“So, what’s next? Another record-setting expedition? Maybe. As a by-product,” writes Anja Blacha on her website. “Rather than defining my goals based on records, I like to let curiosity guide my way. Following my interests, and living up to my values, virtues, capabilities. The art of striving well. Eudaimonia.” This term from Greek philosophy is made up of “Eu” (good) and “daimon” (demon, spirit). In other words, Anja is trying to live out her own good spirit.
And the 34-year-old German adventurer does this very persistently. This is how Blacha reached the South Pole on skis in the winter of 2019/2020, after pulling her sledge almost 1,400 kilometers from the coast of Antarctica, alone and without outside support.
She has scaled Mount Everest twice – in 2017 via the Tibetan north side and in 2021 via the Nepalese south side. And with her successes on Annapurna I and Dhaulagiri this spring, she has summited twelve of the 14 eight-thousanders in commercial teams via the normal routes – with the exception of Everest, all without bottled oxygen. After her second eight-thousander summit success this season, Anja Blacha answered my questions.
Anja, first of all, congratulations on your 12th eight-thousander. The weather conditions were difficult at first. Then a weather window opened up. How did you experience the ascent and descent on Dhaulagiri?
Once again: Thank you very much, Stefan! The weather on Dhaulagiri was actually surprisingly good for a long time, often even better than expected. It is rather the weather forecasts that are difficult on Dhaulagiri. Günter Seyfferth describes the “weather kitchen” very aptly on his website. The fact that there are clouds and fresh snow practically every afternoon is simply part and parcel of Dhaulagiri; the only question is how much fresh snow there will be.
Especially on the upper sections of the mountain, this means hard trailbreaking work. Apart from that, I found the ascent and descent on Dhaulagiri to be very uncomplicated; I would almost say that the route was even easier than on Manaslu, for example. And we were rewarded for the fresh snow on the summit day with no wind, a starry night and a cloudless morning.
This time you climbed to the summit together with the rope-fixing team. Was that your plan from the very beginning?
I don’t really like going at the same time as the rope-fixing team. You usually have to plan for long waiting times and it’s uncertain whether you’ll make it all the way to the top. That’s why I didn’t even try on the summit day originally planned for the rope-fixing team. On the final summit day, however, it was the best option: the route was already almost fully established, the expected weather window was short and, with the constant fresh snow, bundled manpower was helpful.
So we teamed up in two staggered ascending teams and identified three potential summit days – the first of which we immediately missed. Most of the Sherpas and international climbers were too tired from the ascent to Camp 3 to tackle the summit ascent on the same day, and some even dropped out altogether.
The following day, however, everything went well. There were a few long waits, but on the whole I benefited from the rope-fixing team’s trailbreaking.
You have now summited your twelfth eight-thousander. That makes you the most successful German female high-altitude mountaineer. First German woman on all 14 eight-thousanders – that’s becoming more and more realistic. Does that motivate you even more?
I still don’t see myself in competition with other German female high-altitude mountaineers. There are far too few of them anyway, so it’s all the better if one more finds her way in the world of high mountains and successfully pursues it with dedication.
You have climbed eleven of the twelve eight-thousanders without bottled oxygen. What does that mean to you?
At the moment, I see it above all as an unbalanced combination of numbers.
