David Goettler at their highest point (in the background the summit)

Only a few meters have been missing to the top, but they’ve climbed through the wall. David Goettler and Hervé Barmasse entered the Shishapangma South Face on Sunday morning and climbed in 13 hours to a point just below the 8,027-meter-high summit. “We found a last traverse of about ten meters and then five meters up to the summit too delicate due to the avalanche danger,” David writes to me after returning to the Base Camp. Originally, the 38-year-old German and his one year older climbing partner from Italy had planned to open a new route through the South Face. Like in spring 2016, when David had tried the same with the Swiss Ueli Steck, the weather conditions impeded the project.

In Ueli’s style

David Goettler (l.) and Hervé Barmasse (r.)

“We had only a very short weather window of about 24 hours with little wind and no snowfall,” writes Goettler. “That is why we decided to try to reach the summit in a very light and fast style via the Girona route.” The route was opened in 1995 by a Spanish team. Also in spring 2016, David had climbed with Steck this route, but only up to an altitude of 7,800 meters. Last February, Steck, Goettler and Barmasse had prepared for their expeditions with a joint intensive training camp in Nepal. On 30 April, Ueli had fallen to death on Nuptse. In their mind, he accompanied them through the Shishapangma South Face, says David: “It makes me happy that I made it to the top this time, in the style I’ve learned from Ueli. And that Hervé and I kept a clear head up there and forewent the last meters. These meters were simple, but in our opinion too dangerous in these conditions.”

“We want to return”

Another attempt to open a new route through the Shishapangma South Wall will not happen – at least not this year. “The weather forecast for the coming week until the end of the month is not promising. Around 27 May there will be less wind but snowfall,” writes Goettler. “That’s why we think that we have no chance for the new route. We will pack up here for this year. But we want to come back.” They both return home from Tibet satisfied, says David: “For Herve and me, it was one of the best performances we’ve ever done.”

Acclimatization climb for the Shishapangma South Face

David Goettler and Hervé Barmasse are waiting for their chance. For a good weather window, which allows them to enter the Shishapangma South Face where they – as reported before –want to climb a new route. In contrast to Mount Everest, where both sides of the mountain are overrun by hundreds of climbers, the 38-year-old German and the 39-year-old Italian are alone in their Base Camp on the south side of the Shishapangma. I sent David four questions.

David, at what stage is your expedition?

We have completed our acclimatization on 9 May. We stayed for one night on a 6,900-meter-high col (pass) to the right of Shishapangma. Now we are in the Base Camp and wait for a good weather window. We had a good look at the possibility of the new route from the Advanced Base Camp. It now depends on the weather.

David Goettler (l.) and Hervé Barmasse (r.)

How are the conditions on the mountain?

The conditions don’t seem to be so bad. They were very good on the col. Hopefully, they are just as well in the South Face. Since we want to tackle the whole thing in Alpine style, we have not yet been there.

How do you both work as a team? How is your mood?

The atmosphere is awesome and positive. We are both happy that we could sleep so well and without problems at 6,900 meters. The route up and down was a great test for the South Face. We have a lot of fun, and it’s kind of special for us to be here so alone.

When will it get really serious with the new route?

That’s hard to say. We are in constant contact with Karl Gabl (an experienced meteorologist from Austria) and hope for an early weather window. At the moment it has finally got warmer (before we had minus 13 degrees Celsius in the tent in Base Camp), and there is only little wind – however, unpredictable cloudiness and precipitation. Not much, but for us unfortunately five centimeters of fresh snow and zero visibility are really bad. Here are no fixed ropes or path markings that show us the way. Therefore, a bit of fresh snow can quickly turn into a serious danger when you are climbing in a 2000-meter-high wall.

Shishapangma South Face

This wall has enthused him. The second spring in a row, the German professional climber David Goettler will try to open a new route through the South Face of the 8027-meter-high Shishapangma in Tibet. After his failed attempt in 2016 with the Swiss Ueli Steck, the 38-year-old is now on the road with Hervé Barmasse. The 39-year-old Italian is a very experienced climber who has made headlines in recent years, especially with new routes on his home mountain, the Matterhorn. Hervé has also succeeded spectacular first ascents in the Karakoram and in Patagonia. Barmasse has not yet scaled an eight-thousander. I got a hold of Goettler on the phone, just before his departure to the Himalayas, on the way to the airport.

David, you’re just on your way to Nepal. What is your feeling?

David Goettler

I am very, very positive and totally motivated. I think I have rarely invested so much time, training and preparation for an expedition. There could be a new route on an eight-thousander. I’ve been on Shishapangma South Face last year and know what it looks like there, and it’s absolutely possible. I feel quite tense, but in a very positive sense.

You trained intensively in the Khumbu area in February, along with Hervé Barmasse and Ueli Steck. Has this special pre-training in Nepal proven successful from your point of view?

Only when we are back from the Khumbu in two weeks, I’ll be able to say whether it really has paid off as we hope. But considering how I felt at home in the mountains around Chamonix at 4,000 meters, I can already say that I feel a very positive effect.

Barmasse, Steck, Tenji Sherpa and Goettler (from l. to r.)

You will spend two weeks in Nepal before you travel to Shishapangma in Tibet. What exactly are you planning to acclimatize?

We don’t want to spend such a training-intensive time as in February, when we really did a lot of mountain running. Instead, we seek to manage our resources a bit. But of course we will hike and climb. In February, we deposited our equipment in Chukhung [village at 4,730 meters in the Khumbu area]. There we will pitch up our “Base Camp”. From there we will definitely climb Island Peak [a technically relatively easy 6,180-meter-high mountain] again and cross the usual passes. But we will not do anything really challenging. We save this for Shishapangma.

Last year, you traveled to Shishapangma South Face along with Ueli Steck, now with Hervé Barmasse. The same geographical destination – also exactly the same sporting goal?

I want to realize last year’s idea to open a new route through the Shishapangma South Face now with Hervé. That’s our goal. In 2016, due to the unstable weather, it ended with two one-day attempts. I hope we will have more stable weather in Tibet this spring, so that we can seriously try to climb this new route – and hopefully succeed.

Steck and Goettler in Shishapangma South Face (in 2016)

You were speed climbing last year. Do you take more time now?

We can not be so fast on the new route. It is technical terrain, the key passage which you can recognize on pictures is quite far up. We plan to climb the wall within about three days. This means that we will have automatically no longer this high speed, because we need tent, sleeping bag, mat, cooker and food. This is a big millstone around our neck and makes us slower. It will not be possible to climb this technically challenging route and descend in one day.

Do you consider, as Ueli and you did last year, to traverse the summit and descent on the north side of Shishapangma?

We want to descend on the south side – also because I know two descend options from last year. This is much easier from the logistic point of view. A traverse is not our priority issue.

David on the Shishapangma ridge

Do you believe that your chances have increased because you’ve been there last year?

Definitely. For such challenging goals, you may have to invest two or three years to get to know the conditions better. I think, I now have a much better feel for the wall. I know exactly what awaits us there. This is mentally an advantage. In addition, I could train accordingly.

But you can not influence the weather.

Of course not. I always quarrel with it, because I invest so much in the preparation and try to eliminate all the uncertainties. But in the end, I’m going to engage with a game where I can not control many components, like the weather or the conditions. If such a thing happens like the earthquake in 2015, there’s nothing you can do.

The rules have not changed: No matter how well prepared or fit I am, in the end it depends on whether we get a weather window of three or four days to make a real attempt. On the one hand, I am a bit bothered by it, on the other hand it is exactly what defines expedition mountaineering, that you don’t have such a kind of certainty.

Herve Barmasse

You will be now on expedition with Hervé for the first time? Do you have good chemistry?

Yes. It’s just good to be en route with an Italian, because you always have fun. We are about the same age and we have many similarities in life. We’ve known each other for a long time, we’ve trained together. However, we’ve never done such a great thing like this before. But I have a great feeling. I think we work very well as a team. This will be very important this time. Besides Hervé and me, only a cook and a kitchen boy will be in Base Camp. It will be even lonelier than, for example, on Nanga Parbat in winter. I am already looking forward to experiencing this unfiltered, pure expedition feeling in such a small team.

Barmasse, Steck, Tenji Sherpa and Goettler (from l. to r.)

What a high-caliber training group! The Swiss Ueli Steck, the Nepalese Tenji Sherpa, the German David Goettler and the Italian Hervé Barmasse have been preparing themselves for their expeditions in spring in the village of Chukhung in the Everest region for ten days. Steck and Tenji Sherpa plan to traverse Mount Everest and Lhotse. No one has yet managed to do this without bottled oxygen. Goettler and Barmasse want to open a new route via the Shishapangma South Face in Tibet. In the course of the training, mountain running was at the focus. “I ran three times from Chukhung (4,730 meters) to Island Peak (6,180 meters),” writes Ueli. He had climbed and run a total of about 12,000 vertical meters over a distance of around 150 kilometers. “My body and my soul feel great,” says Steck. “I really enjoy being here in Nepal with such good friends. Just climb and run and nothing else.”

“Personal experiment”

Ueli (l.) and Tenji on the summit of Island Peak

Currently, the four climbers are continuing their training program in the area around Namche Bazaar, the 3,440-meter-high main village of the Khumbu region. They will then return to Europe for four weeks. An unusual form of preparation. “It is a personal experiment of us all,” answers David Goettler to my concerns that acclimatization effect could get lost in the meantime. “At home we want to sleep as often as possible as high as possible or to climb.  We are almost sure that it will lead to a faster acclimatization when we’ll return for our actual expeditions in April. We’ll see whether the plan works out.”

Hervé’s dream

Training for Shishapangma South Face

In spring 2016, David and Ueli had been stopped by bad weather in their attempt to open a new route via the Shishapangma South Face. “The South Face really fascinated me, and I just want to go back there,” writes Goettler. “Hopefully we will have better weather this year!” Due to his Everest-Lhotse project, Steck was not available as climbing partner this time, so David has teamed up with Hervé Barmasse. The 39-year-old is a very experienced climber who has made headlines in recent years especially with new routes on his home mountain, the Matterhorn. Hervé has also succeeded spectacular first ascents in the Karakoram and in Patagonia. Barmasse had two major surgeries last year. “He is back in the game,” writes David about the Italian, who has so far never stood on top of an eight-thousander. “It remains my dream to climb my first eight-thousander on a new route,” Hervé had told me in November 2012. This may not have changed.

Ueli Steck at the IMS in Bressanone

If “The Fast and the Furious” had been a film about climbers, Ueli Steck could have played the leading role. The Swiss is just extremely fast. The Eiger North Face in two hours and 22 minutes, the 82 four-thousanders of the Alps within 61 days, solo via the Annapurna South Face to the 8091-meter-high summit and back in 28 hours, through Shishapangma South Face within ten and a half hours – for good reason Ueli is nicknamed “The Swiss Machine”. As if he had a tuned engine inside like the cars in “The Fast and the Furious”. Just recently, Steck has returned from India. I met him at the International Mountain Summit (IMS) in Bressanone in South Tyrol and talked to him about his tendency to speed, about aging and his next plans.

Ueli, you just turned 40 years old and you were not at home. How did you spend your birthday?

I was climbing along with my wife on Shivling in India (a 6,543 meter-high extremely shapely and challenging mountain in the north of the country). It was a very nice trip and a proper celebration of my 40th birthday.

And you have given yourself a summit success?

Yes, we had great weather. Within seven days we were standing on top of Shivling. It was perfect.

There has just been a mountain drama on Shivling: Two Polish mountaineers died.

When I went to Bressanone today, my Indian liasion officer sent me the bad news via Whatsapp. I just thought: Not again! We were together in base camp, really nice guys. It’s just sad. You always ask yourself: Why? Greg (Grzegorz Kukurowski) died because he suffered from high altitude sickness. You think that is not necessary anymore. Why does this happen again and again? I find it sad, on the other hand it annoys me.

Steck on top of Eiger

Back to you. Aged 40, other people are getting slower. But I feel like you’re getting even faster.

At the moment it is still going uphill. (He laughs) You have to accept your age and not be sad that it is not like it was 15 years ago. I need a bit more rest, more time for recovery. But you can also see it positively: I have now more time to sit on the sofa. I think, age is just a matter of attitude.

You’ve always been fast on the road, but I feel like you’ve discovered speed in a new way.

I‘ve optimized it a bit and targeted my training on it. I know I can still put some peaks for the next four, five years.

Fast en route

Last spring, when you were trying to climb Shishapangma South Face via a new route along with German David Goettler, you both always seemed to be running fast. First you did it like crazy to acclimatize, and then you continued to run via the South Face.

We were always on the road. This is what I like. We said from the beginning: We want to climb and not to sit in Base Camp doing nothing. We wanted to move and have fun. And we succeeded in doing this.

You have carried equipment during your climb. Fast and light, this makes you more vulnerable.

You have to be careful. We were already on the summit plateau, bad weather was coming from behind, but there was still blue sky in the front. Then you can go ahead. But you know you have no margin. If you push forward and climb to the top, and then the storm comes and you have to bivouac, you are dead. Because you haven’t any suitable equipment. So you just have to be careful.

This is a topic that is on my mind. At the moment there is a trend to run with sneakers from the valley to the summit of Mont Blanc. People see it and think it always works. But you cannot go up there every day with sneakers. I think we need to sensitize people to this problem. When is it possible, when not, and when do you better turn around?

You have to be careful when climbing. It has now taken me and my wife seven days to climb Shivling. This is possible, but of course you are not fully acclimatized. You have to be aware that if you have headache and it’s getting worse, you have to go down. And if you do not, someone dies. You can be fast, light and efficient, but you have to be aware of the risks and dangers.

Ueli Steck on Annapurna South Face

Do you benefit from your great experience as an extreme climber, who has, after all, been able to celebrate his 40th birthday?

Logically, and I can play that out. Especially when I climb in high altitude. I have done so many expeditions, I know exactly where I am, what I have to do and how much I can push. But you also have to be able to turn around. There was no endless discussion on Shishapangma between David and me. We both have a lot of experience and know what it means if you go too far. Then you will not come back one day. If you have experienced so many times climbers dying, you are much more conscious of this than someone who does it for the first time and says: “It’s snowing, well. We’ll go on, we’re not softies!”

Will you now travel more frequently with your wife to the Himalayas?

We have already made a lot of nice expeditions together. Nobody knows that. We are on holiday. And our agreement is that I don’t make it public. We will continue to go together on expedition. As long as possible.

Ueli and Tenji (r.) on the summit of Everest in 2012

Are you telling me your next project?

I want to try again the Everest-Lhotse traverse.

I certainly don’t need to ask whether with or without bottled oxygen.

The project is not interesting with bottled oxygen at all.

Will you do it alone or with a partner?

The idea is to climb with Tenji Sherpa as a team of two. (He joined Steck during his climb of Everest without breathing mask in 2012. Tenji also accompanied Ueli in later expeditions in Nepal.)

Will you try to be successful early in the season to avoid the crowds on the route?

I am relatively relaxed. If you are a climber, you can also go up off the trail. Even at Hillary Step you can turn right if you want. I will not let me put under stress.

Ueli Steck and David Goettler in Shishapangma South Face

It was one of the most exciting climbing projects of this spring’s season in the Himalayas. Swiss top climber Ueli Steck and German David Goettler initially planned to open a new direct route through the South Face of 8,027-meter-high Shishapangma. But they were not able to put it into practice. They “only” climbed the so called “Corredor Girona” route, opened by a Spanish team in 1995, up to the ridge at 7,800 meters and in their last attempt the route of the British first-ascenders of the South Face in 1982, Doug Scott, Alex MacIntyre and Roger Baxter-Jones, up to 7,600 meters. Even though they failed to climb a new route, Ueli and David didn’t return empty-handed from Tibet. I called the 39-year-old Swiss and the 37-year-old German in their hotel in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu.

Satisfied, disappointed or some of both? How do you feel after this expedition?

Ueli Steck (l.) and David Goettler

(David) More satisfied. Of course, you think: If the weather and the conditions had been a bit more on our side, we certainly would have reached the summit. This is slightly shining through. But the more time passes, the more positive is our view on the expedition. We have learned a lot, we were constantly on the move, we were not sitting idle. Compared with other expeditions, we’ve done a lot.

Actually you had planned to climb a new route through Shishapangma South Face. What was the main reason that you failed?

(Ueli) If you want to make such a first ascent, you need stable weather for at least two to three days. But we just never had. If you try it nevertheless, maybe you are able to climb 300, 400 meters high but then you have to abseil again. Therefore, it was unrealistic. But you must be clear about it: If you want to make a first ascent on an eight-thousander, in such a wall, many things must fit together. You must also have the courage to go there more than once, to try again and again and wait for good fortune.

Windy South Face

When you were at the foot of the wall for the first time, you told me that the conditions were looking really good. When did you realize that it would not be possible?

(David) Actually until the end, the last weather window around 22 May, we had the option to start climbing the route, if there had been three or four days of good weather. To the end we had deposited all our climbing equipment in ABC (Advanced Base Camp). And til the end we believed it would be possible. When we were at the foot of the wall for the first time, the conditions looked really perfect. There was only too much wind and it was brutally cold. Towards the end of the expedition, before the last weather window, it proved to be just too unstable. Even Karl (Gabl, meteorologist from Austria), who provided us the weather reports, said he had never experienced such a wet and unstable pre-monsoon time in Tibet – on the side of the Himalayas, on which it is normally rather dry. So, actually this dream disappeared at the end.

At your last attempt, you chose the route of the British climbers who first climbed the South Wall. Had you already written off the new route at the time?

(Ueli) At the end the weather window lasted just only half a day. So the decision was clear to focus on the British route. At this time, we did not know whether we might stay longer. Theoretically, we could have waited for another weather window until the end of the month. But in the end it made no sense.

Difficult conditions

Quick and light – that was your tactics. What does it presuppose?

(Ueli) First of all, the basic fitness of both must be right, otherwise it’s impossible. If you are not trained enough to climb 2,000 meters high at this altitude and in this technical area, it is impossible. But you must also be willing to play the game uncompromisingly. There is no “Maybe I’ll take even a sleeping bag and a stove with me”, so that you could still bivouac. You have to be able to say: We don’t take anything with us, maybe it works or not. You must also be aware of how exposed you are. Both times we were forced to decide: Now we have to descend, otherwise it will be uncomfortable and dangerous. You are limited. You can not just wait and go to the summit the next day.

Except for you, no one was on the south side of Shishapangma. Did you enjoy the solitude?

(David) That was really one of the very special things on this eight-thousander expedition. The Base Camp lies on a meadow with a small lake in front of it, an awesome beautiful place. And we had it for ourselves. We also did not have this pressure when several teams are climbing the same route on a mountain, what can influence each other in their decisions and easily leads to more pressure. Being without all this, has been really luxury for both of us. We enjoyed it very much.

You have been together on the road for two months now. Under these circumstances it’s possible to jar on each other’s nerves. Did you ever have a kind of cabin fever?

David on the Shishapangma Ridge

(David) No, it was totally relaxed. We got on well because we work very similar in many ways, and because we were always on the move. On our rest days, Ueli bouldered, I did Yoga. So everyone let off steam. And then we went back to the mountain. There were almost no days when we were sitting idle so that a cabin fever could have occurred. For me, it was something new on an expedition to be always on the move. For Ueli it’s normal. But I think he enjoyed it too.

Have you postponed or canceled your project of a new route through Shishapangma South Face?

(Ueli) Never say never! If you want to do something like this, you must have the courage and accept that it is necessary to keep the ball and that it probably will not work the first time. I would rather say it is postponed.

Have you grown as a team so close that you say: We will do it once again?

(David) Yes, for my part. (Both laugh)
(Ueli) It was awesome. We were together on expedition for the first time, and it worked so brilliant. We will hopefully make many more expeditions together. I’ve rarely experienced that it worked so well with a partner and, moreover, both have the same attitude.

Alex Lowe in 1995 (l., with Conrad Anker)

Glaciers are constantly moving. And so they spit out one day what they once swallowed. Climate change, which makes glaciers melt faster, is speeding up the process. In recent years there have been more and more reports from around the world that bodies of dead climbers were discovered after many years. Whether on Mont Blanc, on the Matterhorn, on Mount Everest – or now on the eight-thousander Shishapangma in Tibet. The Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation announced that Swiss Ueli Steck and German David Goettler had discovered the bodies of two climbers in blue ice during their acclimatization for Shishapangma South Face. The melting glacier would release the corpses soon. The description of clothes and packs left no doubt that it was the bodies of Alex Lowe and David Bridges, it was said.

Pilgrimage to Shishapangma

Along with their compatriot Conrad Anker, the two Americans had been caught and buried in an avalanche in the South Face of Shishapangma on 5 October 1999. Only Anker had been able to free himself from the snow masses, badly injured. Lowe, at that time 40 years old and one of the best climbers in the world, had planned to ski down the South Face. Bridges had joined the team as a cameraman. Later Conrad Anker married Lowe’s widow Jennifer and adopted the three sons of the couple. “Conrad, the boys and I will make our pilgrimage to Shishapangma,” Jennifer Lowe-Anker said, after she had received Ueli’s and David’s message. “It is time to put Alex to rest.” And Anker added: “After 16 ½ years this brings closure and relief for me and Jenni and for our family.”