Kobusch’s route on Nangpai Gosum II

“The feeling was more than overwhelming to stand in a place that no one ever entered before me,” writes Jost Kobusch about his first ascent of the 7296-meter-high Nangpai Gosum II in the east of Nepal. As reported, the 25-year-old German had scaled the till then fourth-highest unclimbed mountain on earth two weeks ago. “Such ascents are still pure, real alpinism,” Jost writes to me. “This is exactly the direction I want to take – because a solo on a route with other climbers is not a real solo. I would like to enjoy alpinism in its purest form. For me, this is the maximum of minimalist mountaineering.” In the meantime, Kobusch has also given details of his route, which he graded to me as “TD”, which means “very difficult” (in the International French Adjectival System (IFAS) ,TD stands for “Tres Difficile”, with sustained snow and ice at an angle of 65-80 degrees and rock climbing at grade V and VI). He was en route with a very small team: the Nepali cook Ngima, kitchen helper Phurba and cameraman Raphael Schardt, who, according to Jost, only joined him once on the way to the Advanced Basce Camp (ABC) at the beginning of the expedition, later only filming with a large telephoto lens from the Base Camp.

Near-accident

Difficult conditions

He had originally planned to ascend via the route through the South Face, where a team of French mountain guides had failed two years in a row, Jost reports. At an altitude of about 6,300 meters, Kobusch nearly fell out of an ice flank. The strong sunlight caused the ice screw and the ice tool, which he had used for belaying at the stand, to be “melted out within 20 minutes”. An “only on the half way hammered in piton” saved his life.

Waist-high snow

Kobusch on top of Nangpai Gosum II

Jost descended to the Base Camp and decided to set off for a “light and fast solo” on a different route. After having left the Advanced Base Camp at 5,600 meters and having spent one night in Camp 1 (6,400 meters) and the next in Camp 2 (6,840 meters), he reached the highest point of Nangpai Gosum II on the third day. On the final part of his climb he once again had to clench his teeth, says Jost: “The plateau on top let me struggling through almost waist deep powder to the summit which I reached on 3 Oktober at 10.25 am. Wind speeds of shortly up to 60km/h made my stay at this untouched place short though.” The first ascent of Nangpai Gosum II,  Jost writes to me,  “is for me personally the beginning of many further expeditions in this style: No support above the base camp, all alone on a route and of course (also on higher mountains) no bottled oxygen.”

Annapurna without bottled oxygen

Kobusch (r.) with summit certificate

For the Westphalian Kobusch – born in Bielefeld, where the highest point called “Auf dem Polle” is not a mountain, but a 320-meter-high knoll – it was the second great success of his career as an high-altitude mountaineer. In spring 2016, Jost had scaled his first eight-thousander, Annapurna. A year before, Kobusch had become well known all over the world. The young German had shot a video of the giant avalanche – triggered by the devastating earthquake on 25 April 2015 – which had destroyed the base camp on the Nepali side of Mount Everest and had killed 19 people.

New route through the Khumbu Icefall (on the right) and that of 2014 (left)

Apparently, the new route through the Khumbu Icefall is more than a little course correction. That is indicated by the images that the US guide Garrett Madison has published in his blog. Expedition members of his Madison Mountaineering team had flown over the icefall above Everest Base Camp by helicopter and had looked from the air where the so-called “Icefall Doctors” set up the route for this spring season. The images show that the route leads – seen from below – much further to the right side of the ice labyrinth than expected. Closer to Nuptse, further away from the West Shoulder of Everest, from where an ice avalanche had released on 18 April 2014 that had killed 16 Nepalis. “It appears that climbers will have to negotiate broken ice as before, and perhaps more vertical ladders”, Garrett wrote adding that there was at least one section that had four vertical ladders tied together to ascend up a very large ice cliff. This year, the famous US climber and filmmaker David Breashears, who scaled Everest five times, has advised the eight Sherpas to find a path through the icefall that is as safe as possible.

Environmental organization with a special task

Dangerous Khumbu Icefall

The “Icefall Doctors” do not only set the route but also ensure that it remains accessible throughout the climbing season. Without their work it would be impossible for most of the Everest aspirants to pass the Icefall. These highly specialized Sherpas are selected and paid by the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), an organization that originally only cared about the environmental protection in the National Park around Mount Everest. Since 2000, the SPCC on behalf of the Government of Nepal is also responsible for the route through the Khumbu Icefall. It collects US $ 600 per expedition member. The amount has become an important part of SPCC’s income.

Indispensable, endangered, underpaid

“Unfortunately all these funds are not used in paying the Icefall Doctors or on equipment for the Icefall”, New Zealand expedition operator Russell Brice said last year. Those Sherpas who take the greatest risks because they have to move in the glacier every day are paid only about $ 2,000 per season. For comparison: Climbing Sherpas can, including bonuses, earn $ 4,000 to 6,000 $, those who reach the summit repeatedly make up to $ 10,000. The “stars” among the Sherpas allegedly take back home even up to $ 25,000 after a successful season.

No fall in demand

The government in Kathmandu announced that it released Everest permits for 30 expeditions this spring. Thus again some 300 foreign climbers will attempt to climb the highest mountain on earth from the Nepalese south side. That makes already clear that the “Everest market” in Nepal has not collapsed, despite the avalanche disaster in April 2014 and the subsequent early end last year’s climbing season.

Russell Brice

Russell Brice breathes out. “At last”, the 62-year-old New Zealander, head of the expedition operator Himalayan Experience, replies to my question on what he thinks about the planned new route through the Khumbu Icefall on Mount Everest. “We have been asking the SPCC (Note: The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Comitee is responsible for the route through the icefall.) to put the route more central since 2012. Now at last they have listened to the foreign operators instead of the local Sherpas who asked for the route to be moved so as they could travel faster … but not so safely.” Brice doesn’t expect that the new route will take the clients as much time as SPCC president Ang Dorjee Sherpa estimates: “It will take only about one hour longer, not three to four hours. You see there are not many people around these days who have been this way. But I have.”

Old wounds

It seems that I touched a sore spot when I confronted Russell with Adrian Ballinger’s tweet about the new route through the Khumbu Icefall (“The Everest Icefall ‘route change’ announced by Nepal is not a solution. It’s an excuse to maintain the status quo.“). Until 2012, Ballinger was the lead Everest guide for Himex. After that season they went their separate ways, obviously not in agreement. “What would Adrian Ballinger know, is this the same person who used to work for me and was told not to come through the icefall in the afternoon, but disagreed with me, and did come, and was almost killed when the Popcorn (Note: A section with a high risk of falling ice) moved, and then had to return to Camp 1 because the ropes had all been buried?”, Russell writes to me. “His opinion is not worth anything.”

Wait and see

Tim Mosedale, expedition leader from the UK, recommends waiting until the new route through the Khumbu Icefall is established. “Never mind what any government or ministry officials say!”, Tim writes to me. “It will go where it goes and that will be decided by the guys who put it in place.”

Dangerous Khumbu Icefall

No matter how likely something seems to be, things may turn out quite differently. For many years, most climbers on the Nepalese side of Everest thought that the route through the Khumbu Icefall, which led – seen from below – along the left hand side directly below the West Shoulder, was safe. Until 18 April 2014 when a huge ice avalanche released and killed 16 Nepalis. The Sherpas revolted, the season was over before it had begun. This spring, the route is to be relocated further away from the West Shoulder, about 40 meters to the centre of the Icefall. Ang Dorjee Sherpa, president of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Commitee (SPCC), which is responsible for the route, said to the Himalayan Times, he expected that the clients need three to four hours more to reach Camp 1. Although the new route is not as risky as the old one, it is more difficult, says Ang Dorjee. Not all are convinced that this is the last word.

Really safe?

„The Everest Icefall ‘route change’ announced by Nepal is not a solution. It’s an excuse to maintain the status quo“, US expedition leader Adrian Ballinger wrote on Twitter. The head of the expedition operator Alpenglow decided, in response to last year’s events on the Nepalese side, to switch to the Tibetan north side of Everest. There he will meet, among others, Dominik Mueller, head of the German operator Amical alpin, who also will lead an expedition from the north side.

He is „very skeptical that, on the bottom line, this route is really so much safer,” Dominik replies when I ask him what he thinks about the new route on the Nepalese side. „They try with all means to declare the ascent as safe as possible.“

Back to the roots

Dominik Mueller

Mueller points out that even in past times the route had led via the centre of the Icefall. In this basin, the glacier is moving much faster and is therefore unpredictable, says Dominik. Because of the increasing glacier melt it had been decided to move the route more to the left side – for safety. „So back to the roots, without looking at the change of the glacier?“ Dominik expects a significant higher risk for the Icefall Doctors while they set up the route through the center of the Icefall. And they will have more work to maintain the way through the ice labyrinth during the season because the glacier moves faster in the centre. More material such as ladders and fixed ropes are needed, Mueller says: „This will make it more expensive, while simultaneously the number of climbers on the south side will decrease.“ Dominik believes that it will be difficult to master the balancing act to find the perfect route: „On the one hand as far as possible in the centre, far enough away from the West Shoulder. On the other hand as close as possible to the left side, where the flow rate of the glacier is lower. If it works, it would be a good and neccessary step to make the south side of Everest more attractive and safer again.“ Hard to say how likely that is.