South side of Mount Everest

Mount Everest was scaled for the first time in this spring season. Today, eight climbers from Nepal reached the highest point at 8,850 meters after climbing up on the south side of the mountain. Pasang Tenjing Sherpa, Pasdawa Sherpa, Lakpa Dendi Sherpa, Jen Jen Lama, Siddi Bahadur Tamang, Pemba Chhiri Sherpa, Tenzing Gyaljen Sherpa and Datuk Bhote fixed ropes up to the summit, paving the way for the clients of the commercial expedition teams.

“Man without fingers” on top of Annapurna

Kim Hong-bin

The summit success of South Korean Kim Hong-bin is reported from Annapurna. For the 53-year-old, it is the twelfth eight-thousander. In 1991, Kim suffered severe frostbite at Alaska’s highest mountain, 6,190-meter-high Denali, and all ten fingers had to be amputated. He was accompanied on the Annapurna by four Sherpas.

No trace of Petrov

R.I.P.

Meanwhile, the partner of the Bulgarian climber Boyan Petrov, who has been missing for ten days on the eight-thousander Shishapangma, has asked to stop the search for the 45-year-old above Camp 3. That’s too dangerous for the rescuers, Radoslava Nenova wrote on Facebook. Reportedly, the Sherpa team nevertheless wants to climb up to the summit on Monday if the weather permits. Petrov had set off for a summit attempt on 29 April, alone and without bottled oxygen. He had already scaled ten of the 14 eight-thousanders without breathing mask. He is the most successful high altitude climber of Bulgaria.

Rescue helicopters from Nepal at the foot of Shishapangma

Nobody puts it bluntly. But to be honest, the hope of finding the most successful Bulgarian high altitude climber Boyan Petrov alive on the eight-thousander Shishapangma in Tibet is beginning to fade. On 3 May, nine days ago, the 45-year-old was last seen by telescope from the base camp. Since then, there has been no trace of Boyan. Bad weather had delayed the rescue operation for days. On Saturday, two helicopters of the Nepali company Simrik Air, specialized in rescue operations, started to search for Petrov. Without success. What the crew members found, photographed and filmed as “suspicious objects” near Camp 3 at an altitude of about 7,300 meters, turned out to be stones and rocks when the material was subsequently viewed. The helicopter teams had to return to the Nepalese capital because the fuel ran out. “We are standby at Kathmandu for the same mission,” Simrik Air said. Also the rescue team on the slopes on the mountain, three Sherpas and three Chinese climbers, have not yet found Petrov. The rescuers were spending the night in Camp 2. On Sunday, the search is to be continued.

On top of ten eight-thousanders

Boyan had set off for a summit attempt on 29 April, alone and without bottled oxygen. Petrov has already climbed ten of the 14 eight-thousanders, all of them without breathing mask. In the past two years alone, he had succeeded five summit successes on the highest mountains in the world: In 2016 on Annapurna, Makalu and Nanga Parbat, in 2017 on Gasherbrum II and Dhaulagiri. Petrov works as a zoologist at the National Museum of Natural History in the Bulgarian capital Sofia and is a specialist in wildlife in caves. The climber has survived cancer two times. As a result of chemotherapy, Boyan has been suffering from diabetes for 18 years.

Shishapangma

There is still no trace of Boyan Petrov. As reported, the most successful Bulgarian high altitude climber has been missing for days on the eight-thousander Shishapangma in Tibet. The Bulgarian government has joined the rescue operation. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said they were in constant communication with the authorities in Nepal and China, as well as with Petrov’s family. According to Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva, a helicopter suitable for flights in high altitude is now available to search for the 45-year-old. Directly on the slopes of the mountain, a rescue team of three Chinese climbers and three Sherpas is in action. Despite bad weather, the rescuers had climbed to Camp 2 at 6,900 meters, it said.

Nothing is impossible

Boyan Petrov about three weeks ago

Petrov had set off on 29 April for a solo attempt without bottled oxygen. Six days ago, on 3 May, he was last sighted by telescope from the base camp, roughly at the level of Camp 3 at about 7,300 meters. Last Saturday, another team arrived at the high camp and found Boyan’s half-open tent, with his sleeping bag inside. Petrov has already scaled ten of the 14 eight-thousanders without bottled oxygen. His partner Radoslava Nenova still hopes that Boyan is alive and can be rescued: “In a world full of possibilities, do not tell me something is impossible,” she wrote on Facebook. So keep your fingers crossed for Boyan!

Update 11 Mai: Two helicopters of the Nepali company Simrik Air , which is specialized on mountain rescue, flew to Tibet to Shishapangma Base Camp today. They are to be involved in the search for Petrov.

Elisabeth Revol and Tomek Mackiewicz

It’s a race against time. A rescue team of climbers from the Polish K2 winter expedition is trying to rescue the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol and the Pole Tomek Mackiewicz, who have fallen into difficulties during their summit bid on Nanga Parbat. According to the information available, the 43-year-old Tomek – suffering from snowblindness and frostbite – is staying in a tent at about 7200 meters. “I keep descending, please helicopter tomorrow,” wrote Elisabeth Revol in a text message from her satellite phone. The 37-year-old is said to be somewhere between 6200 and 6400 meters.

Don’t check Adam’s GPS tracker!

Hats off to Denis Urubko (l.) and Adam Bielecki (r.)

Denis Urubko and Adam Bielecki of the Polish K 2 team climbed the Kinshofer route, even in the dark. The two almost “sprinted” almost up the wall. In five and a half hours they overcame 1,000 meters of altitude. At around 18:45 CET they were already at just below 5,900 meters. An amazing performance of the two climbers! It is urged not (!) to check Adam’s GPS tracker. The server was overloaded. The team needs the tracker for the rescue, so stay away!

Fingers crossed!

Further down, Jaroslaw Botor and Piotrek Tomala are following with rescue equipment. The four climbers of the rescue team had been picked up by helicopter from K 2 base camp and flown to Nanga Parbat. The weather conditions on the 8,125- meter high mountain are difficult: the higher, the windier. So fingers crossed or pray or both for Elisabeth, Tomek and the courageous rescue team!

Update, 22.30 CET: Denis Urubko und Adam Bielecki have reached Elisabeth Revol at 6,100 m!  She is to be brought to lower altitudes. Well done, Denis and Adam!

R.I.P.

Update, 28 January: Elisabeth was flown to Islamabad where she was treated in hospital because of frostbite on her fingers and toes. The search for Tomek was called off due to bad weather that made a rescue impossible. It was reported that the 43-year-old was already in agony when Elisabeth left him for descent. Allegedly both had summited before. R.I.P., Tomek.

P.S .: Unfortunately, I will not be able to keep you up to date, because I will be on the road for a week from Sunday. So you need to find out elsewhere.

Rescue flight for Carlos Rubio

Alex Txikon has to re-plan. On Sunday his climbing partner on Mount Everest, Carlos Rubio, had to be evacuated by rescue helicopter to Kathmandu due to a lung inflammation. The 28-year-old Spaniard has meanwhile sent a video message from the hospital. His condition is not serious, but he has to recover for a few days at the clinic. “I know he is fine”, Alex Txikon wrote from Camp 3 at 7,400 meters, “but from here we miss him a lot, since he has worked like a champion and I am really proud of him.” Today Txikon and the Sherpas who accompany him want to pitch up Camp 4 at the South Col at almost 8,000 meters, “for all the force he has transmitted to us”, as Alex writes: “In short, this dream would not be possible without you, Carlos.”

Bitter first experience

Carlos on Everest

For Rubio, the dream of a successful winter ascent of Everest without bottled oxygen is over now. Prior to the expedition, Carlos had been rather new to this game. He had made more headlines as an extreme skier. But Txikon had praised him as representative of the new generation of Spanish climbers, he wanted to give him a chance: “I can not say that Carlos has experience in the Himalayas. But he is super strong, a really good climber.” It’s a pity that Carlos’ first experience on an eight-thousander resulted in a helicopter rescue.

No GPS tracker

Just like the fact that Carlos Rubio, according to Txikon, in the haste unintentionally took the GPS tracker in a bag. We will therefore have to forego information in real time, where exactly Alex and Co. are on the mountain. That’s no big deal, if you keep in mind that before satellite communication and internet were introduced, news from Everest had to be taken by post runners to Kathmandu first and thus had been sent out into the world only a couple of days later. We will not have to wait for news from Alex Txikon for such a long time – even without GPS tracker.

Route of the Austrian climbers on Nilgiri South

Anyone who has ever climbed a very high mountain knows about the dangers during the descent. Not the dangers of the mountain itself, but of your own body. Suddenly all adrenaline is used up, you feel the pain that you have pushed away during the ascent, you are exhausted, only want to get down quickly and run into danger of losing your concentration. It’s not for nothing that many accidents happen on descent – like on the 6,839-meter-high Nilgiri South in Nepal, where the Austrian Gerhard Fiegl fell several hundred meters into depth on Monday of last week and has been missing since then. As reported, the search for the 27-year-old was meanwhile abandoned.
According to the other two team members, Hansjoerg Auer and Alexander Bluemel, the trio earlier had “successfully reached the summit after climbing through the more than 1,500 meter high South Face”. It was the first climb via the difficult wall where several other expeditions had failed in the past few decades. At the summit they noticed that their friend Gerry was “very exhausted”, Hansjoerg and Alex say. Was it symptoms of High Altitude Sickness? Fiegl’s rapid drop in performance might indicate this. At that altitude, oxygen is pressed into the longs with around 40 percent less pressure than at sea level.

Unplanned bivouac

At the summit: Fiegl, Bluemek and Auer (r.to l.)

“At the summit, we were still lying in each others arms and rejoiced over the successful first climb of the South Face”, says Auer. “But within a short time the situation turned extremely tense due to Gerry’s condition.” A few hundred meters below the summit, the three climbers decided to bivouac. Down in Base Camp, the photographer Elias Holzknecht tried to organize a rescue operation. However, strong winds made helicopter flights impossible. The next morning, Gerry’s condition seemed to have improved slightly, the trio continued their descent. Later, at around 2 p.m. local time, Fiegl lost his balance on the Southwest Ridge and fell around 800 meters into depth while his friends were looking on in horror.

Helicopter search two days later

Hansjoerg and Alex climbed down to Base Camp. Heavy snowfall hampered the search that was started immediately, only two days after the accident a helicopter was able to take off. The search for Gerry was unsuccessful. On 1 November the other expedition members returned to Austria. “At the moment when a longtime friend falls to death before your eyes, everything else becomes unimportant”, says Hansjoerg Auer. “Our joint expedition could not have taken a worse end.” As well as Auer, Alexander Bluemel is “very sad about the loss of our friend. But nobody can take me away the memory of the intense time I experienced with Gerry.”

Nanga Parbat (© The North Face)

Dramatic turn on Nanga Parbat: The Polish climbers Pavel Dunaj and Michal Obrycki have been hit by an avalanche when they were about 5000 meters high, just below Camp 1. Both were injured. Explorersweb.com reports that Pavel broke an arm and several ribs. Michal has apparently suffered leg injuries and a broken nose. Tomek Mackiewicz, Jacek Teler and Pakistani helpers succeeded to bring the two injured back to basecamp. They are to be flown out as soon as possible. “Helicopters and pilots are on standby but due to inclement weather conditions the helicopter evacuation has not been possible since yesterday”, informs Muhammad Irfan of the air rescue company “Askari Chartered Services (ACS)” on the Facebook page of the Polish Expedition. “However, we remain standby and as soon as the weather improves the helicopters will be dispatched to evacuate the Polish climbers.” As reported, Dunaj and Obrycki had climbed up to make a new track and to dig out Camp 1. Mackiewicz and Teler wanted to follow on Sunday.

Update 11. March: Pavel and Michal were brought on stretchers to the nearest village Tarashing, from where they should be driven by jeeps to hospital.