The son of Everest first ascender Tenzing Norgay is outraged. “This is very disgraceful that a falsified summitter of Everest is being given the highest adventure award of India,” writes Jamling Tenzing Norgay to me. “Shameful!” The prize is named after Jamling’s father and is awarded annually by the Indian government. Next Saturday, the Indian…
The hope of the Nepalese tourism industry for the upcoming fall season in trekking and mountaineering is fading away. After the government in Kathmandu had postponed the planned resumption of flights to and within Nepal from 17 August to 1 September 1, it announced a few days ago that the number of people entering the…
It’s running smoothly for the team of the expedition operator Summit Climb in the remote Shimshal Valley in northern Pakistan. Within three days, expedition leader Felix Berg, the well-known Pakistani mountaineer Mirza Ali Baig and their German clients succeeded in another first ascent. “This second mountain explored by our team is 6,105 meters high and…
Three Czechs want to remove a white spot on the map of the world’s highest mountains. Pavel Korinek, Pavel Bem and Jiri Janak arrived in Pakistan to first climb the seven-thousander Muchu Chhish. “We are happy to be here, after all the troubles caused by the COVID pandemic around the globe,” Bem said after arriving…
His girlfriend at the time hardly recognized him. “It seems that a drunk came down from the col and not the same man who left four days ago,” Nena Holguin wrote in her diary. “He looks at me with tears in his eyes. His face is yellow, his lips are chapped and frayed.” Reinhold Messner…
One of the best-known famous Nepalese climbers, Chhiji Nurbu Sherpa, is no longer with us. “We are extremely saddened to express the demise of our managing director”, the company “Highlight Expeditions” announced yesterday on Facebook: “He was one of the top climbers accomplishing 13 out of the 14 x 8000m summits.” The expedition operator did…
“I have a less queasy feeling than when I book a seven-day hut tour in the Alps, knowing that I will meet different people every day,” Felix Berg, who I reach by phone in the small town of Karimabad in the Hunza Valley in northern Pakistan, tells me. The 39-year-old German professional mountaineer, working for…
The fall mountaineering season in Nepal can – if at all – only start later. According to unanimous reports in the Nepalese media, the government in Kathmandu postponed the reopening for flights to and within Nepal until 1 September at the earliest. The reason was the increasing number of infections with the coronavirus, it was…
The international mountaineering scene is shocked. Doug Scott, the living legend of climbing in the Himalayas and the Karakoram, is terminally ill with brain cancer. The 79-year-old Englishman has an inoperable cerebral lymphoma, the “Sunday Times” reported this weekend, referring to Scott’s wife Patricia. Doug received the diagnosis on the first day of the corona…
Mingma Gyalje Sherpa is fed up. He doesn’t want to wait any longer for the government in Kathmandu to get going. The head of the Nepalese operator Imagine Nepal canceled the expeditions to the eight-thousanders Manaslu and Dhaulagiri planned for this fall season. “The Nepal government ended a three months lockdown without proper planning and…
When they reached Everest Base Camp, Julie and Chris Smith had a sip of Scotch whisky. Apart from the couple from Scotland, their two children – the nine-year-old daughter Erihn and the four-year-old son Jacob – and their Nepalese companions Kevin Sherpa and Dhanku Rai, nobody else was then at this point at almost 5,400…
“(The) Mountains are open for this year’s autumn season,” said Mira Acharya, director of the Tourism Department in the Nepalese government. From this Thursday, permits will again be issued for 414 mountains in Nepal, including Mount Everest, with 75 mountains remaining closed, she said. On 13 March, the government had announced that it would no…
It looked like an attempt to cut the Gordian knot. Last week, the government in Kathmandu announced that flights to Nepal and in the country would be resumed from 17 August. Trekking tours and expeditions will then also be permitted again – subject to safety precautions. But many question marks remain. How many flights will…
“I don’t have high hopes for the fall season,” Ang Dorjee Sherpa tells me. “I think only a few trekking tourists will show up. But they are welcome, no problem.” The 51-year-old owns the “AD Friendship Lodge” in Namche Bazaar, the main village of the Khumbu, the region around Mount Everest. “Five days ago, I…
Corona necessity is the mother of invention. “These days, many climbers are free, so we can use good and experienced climbers to find the route,” Maya Sherpa writes to me. The 42-year-old mountaineer means a new route on the Nepalese south side of the eight-thousander Cho Oyu. One that is suitable not only for top…
