After the eight-thousander is before the eight-thousander. This year, this also applies to Anja Blacha, who has now climbed nine of the 14 highest mountains in the world. This makes the 34-year-old the German woman with the most eight-thousander summit successes.
Last spring, she first scaled Makalu (8,485 meters) and then Kangchenjunga (8,586 meters), both without bottled oxygen. She also climbed without a breathing mask during her successful ascent on Manaslu (8,163 meters) on Monday. Now Blacha wants to try her hand at Cho Oyu (8,188 meters). She answered my questions in Tibet.
Anja, Manaslu was your third eight-thousander summit this year. How did you fare on your ascent?
It was clear early on that if I wanted to make a summit ascent in relatively good and safe conditions, it would have to be quite quick. Accordingly, I immediately started the rotations. The first was restricted by heavy snowfall, and on the second I got caught in the middle of the mass start at the key points. That wasn’t much fun.
On the final ascent to the summit, I therefore deliberately walked acyclically and thus had the most part of the route and later the summit to myself. The weather was great, and fortunately there were no more particular challenges on the way to the summit.
Manaslu was your eighth eight-thousander that you scaled without bottled oxygen. What does it mean to you to do without a breathing mask on your summit successes?
I know my body well enough by now to know how it reacts to altitude and that it can usually cope with it. So why not do without this aid if I can? The difference is striking, as I felt on my Everest ascents with bottled oxygen. One of the main characteristics of a high-altitude ascent is simply nullified by bottled oxygen.
Manaslu has become the “Everest of the fall season”. Once again this year, the Nepalese government has issued more than 300 permits for the eighth highest mountain in the world. How did you experience the crowds on the mountain?
If you are looking for peace, seclusion and an alpine challenge, you are in the wrong place on Manaslu on the normal route in the fall. Even the base camp resembles a small town complete with cafés, neon signs and more. Due to the large number of climbers, the route is extremely well secured and maintained.
It was tedious when you were stuck behind groups of climbers who had no mountain experience and sometimes had to be pulled and pushed up steeper passages by two Sherpas each. At the same time, however, this infrastructure also provided the perfect conditions for top athletic performances such as that of Tyler Andrews, who reached the summit in record time (9 hours 52 minutes from base camp).
So if you are prepared to get involved in this “piste mountaineering”, it allows you to have your own kind of mountain experience with a certain level of comfort and sporting opportunities.
