Route of the Spaniards on Gasherbrum II (blue)

Once again the weather in the Karakorum is a grab bag. “We are all still at Base Camp with the same 4 seasons in one day, sun, cloud, rain, snow, wind,” the New Zealand expedition leader Russell Brice wrote this week from K 2, the second highest mountain on earth. About 20 kilometers as the crow flies from there, Alberto Inurrategi, Juan Vallejo and Mikel Zabalza regardless of the freak weather started their ambitious attempt to traverse Gasherbrum I and II in Alpine style without descending to the base camp – 33 years after Reinhold Messner’s and Hans Kammerlander’s pioneering on these two eight-thousanders which has not yet been repeated to date.

Too strong wind

Originally, the Spaniards had planned to climb G I and then G II, in reverse order to the way of the two South Tyroleans in 1984. However, too much fresh snow on G I and expected strong winds on this mountain forced them to replan. The trio decided to tackle G II first, as Messner and Kammerlander had done, but on the route of the two Poles Jerzy Kukuczka and Wojciech Kurtyka from 1983 via the East Ridge. Today they turned around there at about 7,100 meters and descended, as their GPS tracker showed. “The ridge was too risky due to the intense wind, “ their team confirmed on Facebook.

Strong team

Vallejo, Zabalza, Innurategi (from l. to r.)

The three Spaniards are a well-coordinated and highly experienced team. In 2002, Alberto Inurrategi, today aged 48, was the tenth climber who completed his collection of the 14 eight-thousanders and the fourth who did it without bottled oxygen. He scaled twelve eight-thousanders along with his older brother Felix, who died in an accident during the descend from Gasherbrum II in 2000. Juan Vallejo, 47 years old, has climbed nine of the 14 eight-thousanders. Mikel Zabalza, aged 47 too, reached the summits of K 2 in 2004 and Manaslu in 2008. As a trio, Alberto, Juan and Mikel opened a new route to the 8011-meter-high Central Summit of Broad Peak in 2010. The Main Summit is 40 meters higher. However, they also failed with some of their ambitious projects, for example on the Makalu West Pillar (in spring 2009), in the Hornbein Couloir on Mount Everest (in fall 2009) or also in the summer of 2016, when they first tried to traverse Gasherbrum I and II.

Tamara Lunger (l.) and Simone Moro

“It’s a wonderful project,” says Simone Moro. “It’s the highest traverse possible on the planet.” Via Facebook live from Kathmandu, the 49-year-old Italian and his 30-year-old South Tyrolean climbing partner Tamara Lunger yesterday revealed the secret of their new project. And that’s really a tough job. This spring, Simone and Tamara want to traverse the four summits of the Kangchenjunga massif which are higher than 8,000 meters: from the West Summit (8,505 meters) to the Main Summit (8,586 meters), then across the Central Summit  (8,473 meters) to the South Summit (8,476 meters). The whole thing in Alpine style, means without high camps, without Sherpa support and without bottled oxygen. In 1989 a Russian expedition had succeeded the traverse for the first time, however, using breathing masks.

Memory of Boukreev

With the project he also wants to remember his “best friend and climbing partner” Anatoli Boukreev, says Moro. 25 December 2017 will be the 20th anniversary of Boukreev’s death day, during a winter expedition with Simone on Annapurna in 1997. Eight years previously, the Russian top climber had belonged to the successful team on Kangchenjunga, but after the ascent of the first summit he had been urged by his expedition leader to use bottled oxygen. “Anatoli told me that maybe one day it might be possible to climb all four peaks without oxygen,” recalls Simone.

Five and a half kilometers

West, Main, Central and South Summit of Kangchenjunga (from left to right)

Moro and Lunger want to open a new route through the flank of the 7,902 meter high Kangbachen to the ridge and then to the top of the 8,505-meter-high Yalung Kang, the western summit of the massif. “Honestly speaking, this could be already a huge project,” says Simone. “We could also close our aim if we will be able to open a new route in Alpine style to the summit of Yalung Kang and come back. We could celebrate. But we decided to let the game open.” The two climbers estimate that they will need at least three days to cross the five and a half kilometer long ridge, permanently higher than 8,200 meters. “The project is really cutting edge, really,really, really difficult. Let’s see what we will be able to do”, says Moro.

Determined and able to dream

Especially since Tamara Lunger is still suffering from the consequences of a shoulder injury, which she suffered during skiing. But the South Tyrolean has often proved that she can fight. Tamara would really deserve a success on Kangchenjunga, the third-highest mountain on earth, because she had to turn around on Nanga Parbat just below the summit at the end of February 2016. Simone Moro, Alex Txikon and Muhammad Ali (also called “Ali Sadpara”) had reached the highest point without her and thus succeeded the first winter ascent of this eight-thousander. “All training and planning in the world can not prepare you fully for an adventure like this,” says Tamara about her “Kangchenjunga Skyline Expediton” with Moro. “But Simone and I have the determination and the ability to dream needed to complete it.”

Ueli Steck

The experience on Mount Everest in spring 2013 has changed Ueli Steck. “The moment when I realized that the Sherpas wanted to kill me, a world came crashing in,” the 40-year-old Swiss top climber wrote in his new book “The Next Step”. “After that, my look at the world was a different one. I withdrew because I did not trust anyone anymore.” In spring 2017, Ueli will return to Everest – to try to traverse the highest mountain on earth and the 8,516-meter-high Lhotse. I talked to Steck about Everest.

Ueli, what does Mount Everest mean for you personally?

Everest is the highest mountain in the world. If high altitude climbing is your thing, it is, with an altitude of 8,848 meters, a dimension of its own and therefore the most interesting and exciting mountain.

Everest, Lhotse and Makalu (from l.)

In 2013, you had – as you describe in your new book – a traumatic experience, when a Sherpa mob seeked to kill you. Do you feel that you have come to terms with this story?

Come to terms? Such things shape you for your whole life. I’ll always carry it with me. But I think I can handle it now. The story has found a place in me.

Did you draw lessons from this incident for your visit next spring?

For sure. I have talked to many people. You can meet bad people all over the world, you just have to accept that. This also applies to Everest.

Do you believe that you will be able to avoid such conflicts in the future?

I think I’ll distance myself much more. This is the only solution. But there are also many good Sherpas or other good locals and only a few odd people. You just have to avoid these people. It’s like being in a big city, where you also have to ensure that you don’t enter the wrong district.

Ueli at the IMS in Bressanone

You want to do the Everest-Lhotse traverse – climbing up the West Shoulder, as already planned in 2013?

This would, of course, be the most beautiful, the perfect option. It’s my big dream if it works that way. But we have to look at the conditions. You can not say yet how they will be. Maybe I have to do the traverse via the normal route, and then, only in the next step, via the West Shoulder. I see that very realistically.

You will climb with Tenji Sherpa, with whom you have been traveling a lot, i.a. in 2012 on Everest. Is he as a climber the equal of you?

As a climbing partner certainly not, but surely as a high-altitude mountaineer, because he tolerates the great height. For a partner, it is not just a question of how good he is. It’s also very important that the team works. For me, it’s also a big part of the project to climb together.

But if you pick up pace, many others can not keep up with you.

Sure. If it does not work, it’s just like it is. But it can also tilt to the other side, in the sense that I am tired and someone else climbs on.

After the successful 2016 season, Everest Base Camp as well as the normal route will probably be crowded again in 2017. Is this a problem for you?

If you’re a good climber, you’ll just climb off the track. This is absolutely no topic for me.

Training with David Goettler on Aiguille Verte

How do you train for Everest?

I have already increased the volume considerably. I have some ideas on how I can train differently, also in terms of altitude training so that it becomes possible. So far, no one has ever been able to traverse Everest and Lhotse without supplemental oxygen. It’s a big challenge. I believe that I am able to do this, but I have to be prepared optimally. I am climbing many vertical meters, so my body is getting used to it.

You have already scaled Everest without bottled oxygen in 2012. Thus you know that you are able to handle the altitude. Does this knowledge help you?

Yes sure. That’s what I have just said. If I am on Everest and realize, hej, it’s a too big challenge to climb via the west flank and traverse the summit, I will try it first via the normal route. In climbing you have to do it step by step and you must be realistic. It’s crucial to accumulate knowledge so that things become quite normal.

Last question: What will you do at Christmas?

I’ll spend Christmas with my and Nicole’s family (Nicole is Ueli’s wife). And then we’ll go climbing for a few days.

Manaslu (l.) and Pinnacle East (r.)

The cat is out of the bag. Simone Moro has revealed his Himalayan winter project: The 47-year-old Italian wants to climb Manaslu in Nepal, with 8,163 meters the eight highest mountain in the world. Not via the normal route, but with the detour via the upstream 7992-meter-high Pinnacle East. The Polish climbers Jerzy Kukuczka and Artur Hajzer were the first climbers who succeeded in climbing this spectacular traverse in November 1986, i.e. in fall. The first winter ascent of Manaslu – without traverse – was also made by Polish climbers: Maciej Berbeka and Ryszard Gajewski reached the summit in January 1984. Simone Moro will not travel alone to Manaslu within the next few days.

With Tamara Lunger

Tamara Lunger

He will be accompanied by 28-year-old South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger. In 2010 she became the youngest woman who ever climbed the 8516-meter-high Lhotse – with bottled oxygen. Without breathing mask, Tamara stood on top of K 2 (8611m), the second highest mountain in the world, on 26 July 2014. “Tamara is physically very strong. And now she has also the necessary experience on the highest mountains”, says Simone Moro, who was a mentor for the young mountaineer in recent years. Tamara is looking forward to the common winter project in Nepal: “It was one of my dreams, I immediately accepted. It will be hard, it will be cold. But I love to fight my way through. I’m ready.”