Three times K2 without breathing mask: Fazal Ali

Sorry, Fazal Ali – that your extraordinary performance on K2 just slipped past me last summer! I reported on the first ski descent from the second highest mountain in the world by the Pole Andrzej Bargiel. I also noticed that Muhammad Ali “Sadpara”, the Pakistani winter first ascender of Nanga Parbat, completed his collection of the five eight-thousanders of his home country on K2 – and that it was a record season on “Chogori”, as you locals call the mountain. But I missed the news that you, Fazal, were the first mountaineer in the world to reach the 8,611-meter-high summit of the “King of the Eight-thousanders” for the third time after 2014 and 2017 without bottled oxygen. All the deeper I now take my hat off!

No appreciation

K2

The fact that I did not realize Ali’s performance is annoying, but not by chance. We usually find out very quickly via the social networks, when for example the youngest Briton to date has scaled K2, the first woman from Switzerland, Mexico, Mongolia … However, the Pakistani companions of the eight-thousander expeditions in the Karakoram are rarely talked about. “I’m happy,” Fazal Ali recently told a reporter from the AFP news agency after his K2 triple. “But I’m also heartbroken because my feat will never be truly appreciated.” Most Pakistani high altitude porters and mountain guides in the service of commercial expeditions are likely to experience it like the 40-year-old from the Shimshal Valley: They are good enough to work, but they shouldn’t be on the summit picture. “These hidden heroes contribute to the success of many Western mountaineers and also support adventure tourism in the country,” writes Mirza Ali Baig to me. “But they are neither appreciated by the Western clients of the expeditions nor by the (Pakistani) government.”

More Sherpas, fewer jobs for locals

Mirza Ali Baig

Mirza Ali Baig is 35 years old and comes from Shimshal like Fazal Ali. His sister Samina Baig was the first Pakistani woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 2013. Mirza Ali is the head of the Pakistani tour operator “Karakorum Expeditions”. The mountaineer, filmmaker and photographer puts his finger on another wound: “Most Western companies hire Nepali Sherpas. This has been shrinking the job opportunities of the locals. Sherpas now work in Pakistan, but not a single Pakistani can work in Nepal.” For the locals, says Baig, “such adventures” are not about fun or self-realization as they are for Western mountaineers, but about “bread and butter for their families and a source of income to educate their children”.

Mountain training is lacking

Porters on the Baltoro Glacier

He admits that the Sherpas are on average more experienced and trained than the locals. “For decades, Western mountaineers have guided and trained Nepali Sherpas. However Pakistani High Altitude Porters – I would name them “local High Altitude Guides” – have never been provided the same opportunity to learn what the Westerners taught Nepali Sherpas. There is not a single institute in Pakistan to train and teach mountaineering or outdoor tourism.” Baig considers this as the Pakistani government’s duty: “They have never really taken the (tourism) industry seriously.” In Mirza Ali’s sight, there also could be a benefit from employing Nepali Sherpa, “if they work with locals and improve their skills, especially in fixing ropes and (other) high-altitude services. This would be good for both.”

Role model for young people

Perhaps one day the Pakistani mountaineers will also be given the appreciation that Sherpas in Nepal have enjoyed for decades and that has subsequently brought some of them modest prosperity. Remarkable successes such as that of Fazal Ali on K2, says Baig, are “truly inspiring and a role model for young people – not only in mountaineering, but also beyond it”. However only in case you hear about it.

P.S.: Dear friends in Pakistan, I am always looking for first hand information and I am grateful when I receive it. So please let me know when someone celebrates another amazing success in the Karakoram like Fazal Ali did!

South side of Mount Everest

The spell is broken. For the first time this spring, climbers have scaled the summit of Mount Everest also from the Nepalese south side of the mountain. An employee of the Ministry of Tourism informed from the Base Camp that today 14 climbers reached the highest point on 8,850 meters. The route is now secured up to the summit with fixed ropes. According to consistent reports three members of an expedition of the British Gurkha military brigade were among the successful climbers.

Hundreds are waiting for their summit chance

A first attempt by a Sherpa team to fix ropes up to the summit had failed last week due to bad weather. On the south side about 375 foreign mountaineers and as many local climbers await their summit chance. On the Tibetan north side, the first climbers of this spring season had already reached the highest point on Friday and Saturday. Some 170 climbers from abroad have got a climbing permit from the Chinese authorities.

North side of Mount Everest

The ropes are fixed up to the summit of Mount Everest – at least on the north side of the highest mountain on earth. On Thursday, according to consistent reports, nine Sherpas of an Indian team, responsible for securing the normal route on the Tibetan side, reached the highest point at 8,850 meters. The Nepalese operator Arun Treks, who had organized the expedition, dedicated these first ascents of the Everest season to the Swiss climber Ueli Steck, who had fallen to death on Nuptse on 30 April.

Summit, pre-summit or even below?

Meanwhile, the situation on Makalu remains confused. Who was how far up? On Wednesday – as reported – some teams had reported summit successes on the fifth highest mountain on earth. The German climber Thomas Laemmle, who is staying in the Advanced Base Camp after he had canceled his own summit attempt, wrote on Facebook, these were “fake news”: “So far nobody summited Makalu this season! Not even the fore-summit was reached due to lack of 100m fixed rope.”

Elisabeth Revol on Makalu

The Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol had informed via Facebook: “We stopped at the antecime (pre-summit). To the main summit too much snow, wind patches and too much wind. We were only 3 without oxygen on 20 climbers.“ I asked her via email whether this applied to all of the 20 climbers she had mentioned. “Yes, everyone turned back on antecime … not safe to climb,” Elisabeth replied.

On Thursday, Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, head of the Nepalese expedition operator Dreamers Destination, announced: “We are now on Makalu summit. Clear weather and great view.” On 30 April on Dhaulagiri, the 31-year-old Mingma had succeeded the first summit success on an eight-thousander this spring, along with two more Sherpas and two clients. If his success on Makalu is confirmed, it is Mingma’s tenth eight-thousander. Only on Mount Everest, which he has climbed already five times, he used bottled oxygen.

Mount Everest

The Everest spring season is gaining momentum. The Base Camp on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest is filling. According to the government in Kathmandu, 279 climbers from 38 countries have registered for the highest mountain on earth. The Icefall Doctors have meanwhile prepared the route all the way up to Camp 2 at 6,400 meters. The teams who want to climb Everest from the Tibetan north side, have also received now their permits from the Chinese authorities and are heading to Tibet. It’s going to kick off there too. Before the media Everest season begins, I would like to correct some reoccurring errors.

1) Everest is a safe mountain.

Dangerous Khumbu Icefall

Granted, the technical climbing difficulties on the two normal routes may be limited because the way via the Southeast Ridge as well as the route via the Northeast Ridge are secured with fixed ropes up to the summit. But that alone doesn’t make Everest a safe mountain. Finally, it is 8,850 meters high, where oxygen is pressed into the lungs with only one-third of the pressure compared to sea level. Also an ascent with breathing mask is not chicken feed. Even if it is really true that Everest in case of using bottled oxygen is downgraded to a six-thousander, you have to manage to get to the top. In addition, climate change has increased the objective dangers. Parts of the route that were previously almost always snowy, are now frequently free from snow and ice. Rockfall is threatening in the Lhotse flank. And the danger of avalanches has increased, not only in the Khumbu Icefall.

2) Everest is a killer mountain.

The opposite to 1) is wrong as well. Although there were no summit successes from the south side in the last two years, but two avalanche incidents with a total of 35 dead, Mount Everest is still far from being one the most dangerous eight-thousanders. On the one hand about 280 people have died so far on the highest mountain on earth, but there have been more than 7,000 ascents on the other hand. This ratio makes Everest belong even more to the category of the secure than of the extremely dangerous eight-thousanders. Most deaths per ascents have been recorded on Annapurna, on the second place of this “fatality ranking” follows K 2.

3) Everest is no longer a mountain for top climbers.

Everest North Face

20 routes have been climbed on Everest, plus several variations of these ways. This does not mean that there is a lack of other options. So far only two routes have been climbed in the Kangchung Face, in recent years the Everest East Face was almost always deserted. Furthermore there should still be possible new ascent routes via the North and the Southwest Face. Not to mention the ultimate challenge, the “Horseshoe Route”: up Nuptse West Ridge, traversing the summits of Lhotse and Everest and descending via Everest West Ridge to the starting point.

4) Everest is a garbage dump.

Garbage at the South Col

There have been garbage regulations for Everest expeditions for decades. The mountaineers are obliged to dig or burn their organic waste. Recyclable material such as plastic or glass must be returned to Kathmandu as well as empty oxygen bottles or batteries. Anyone who breaches the rules risks not getting back his garbage deposit of US $ 4,000. In addition, several eco-expeditions have collected tons of garbage from Everest, from the period when mountaineers made little thoughts about environmental protection. Many mountains in the European Alps are even more garbage dumps than Mount Everest.

5) Everest is littered with corpses.

It is true that Everest summit aspirants should mentally be prepared to pass some bodies of dead climbers. But it is not that the route is “paved with corpses”, as reports suggest repeatedly. Many of the climbers who died of exhaustion were “buried” in crevasses or their corpses were pushed down the Everest walls by other climbers. Sometimes a storm does this job too.

6) The moral of Everest Sherpas has been lost.

Much traffic on Everest

It’s like anywhere: If many people are on the way, you will find some black sheep. In spring 2013, Sherpas attacked Simone Moro, Ueli Steck and Jonathan Griffith in Everest high camp and a year later there were threats of violence against climbers who disagreed with the premature end of the season after the deadly avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall. But it is dishonest to conclude that now all Sherpas tend to violence or no longer do their job properly. More and more Sherpas acquire international certificates as mountain guides. The Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) is offering regularly training courses for local climbers. Undoubtedly, the young, well-trained Sherpa climbers act more self-confident. They are aware of their skills and want to be treated as fully-fledged climbers – and not as lackeys.

7) Everest should be closed.

Who would benefit? Perhaps the advocates of a mainly Western climbing philosophy, but certainly not the people of Khumbu, who strongly depend on the income of Everest tourism: local mountain guides, Climbing Sherpas, cooks and kitchen helpers in Base Camp, porters, owners of lodges and shops on the way to Everest, farmers and the families of these all. The Western critics should ask themselves whether mountains like Mont Blanc in the Alps or Denali in Alaska should have to be closed with the same arguments they use only for Everest.

8) The government will do the job.

If there is anything to be learnt from what happened on Everest in the past years, it is this: The government of Nepal is talking more than acting. Again and again politicians of the competent Ministry of Tourism present proposals for new Everest rules, but only to make headlines. As good as nothing is implemented. Even for a simple decision as to extend the permits after the disasters of the last two years, the authorities in Kathmandu needed almost a year each. Virtually all reforms fail, likely because the government itself makes big profit on Everest. It remains in the dark, where exactly the money from the sale of the permits goes – $ 11,000 per climber at all.

9) The climbers are capable of “managing” Everest on their own.

Everest Base Camp

Also at that point, the main counterargument is the business that is made on and with Everest. At the end of the day, every entrepreneur wants to be in the black. The more clients reach the summit, the better is his reputation, and therefore he will likely increase his profit in the following year. As a result one or the other expedition leader will show selfishness on the mountain, according to the motto: Why should I take care of the other groups? What is really needed is to “manage” the mountain to prevent that all ascend on the same day therefore causing traffic jams at the key points of the route. It might work, but also among the expedition leaders, there are black sheep.

10) One should not report about Everest.

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. Therefore, there will always be mountaineers who want to climb it. And most probably people will always be interested in Everest. That’s the main reason why we have to report about what is happening there – without glossing over, but also without demonizing. Just like anywhere else in the world, it applies on Everest too: You will not solve a problem by keeping quiet about it.

Dawa Gyaljen Sherpa

He is one of the Sherpas who stay well clear of Mount Everest this year. “I simply haven’t got the time,” says Dawa Sherpa Gyaljen, when I meet him in a cafe in Kathmandu during my visit Nepal. The 29-year-old is working for a trekking operator. “Maybe I’ll get the chance in 2017 again. I have been asked if I would lead an Everest team next year. Let’s see whether I can take as much vacation.” The Sherpa, who was born in the Khumbu region in a small village west of Namche Bazaar, has reached the highest point on earth already four times: in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009. The upcoming spring season could set the course for the future, Dawa believes.

Used to aftershocks

“If also this year accidents happen like in 2014 or last year, maybe people get scared,” Dawa expects. “But if the expeditions are successful, the number of climbers for sure will go up in 2017 and 2018.” Dawa says, that he is happy, that many foreigners are willing to travel to Nepal again to boost the economy of the country that was hit so hard by the earthquake. In his own words, Dawa is now hardly thinking about the earthquake on 25 April 2015, not least because of the more than 400 aftershocks measuring 4.0 or more: “Sometimes I don`t even feel earthquakes of 4.5 or 5 because I got used to. It’s a bit normal for me now. We survived a very dangerous situation, now I feel safe. But there are still rumors that a bigger quake will come again.”

Impossible to forget

Rescue helicopter above Khumbu Icefall (in 2014)

Sherpas are determined to make this year’s Everest season a successful one. “Finally, it is also about protecting their jobs in the future,” says Dawa Gyaljen. “It’ not actually pressure, but a kind of challenge. I think they will push hard to get to the summit this year.” In spring 2014, the young Sherpa was among the first who reached the accident site in the Khumbu Icefall after the avalanche and who started the recovery of the injured and dead. 16 Nepali climbers were killed, three of them remained missing. I ask Dawa if he could climb through the icefall easily after that experience. “I think you cannot escape this. When we pass this place, we even feel like that there is some blood or somebody is still in the crevasse.”

Better trained

Dawa on Lobuche Peak

Dawa Gyaljen finds that Everest aspirants of today on average are better climbers than those in past years. “There are only a few who still don’t know how to put on their crampons,” says the 29-year-old, adding that also the Sherpas are now much better trained because they went through the practical trainings offered by the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) twice a year. The Sherpas are always responsible for their clients, says Dawa: “If some bad thing happens, the Sherpas are blamed for it because they didn’t take care of their clients. There are rumors about unskilled Sherpas who abandoned their clients half way on the mountain.” However, the trained and skilled Sherpa guides never left their clients alone, says Dawa: “But if the clients insist on climbing further up against the advice of their Sherpas, then they have to bear the responsibility for their own.”

Jamling Tenzing Norgay

I owe Jamling Tenzing Norgay my first experiences in the Himalayas. I met the son of the first man who made it to the top of Everest in 2001 when he presented his book “Touching My Father’s Soul” in Germany. In 1996, Jamling had followed in his father’s footsteps by reaching himself the summit of the highest mountain on earth. Norgay’s book was the first to discuss from the Sherpas’ point of view the May 1996 disaster on Everest, in which twelve climbers had died, most of them clients of commercial expeditions. At the end of our meeting in Munich, Jamling said: “If you want to come to Nepal someday, contact me! Then I’ll help you to organize the trip.” He kept his word. In 2002, the International Year of the Mountains, I trekked to the base camp on the Nepalese side of Everest. Today Jamling Tenzing Norgay is a sought-after speaker. I asked the 48-year-old what he expects of this year’s climbing on Mount Everest.

Jamling, we are at the start of spring season on Everest. Do you think it will be business as usual in Nepal or something different due to last year’s events?

I think that business will be as usual, everything will run the same way as it has been in the past years. My fear is that there will be more people this year due to the back log of climbers from last year and new climbers on the mountain this year. The only difference from last year is that the Sherpas will get better insurance coverage and hopefully the commercial outfitters and the local agents will have raised the pay scale of the Sherpas for this spring.

Jamling (l.) and Peter Hillary, son of Edmund Hillary (in 2013)

Do you feel that the mood among the members of the Sherpa community in Nepal has changed after last year’s avalanche incident and the subsequent premature end of the season?

We Sherpas are very happy and content people. Of course we mourn the loss of our Sherpa brothers who perish while climbing mountains but we continue to do what we do best and that is to climb. This is the risk that we take in our line of work.

What do think about the attitude of the operators? Have they learned from the events in 2014 or was there no need for them to change anything?

I feel that the accident in 2014 should have been a good lesson for the commercial outfitters and the local operators. The most important thing that anyone wants in life is security. We need to have a better life insurance policy for the Sherpa climbers and the pay needs to be raised.

Most importantly the children and the families need to be secure in the time of any unforeseen circumstances to the climbers. The Government of Nepal should put aside a certain percentage of the royalties collected from mountaineering expeditions into a trust to help with education of children and the families of the Sherpas that have died on the mountains.

What would your father say if he would still be alive and see what happens on Everest?

I think that he would be shocked to see how it has become so commercialized and that nowadays Everest has become a playground for the overnight mountaineers.

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner at the ISPO

It has become quieter around Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner. A fact that she actually likes. The 44-year-old Austrian is still a sought-after speaker. So Gerlinde can not complain about a lack of work. But she has enough time to travel around. Without any pressure – that disappeared after she had successfully completed her big project by climbing K 2 in 2011: She was the first and so far only woman in the world who climbed all 14 eight-thousanders without bottled oxygen. Our paths crossed on Mount Everest in 2005, when she tried (in vain) with Ralf Dujmovits and Hirotaka Takeuchi to climb the North Face and I reported about it. In 2010, she reached the summit via the Tibetan normal route. I met Gerlinde at the trade fair ISPO in Munich a week ago and we talked about Everest.

Gerlinde, you climbed Mount Everest as well as the other 13 eight-thousanders without supplemental oxygen. At the moment there are a lot of discussions about what happens on the highest of all mountains, especially because of the avalanche disaster and the subsequent end of all expeditions on the Nepalese side in spring 2014. The Sherpas revolted. Did this conflict boil up and over?

Probably, the anger had been building up over years, this feeling of the Sherpas that they are exploited. I think something must happen on Everest, the situation cannot continue.

Much traffic on Everest (in 2012)

Who is required?

Both sides need to rethink. Even though I never used the support of Sherpas on my expeditions, I know from talking to them that they appreciate the expeditions, because they benefit from it. I am often asked: The Sherpas earn near to nothing, don’t they? But I learned from reliable sources that they earn comparatively much money and that they are really able to feed their families for one year with their income of an Everest climbing season. On the other hand, I understand that they don’t want to take these increased hazards any more.
Many climbers on Everest take advantage of the Sherpa support, but don’t talk about the fact that they are using it. In fact, there is a lack of appreciation. It would be nice if those who go to Everest would climb more on their own authority. They should seek more cooperation with the Sherpas, rather than only demanding what has to happen. The transport of material to the high camps, all the oxygen bottles, this has reached a level that I really fail to comprehend.

But Everest is a fully commercialized mountain. Isn’t it naive to think that anything will change? Due to the fact that there is so much infrastructure, Everest will always attract some people who don’t belong there, considering their mountaineering skills.

That’s true, for sure. In recent years, there were many people on Everest who actually had no relation to mountaineering but only wanted to realize their dream of climbing the highest mountain in the world – no matter the cost, no matter by what means. This has taken a direction that is absolutely not good. Quite the contrary. Maybe it’s really naive to think that this will change. But hope is the last to die.
Actually, everyone knows that we cannot continue in this way and that something has to happen. The only question is, what exactly. Many talk about it, me too. But in the end, no one has any real idea that could seriously make a difference and lead to change. The Sherpas revolt. Some told me that they don’t want to go to Everest anymore, because they have earned enough money. Many of them are now living abroad, many in America. Others continue to climb Everest because they need the money to give their children a good education. It’s really a sensitive and difficult issue.

My feeling is that the responsibility is shifted back and forth. The operators accuse the government and vice versa. The Sherpas complain about the operator and the government. But they don’t sit down around a table and agree on a common line.

That’s precisely what’s missing, that they all sit around a table, each putting back his ego a bit, committed to find a reasonable solution. And it doesn’t look as if it’s going to happen in the near future.

Base camp below the Everest North Face

Against this background, are you happy that you checked off the chapter Everest?

I don’t want to call it checked off. But I’m definitely happy that, in 2010, I had the good fortune to scale the mountain on a day when only very few people were climbing. It was snowing, it was cloudy, I had no view at the top. But it was quiet on the mountain. I can’t say that I enjoyed the time at the summit, because the climb had been just too strenuous. But I was glad to have made it.
Furthermore, we had pitched our tents in base camp below the North Face. We were alone, it was quiet there – at this really busy mountain. I enjoyed this loneliness and I’m still happy having experienced it this way.

In all the discussions about Everest, too often one point is not mentioned: that there is still the possibility to experience real mountaineering adventures on Everest, e.g. at the North Face or the Kangshung Face. There are still playgrounds, aren’t they?

Of course, for real mountaineers there is still plenty to do on Everest. I don’t know whether someone will go to the North Face this year. There you can find pure loneliness. In the base camp, you are only joined by snow grouses. Otherwise, it is extremely quiet, and you have the view of the North Face. You won’t meet anyone at the Kangshung Face too. Only the normal routes, where ropes are fixed up to top, are crowded. I don’t want to call all these people mountaineers. Of course, there are these and those kinds of people. But there are many people on Everest that really don’t belong there.

Shadow falling on Everest

The avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall on Good Friday could be a decisive turning point in the history of Mount Everest. For the first time since the start of commercial expeditions to the highest mountain in the world in the late 1980s there will be almost certainly no clients who reach the summit via the Nepalese south side this spring. The season is over, not officially, but de facto. All major expedition teams have left the base camp, many climbers have meanwhile arrived in Kathmandu. There are more and more reports about massive threats of a small group of Sherpas against those compatriots who wanted to stay on the mountain despite the avalanche disaster with 16 deaths. Western climbers were apparently threatened too.

Small violent group

“The Sherpas on the teams were told their legs would be broken if they took clients onto Everest”, writes US climber Greg Paul, who was in the team of Himalayan Experience, in his blog. “Expeditions relying on Sherpa-power were told to leave base camp within days or face consequences that implied potential violence.” Members of other expeditions also report about pressure by a small violent group.

Undeterred

Already in 2013 it became clear that there were rifts in the community of Sherpas which war formerly so homogeneous. After a dispute on the mountain the European climbers Ueli Steck, Simone Moro and Jon Griffith were kicked, beaten and threatened with death by a Sherpa-mob in Camp 2. The Nepalese government later announced to establish a guarded post at the base camp in spring 2014. However, it should not open until early May. The few security forces who were already on site in April did obviously not deter the violent gang.

No justification for violence

April 18 was a Black Friday in the history of Everest, and a tragedy for the families of the 16 victims. Quite rightly all work on the mountain was stopped to have time to mourn. And rightly the Sherpas called for a better financial protection in case of such accidents. However, nothing can justify violence on Everest – and also not to threaten with it. Maybe those aggressive Sherpa minority is not only cutting off its nose to spite its face, but also this of the peaceful majority. Some operators are considering to go to the Tibetan north side in future or even not to offer Everest expeditions.

Last metres to the summit of Makalu

Many are familiar with the view of Makalu, without being aware of it. On pictures taken from the summit of Mount Everest in direction of the Southeast Ridge you see in the background the shapely fifth highest mountain on earth. Just a few kilometres linear distance are lying between the two 8000ers, but actually they are worlds apart. This spring the headlines concerning Everest were overturning: first the brawl in Camp 2, then the 60-year-anniversary of the first ascent. Because of this I lost sight of an expedition of four German and a Swiss climber to Makalu.

Siegrist left expedition

David Göttler, Michael Waerthl, Hans Mitterer, Daniel Bartsch and Stephan Siegrist wanted to climb the mountain in Alpine style via the challenging west pillar. Siegrist had to cancel the expedition because he got severe headaches and vision disorders,  possibly due to a skull fracture that he had a few years earlier. The other four abandoned their original plan and ascended via the normal route. Waerthl returned because of icy fingers about 200 metres below the summit. The other three climbers reached the highest point at 8485 metres.

I reach David Göttler on the phone while he is on the way home from the Bregaglia Valley where the mountain guide from Munich has led two clients. In recent years the 34-year-old mountaineer was repeatedly on expedition with Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Ralf Dujmovits. With Gerlinde he i.a. ascended Dhaulagiri in the 2008 and Nuptse in 2012.

On top: Mitterer, Goettler, Bartsch (f.l.)

David, on 21 May you, Hans Mitterer and Daniel Bartsch stood on the summit of Makalu. Was it a perfect summit day?

We had been climbing fast. We were extremely fortunate because only we and a Finnish climber (Samuli Mansikka) were up there. The weather and snow conditions were perfect: almost no wind, normally warm for such a high 8000er, which means not too cold. It was incredible. It would be nice if every summit day was like this.

Makalu was your fifth 8000er. How do you classify this ascent in your personal ranking?

Especially the last stage up to the summit is challenging. There were only old fixed ropes, which you really don’t want to use. It was certainly one of the more demanding climbs.

On your summit day a large group of climbers of commercial expeditions turned back about 200 metres below the highest point. Afterwards some of them complained that contrary to the agreement the Sherpas had not secured the final passage to the summit with fixed ropes? What was the problem?

We caught up with the group that had started much earlier at 3 a.m., about 8200 metres high. When it got light the Sherpas said that they had not enough ropes to fix the route and that all should turn back. They had already been climbing for a long time. Maybe it was a wise decision of the Sherpas, at least for a majority of their clients. Perhaps they used the lack of ropes only as an excuse. I proposed to fetch up ropes from below to fix the last 200 metres. I had about 40 more metres of rope in my backpack. The Sherpas totally blocked my proposal and meant that it would take too long. But I can only speculate what was really going on there, and therefore I have reservations about commenting it.

Originally, you wanted to climb Makalu in Alpine style via the west pillar. Then Stephan Siegrist, one of your team members, had to cancel the expedition because of health problems. Why have you abandoned your plan then – four climbers remained and you were a powerful team?

There were several reasons. Without Stephan we were a strong man down. In addition the conditions were brutal: glare ice. You don’t get ahead. During the exploration of the west pillar we had to secure some lower passages which were really flat, due to glare ice. Above the rock was fragile. We weighed our options. The chance to reach the summit via the west pillar was minimal, the chance via the normal route relatively well.

You were three of only seven climbers who reached the summit this spring. Have you experienced Makalu as a lonely mountain?

Yes, compared to my last expeditions to Lhotse and Nuptse where I pitched up my tent in Everest Base Camp. I have never had such a beautiful basecamp like ours below the West Pillar of Makalu. It was below the basecamp of the normal route, green, with views of Lhotse, Everest, Makalu and Baruntse. We were alone in our camp, on an 8000er! Also on the mountain, I did not feel that many climbers were on the route. We enjoyed meeting these people and chatting with them. We had much fun with the Sherpas on the normal route. It was always a friendly and nice atmosphere.

David Goettler

On Everest, about 10 km linear distance away, at the end of April Sherpas attacked  European top climbers Ueli Steck, Simone Moro and Jonathan Griffith. Has that news gotten around to you?

We were doing some climbing to acclimatize. We had just pulled a Sherpa out of a crevasse into which he had fallen. He thanked a hundred times and said we had saved this life. We didn’t feel that way, for us it’s quite normal to help each other. Then we came down to the basecamp, and our kitchen team heard in a small radio the message that was broadcasted by the local ‘Khumbu Radio’. Incredible, we asked ourselves: What must have happened that the situation could escalate like it did?

Like the three climbers on Everest you were climbing on Makalu without Sherpa support. How did the Sherpas behave towards you?

They have always been nice. When we turned to the normal route, they asked: ‘What are you doing here now?’ We told them that we had decided to climb up via the normal route. For their work in the lower parts of the mountain we paid them with some ice screws and ropes. That brought this matter to a close. We have always helped each other. For example, we passed on the weather forecast. The Sherpas provided us with other informations. It was a pleasant, friendly cooperation.

Do you think that the relations between Sherpas and professional climbers are sustainably clouded by the Everest incident?

I don’t hope so. I’m not afraid to travel again to the Khumbu region. I firmly believe that the good relations will continue. I think Everest is a very special terrain where extremes collide. Compared to Makalu and other mountains Sherpas on Everest are under enormous pressure:  A lot of money is involved, so many climbers are on the mountain, and they expect that the fixed ropes are laid quickly.

By next spring season a team of the Nepalese government will stay in Everest basecamp to control whether the climbers comply with the rules. Do you think that all the problems will be solved by this measure?

I don’t think that all problems will be solved. The question is whether the dispute really escalated because rules were broken or whether unwritten laws on Everest were interpreted in a different way by the Sherpas on the one hand and Western climbers on the other hand.

The real problem that there are too many climbers on the route is very difficult to resolve. If you would stop climbing with supplemental oxygen, the whole thing on Everest would regulate quickly, and there would be no more problems. But you cannot dictate that. Whoever wants to try his luck there, in whatever style of climbing, shall try and be happy. It’s up to each climber.

Is it still an attractive target for you to climb Everest?

Yes. To climb Everest via the normal route without supplemental oxygen is challenging enough. That would be interesting.

Sir Chris Bonington

When Everest was climbed first in 1953 Chris Bonington was a young English mountaineer of 17 years. Later he did historic climbs like the first ascents of Annapurna II in 1960, of the Central Pillar of Freney on the south side of Mont Blanc  in 1961 and of the 7285-meter-high Ogre in the Karakoram together with Doug Scott in 1977 (the second ascent followed only in 2001). But Bonington also proved to be a great expedition leader. In 1970 he led the successful expedition to the South Face of Annapurna, in 1975 the expedition to Mount Everest, during which Doug Scott and Dougal Haston climbed the Southwest Face first. Bonington himself reached the summit of Everest in 1985 as a member of a Norwegian expedition. He was knighted by the Queen in 1996 for his services to the sport. I met the 78-year-old climber last week at the diamond jubilee celebration of the first ascent of Mount Everest in the Royal Geographical Society in London and asked him – of course – about his thoughts on Everest.

Sir Chris Bonington, 60 years after the first ascent of Mount Everest, how do you feel about these pioneers? 

I’m a great believer in the heritage of our sport, looking back, enjoying and learning from what our predecessors have done. In a way that first ascent of the highest point on earth is one of the very, very great occasions. I think it’s story. How they succeeded and worked together, it was a superb team effort. It’s something very special. 

Hillary was a New Zealander, Tenzing Norgay a Sherpa living in India, but I think it was a great push for British mountaineering because it was a British expedition which was first successful on Everest. 

British and New Zealand, because George Lowe and Ed Hillary were two important parts of it. It was a Commonwealth expedition. But the key thing was that the individuals who came together were undoubtedly melted as a team by John Hunt who was a supreme leader. I think he provided a blue print of how to go about planning, organizing and leading an expedition. It was the achievement of all which of course Ed Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay kind of completed.

Has it been an initial point for your generation to do something more difficult?

That’s a natural progression going from the base what has been done in the past to take one step further into the future. And therefore naturally the next generation is trying to take it on other levels. When for instance we climbed the Southwest Face of Everest, that was the next thing to do. Reinhold Messner’s solo ascent of Everest from the north was an extraordinary step. There have been a whole series of developments on Everest and within the mountain as a whole.

But it seems to me that after this era there was a step back when commercial mountaineering took over.

No, it’s not a step back, it’s just natural evolution. You can see exactly the same thing happening in the Alps where mountains like the Matterhorn or Mont Blanc are guided. Hundreds of people go up every single day guided by professional mountain guides. It was almost an inevitable thing that was going to happen in the Himalayas and it has done. And it’s enabled hundreds of people to reach the top of Everest. It’s not a give-away, it’s still a tough game for those individuals, 2000 people at basecamp, 200 people going up the Lhotse face, 100 people going to the summit in a day aligned on a fix rope put up by the Sherpas. That’s something that happens. But what the elite of climbers are doing – and they do extraordinary things – is climbing Alpine style in very small parties, four maximum, usually two, very often solo. That is climbing adventure at its upmost. There are still thousands of unclimbed ridges and faces in the Himalayas on the peaks around 8000 metres. Everest, if you like, is no longer a place for the pioneers. The pioneers have gone elsewhere.

Sir Chris Bonington about commercial climbing on Everest

This spring brought a Sherpa attack against the European top climbers Simone Moro and Ueli Steck in Everest high camp. What do think about it? 

I think that was very unfortunate. I’ve got a great respect and liking for Ueli, I know him and Jon Griffith, the English climber (who was also involved in the brawl). They were doing a kind of acclimatization climb up the Lhotse face to the South Col, maybe dumping a bit of stuff there as well in preparation for what they were planning to do, which was actually to do an amazing ascent. They were trying to keep out of the way of the Sherpas. In no way they did interfere with them. I think there has been a lot of tension and resentment by the Sherpas perhaps feeling that they had not been paid enough. Lots of things that have nothing to do with what these three climbers were doing. But there was a configuration and the Sherpas attacked them. I think that was unforgivable, it was appaling and very unfortunate. But what it highlighted was that the whole system on Everest needs to have a serious look. What is needed is that the commercial expedition leaders, the government, the Sherpa community, all the various people involved on Everest, need to get together and have a serious talk about how can we improve the situation. There is something that needs to be done by consultation, talk and discussion. 

Sir Chris Bonington about the brawl on Everest

Would you say it’s a conflict that has emerged long ago and has now broken out? 

I think it has been simmering for quite some time. It’s the same with everything. When there are too many people, when there are two bigger crowds, when that kind of pressure is involved, when money is involved as well, that’s why things start going wrong.