Stefan Nestler, Autor bei Adventure Mountain

16. March 202216. March 2022

Mountaineering legend Kurt Diemberger celebrates his 90th birthday

In summer 2004, the same problem befell us. On the journey to K2, the second highest mountain on earth in Pakistan, both mountaineering legend Kurt Diemberger and I contracted diarrhea that put us out of action for two days. As we later discovered in conversation, we had both eaten eggs in a hotel in the town of Chilas on the Karakoram Highway that were past their prime. With rather wobbly legs, we set off as planned to trek across the Baltoro Glacier.

At the time, Kurt was accompanying a large Italian expedition as guest of honor, which had set itself the goal of another ascent of the mountain on the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of K2 by the Italians Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli – five climbers of the team later succeeded in reaching the summit, all without the use of bottled oxygen. I was on a reporting trip to K2 because of the anniversary, which Kurt described to me as his “dream and destiny mountain.”

12. March 202212. March 2022

Nepal ahead of spring season: Fewer climbers on Mount Everest?

View of Mount Everest (l.) and Lhotse (from Namche)

And again it will probably be a difficult spring season in the mountains of Nepal. In 2020 nothing went at all because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, a wave of infections also hit the base camps on Mount Everest and Dhaulagiri – the fact that the Nepalese government has not admitted this to this day is and remains a scandal. And now in spring 2022, the Russian war in Ukraine is causing uncertainty worldwide – certainly also among mountaineers.

11. March 202211. March 2022

#ClimbersForPeace: When Russians and Ukrainians made common cause (in the mountains)

Special stamp commemorating the successful Soviet Everest expedition in 1982

It takes courage to speak out against your own government in a time of war. Especially when that government is threatening prison sentences of up to 15 years if “false information” is spread about the “special military action,” as President Vladimir Putin calls the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Some top Russian mountaineers, such as Alexander Gukov, Evgeniy Glazunov and Dmitry Pavlenko, were not impressed, but took a clear public stand against Putin and his war of aggression.

Pavlenko’s tone, however, is becoming increasingly frustrated. “As bitter as it may be, we have to admit that Putin’s propaganda has won in Russia and parts of the CIS region. In twenty years, it has managed to turn over a hundred million people into flash drives. Now you can pour everything into them, and they will reproduce it and support it with all their might,” Dmitry wrote on Facebook today. “This war has shown me that I have lost my homeland for good.”

4. March 20224. March 2022

Jost Kobusch after his Everest expedition: “It was a tough winter”

For the second time, Jost Kobusch returns from Mount Everest with many experiences, but without a summit success. However, he had not set his sights on Everest summit this winter. His goal was to climb to 8,000 meters – if conditions allowed. But that’s exactly what didn’t happen this winter. Today, the 29-year-old German climber returned to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu. His flight home is scheduled for 11 March.

Jost, you have now spent two months almost continuously at an altitude of above 5,000 meters. How are you physically?

3. March 20224. April 2022

Cho Oyu: Now with joint forces

After the second summit push last Monday was also not crowned with success, Gelje Sherpa has declared an end to the attempts over the Southeast Ridge of the eight-thousander Cho Oyu for the time being. “We put all our efforts into this push,” the 29-year-old let it be known. “We were so close. But our health and safety is the priority.”

According to Gelje, the Nepalese climbers reached an altitude of around 7,900 meters: “However, some of our team fell ill, there were also some issues with an oxygen mask and we decided that with this, the addition of incredibly strong winds up to 100kph and a very technical rock face near the ridge towards the summit it was time to retreat to basecamp.”

1. March 20222. March 2022

#ClimbersForPeace: Russian climbers condemn attack on Ukraine

Russian climbers are raising their voices against the Ukraine war – regardless of possible repression by authorities in their home country. “We, the climbers of Russia, oppose the military actions that the Russian army is conducting on the territory of Ukraine. We know firsthand how fragile human life is,” reads an open letter to President Vladimir Putin published on Facebook by top Russian climber Alexander Gukov. “We consider it a crime for the Russian army to invade the territory of Ukraine, as a result of which the people of both countries suffer. This is a stain on the history of Russia, with which not only we, but also our children will have to live.”

28. February 20224. April 2022

Winter expeditions: Down – and over?

This Monday marks the end of the meteorological winter. All attempts to reach an eight-thousander summit in this cold season were unsuccessful. On Mount Everest, Jost Kobusch returned to the valley today after spending three days and nights at almost 6,500 meters.

“The weather forecast predicted higher speeds at the last minute, which would have made a climb too much of an unnecessary risk,” Jost writes on Facebook. “After all, the route remains technical. And believe me, it was definitely exciting enough to climb down the hard ice backwards and in the dark at high wind speeds.”

The 29-year-old German climber had already declared when setting out on his last ascent that he no longer saw a realistic chance of reaching the summit at 8,849 meters. In the best case, he could perhaps reach higher than during his first attempt two years ago, Jost had said. In 2020, he had reached the West Shoulder of Everest at just below 7,400 meters. But nothing came of it now, the strong wind did not abate. “It was really stormy and maybe a touch worse than I had hoped,” Kobusch summed up his expedition: “But at the end of the day, I learned a lot and am very grateful for the experience.”

28. February 202228. February 2022

#ClimbersForPeace

I am depressed. The war in Ukraine lies on my soul like a heavy burden. I think of the people there who fear for their lives, of the killed, the injured, the displaced, of the suffering, the tears that are shed. In war, there are only losers. And I despair that there are still and always people who use war and violence to secure or enrich their personal power. They have never been in the right, and they never will be!

I have met climbers from all over the world. Very few were caught up in nationalistic thinking. Of course, there were some with an exaggerated ego. But even these usually felt like citizens of the world, open to people from other countries, cultures and languages. We are all united by our love for the mountains. Let us now raise our voices for the love of life! Against death and violence, for peace!

24. February 202224. February 2022

Jost Kobusch on Mount Everest: As high as possible – Waiting for summit chance on K2

It is the last ascent in his second solo winter attempt on Mount Everest. In view of the continuing strong winds, Jost Kobusch knows that – as two years ago – he will not reach the summit of the highest mountain on earth at 8,849 meters. He is aware that “the chance of reaching the summit is practically non-existent,” the 29-year-old German climber let it be known on social networks. “The only remaining hope is that I will get higher than last time, see more and gain experience. Maybe I’ll even beat my own record!”

21. February 202221. February 2022

Gelje Sherpa’s team abandons summit attempt on Cho Oyu

Gelje Sherpa's team on ascent on Cho Oyu — Gelje Sherpa’s team on ascent on Cho Oyu

At 7,560 meters on the Southeast ridge of Cho Oyu was the end of the line. Due to announced gusts of up to 100 kilometers per hour in the upper zone of the eight-thousander, the ten-member Nepalese team led by Gelje Sherpa abandoned its summit attempt – “because the (weather) window was too short to get going,” as Ashok Rai, manager of the expedition, told the Internet portal “Everest Chronicle”: “There will be a second attempt once the weather improves.”

11. February 202211. February 2022

Tough struggle for the winter expeditions on Everest, Cho Oyu and K2

What is still possible this winter for climbers on the eight-thousanders? After the expeditions on Nanga Parbat in Pakistan and on Manaslu ended unsuccessfully, only the attempts on K2 in the Karakoram in Pakistan and on the Himalayan giants Cho Oyu and Mount Everest in Nepal are still running.

Jost Kobusch currently has plenty of time to read during his solo attempt on Everest. “My favourite book at the moment: Positive Psychology for Dummies,” writes the 29-year-old German climber from Lobuche in the Everest Valley. “With the current conditions here, I really need this book!” In it, two English psychologists give tips on how to deal with difficult feelings and make your life happier and healthier.

9. February 20229. February 2022

Winter expedition on Manaslu ended

Simone Moro is fed up. “The problem is that you can’t really go beyond Camp 1,” the 54-year-old Italian writes on social media, explaining why he is once again breaking camp on the 8,163-meter-high Manaslu in western Nepal. Behind Camp 1 at around 5,600 meters, the avalanche danger is too great “and the wind is a real problem,” writes Simone adding that more snowfall is predicted for the coming days. “Today, all together, with the Sherpas, the companions with whom we shared this experience, we looked reality in the face and decided to end it here.”

This is the fourth time Moro has returned empty-handed from a winter attempt on Manaslu, after 2015, 2019 and 2021. And as with his previous three attempts, the masses of snow on the mountain threw a spanner in the works. “I have spent exactly one year of my life here on Manaslu,” Simone sums up.

6. February 20226. February 2022

Extreme ice melt on Mount Everest

Ice sample above Everest South Col (red arrow; yellow arrow shows location on the “Balcony” where a weather station was installed)

The ice high up on Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth, is also under attack. If climate change continues unabated, climbers could find a completely ice-free Everest South Col at around 8,000 meters in 2050. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from the University of Maine in the USA.

While the South Col Glacier (SCG) used to lie under a blanket of snow, the ice is now often exposed to solar radiation without protection, which could lead to “extremely rapid mass loss,” the scientists wrote: “At an estimated thinning rate approaching 2,000 mm (two meters) per year, even glaciers such as SCG that are above 8,000 m may disappear by mid-century.”

2. February 20222. February 2022

Winter expeditions on Everest and Co.: Patience is needed

Jost Kobusch hasn’t lost his sense of humor yet. “And I’m still waiting for better weather…,” the 29-year-old German climber wrote on social media, posting a fake portrait showing him as an old man with a gray beard. For the past week and a half, Jost has been killing time in the village of Lobuche, located at about 5,000 meters in the Everest Valley. Snowfall and gale-force storms are currently making mountaineering impossible in the region around the world’s highest mountain.

31. January 20222. February 2022

Avalanche accident on Cerro Torre: Mourning for Corrado Pesce

“He can no longer be alive.” With these words, the Argentine doctor Carolina Codo, head of the Patagonian Mountain Rescue Center, ended on Sunday the already slim hopes that the Italian top climber Corrado, called “Korra” Pesce could have survived the Cerro Torre avalanche accident. The 41-year-old’s body was discovered by drone, she said, lying 50 meters below a rock platform where Pesce and his Argentine rope partner, Tomas Aguilo, had spent the night from Thursday to Friday. “At that altitude, and without adequate protection, death from hypothermia comes after a maximum of two hours.”