The Pakistani rope-fixing team from the expedition operator Karakorum Expeditions reached the 8,051-meter-high summit of Broad Peak yesterday at 10 p.m. local time -via what they describe as a new route variation in the upper section of the eight-thousander. “The route is complex, but beautiful,” Ahmad Baig reported by radio to base camp. “We’ve opened…
According to a report by the Nepalese website The Tourism Times, Polish ski mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel skied down the 8,125-meter-high Nanga Parbat. As with his previous seven successful eight-thousander expeditions, the 38-year-old reportedly did not use bottled oxygen during the ascent or the ski descent, according to sources at Nanga Parbat Base Camp. Andrzej himself…
“Sometimes an ascent can change your life. I think this one did,” writes Benjamin Vedrines on Instagram. The first ascent of the 7,468-meter-high Jannu East is “undoubtedly the greatest achievement of my mountaineering career,” said the 33-year-old Frenchman after his coup in eastern Nepal, which he accomplished together with his 27-year-old compatriot Nicolas Jean. “Climbing…
In view of some of Donald Trump’s truly worrying first steps – such as the USA’s withdrawal from the Paris climate protection agreement – this decree by the newly sworn-in 47th US President almost seems like a trifle. But it shows what kind of man Trump is. Within 30 days, Denali, the highest mountain in…
The border region between Tibet and Nepal not far from Mount Everest was shaken by a strong earthquake today. According to Chinese reports, it reached a magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale, while the US earthquake observatory measured a magnitude of 7.1. Chinese state media reported at least around 120 dead and hundreds injured…
For the second time in five years, the Piolet d’ Or will be awarded posthumously to two mountaineers. As announced by the jury, the late Japanese climbers Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima are among this year’s winners. They will be awarded the “Oscar of Mountaineering” for their first ascent of the North face of Tirich…
Extroverted, self-confident, opinionated, sometimes blustering, often polarizing. That’s Reinhold Messner. “I’m a living provocation,” the mountaineering legend once told me in an interview. No wonder he named his latest book, which was published just in time for his 80th birthday today, “Headwind”. “Overcoming resistance is written into our genes,” writes Messner. “In untouched nature, we…
It’s not just Mount Everest in the Himalayas and Mont Blanc in the Alps that are overcrowded during the climbing season. Mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan, is also one of the prestige mountains that more people climb than nature can handle. If the regional government of Yamanashi Prefecture has its way, no more…
Jean-Marc Peillex has enough. “I resign,” writes the mayor of the French municipality of Saint-Gervais, announcing that from today the refuges Tête Rousse (3167 meters) and Goûter (3835 meters) on the normal route on the 4,809-meter-high Mont Blanc will remain closed until further notice. “How sad that we are forced by some lawless daredevils to…
Success stories continue to pour in from the eight-thousanders in the Karakoram, today especially from Broad Peak. Among those who reached the 8,051-meter-high summit were the collectors of eight-thousanders Kristin Harila, Adriana Brownlee and Grace Tseng. Without minimizing their achievements, I think it’s high time to recognize the Nepalese climbers who made their eight-thousander ascents…
Lucky! Damn good luck! This is the impression given by a video posted on social media by Mingma Gyalje Sherpa from 22 July, the record summit day on K2 (see below). On it, a long line of climbers can be seen at the so-called “Bottleneck” – above them huge ice towers that could collapse at…
“Actually, I had thought that with our list, after ten years of research, the main work was finished,” Eberhard Jurgalski tells me. “But that was a fallacy.” The list published by a team around the German chronicler, according to which – as reported – without a doubt only three climbers have stood on the highest…
Eberhard Jurgalski polarizes. Some insult him as an armchair adventurer and runner-down. Others praise the 69-year-old German as a meticulous chronicler of mountaineering on the world’s highest mountains who simply works conscientiously. A week ago, Eberhard caused a medium-sized tremor in the high-altitude mountaineering scene. For ten years, Jurgalski and a handful of other chroniclers…
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…
Once a topic is on the social media’s hot plate, emotions run high. Some are praised to the skies, others are banished to hell. Here the shining heroes, there the sinister villains. The more drastic the wording, the more hearts, thumbs up and clapping hands. The mountaineering scene is no exception. The latest example: the…
