Xia auf der Everest-Südseite

In the fifth attempt, Xia Boyu made it. As Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, expedition leader and head of the Nepalese operator “Imagine Trek and Expedition”, wrote on Facebook, the 69-year-old Chinese was among 14 members of his team, who today reached the summit of Mount Everest at 8,850 meters. Among the summiteers was also Nima Jangmu Sherpa, the first Nepali woman to scale Everest and neighboring Lhotse in one season. She had also been part of the Mingma-led team that had succeeded the first eight-thousander summit success of the spring season on 29 April on Lhotse.

He never gave up

For Xia Boyu finally fulfilled his lifelong dream to stand on the roof of the world. At his first try in 1975, his team had got into bad weather about 250 meters below the summit. The Chinese climbers had to spend two days and three nights at an altitude of 8,600 meters at temperatures of minus 25 degrees Celsius. The following night, at 7,600 meters, Xia left his sleeping bag to a teammate who had got into serious trouble. He paid his selflessness with severe frostbite, both legs had to be amputated. Later, he also fell ill with lymph node cancer. But Xia did not give up his hope of reaching the top of Everest. He began climbing again with prostheses – and returned to Everest in 2014. Because of the avalanche disaster in Khumbu Icefall killing 16 climbers Xia had to return home then empty handed, as well as in 2015 after the devastating earthquake in Nepal. In spring 2016, Xia failed due to bad weather about 100 meters below the summit.

Rope fixing team from the north on the summit too

Nordseite des Mount Everest

On Sunday, eight Sherpas had succeeded the season’s first Everest summit success. They fixed the ropes to the highest point, clearing the way for the commercial expedition teams. Mingma’s team was the first one to follow them. Also on the Everest north side, the ropes are now fixed to the highest point. This is reported by the operator “Climbalaya”. The Nepalese boy scout Anish Luitel was part of the successful team, it said. The 26-year-old wanted to climb Everest on behalf of all Scouts worldwide. For Anish it was the second Everest summit success after 2016.

Summit success on Cho Oyu

Cho Oyu

Another successful ascent is reported from Cho Oyu, where the German expedition leader of the operator “Summit Climb”, Felix Berg, one of his clients and Dawa Jangbu Sherpa reached the summit. In the run-up Felix had written to me that they wanted to ascend without breathing masks. Just over a week ago, a team of the US operator Alpenglow Expeditions led by Adrian Ballinger had reached the highest point of Cho Oyu – with bottled oxygen.

Xia Boyu

The decision of the Supreme Court of Nepal to overrule the government’s new Everest rules has cleared the way for him: the double amputee Xia Boyu from China will tackle the highest mountain on earth this spring from the Nepalese south side. “Yes, we got his permit”, Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, head and expedition leader of the Nepalese operator “Imagine Trek and Expedition” writes to me. As reported, the Supreme Court in Kathmandu had rejected in early March the government’s new rule not to issue permits to double-amputee climbers and blind people as discriminating. Mingma Gyalje had shaken his head at the government’s decision: “There are a lot of disabled climbers who are more capable than non-disabled.”

Sleeping bag given to teammate

Xia on the Everest south side

For the 69-year-old Xia Boyu it is already the fifth attempt on Everest. At his first try in 1975, his team had got into bad weather about 250 meters below the summit. The Chinese climbers had to spend two days and three nights at an altitude of 8,600 meters at temperatures of minus 25 degrees Celsius. The following night, at 7,600 meters, Xia left his sleeping bag to a teammate who had got into serious trouble. He paid his selflessness with severe frostbite, both legs had to be amputated.

Narrowly failed in 2016

Later, he also fell ill with lymph node cancer. But Xia did not give up his hope of reaching the top of Everest. He began climbing again with prostheses – and returned to Everest in 2014. Because of the avalanche disaster in Khumbu Icefall killing 16 climbers Xia had to return home then empty handed, as well as in 2015 after the devastating earthquake in Nepal. In spring 2016, Xia failed due to bad weather about 100 meters below the summit. “If I was alone, due to my old age and the forty years I had fought for my dream, I might go up without considering the consequence”, said Xia Boyu in an interview with aponetv.cn. “But when I looked back, five Sherpas were looking at me. They have families. So I decided to retreat.”

Hari Budha Magar to Everest only in 2019

The double-leg amputee Hari Budha Magar had actually also planned to climb Everest this spring. However, the Nepalese postponed his plan for one year because of the new expedition rules in his home country. The 38-year-old had lost both legs above the knee as a soldier of the British Gurkha Regiment in a bomb blast in Afghanistan in 2010.