November 2024 - Adventure Mountain

30. November 202430. November 2024

Dawa Yangzum Sherpa: “14 peaks not important as a record”

Dawa Yangzum Sherpa on the summit of Shishapangma

Anyone who regularly reads my blog knows that I have a very distanced relationship with supposed “records” in mountaineering. I make an exception for Dawa Yangzum Sherpa, because she is a true pioneer of women’s mountaineering. For more than a decade, she has been campaigning for women in her home country of Nepal to be given the opportunity to climb mountains and earn a living there. On 9 October, Dawa Yangzum summited the 8,027-meter-high Shishapangma in Tibet, becoming the first woman from Nepal to have saled all 14 eight-thousanders.

First Asian woman with an international mountain guide certificate

The Sherpani, who grew up with three brothers and two sisters in a small mountain village in the Rolwaling Valley, had already set milestones before. In 2014, she reached the summit of K2 with her compatriots Maya Sherpa and Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita. They were the first women from Nepal to scale the second highest mountain on earth. In 2017, Dawa Yangzum became the first woman in Asia to receive an international mountain guide certificate and has been working regularly as a mountain guide ever since, among others on Mount Everest.

Since 2020, she has been offering climbing courses for young Nepalese women in the Khumbu region. She herself has lived in Boulder in the USA for years and works for the expedition operator Alpine Ascents International. The 34-year-old Nepalese answered my questions.

Dawa Yangzum, first of all, congratulations on completing your collection of eight-thousanders. Would you highlight one of the 14 ascents in particular?

29. November 202429. November 2024

“School up – far west” successfully completed

Thank you! The most important words belongs at the beginning. “All the construction work has been completed,” Nepalhilfe Beilngries lets me know. The school in the village of Rama in the Humla District in the far west of Nepal has been completed.

Around 350 children from Rama and the surrounding hamlets in the municipality of Tanjakot now have a safe roof over their heads as they study, hopefully giving them a good foundation for their future lives. Nepalhilfe Beilngries had two school buildings built on a mountainside at an altitude of around 2,600 meters – with a total of twelve classrooms, a kitchen block and separate toilets for girls and boys. The construction was made possible by your donations for “School up – far west”!

14. November 202414. November 2024

Farewell on Putha Hiunchuli: Alix von Melle scatters the ashes of her husband Luis Stitzinger

At the summit of Putha Hiunchuli, Alix von Melle leaves Luis' ashes to the wind — At the summit of Putha Hiunchuli, Alix von Melle leaves Luis’ ashes to the wind

I often think about Luis Stitzinger these days. Now that his widow Alix von Melle has spread his ashes on the 7,246-meter-high Putha Hiunchuli in western Nepal. The same place where I first attempted a seven-thousander in 2011 – in vain, I had to turn back at 7,150 meters. Alix’s expedition leader on Putha Hiunchuli was now the Austrian Herbert Wolf – as he was for me 13 years ago.

And with Eva-Maria Ramsebner, from Austria too, there was also someone en route from the team with whom I was able to celebrate the first ascent of the 7,129-meter-high Kokodak Dome in western China in 2014. Expedition leader at the time: Luis Stitzinger. So many interfaces – no wonder I remember him so often these days.

6. November 20246. November 2024

Piolet d’Or posthumously awarded to Japanese mountaineers Hiraide and Nakjima

For the second time in five years, the Piolet d’ Or will be awarded posthumously to two mountaineers. As announced by the jury, the late Japanese climbers Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima are among this year’s winners. They will be awarded the “Oscar of Mountaineering” for their first ascent of the North face of Tirich Mir in summer 2023. The 7708-meter-high Tirich Mir is the highest mountain in the Hindu Kush. The jury emphasized that the Japanese had almost no prior information about the remote North Face. It was a “splendid traverse of a high-altitude mountain”, it said.

5. November 20245. November 2024

Summit attempt of the Russian Cho Oyu expedition abandoned

View from the East Ridge at around 7,300 meters towards the summit of Cho Oyu

“We have decided to go down. We can’t get to the night camp behind the hollow (on the summit ridge) in one day. We have neither the time nor the strength to make it. Today we’ll collect the equipment. Tomorrow – down.” With these words, the Russian mountaineer Andrej Vasiliev announced to the portal mountain.ru the end of the summit attempt on the Nepalese side of the 8,188-meter-high Cho Oyu.

Vasiliev and his compatriots Vitaly Shipilov, Kirill Eizeman and Sergei Kondrashin turned back on the summit ridge at an altitude of around 8,000 meters. They had previously reported deep snow on the route. It was their fourth unsuccessful attempt since the start of their expedition at the end of September, which is now likely to be over.

3. November 20247. November 2024

Death on Langtang Lirung: Mourning for Slovakian mountaineer Ondrej Huserka

The small spark of hope that the Slovakian climber Ondrej Huse r ka could be rescued alive from a crevasse on the 7,227-meter-high Langtang Lirung in Nepal has been extinguished. His Czech climbing partner Marek Holecek reported on Facebook that Ondrej died in his arms after falling into a crevasse on the descent on Thursday.

“I was rappelling down from (an) Abalakov thread. Ondra rappelled after me. What held fine for me proved fatal for him. (The) Abalakov thread cracked, and he fell into an ice crevasse. First, he hit an angled surface after an eight-meter drop, then continued down a labyrinth into the depths of the glacier. I rappelled down to him and stayed with him for four hours until his light faded. There’s nothing more to add.”

2. November 20242. November 2024

Drama on Langtang Lirung: Concern for Slovakian climber Ondrej Huserka

There is a fine line between triumph and tragedy on the world’s highest mountains. Three days after the news of the first ascent of the extremely challenging East Face of the seven-thousander Langtang Lirung in Nepal by the Czech Marek Holecek and the Slovak Ondrej Huserka, there is bad news: Ondrej fell into a crevasse on the descent two days ago, reports Slovakian mountaineer Eva Milovka, who is part of Huserka’s home team, on Facebook.

“His partner – Marek Holecek – was not able to recover him and after shouting to him and hearing no response, he assessed that Ondrej is dead and descended alone to the base camp. Yesterday was a helicopter rescue flight and nobody was willing to descent onto to glacier due to some objective dangers of the place. We have hope that Ondrej is still alive.”