Stefan Nestler, Autor bei Adventure Mountain

20. April 202324. April 2023

Annapurna I: Indian climber Anurag Maloo found

It is a small miracle. According to consistent reports from Nepal, the Indian climber Anurag Maloo, missing since Monday on the eight-thousander Annapurna I in western Nepal, was found and rescued today in a crevasse at about 5,800 meters. The 34-year-old was flown by helicopter to a hospital in the city of Pokhara and then on to a clinic in Kathmandu.. “He is in a critical condition, but he is alive,” Sudhir Maloo, the climber’s brother, said in a short video shared on social media.

The rescue team from Nepalese expedition operator Seven Summit Treks was led by Chhang Dawa Sherpa. Polish climbers Adam Bielecki and Mariusz Hatala, who had planned this spring to open a new route through the Northwest Face of Annapurna I along with German Felix Berg, also participated in the rescue operation.

18. April 202319. April 2023

Annapurna I: Noel Hanna dead, Baljeet Kaur rescued, Anurag Maloo still missing

Joy and sorrow can be very close together on the eight-thousanders. On Monday, the news was still spreading that Noel Hanna had become the first climber from the Irish island to scale the 8,091-meter-high Annapurna I. Today, a representative of Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism announced that the 56-year-old Northern Irishman had been found dead in Camp 4 at around 7,100 meters. According to reports, Hanna had climbed without bottled oxygen during his ascent.

17. April 202318. April 2023

Annapurna I: More summit successes – and a missing climber

Annapurna I, seen from Poon Hill — Annapurna I (l.)

For the third day in a row, commercial expedition operators today reported summit successes from Annapurna I in western Nepal. Among those who reached the summit this Monday – with bottled oxygen and Sherpa support – were two more representatives of Pakistan’s young generation of climbers.

Naila Kiani became the country’s first woman to stand on Annapurna I. For her, it was the fourth eight-thousander after Gasherbrum I (in 2021), K2 and Gasherbrum II (both in 2022). Naila, a former amateur boxer, studied aerospace engineering in the UK and later worked as a banker in Dubai. She has lived in the Gulf state for years with her husband and their two young daughters. This spring, she plans to attempt to climb Mount Everest and Lhotse after Annapurna.

17. April 202317. April 2023

Lama Seru, builder of trekking trails in the Khumbu, is dead

He was a legend of the Khumbu, the region around Mount Everest. Pasang Lama Sherpa, probably better known to most as Lama Seru, died yesterday in Namche Bazaar. Information about his age varied – at the time of his birth, no birth lists were kept in the region around Mount Everest. But Lama Seru is believed to have been in his mid-80s.

Anyone who has hiked from Namche Bazaar, the main village of the Khumbu, to Tengboche Monastery or on to Everest Base Camp in the past four decades is likely to have encountered Lama Seru. Or at least passed his table, where his blue padlocked donation box stood, with a list next to it for donors to sign.

15. April 202316. April 2023

Summit successes reported from Annapurna I

Base Camp at the foot of Annapurna I — Annapurna I

The first summit successes of the spring climbing season on the eight-thousanders in Nepal and Tibet are reported from Annapurna I. According to The Himalayan Times newspaper, about 20 members from teams of the commercial operators Imagine Nepal, Seven Summit Treks and Elite Exped reached the highest point at 8,091 meters today – almost all probably with bottled oxygen. A Sherpa team had secured the route to the summit with fixed ropes.

14. April 202324. April 2023

Mourning for the three Sherpas missing on Mount Everest

There is still no trace of the three Sherpas from the team of the expedition operator Imagine Nepal, who have been missing since the collapse of a serac in the Khumbu Icefall this Wednesday. The search for them has been unsuccessful so far. There is no longer any hope that they can be recovered alive from the ice masses. The authorities therefore declared Da Chhiri Sherpa, Pemba Tenzing Sherpa and Lakpa Rita Sherpa dead. The best known of the three missing in the mountaineering scene is 31-year-old Pemba Tenzing.

12. April 202312. April 2023

Mount Everest: Three missing after accident in Khumbu Icefall

Although the spring climbing season on Mount Everest has not yet really begun, the first accident is already reported from the highest mountain on earth. According to information from Nepal’s Everest Chronicle portal, a serac collapsed early this morning on the route through the dangerous Khumbu Icefall. Three Sherpas, who were supposed to bring material to Camp 2 at an altitude of about 6,400 meters, were missing, it said. It is possible that they were washed into a crevasse by the ice masses.

11. April 202311. April 2023

Summit attempt on Annapurna announced

Northwestern view of Annapurna (the main summit on the left)

“Summit Push Time,” writes Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, head of the Nepalese commercial expedition operator Imagine Nepal, on Instagram. The picture shows him in a helicopter on his way back to the 8,091-meter-high Annapurna I in western Nepal. The Sherpa team, which secures the normal route with fixed ropes for the commercial teams, had already reached Camp 3 at around 6,400 meters some time ago. Then, however, snowfall and the associated high avalanche danger had made a summit attempt impossible. In the next few days, stable, dry weather with little wind is expected, only on the weekend there should be some snow showers again.

9. April 20239. April 2023

Happy Easter!

I wish you all and your loved ones happy and peaceful Easter days. And the “Picasso of the Rhine” 😉 has once again put you an Easter riddle. Which mountain I have conjured on the egg?

8. April 202312. April 2023

After all, Tibet permits for Kristin Harila and Co. for Shishapangma and Cho Oyu

The Climbalaya team for Cho Oyu and Shishapangma — The Climbalaya team has already arrived in Tibet

It has been speculated for days, now it is official: The Chinese-Tibetan authorities have granted permits for the first time in three years to an expedition with foreign mountaineers for the eight-thousanders Cho Oyu and Shishapangma located in Tibet. The team of the Nepalese operator Climbalaya includes as clients the Norwegian Kristin Harila and her compatriot Matias Myklebust, who accompanies her as a photographer and filmmaker, as well as the Swiss Sophie Lavaud and the Mexican Viridiana Alvarez Chavez.

4. April 20234. April 2023

Everest region authorities restrict helicopter transports

Helicopter takes off from Syangboche Airfield above Namche Bazaar

The local authorities of the region around Mount Everest are currently not shying away from conflict. As reported, the Khumbu Pasanglhamu Rural Municipality does not want to abide by the Nepal Tourism Board’s new nationwide rule that trekkers going alone must hire a guide or porter. And Khumbu authorities are now also messing with expedition operators.

They have banned the practice, which has been common for years, of having expedition material transported to Everest Base Camp by helicopter. For the time being, the airfield in Syangboche, located above the Khumbu capital Namche Bazaar, is the final destination for most of the equipment this season. Only very bulky and heavy items such as large tables are to be flown to the base camp by helicopter, according to the regional administration. The rest is to be carried by porters or yaks to the foot of the highest mountain on earth. That would take several days – if enough porters and yaks are available at all.

31. March 202331. March 2023

Japanese solo trekking tourist found dead in Khumbu

In the Khumbu, the region around Mount Everest

This should be water on the mills of the supporters of the solo trekking ban in Nepal. I learned from sources in the Himalayan state that a Japanese trekking tourist was found dead yesterday at Khongma La, a 5,535-meter-high pass in the Everest region. The body was recovered and brought to Kathmandu, it said. The 54-year-old, who was trekking alone, had been missing for a week. The Khongma La connects the Imja Valley and the Khumbu Glacier Valley, at the end of which lies Everest Base Camp.

28. March 202328. March 2023

Mount Everest and Co.: Mountain records are nonsense

Aerial view: Five eight-thousanders (and the seven-thousander Baruntse) at a glance — Five eight-thousanders (and the seven-thousander Baruntse) at a glance

Recently, a German rapper set a new Guinness World Record on an entertainment show on German television: He stacked seven doughnuts within 30 seconds without them falling over. The musician managed it on his second try, so he did it without any training. Is he now the king of the doughnut stackers and an exceptional international performer in this discipline? The Guinness Book of Records also lists a U.S. woman as the “Doughnut Queen,” who stacked twelve of the round pastries in 2018.

Both probably benefited from the fact that hardly anyone would think of piling up doughnuts under time pressure and having it certified by referees. But apart from that, this example shows that the conditions under which records are set often play a decisive role. Presumably, no one had ever tried to do it in 30 seconds before. And if the rapper had had a minute, he probably wouldn’t have ended up in the record book. It’s a similar story with mountain records.

25. March 202325. March 2023

Carlos Soria on Dhaulagiri: The never-ending story continues

Carlos Soria (l.) and Sito Carcavilla (in spring 2022 at Dhaulagiri)

One has already gotten used to it. A spring season on the eight-thousanders of Nepal without Carlos Soria trying his hand on Dhaulagiri does not seem complete. In this one, too, the Spaniard will attempt – with bottled oxygen – the seventh-highest mountain on earth. At the age of 84, after 13 failed attempts. What is it that keeps drawing him to this mountain, which could actually be christened “Soriagiri” because of Carlos’ many unsuccessful attempts?

“8,167 meters, and a very beautiful view, and that it has rejected me many times, but I know I can climb it and I want to climb it and I’m going to try,” answers the still-fit senior in an interview with the Spanish portal desnivel.com. “Maybe this is the last chance I will have.”

16. March 202316. March 2023

Felix Berg about Annapurna Northwest Face: “An adventure expedition”

Felix (Mount Everest and Makalu in the background). — Felix Berg

The first eight-thousander summit successes of the spring season are expected this year on the 8,091-meter-high Annapurna I in western Nepal. The Sherpa team, that is fixing the ropes for the commercial teams, has already secured the normal route almost all the way up to Camp 3 at around 6,400 meters. “We wait for the summit weather window,” announced yesterday Nirmal Purja, head of the operator Elite Exped.

Most teams will probably have already left Annapurna by the time Felix Berg and his Polish teammates Adam Bielecki and Mariusz Hatala arrive at base camp. “Most of them want to go on to Everest, Lhotse, Kangchenjunga or somewhere else afterwards,” Felix tells me on the phone. “After all, it has become fashionable to conquer as many eight-thousanders as possible in a short time by any means possible.”