This Saturday marked the first summit day of this year’s spring season on Nepal’s eight-thousanders – and what a day it was. Summit successes were reported from three of these mountain giants, with the majority coming from Annapurna I in the western part of the country. After the four-member rope-fixing team from the operator Elite…
My “School Up” aid project in Nepal is entering its third phase. Thanks to your donations, we completed a new school in the village of Thulosirubari, northeast of Kathmandu, in 2019, and built another school in Rama, in the far west of Nepal, in 2024. Now, through my blog, I’m raising funds for a new…
I wish you all and your loved ones happy and peaceful Easter days. And the “Picasso of the Rhine” 😉 has once again put you an Easter riddle. Which mountain I have conjured on the egg? And these were my Easter riddle pictures so far:
The spring climbing season on Nepal’s highest mountains is slowly but surely gathering pace. According to its own figures, the Nepalese Tourism Departmend issued a total of 114 climbing permits for foreign expedition members in March. Among them were the first 18 permits for Mount Everest. There is great anticipation regarding how many people will…
The suspects’ names are new, but the scheme is not. Mountain guides persuade their clients to take a rescue helicopter ride due to a supposed emergency. The “patients” are transported to specific hospitals. The insurance companies bear the cost. The alleged rescue flights are sometimes billed multiple times, and doctors issue inflated bills. And the…
Mount Everest is now to be cleared of garbage at higher elevations as well. The Nepalese Ministry of Tourism has approved a proposal from the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC). Starting this season, the proposal requires climbers to carry down two kilograms of garbage – a quarter of the amount mandated for years -from areas…
It’s only official once it’s in the Nepal Gazette. You should always keep that in mind when you read about reforms in the Himalayan state. Because in Nepalese politics, ideas are often discussed aloud. The media then usually communicate them as if they were already a done deal. However, many proposals end up back in…
She is a strong woman. Anja Blacha reached the South Pole on skis, solo and without support. And she has already summited twelve of the 14 eight-thousanders, more than any other woman from Germany – and all of them without bottled oxygen. The 35-year-old has even stood on Mount Everest three times: in 2017 via…
He was part of the up-and-coming young generation of Pakistani mountaineers. “In the high mountains, making the right decision is crucial, but even more important is believing in yourself,” wrote Shah Doulat in summer 2024, after he had successfully led an expedition to an eight-thousander for the first time as the main person in charge…
No chance. “Biting cold and strong winds made it impossible to proceed,” said Sanu Sherpa, according to the Nepalese portal The Tourism Times. The rescue team led by Sanu returned from Camp IV at around 7,900 meters to the base camp at the foot of Makalu. The rescuers from the commercial expedition operators Makalu Adventure…
It’s a media spectacle – no question about it. When top US climber Alex Honnold free solos (climbing alone and without any safety equipment) the 509-meter-high Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan on Friday night/Saturday morning German time, and Netflix streams it live, Alexander Huber will probably be fast asleep. “Climbing Taipei 101 will not provide…
The line between triumph and tragedy can be very thin on eight-thousanders. Yesterday, Thursday, the second winter ascent of Makalu was celebrated; today, a Nepalese mountaineer who lost his life is being mourned. In addition, Iranian mountaineer Abolfazl Gozali is missing. At least, that is what the Nepalese portal “The Tourism Times” reports, citing unspecified…
“This morning, at 10:27, our client Abolfazl Gozali and his guide Sanu Sherpa reached the summit of Mount Makalu (8,485 m),” reported Nepalese expedition operator Makalu Adventure on Facebook. Indian client Piyali Basak felt unwell at Camp 3 and returned to base camp, it said. The successful summit team is expected to return there tomorrow,…
“If you have a dream and dedicate yourself and never give up, you can achieve anything – whatever life throws at you.” With these words, Hari Budha Magar commented on Instagram about his ascent of the 4,892-meter-high Mount Vinson in Antarctica. The Nepalese mountaineer, who has had both legs amputated, has thus completed his collection…
Second attempt: A team from the commercial Nepalese expedition operator Makalu Adventure is making another attempt this winter to take Iranian mountaineer Abolfazl Gozali to the 8,485-meter-high Makalu – with bottled oxygen. As Gozali revealed yesterday in an Instagram story, the team fixed the ropes up to an altitude of 6,000 meters and transported equipment…
