July 2025 - Adventure Mountain

12. July 202516. July 2025

Denis Urubko and Maria Cardell report: New route on Nanga Parbat

The Diamir sde fo Nanga Parbat — The Diamir side of Nanga Parbat

“On 10 July at 11:30 a.m. local time, we stood on the summit of Nanga Parbat after climbing it via a new route in alpine style,” Denis Urubko wrote yesterday to the Russian mountaineering portal mountain.ru. “Maria and I are happy.”

Urubko and his Spanish wife Maria “Pipi” Cardell had already travelled to Pakistan at the beginning of June to acclimatize for their project on the 8,125-meter-high Nanga Parbat. Their goal: a new route through the Diamir Face, the western flank of the ninth highest mountain on earth. In alpine style, i.e. without bottled oxygen, without fixed ropes, without fixed high camps and without high altitude porters.

9. July 20259. July 2025

Dry, drier, Karakoram

The eight-thousander Broad Peak in Pakistan (in 2004)

“Two days ago, above base camp, Ismail Akbarov from Azerbaijan was hit by a stone. This was his first ascent, and it also marked the end of his expedition. The impact damaged his tibia so that he had to be flown by helicopter to Skardu,” wrote Lukasz Supergan from Poland, who is attempting the 8,051-meter-high Broad Peak in the Karakoram in Pakistan this summer, on Instagram yesterday. He himself decided to start in the middle of the night rather than in the morning so as not to kick rocks loose and endanger those climbing below him.

Not only from Broad Peak, but also frp, neighboring K2 and the other eight-thousanders in Pakistan, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II and Nanga Parbat, exceptionally dry conditions on the mountain are currently reported, accompanied by an increased risk of falling rocks. The usual precipitation has largely failed to materialize so far. Nevertheless, light snowfall is expected in the Karakoram in the coming days.

4. July 20254. July 2025

Klara Kolouchova dies on Nanga Parbat – Horia Colibasanu reaches the summit without breathing mask

Klara Kolouchova (2019 on K2) — Klara Kolouchova (1978-2025)

Mourning for Klara Kolouchova. The 46-year-old Czech woman fell to her death on Nanga Parbat on Thursday. “An experienced mountaineer, she fell while descending above Camp 2. She was accompanied by her Sherpa, Taraman Tamang, when she slipped on a rocky section of the mountain,” the Nepalese expedition operator Seven Summit Treks (SST) announced on Instagram.

Kolouchova was the first Czech woman to scale the three highest mountains in the world, Mount Everest (in 2007), K2 (2019) and Kangchenjunga (2019) – in commercial teams, with bottled oxygen. She has also stood on the summits of the eight-thousanders Cho Oyu (2006) and Annapurna I (2024).

Last summer, she failed on Nanga Parbat. Due to the difficult conditions, the end of the line was reached in Camp 2 at around 6,200 meters. “Last year, the ‘Naked Mountain’ (translation of Nanga Parbat) stripped me to the bone,” she wrote in her last Facebook post on June 16. “This year, we want to climb to the summit.” Her husband was also part of the team.

3. July 20253. July 2025

David Göttler after success on Nanga Parbat: “Highlight of my mountaineering career”

David Göttler (r.) with French ski mountaineers Tiphaine Duperier (l.) and Boris Langenstein on the summit of Nanga Parbat

Even after returning to his home in Spain, David Göttler still seems to be floating on cloud nine. “It will probably take a month before the euphoria subsides and I can realize it all,” the 46-year-old German climber tells me.

On Tuesday last week, Göttler – together with French female climber Tiphaine Duperier and her compatriot Boris Langenstein – scaled the 8,125-meter-high Nanga Parbat in Pakistan.

It was only the eighth ascent of the mountain via the challenging Schell route. An Austrian expedition led by Hanns Schell first climbed this route to the summit of Nanga Parbat in 1976. It leads via a pillar on the left side of the Rupal flank to the almost 7,000-meter-high col between the Mazeno Ridge and the Southwest Ridge. At 7,400 meters, the route changes to the Diamir side.