North side of Everest in the last daylight

If a mountain could breathe a sight of relief, Mount Everest would probably do it now. A total of more than 1,000 climbers on both sides of the highest mountain on earth have left the base camps and have returned home. There is silence again on Chomolungma, as the Sherpas call the mountain. Time to take stock. The exact figures are not yet available, but this spring some 600 summit successes have been recorded, increasing the number since the first ascent in 1953 to more than 8000.

Discussion about Jornet’s double ascent

Kilian Jornet on Everest

The most spectacular performance was made by the Spaniard Kilian Jornet, who climbed up to the summit twice within a week without the use of bottled oxygen. He set off for his first ascent from Rongbuk Monastery and climbed in a single push to the highest point, with only a short stopover in the Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at 6,400 meters. Only 38 hours after his departure from the Monastery he returned to ABC. A few days later he made his second ascent. This time it took him 17 hours from ABC to the summit at 8,850 meters. Afterwards, discussion arose because the 29-year-old did not present summit pictures or GPS data to document his ascents. Jornet promised to publish the data of his GPS clock. Already in 2007, Pemba Dorje Sherpa had made an Everest double ascent without breathing mask within a week.

Three eight-thousanders in five days?

Nirmal Purja

Nirmal Purja, a soldier of the British Gurkha regiment, also climbed Everest twice this spring, albeit with the use of bottled oxygen: on 15 and 27 May. Eight hours after his second summit success on Everest, the 34-year-old stood on top of Lhotse – and on 1 June he reached the summit of Makalu. Three eight-thousanders in five days? According to the Nepali Ministry of Tourism, the information is still being examined.

Kuriki wants to return

Overall, there were at least five successful Everest ascents without supplemental oxygen this season, possibly even nine: According to Indian media reports, four members of an Indian army expedition reached the summit without bottled oxygen. Other mountaineers failed, like the German Ralf Dujmovits in his eighth and, according to his own words, “definitely last” Everest attempt without breathing mask. The Japanese Nobukazu Kuriki also returned without summit success – from his now seventh attempt. He had wanted to climb via the West Ridge and the Hornbein Couloir to the summit. “I’ll be back,” the 34-year-old said.

Seven deaths

A total of seven people did not return from Everest this spring. Six climbers and a base camp cook died. Above all, the death of the Swiss top climber Ueli Steck made headlines all over the world. The 40-year-old fell to death during an acclimatization climb on Nuptse. A report on four dead climbers found in a tent on the South Col proved to be a hoax.

For the 21st time on top of Everest

Kami Rita Sherpa on the summit

Two records were achieved by Sherpas. The 46-year-old Kami Rita Sherpa from the village of Thame in the Khumbu area summited Everest for the 21st time. So he closed the gap on Apa Sherpa (also born in Thame), and Phurba Tashi Sherpa from the village of Kumjung, who have also 21 ascents under their belts. Lhakpa Sherpa had already been the woman with the most Everest ascents before this season. The 43-year-old Nepalese, who lives in the USA, bettered her own record to eight summit successes now.

Anything else? As the second blind climber after the American Erik Weihenmayer, the 50 year-old Austrian Andy Holzer reached the summit of Everest. The 26-year-old British Mollie Hughes was ranked number 15 in the circle of female climbers who summited the highest mountain on earth from both the north and the south side.

10-year ban for mountaineers without a permit

The fact that morality on Everest is not exactly the best was proved again this season. Some climbers missed oxygen bottles, which they had previously deposited in high camps and obviously had been stolen. The South African Ryan Sean Davy was caught on the south side trying to climb the highest mountain without a permit. The Pole Janusz Adamski, who climbed from the north to the summit and then descended via the southern route, had no permit for the Nepali side too. Both of them were banned from mountaineering in Nepal for the next ten years. The actually due fine of $ 22,000 was not imposed in both cases. Why, remained open.

Where is the Hillary Step?

Has the Hillary Step gone?

There has also been much talk about this spring’s weather on Everest, which according to meteorologists was as difficult to predict as never before. And, of course, about the Hillary Step, which – in the opinion of the six-time Everest summiter Tim Mosedale – is no more. Sherpas contradicted, and the Nepalese government said: “The Hillary Step is still intact and is covered with snow.” Last year too, there had been speculation as to whether the striking rock formati

Manaslu in Nepal

It’s show time in the Himalayas. After all climbers should have completed their acclimatization on the eight-thousanders, the first summit successes have been reported. Yesterday Romanian Horia Colibasanu and Slovak Peter Hamor reached the 8163-meter-high summit of Manaslu via the normal route on the northeast side – without bottled oxygen and Sherpa support. Actually this ascent was only for acclimatization. The two plan to climb the mountain a second time, on a new “long and difficult route” (Colibasanu) on the north side of the mountain.

Nepalese south side of Cho Oyu

Without breathing mask

The first summit successes were also reported from Cho Oyu in Tibet. According to the expedition operator Summit Climb, Lhakpa Gelbu Sherpa and American David Roeske reached the highest point on 8,188 meters on Sunday, without bottled oxygen.

First attempt abandoned

On Shishapangma, Swiss Ueli Steck and German David Goettler have abandoned their first attempt to climb a new route through the South Face. “We are back in basecamp. Weather was not what we expected”, Ueli writes on Facebook. “The season is not finished yet. We are still motivated and we keep trying!”

Slovaks on Everest are safe

On Mount Everest, two narrow good weather windows for summit attempts are emerging: between 14 and 16 May and on 19 and 20 May. Several teams on the south side want to take the very first chance. Meanwhile, the two Slovakian climbers Zoltan Pál and Vladimir Štrba are safe again. As reported, the duo had been caught by an avalanche during their attempt to climb through the difficult Southwest Face. Pál was injured in his eye. The rescue team managed to bring them back to Camp 2, from where they were flown by helicopter to Kathmandu today.

Update, 4 p.m.: According to Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA,) today nine Sherpas of the rope-fixing team reached the summit of Everest from the Nepalese side of the mountain.

Steck, Welsted, Slawinski (f.l.t.r)

This year’s jury of the Piolet’s d’Or has given the “Oscar of mountaineering” to two teams. The jury lead by the former US top climber George Lowe awarded “two very different ascents to represent the spirit of modern mountaineering”, as the members said. The Golden Ice Axes go to the Canadians Raphael Slawinski and Ian Welsted for their first ascent of the 7040-meter-high K 6 West in Karakoram on a new route via the Northwest Face and to the Swiss climber Ueli Steck for his solo ascent via the South Face of the eight-thousander Annapurna in Nepal. The awards were given to the climbers during a gala in Courmayeur in Italy at the foot of Mont Blanc on Saturday evening.

Do not paint with the same brush!

K 6 West

“Raphael Slawinski and Ian Welsted were confronted with difficult technical climbing including an overhanging ice crux”, the jury said. “On the fourth day they realized they couldn’t continue on the ridge as it turned out to be a knife edge of smooth granite. After careful consideration they found another possibility, rappelling to a glacial bench on the south side and climbing back up the ridge above the unclimbable section to continue to the summit.” Moreover the jury described the Canadian expedition as being “a wonderful example of consideration of the welfare of the local people”, because the two climbers had continued their project in Pakistan despite the murder attack on Nanga Parbat. “Ian and Raphael want to encourage other mountaineers not to paint all Pakistanis with the same brush.”

Accepted great risk

Ueli on Annapurna

The other winner of the Piolet d’Or 2014 was the outstanding favorite. Ueli Steck was awarded for his marvellous solo climb via the South Face of Annapurna. The Swiss  completed the difficult route which Pierre Béghin and Jean-Christophe Lafaille had opened up to 7300 meters in 1992. Bad weather had forced the French to return. During the descent Béghin had fallen to death. Ueli Steck climbed through the night and needed only 28 hours for his ascent and descent. “In soloing the south face of Annapurna Ueli Steck accepted great risk”, tells the jury. “For 28 hours he maintained absolute concentration, knowing that one false step would cause his demise. Ueli described himself as climbing very close to his limit.”

State of the art

John Roskelley

Both projects were “representative examples of the state of the art of mountaineering today”, the Piolet d’Or jury summarized and in addition gave a “special mention” to the French climbers Stephane Benoist and Yannick Graziani. They had repeated Uelis Route via the Annapurna South Face only two weeks later, but under more difficult conditions. The jury also praised the three other nominated expeditions: the Czech climbers Zdenek Hrudy and Marek Holecek who climbed firstly via the North Face of Talung (7439 m) in India (Hrudy later died on Gasherbrum I), the Austrian brothers Hansjoerg and Matthias Auer und the Swiss Simon Anthamatten, who summited Kungyang Chhish East (7400m) in Pakistan for the first time and – last but not least – the US climber Mark Allen and Graham Zimmerman from New Zealand who climbed firstly via the North Face and the North Ridge of Mount Laurens (3052 m) in Alaska. “All the nominations should be celebrated as representing the highest ethical ideals of mountaineering”, said the jury. This also applies for the former US top climber John Roskelley who was awarded with a lifetime Piolet d’Or.

The jury itself is also worthy of applause, because the members did their job. Last year’s jury had awarded all six nominated expeditions. That really should remain the exception.

Update 31.3.: Hansjoerg Auer has complained bitterly about the jury. “If a member of the Piolet d’Or Jury sees it critically why my brother Matthias never reported about his climbs until now, it´s time to change something”, wrote Hansjoerg on Facebook. “This is only one sign of how superficially they were dealing with our adventure on Piolet d’Or.” Only George Lowe and Catherine Destivelle had  understood the challenge of climbing Kunyang Chhish East, meant the Austrian: “But the teardrops of George and Catherine, when they apologized to us for the final decision are meaning a way more than the headlines of the newspapers tomorrow.”

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. 

Namasté, Chomo! Stefan speaking.

Oh no, you again.

Take it easy!I haven’t woken you up from your hibernation, have I?

Look at your calendar! Pre-season. I’m still on vacation.

Do you look forward at least a little bit to the climbers who will visit you in this jubilee season during which the 60th anniversary of the first ascent will be celebrated?

Do you really want me to answer honestly?

Yes, please.

If it was up to me, at least 90 percent of them could go to hell. Nevertheless they will come. Without my invitation.

In this case ten percent remain for you to welcome.

You don’t listen. I said at least 90 percent. But between you and me: Indeed I look forward to a few of the climbers.

For example?

Simone Moro from Italy and Ueli Steck from Switzerland, the Kazakh-Russian Team Denis Urubko/Alexej Bolotov and the Russians Gleb Sokolov und Alexander Kirikov. They will scratch me, where I feel itchy.

Please, explain it to me!

Have you ever heard of RSI?

Should I?

RSI stands for Repetitive Strain Injury. Someone who is always doing the same move, e.g. mousing, will sometime feel pain in his shoulders, neck, arm or hand.

And what has all this got do with you?

(He groans) For lunkheads like you: Year after year hundreds of people are crowding around on the two normal routes, that’s completely overusing. It really hurts. And where nobody is climbing, that is on my beautiful steep walls, I feel itchy. A withdrawal symptom. The opposite of RSI.

I understand: Climbers on new routes offer relief.

No shit, Sherlock! If Urubko and Bolotov climb on southwest face, Sokolov and Kirikov on east face and Moro and Steck whereever but on a new route, they are like a yaktail I can use for chasing the flies away.

That comparison falls short, because these top climbers may scratch your unattended areas, but won’t make you get rid of RSI.

For this I have my own yaktail.

But you don’t even want to …

Come on, don’t give me ethics!

But can you turn a blind eye this jubilee season at least?

My eye has been closed for years.

Why?

Because the blowflies are sitting on it.

Does it mean that you threaten them?

I am only a mountain, do you remember?