I wish you all a Merry Christmas. Enjoy the days with your loved ones!
Moro and Txikon to Manaslu – and Göttler and Barmasse?
That Simone Moro and Alex Txikon celebrate Christmas at home is rather rare. This year is no exception. The 55-year-old Italian and the 41-year-old Spaniard, who always climb without bottled oxygen in their projects, are proven specialists for winter expeditions. Alex has been in Nepal for some time, and now Simone has also arrived in the Himalayan state. Both want to try for the third winter in a row to climb the 8,163-meter-high Manaslu in western Nepal.
In the past two winters, their attempts had failed due to large snow masses on the eighth highest mountain on earth. Moro fears déjà vu. “The weather here has been fantastic for the last two months,” Simone said after arriving in Kathmandu. “I’m worried about that because it’s repeating the script that until Christmas it’s beautiful and then when the mountaineering winter starts, the astronomical winter, the conditions change.”
Continue reading “Moro and Txikon to Manaslu – and Göttler and Barmasse?”The good avalanche
“It was very emotional,” Matthias Baumann tells me. In November, the chief physician from Tübingen was in Nepal with his family. It was a trip of three generations: Along for the ride were his life partner Eva, their joint two-year-old son and Matthias’ parents, 82 and 78 years old. The family trip took the Baumanns to Phakding in the Khumbu region, where the “Himalayan Sherpa Hospital” was inaugurated after five years of construction. Even state president Bidhya Devi Bhandari was present to cut the ribbon on the front door of the new clinic. “This was special for the people of Khumbu,” Matthias says. “It’s not too often that they get a visit from the head of state there.”
Continue reading “The good avalanche”School up – far west: “Encourage us even more to fulfill our dreams!”
“Everyone has the right to education.” What is written in the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” adopted by the United Nations on 10 December 1948, also applies to Niruta Hamal, Puspa Raj Shahi and Khom Bahadur Shahi 74 years later. The three teenagers live in the small village of Rama, in Humla District, far in the west of Nepal. And like all children and young people, they have dreams for their lives. Dreams that will probably be shattered without education. Thanks to “School up – far west“, two new school buildings are now being built in their village with your donations.
“Previously, we had a thatched hut with clumsy dark rooms,” says 13-year-old Niruta, who is in fifth grade. “In the past, during the months of June and July, whenever there was thunder and wind, we had to carry our bags and return home due to fear. After building this concrete structure, we hope to regularize our classes and enjoying reading.” Niruta is especially excited about the new separate toilet for girls “that saves our time for study instead of going far distance in bushes”.
Continue reading “School up – far west: “Encourage us even more to fulfill our dreams!””