, Jerzy Kukuczka fell from about 8,200 meters to his death.

Yeti skull in Khumjung Monastery

As a child, everyone has probably experienced this phase. Actually, you know that Santa Claus does not exist and that it’s your parents who put the presents under the tree. And yet you are repressing this fact – simply because Santa is part of the party. Something like that happens to me with the yeti. Actually, I do not believe that this huge mountain monster on two legs really exists, however, for me, the myth and the countless legends about the abominable snowman are simply part of the Himalayas. Therefore, I find it – quite frankly – rather silly that American scientists from the University of Buffalo now stand up and say: The yeti is actually a bear.

Bear hair and dog tooth

Himalayan brown bear

They studied 24 samples that had been attributed to yetis and stored in various monasteries and museums or collected on trips to Pakistan – including bones, hair and faeces – and compared them to the DNA of known species. The result: Almost all of them could be assigned to bears: Himalayan brown bear, Tibetan brown bear, Continental Eurasian brown bear and Asian black bear. Only one alleged yeti tooth from one of the Messner Mountain Museums turned out to be from a dog. Reinhold Messner feels confirmed – not because of the dog tooth, but because of the bear remains. After all, he himself had written a yeti book (and earned good money) almost 20 years ago, exposing the mountain monster as a brown bear.

Three dead yaks

Machhermo Peak

Whether in Tibet, Nepal or Bhutan, throughout the Himalayas, stories about yetis, attacking yak herds and shepherds or even abducting people, have been handed down for centuries. Allegedly there was an incident in the Everest region even in 1974: Lhakpa Doma Sherpa claimed she had been attacked by a five feet tall (or rather small) yeti when she had been guarding her yak herd in the Gokyo Valley. The yeti had pulled out her braids and torn her dress, said the then 19-year-old Sherpani. Just because she had played possum, she had survived, Lhakpa said, adding that the yeti had killed three yaks.

Laughing with erect neck hair

Yeti tracks? (found by the British climber Frank Smythe in 1937)

The incident is even noted on my 2000 National Geographic trekking map, which I still used last year while hiking through the Gokyo Valley. When we passed the alleged or real site of the yeti attack near the 4470-meter-high village of Machhermo, I alerted my son and our guide about the possible danger. We laughed – and yet there was just that little bit of uncertainty that could briefly make the hair on your neck stand on end: Did it happen that way after all?

The Yeti is alive!

Yeti (bear) bone from a cave in Tibet

If you read carefully, even the US scientists are keeping a  little back door open when they conclude their study as “strongly suggesting that the biological basis of the yeti legend is local brown and black bears.” The shadow of a doubt remains.  Maybe people just offered bear hair or bones as yeti relics because the real abominable snowmen were too strong and smart to wangle them out of it. The Yeti is alive – like Santa!

Peter Habeler

Even aged 75, he appears to be a rascal. Good-humored, always good for a joke, the laugh lines on his face – and fit as a fiddle. “Climbing is my fountain of youth,” says Peter Habeler. The Tyrolean from the Zillertal is still climbing through steep walls. Shortly before his big birthday even through the Eiger North Face, along with David Lama, in winter. “It was something very special for me,” Peter tells me as we hike below the peaks of the Geisler group in the Villnöss Valley in the South Tyrolean Dolomites. “Many years ago, I discovered David’s talent when he did his first climbing as a little boy in my alpine school in the Zillertal. I saw that he would become a great climber.” Today Lama is one of the best climbers in the world. “When I climbed behind him in the Eiger North Face and watched how easily and smoothly he mastered even the most difficult passages, I felt like I was back in time when I myself was still young,” says Peter.

“I did not want to die at Everest”

The Villnöss Valley with the Geisler group

The hike with Habeler is part of the program of the International Mountain Summit in Bressanone. The fact that we are en route in the Villnöss Valley fits: Finally Reinhold Messner grew up there, and the South Tyrolean gained his initial experiences as a climber on the peaks of the Geisler group. Along with Messner, Habeler celebrated his most famous successes. In 1975, they scaled for the first time an eigth-thousander in Alpine style – without bottled oxygen, high camps, fixed ropes and Sherpa support: Gasherbrum I in Pakistan. Three years later, in 1978, they succeeded their greatest coup, the first ascent of Mount Everest without breathing mask. Next year marks the 40th anniversary of this pioneering achievement. At that time he was temporarily doubtful, admits Habeler, especially when Messner and two Sherpas had just barely survived a heavy storm on the South Col: “I really didn’t want to die on Everest. I wanted to stay healthy and get home.” After all, his first son, Christian, had just been born.

Restlessness before the descent

Habeler (r.) and Messner (in 1975)

When he and Messner finally reached the summit at 8,850 meters on 8 May 1978, it was “a very emotional moment,” Habeler recalls, “even though I no longer know what exactly I felt at the time. I only know that I was afraid. I was very restless because I wanted to go down. I thought: Oops, how can I get down the Hillary Step, without belaying? We had noticed on the ascent that the snow was there in a bad condition. I feared a step could break off and I would fall into the depth. But somehow it worked.”

Highlight Kangchenjunga

“We were lucky”

After returning home, he was surprised by the enormous media response, says Habeler: “It was a real hype.” For him, however, Everest without breathing mask was not the highlight of his career on the eight-thousanders, due to his doubts, says Peter. “My personal highlight was definitely the ascent of Kangchenjunga in Alpine style with Carlos Buhler and Martin Zabaleta in 1988. At that time I was in my best shape. On the summit day, I climbed ahead to the highest point because I was faster than the other two and the weather was getting worse and worse.” The descent turned to be dramatic, says Habeler: “We were lucky to survive.” His success on the third-highest mountain on earth (8,586 meters) was his fifth and last on an eight-thousander.

Like a via ferrata

“We will have fun”

The 75-year-old shakes his head about what is currently happening on the highest mountains in the world. “No mountain can stand too many people. If there are a thousand people in the base camp and 540 of them want to set off during a single good weather window, I feel uneasy about it. That’s not my way of climbing mountains. Today Everest is a chained mountain – even K 2 too. It’s almost like a via ferrata.” Next spring, Habeler will return to Mount Everest, along with his companions of 1978 who are still alive. “There will be quite a hustle and bustle on Everest. But we will definitely have a lot of fun,” the eternal rascal rejoices and grins from ear to ear.

Hans Kammerlander

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

“No alpinism”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Camp 1 on the north side of Manaslu

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

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

Are you going to climb without bottled oxygen?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ueli Steck a few days before his fall to death

Why did Ueli Steck choose Nuptse to acclimatize himself? This is a question I ask myself, since on Sunday the news of the death of the Swiss spread like a run-fire. A few days earlier, the 40-year-old had climbed towards the West Shoulder of Everest. That made sense. After all, he planned to climb on his Everest-Lhotse traverse via the West Ridge and the Hornbein Couloir to the highest. But Nuptse? Not exactly the classic tour to get acclimatized. What was the added value besides making additional height meters?

Reinhold Messner speculated in several interviews that Ueli might have planned to try the “great horseshoe”, the never-attempted round trip form Nuptse to Lhotse and Everest across the ridges between the mountains. I see no evidence for this after all I have heard and read. The Frenchman Yannick Graziani wrote in his blog that Ueli had asked him three days before his death, if he wanted to accompany him on Nuptse. The 43-year-old, who wants to climb Everest without bottled oxygen this spring, declined. It was really just an acclimatization trip, Yannick’s team told me on request: “Ueli never said or wrote about Nuptse or horseshoe. He was waiting for his Sherpa friend Tenji to recover from frostbite and reach together the West Shoulder.”

On Monday, I had written to some top climbers asking how they had experienced Ueli. Two other answers reached me.

Auer: “Steck inspired and encouraged us”

Hansjoerg Auer

The 33-year-old Austrian Hansjoerg Auer was shocked by the news of Steck’s death during a trip in the USA:

“Ueli was someone who did his climbing with full passion and personal commitment. He did not only inspire many alpinists, but also encouraged us with his ideas to continue going the next step to redefine our culture of mountaineering. I was able to discuss this topic with him a few times. And I will never forget his very personal, respectful and encouraging email after my loss of Gerry [Fiegl] on Nilgiri South [In fall 2015, the Austrian Fiegl fell to death on the descent from the 6839-meter-high mountain in the West of Nepal]. Good-bye, Ueli!”

Papert: “To the limits of the humanly possible”

Ines Papert

The 43-year-old German top-climber Ines Papert sent me these thoughtful words:

“I shed tears over Ueli’s loss. He has moved unbelievable things in alpinism and set new standards.

But no man is immortal, neither is Ueli. Nevertheless the news has hit me very hard, even if it did not come completely unexpected. Over the years, I’ve always been a bit worried and I wondered how far you can push the limits without running the risk of losing your life. I’m sure he knew how close he was to the edge. Criticizing this is absolutely presumptuous, because it was HIS life, a life in the mountains. He LIVED this life and was certainly happy.

But I always hoped that he would not find too many imitators with his access to alpinism. Light and fast can considerably reduce the risk on high mountains, to a certain extent. But the further you play the game, the closer you are to death. Ueli was aware of this, because he was not only incredibly motivated and strong but also an intelligent man.

It is many years back that we climbed together the route “Blaue Lagune” on the Wendenstöcke  [mountain massive in the Uri Alps in Switzerland] and that we were sitting in a Pizzeria in the Val di Cogne [side valley of the Aosta Valley in Italy] discussing ethical issues in mixed climbing. At the time, he was at the beginning of his career, but his enthusiasm, almost obsession for climbing and his ambition of exceeding limits was clearly noticeable. Later I could follow his successes only from the media, he had developed into a completely different direction than myself.

I always admired how far he was able to push his body and mind to the limits of the humanly possible. At the same time, I always feared that one day it would go wrong. It is a little comforting that he stayed where his home was: in the mountains of the world.”

Alex Txikon on Everest

It is a race against time. Another storm front is approaching Mount Everest. The meteorologists expect the small weather window with relatively favorable conditions in the summit region to remain open only until Wednesday and then close for a longer period of time. Therefore Alex Txikon, who wants to climb Everest in winter without bottled oxygen, has to push now. In two weeks, the meteorological winter will end. On Monday, the 35-year-old Basque and his five-man strong Sherpa team climbed up to Camp 2 at 6,400 meters. Today Txikon and the Sherpas Nuri, Gesman, Temba, Sanu and Pasang Nurbu want to reach the South Col at 7,950 meters. All Sherpas use supplemental oxygen. Three weeks ago, Txikon’s first summit attempt had failed on the South Col. “We hope to reach the summit on Wednesday ,” Alex said.

Two on the last stage

Climb light

Light and fast, this is Txikon’s tactics. He is climbing with a light backpack. On the first attempt, the team had deposited sleeping bags in Camp 2 and on the South Col. “Although I am no specialist in this modality, we are good connoisseurs of the route,” said Alex. He wants to climb to the highest point with Nuri, the other Sherpas are to wait on the South Col. However, Txikon warns against too high expectations: “ I recognize that the possibilities are very small because the weather does not help us.” While ascending to Camp 2, the wind was still strong. “There were times with speeds of up to 60 kilometers per hour, in which we could not even move forward,” Alex said.

Energy kick by Messner

Alex along with his idol Reinhold Messner (l.)

Just before his departure on Monday, Txikon had received an unexpected visit at the Base Camp: Everest legend Reinhold Messner came along. The 72-year-old has been staying in the Khumbu area for film recordings. In 1978, Messner – along  with Peter Habeler – had climbed Everest for the first time without breathing mask. In 1980 the South Tyrolean succeeded in doing the first solo climb of the highest mountain, again without the use of bottled oxygen. “The support he has given us is indescribable,” said Alex, “an energy kick from the hand of the greatest.”

I suppose he needed this encouragement. The eight-day interruption of the expedition had brought the Basque climber out of the rhythm. In addition, Txikon had returned with an almost completely new Sherpa team. Nuri Sherpa is the only member left from the original crew. The other Sherpas had stayed in Kathmandu to recover for the upcoming commercial spring season on Everest. It will start in a few weeks.

Peter Habeler in the German town of Leverkusen

You would not estimate that Peter Habeler has really 73 years under his belt. Slim, wiry, tanned – just one who is still climbing mountains. Along with friends, he is currently repeating many routes in the Alps that he climbed when he was young, the Austrian told me when I met him at a mountaineers’ event in Leverkusen near my hometown Cologne last weekend: “Thankfully, I feel physically very well. But it’s going round in circles: If you train and climb a lot, you’re just in better physical shape.” Even 37 years after Habeler climbed Mount Everest along with Reinhold Messner for the first time without bottled oxygen, the highest mountain on earth is always in his mind – of course also due to the fact that he as a pioneer is questioned on Everest again and again.

Accidents in a way “homemade”

In the Khumbu Icefall

“It was good that the mountain had its peace this year”, says Habeler, when I mention that 2015 will be the first year on Everest since 1974 without summit successes: “Everest doesn’t deserve a thousand people.” Many of the numerous summit aspirants are not up to the mountain, says the Austrian, adding that the avalanche incidents in the past two years were to an extent “homemade”. The site in the Khumbu Icefall, where an ice avalanche killed 16 Nepalese climbers in spring 2014, had been an “extremely tricky place” even in his own active years, Habeler remembers: “When Reinhold (Messner) and I climbed through the Khumbu Icefall in 1978, we and all the others remained in the right part. Even in 2000, when I was there again, we didn’t climb on the left side of the Icefall because it was too dangerous.”
Habeler means that this spring’s avalanche, which hit Everest base camp and killed 19 people, did not take place without warning too. One of the reasons that the avalanche triggered by the earthquake could reach the base camp at all was that the tent city has spread more and more towards Pumori, “like a millipede”, says Habeler: “It has been known for a long time that avalanches often occur on this mountain.”

Limit for Everest

Habeler (r.) and Messner (in 1975, after having climbed Gasherbrum I for the first time in Alpine style)

Habeler is in favor of limiting the number of climbers on Everest but considers the probability to be small: “Tourism is the number one source of income in Nepal. It will be very difficult to make an example on Everest, of all mountains, because a lot of money is involved. It’s not incredible much money coming from the climbing royalties, but Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. Therefore every dollar or cent counts. Nevertheless, a limit should be set, at least for Everest.”

Next year to Nepal
He has traveled to Nepal almost 70 times so far, says Habeler adding that he has many friends there and tries to help them after the devastating 25 April earthquake. Next year, he wants to fly to Nepal again and calls on all mountain lovers to do the same in order to support the country. “I plead one hundred percent: Go to Nepal!”, says Peter Habeler and continues with a smile: “But not all need to go to Everest.”

Manaslu

It is not far from triumph to tragedy on eight-thousanders. That was demonstrated on Manaslu these days. On Friday, the Japanese Yoshimasa Sasaki fell about 25 meters after slipping on blue ice at 7,300 meters. The 59-year-old died. Sasaki had climbed the eight-thousander Cho Oyu in 2003. Last weekend more than 30 climbers reached the summit of Manaslu, the eight highest mountain in the world, including the Polish ski mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel. The 26-year-old said that he needed only 14 hours and five minutes for his speed ascent, just an hour less than the German Benedikt Boehm in fall 2012. After having skied down the most parts of the route, Andrzej reached the Base Camp 21 hours and 14 minutes after his departure. Two years ago, Bene had needed a total of 23.5 hours for ascent and ski descent.

Messner: Accident will always happen

Reinhold Messner criticized chasing records on eight-thousanders. “Mountaineering is adventure and pushing your own limits, but is has nothing to do with records,” said the 70-year-old South Tyrolean to the German radio station “Deutschlandfunk”, asked about the avalanche accident on Shishapangma. As reported, Boehm’s friends Sebastian Haag from Germany and Andrea Zambaldi from Italy had died in the avalanche last Wednesday. Messner called the idea of the trio – to climb and ski down the eight-thousanders Shishapagma and Cho Oyu and to cycle the distance between the two mountains – “reasonable”:  “The only thing that bothers me is that the story was sold as a record.” Chasing records was the problem and not the danger on the mountain, said Messner. “As long as people climb these high mountains, there will be accidents – no matter how tragic it is.”

Reinhold Messner

This man seems to be ageless. How on earth does Reinhold Messner do it? The first man who climbed all 14 eight-thousanders, responds with his motto from Tibetan: “Kalipé” – with steady feet.  Ahead of his 70th birthday on Wednesday, I called him at home in South Tyrolia.

Reinhold Messner, how will you celebrate your birthday?

It will be a private birthday party, in no way a public one. There is a time and a place. I can tell you that I have invited my friends to bivouac. For the last time, at the age of 70, I will spend the night after the party outdoor, under the stars, in the sleeping bag. Most of my friends will do the same, all the others will drive to the hotel in the valley.

So, you are about to turn 70-years-old, it’s quite a milestone. How are you faring? Are you happy with life?

We don’t carry happiness around with us all the time, sometimes it just happens inside of us or around us. I have it easier these days, because I have nothing more to prove. I’m not in a rush anymore, either, but I am still active. I am very lucky that my knees still work and my joints are all okay. I have had to sacrifice a bit: like a damaged heel bone, missing toes, but otherwise, for my age, I am not going too badly. I have a lot of ideas to fill the next years, to have a worthwhile life and to be happy.

Does it happen, that you are sitting in the sun at Juval castle just day-dreaming?

Yes, sometimes, with my wife and children in the evening sun, but not as a habit. I am someone who is active, who is creating ideas and is completely absorbed in doing this. It’s perhaps one of my best models of success that I can internalize an idea so that it is growing in day and night dream, up to maturity. However, an idea in your head is only a castle in the air, but still not an adventure. But if it has turned into reality, there is something that I call a flow. Then I’m fully myself, everything is flowing. And that makes me happy.

Which goals would you like to pursue in the next decade of your life?

In the next few years I definitely want to apply myself to my mountain museum and make sure that it survives. I want that to be a lasting legacy. My farms are very important to me too. And I’d like to work as a film maker too, like an author. I want to go out with an idea, into the wild and collect pictures which then tell a strong story on the screen.

Messner (l.) with Peter Habeler (in 1975)

The Spaniard Carlos Soria is in the Himalayas at the moment. He wants to climb Shishapangma. It will be the 12th of the 14 mountains over 8000 meters that he has managed. The man is 75-years-old. Are you happy that you managed to do all that by your early 40s?

I am especially pleased that I managed to get it all done before anyone else was on these mountains. Back then you just had to get a permit for your expedition and your group, whether you were alone, a pair, or whether there were five of you, just worked their way up by themselves. I am lucky to have been born early enough, that I could still experience mountains in their purest form.  These days 20,000 people try to climb the Matterhorn each year, and Mont Blanc is even worse. The mountains are now designed for mass tourism.

Earlier this year 500 Sherpas were preparing Mountain Everest so that thousands of clients could pay a lot of money to climb the mountain. Then there was an accident and 16 Sherpas died in an avalanche. It was like a type of industrial accident, I suppose you could say. There was a strike and the tourists went home. But next year they will come again. I hope that everyone can have the chance to climb these mountains, but what is going on here has little to do with real mountaineering. It is tourism – sure it’s hard work and it’s a bit dangerous – but the responsibility for the safety of the climb is being pushed onto the locals. This is all about showing off what you have done, and nothing to do with your experience of nature.

Do you think that last spring’s avalanche will change climbing on Everest?

So far there have been travel agencies from New Zealand, the United States, Switzerland or Germany which have been bringing their clients to the Himalayas and paying the Sherpas who prepare the route. This happens not only on Everest but on all 14 eight-thousanders. Because the clients believe that these 14 mountains have a particular prestige.

The young Sherpas have done the dirty work – the dangerous that caused the death of 16 Sherpas in the Khumbu Icefall. They say: If we lead the way and prepare the route at great risk, we also want to get the deal and don’t want to leave the profit to the Western agencies.

Do you expect that many Everest candidates will stay at home due to the events during the last spring season ?

Quite the contrary! There will be even more candidates because the Sherpas will prepare the piste in a better way again. It was clear for three or four years that such a disaster would happen sooner or later. I’m sorry to say that there is a joint guilt of the Sherpas. They prepared the route at the weakest point of the Icefall where the difficulties are at their lowest levels but the risk is greatest. That’s not really clever.

Messner at his Mountain Museum near Bolzano

If you were giving advice to a young, adventure-seeking mountain climber these days, what would you tell him or her?

The young people have to find their own way. I wouldn’t be able to account for all that I did, when I was a 20-year-old. But I see some young climbers, who are traditional climbers achieving great things: Such as Hansjoerg Auer who climbed a 7500-meter-high peak in the Karakoram via a terribly difficult route. Or David Lama who climbed Cerro Torre free, without the bolts of Cesare Maestri. Or Alex Honnold who traversed the whole Fitz Roy group with dozens of peaks.
There are tens of thousands of peaks on the planet that haven’t been climbed. There are hundreds of thousands of different routes up the mountains that can be explored in the next years. The young climbers have learned that they don’t need to go to the famous mountains. The key, if you want to experience an adventure, is to go where the others haven’t been, so that you can decide things for yourself and you are responsible for yourself.

How high can you climb these days?

I haven’t tested it out. But in the last few years I climbed above 6000 meters a few times. I feel better up there than I do at normal altitude. I don’t know why. Perhaps in the next ten years I will regularly start going to Nepal or to the Himalayas, just for the health benefits. There was a case of a very sick man – I won’t say who it was – who had done some amazing 8000 meter climbs with his wife in his lifetime. The doctors had given up on him. He went to the Himalayas, to see his mountains for the last time and perhaps to die there. He then climbed an 8000 meter peak and he came down healthy. This medical wonder should be an incentive to researchers to not just think about the mountains as somewhere where adventurers like to play, but also as a place to potentially heal sick people.

Nowadays, I certainly wouldn’t climb Everest without bottled oxygen. At my age I don’t want to die in the mountains, after working for 65 years to do everything I can to not die there.  To head up Everest with two oxygen bottles and two Sherpas, one at the front and one at the back, is not my idea of fun.

Reinhold Messner in Cologne

Actually I wanted to ask Reinhold Messner these questions during the International Mountain Summit in Brixen. But a planned press conference was cancelled and the 69-year-old left the venue in no time at all, for whatever reason. But I had not to wait a long time for the South Tyrolean. He came to me – in a way. Last weekend the most famous mountaineer of the world gave a lecture in my home town of Cologne. Before the event started Messner answered my questions.

Reinhold Messner, recently you visited Pakistan, a few months after terrorists had shot eleven climbers at the Diamir basecamp on Nanga Parbat. Describe the atmosphere down there!

The mountain has not changed, but the connections are much worse than I thought. The terrorists were contract killers close to the Taliban, paid to carry out a bloodbath. Originally they had a different target. A great festival with polo games etc. was cancelled, probably because the organizers were worried that something might happen. Then the hit squad turned to Nanga Parbat. After the assault the killers took their money and disappeared. Some of them have been arrested, but nobody knows who has been the principal. On the one hand the terrorists wanted to hit the north of Pakistan, the local tourism, which collapsed by 90 percent. But they also wanted to hit the western world. Fortunately there have not been more victims. There were more than 60 people on Nanga Parbat, but most of them were at the high camps then.

Do you think that climbers will avoid Nanga Parbat in the next few years because of this summer’s assault?

Diamir basecamp on Nanga Parbat

There are already requests for new expeditions. But the Diamir face is and probably will remain locked. The south and the north side of the mountain remain open. You can go there on winter expedition. The northern part of the Karakoram around the K 2 has not been affected, there were no problems. But I have also learned in my research that above Chilas, at the entry of the Diamir valley, four busses were stopped, all the men were taken out and shot. Women and children had to watch the massacre, then they were chased away and the busses were set on fire. And on the Babusar pass, which leads from the Swat valley along the Nanga Parbat to the Indus valley, jeeps were attacked in the same way. These news did not reach Europe. But now terrorism has also reached the north of Pakistan.

You have initiated aid projects in the Nanga Parbat region, including three schools. Is there an atmosphere of fear among the locals?

I was worried that these Taliban forces might have an interest to burn the schools, because also girls are going to some of them. This is clearly not the case here. But I have stopped my aid to Pakistan, out of concern that the whole thing falls into civil war. This would be a pity. I only keep the projects alive that we have initiated, I continue to pay the teachers as promised. But otherwise I ‘m moving the aid of my small foundation mainly to Nepal.

Right there, in Nepal, Swiss top climber Ueli Steck has caused a sensation by climbing solo through the Annapurna South Face. What is your view on this performance?

Ueli Steck on Annapurna South Face

Ueli Steck has not been very lucky this year on Everest. The attack at Camp 2 has actually not been directed at him. The Sherpas wanted to hit others, real parasites. Steck and Simone Moro are no parasitic climbers, even if they used the fixed route via the Khumbu Icefall, without having talked to the Sherpas or having paid them. Last year Ueli Steck climbed Everest via the normal route which was not “Steck-like”. But what he did now on Annapurna, was again typically Ueli Steck: Climbing quickly, climbing at night to avoid rockfall, via a very difficult wall. He had tried the South Face twice before but failed, once even quite dramatically, because he was hit by a stone. I really have great respect for this climb. The way he did it is the only one that allows you to climb such a difficult and dangerous wall in Alpine style.

Steck has lost his digital camera during his ascent, he had no GPS tracking. Do you think that a stain clings to his climb because it is not completely documented?

Once again we see critics who in fact have problems with themselves. As Ueli Steck describes his climb it is absolutely comprehensible. He is climbing solo, he loses his camera, there is no partner who has a second camera in his backpack, and he has no GPS system. I see no reason to doubt. If he does not have the ability, whoever else should have it? It is clear that doubts have arosen mainly in Switzerland where Ueli Steck has become so dominant in the creativity of modern mountaineering and where of course are rivalries. That is human nature. But to spread rumours like “Yes, it could be, but maybe not” via internet or pass them on to journalists, that’s no recommendation for climbers.

In other words: Ueli Steck is not in need of telling lies. Is the German Alpine Club (Deutscher Alpenverein – DAV) in need of offering commercial Everest expeditions as he will do next spring with the DAV Summit Club? 

Mount Everest (from Kala Pattar)

The German Alpine Club has not just my approval, but exceptionally I can understand it. The DAV has contained itself on Everest for such a long time. But there is no difference whether I prepare a route on Everest or on Gasherbrum I or II or Dhaulagiri or Nanga Parbat. The DAV has played this game for many years by offering 8000ers which were prepared for mass ascents.
I was on Mount Everest last spring and had to change my mind. The basecamp was perfectly clean, the toilets of the high camps were flown out every other day. Now the expedition agencies are so experienced that they work things out with each other: Who is responsible for Camp 2? Which cook is up there? Who will fix the last ropes from the South Col to the summit? This is so well-organized that there are no more jams because the groups – or should I say the clients, the tourists – are led up to the summit one after another.

Why should the DAV stand back? That’s just the biggest hype. I guarantee that within ten years commercial expeditions to all 8000ers will be offered in spring, summer or autumn depending on where they are. The international agencies are very, very good. If you book an expedition with them you know: I will be well supplied in basecamp. They will take care that I’m well acclimatized and give me a good guide. And they ensure that I as an ordinary climber will very likely reach the summit and will probably not perish. However, the risk is not zero.

How do you judge the announcement of the Nepalese government to set up an outpost at Everest basecamp with observers who shall ensure that everyone plays by the rules?

I do not see why they should bureaucratize the mountains more and more. The climbers themselves must be able to decide what to do or leave undone so that there is enough room for all climbers on the mountain. And there is room for everyone. The self-sufficient, traditional climbers shall go where the others are not, where they can climb alone and in their style. Each style is justified. The tourists have conquered Mount Everest because the agencies are working so well. If we do it in the Alps for 150 years, why should we ban it on Everest?

Reinhold Messner

Ask the first man or woman you meet on any street in Europe after the name of a famous mountaineer and you will very likely get the response: „Reinhold Messner“. Although he did his pioneering ascents in the Himalayas andKarakorum more than a quarter of a century ago, the 68-year-old South Tyrolean is still very present in public awareness. Messner has been contributing his part by writing book after book, givings lectures and interviews – and polarizing with his statements. In my interview with him on the occasion of the upcoming 60th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest Reinhold Messner again had clear positions. Don’t wonder why I didn’t ask him about the recent incident on Everest. We met before.

Reinhold Messner, we first look back on the 29th May 1953, when the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Would you say that this was an outstanding achievement of two courageous mountaineers or rather a team performance?

It was primarily a British team performance because the British have brought the know-how and the money and made huge preparatory works. From 1921 to 1953 many expeditions had failed on Everest. However, one must also attribute a part of the success to the Swiss who in 1952 had made two attempts with Raymond Lambert and had climbed up very high. Tenzing Norgay had belonged to this team too. I think without these experiences the British wouldn’t have reached the top in 1953. But we must also say that the summit success was due to Hillary’s talent to dare. The British had tried it themselves but had failed to reach the summit. But then this young lanky New Zealander proved his desire and courage to dare, and he and Tenzing were successful. It remains a magic moment of mountaineering. Hillary wasn’t an extreme mountaineer, but a traditional climber doing things as a matter of course. Typical New Zealand.

The first ascent was followed by a phase that I want to call the ‚sportive phase’ in the 1960s and even more in the 70s and 80s: new hard routes, first winter ascent. In 1978 you and Peter Habeler firstly climbed Everest without supplementary oxygen. And in 1980 you did a solo, again without oxygen, during monsoon. Was Everest the ultimate challenge for you at that time?

After the ascent via the Southwest Face by Doug Scott and Dougal Haston in 1975 I realized that only one option remained: to climb Everest with less and less equipment. For me the Everest solo was the icing on the cake of my climbs: the highest mountain in the world, during monsoon, and as far as possible even on a new route, of course without oxygen. Afterwards I was close to say I finish the 8000ers and go to Antarctica. But there were still a few of my old ideas like climbing three 8000ers in a row or a double traverse. Young guys like Friedl Mutschlechner or Hans Kammerlander urged me: ‚Let’s realize these things now!’ Then I organized it and we succeeded. Later in addition I got the chance to climb all fourteen 8000ers. By 1980, some of them had not been accessible.

Traffic on the normal route

In the 90s commercial mountaineering started on Everest and has been characterizing climbing on the highest mountain until today. What kind of mountain is Everest for you, 60 years after the first ascent? How do you think about what’s going on there just now?

It is still the same mountain. The oxygen partial pressure is still the same. And Everest is still relatively dangerous. I call the current phase ‚piste alpinism’. That makes the big difference. Before all the clients of the tour operators start climbing, not only dozens but one hundred Sherpas move up and prepare a via ferrata. It’s better prepared than any via ferrata in the Alps. Then the clients take this piste, any difficulty is excluded, and the dangers are minimized – not to zero, that isn’t possible.
Now it’s discussed whether a ladder – like at the Second Step on the north side since 1975 – should be put up at the Hillary Step, the only a bit difficult passage in the upper part of the route. I have suggested to install there a traffic light like in the city, so that everybody knows who is allowed to climb up and who to descend. In this case the climbers would have to observe the road traffic regulations and there would be fewer accidents. The accidents have been mainly caused by the chaos, by waiting and standing around in the cold. The people got hypothermic and some of them died of it.

Due to the development that you have described the type of climber who tries to scale Everest has changed significantly, hasn’t it?

Yes, today you find many people on Everest who aren’t climbers or, let me say, no experienced climbers. They know that many people have reached the summit, it is possible. Basically, Everest is possible for everybody who has climbed any easy 4000-metre-peak in the Alps – if the route is prepared. I guarantee you that no three of the thousand clients who are on Everest just now would start climbing if the route has not prepared before. The mountain has been enchained, with ropes and ladders. Thus it’s accessible to all. I don’t care whether it’s right or wrong. That has nothing to do with classic alpinism. People neither climb Hillary’s Everest nor my Everest. They climb another mountain, even if it is geologically the same.

What do you wish Mount Everest on occasion of the 60th anniversary of the first ascent?

I think it’s too late. Everest has already become a banal mountain. This is a shame. There are still new routes to be climbed and the possibility to traverse Everest and Lhotse. Just now two very good climbers (Denis Urubko and Alexei Bolotov) are trying to climb a new route in the southwest face, to the right of the line of Scott and Haston. This is very difficult in the upper part. If they are successful in Alpine style, I am the first to congratulate – although they reach the crowded summit of Everest.
I don’ think we ever can return the atmosphere of the past to Everest. The best climbers no longer go to the 8000ers, but to the most difficult mountains in the world which are 6000- or 7000-metre-peaks. There they find any kind of playground. But it is a pity that the really good climbers have fewer opportunities to finance their expeditions because so much attention is taken away by the Everest tourists.

Do you give Everest a wide berth or are you still attracted by the mountain where you have experienced so much?

I’m not hungry for Everest each year. But this year I’ll be there because I want to make a documentary for European television. I will not only visit the base camp, but look on it from above. Not by climbing up, but by watching these crowds of climbers.
I would also like to make a drug test. I am curious if anyone is willing to give an urine sample. It’s said that doping on Everest is at ‚university level’ compared to the ‚kindergarten‘ Tour de France. I wouldn’t go quite as far but it’s a fact that there are no drug tests on Everest. We know that in sports particularly amateurs dope themselves to be a bit faster than last year or climb Everest faster than their secretary.
I’m interested in the psychological point of view: What makes us climb Everest? Also for me the summit of Everest was a ‚vanishing point of vanity’. There are so many images and clichés connected with Everest. I can understand everybody who wants to scale Mount Everest. But they should have the courage to describe their ascent exactly as it was and not try to distort the facts afterwards, e.g. by being photographed standing alone at the summit after 50 other climbers have been put out of the picture – just to tell the world, look, I was alone on top.
Or climbers who are talking about Alpine style although they are climbing up on the prepared piste. It’s impossible. Even if someone is not touching the ropes, it isn’t Alpine style because the ropes are there. This has mainly to do with the psychological side. I have a very different fear if I’m all alone in the summit area of Mount Everest and if I know that there is nothing below me, no sherpa, no tent, no rope. And if a serac collapses I will not find my way down. If I know that the piste is prepared and under supervision of Sherpa specialists, I’m far less exposed. And the exposure is the key that makes sports an adventure.