Expeditions Archive - Page 2 of 21

14. August 202514. August 2025

K2: “Rocks whizzing in all directions”

The 8,611-meter-high K2 in the Karakoram (in 2004)

“(I am) Grateful that I’m alive and ok,” Turkish mountaineer Gülnur Tumbat wrote on Instagram today. The professor of marketing, born in 1975, lives and works in San Francisco.

On Monday, she reached – with bottled oxygen – the summit of K2, the second-highest mountain on earth, as one of around 40 mountaineers from commercial expedition teams. Gülnur was the first Turkish woman to scale the 8,611-meter-high mountain in the Karakoram in Pakistan.

At that point, she probably had no idea how dangerous the final phase of her descent would be: from Camp 1 at around 6,000 meters down to the Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at around 5,300 meters. As reported, a Chinese climber died in a rockfall during this passage on Tuesday. Gülnur reports that a rescuer who tried to recover the Chinese woman’s body was also hit.

13. August 202513. August 2025

Chinese female climber dies in rockfall on K2

The 8,611-meter-high K2 in the Karakoram (in summer 2004)

On Monday, expedition operator Imagine Nepal proudly announced that its entire team of 15 members had reached the summit of K2, the second-highest mountain on earth. Now, a death has cast a shadow over the success.

According to consistent reports from Pakistan, a Chinese female climber from the team was hit by falling rocks yesterday, Tuesday, and died. The accident occurred between Camp 1 (at around 6,000 meters) and the Advanced Base Camp (5,300 m), it said.

On Monday, around 40 climbers from several teams had stood on the summit of K2 at 8,611 meters.

11. August 202513. August 2025

Summit successes reported from K2

K2 (in summer 2004) — The 8,611-meter-high K2 in the Karakoram (in 2004)

It took a long time, but now the moment has arrived. Today, the first more than two dozen summit successes of the summer season were reported from K2, the second highest mountain in the world, located in the Karakoram in Pakistan. The Nepalese expedition operator Imagine Nepal provided the largest group with 15 members at the summit.

The team was led by Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, the head of the company. For him, it was his sixth K2 summit success. Mingma and Imagine Nepal had taken on the task of fixing the ropes to the highest point at 8,611 meters.

8. August 202511. August 2025

Pakistan: When a body needs to be retrieved from the mountain

The six-thousander Laila Peak in the Karakoram

Following the tragic death of German mountaineer Laura Dahlmeier on the 6,096-meter-high Laila Peak in the Karakoram in Pakistan, many are asking themselves: Should the body of the deceased be recovered after all? Or should her last will be respected?

Laura had written in her will that her body should remain on the mountain if others had to risk their lives to recover it.

This was exactly the case immediately after Dahlmeier’s death: the rockfall that had claimed Laura’s life at around 5,700 meters continued and would have posed a potentially fatal danger to the members of a recovery team.

And if conditions on the mountain improve? Even then, it would remain a dangerous undertaking, Dan Stretch of the US organization Global Rescue informs me.

31. July 20251. August 2025

Mourning for German mountaineer Laura Dahlmeier

Laura Dahlmeier while rock climbing — Laura Dahlmeier (1993-2025)

It is always difficult to face such a definitive truth as the death of a person. But it does not help to close one’s eyes to it. According to human judgment, German mountaineer Laura Dahlmeier cannot have survived Monday’s mountain accident on the 6,096-meter-high Laila Peak in the Karakoram.

Two days later, the 31-year-old was declared dead and the rescue operation on the extremely steep and dangerous mountain was called off.

“Recovering the body is too risky and not feasible for the rescue team under the current difficult conditions with rockfalls and a change in weather on Laila Peak,” Laura Dahlmeier’s management informed. In the meantime, further details of the accident have also become known.

30. July 202530. July 2025

Breaking news: Laura Dahlmeier is dead

What was feared has now sadly become a certainty. German mountaineer Laura Dahlmeier did not survive her accident on the 6,000-meter Laila Peak. This was announced by her management. The former Olympic biathlon champion and world champion was 31 years old.

She was struck by falling rocks on Monday on the mountain in the Karakoram in Pakistan at an altitude of 5,700 meters. Her rope partner was unharmed and was able to descend to base camp.

29. July 202530. July 2025

Mountain accident on Laila Peak in Pakistan: Great concern for former biathlon star Laura Dahlmeier

Laura Dahlmeier (climbing in the massif Wilder Kaiser in Austria)

Laura Dahlmeier, one of the world’s best biathletes of the last decade, has suffered a serious accident on the 6,069-meter-high Laila Peak in the Karakoram in Pakistan. “Laura Dahlmeier was climbing in alpine style with her female rope partner on 28 July when she was hit by falling rocks. The accident happened around noon local time at an altitude of around 5,700 meters,” informed the 31-year-old German mountaineer’s management team. “She is very seriously injured, at the very least.”

“Her climbing partner immediately made an emergency call, and the rescue operation was launched straight away,” it said. Due to the “remoteness of the area,” a rescue helicopter did not reach the scene of the accident until Tuesday morning.

25. July 202525. July 2025

Waiting for a good weather window on K2

K2, the second highest mountain on earth (in 2004)

The weather in the Karakoram is not making things easy for commercial expedition teams this summer season. First, extremely dry weather caused an increased risk of rockfall, and now snowfall is slowing the teams down. The teams have to be patient in their base camps at the foot of K2 (8,611 m) and Broad Peak (8,051 m).

No summit successes have been reported from either of the two eight-thousanders this summer. A brief window of good weather may open up over the weekend, making summit attempts possible.

24. July 202524. July 2025

Alexander Huber, Dani Arnold and Simon Gietl: New route on the 6,000er Jirishanca in Peru

Dani Arnold, Alexander Huber, and Simon Gietl (from left to right)

While the mountaineering community has recently been focusing its attention on the high mountains of Pakistan, three top European climbers have achieved an alpinistic masterpiece in the Peruvian Andes.

Alexander Huber (54, the younger of the two Huber brothers) from Germany, Dani Arnold (41) from Switzerland, and Simon Gietl (40) from South Tyrol opened a new route on the 6,094-meter-high Jirishanca. Their line runs 1,030 meters up the challenging East Face and ends at the East Summit at 6,028 meters.

12. July 20252. October 2025

Denis Urubko and Maria Cardell report: New route on Nanga Parbat

The Diamir sde fo Nanga Parbat — The Diamir side of Nanga Parbat

“On 10 July at 11:30 a.m. local time, we stood on the summit of Nanga Parbat after climbing it via a new route in alpine style,” Denis Urubko wrote yesterday to the Russian mountaineering portal mountain.ru. “Maria and I are happy.”

Urubko and his Spanish wife Maria “Pipi” Cardell had already travelled to Pakistan at the beginning of June to acclimatize for their project on the 8,125-meter-high Nanga Parbat. Their goal: a new route through the Diamir Face, the western flank of the ninth highest mountain on earth. In alpine style, i.e. without bottled oxygen, without fixed ropes, without fixed high camps and without high altitude porters.

4. July 20254. July 2025

Klara Kolouchova dies on Nanga Parbat – Horia Colibasanu reaches the summit without breathing mask

Klara Kolouchova (2019 on K2) — Klara Kolouchova (1978-2025)

Mourning for Klara Kolouchova. The 46-year-old Czech woman fell to her death on Nanga Parbat on Thursday. “An experienced mountaineer, she fell while descending above Camp 2. She was accompanied by her Sherpa, Taraman Tamang, when she slipped on a rocky section of the mountain,” the Nepalese expedition operator Seven Summit Treks (SST) announced on Instagram.

Kolouchova was the first Czech woman to scale the three highest mountains in the world, Mount Everest (in 2007), K2 (2019) and Kangchenjunga (2019) – in commercial teams, with bottled oxygen. She has also stood on the summits of the eight-thousanders Cho Oyu (2006) and Annapurna I (2024).

Last summer, she failed on Nanga Parbat. Due to the difficult conditions, the end of the line was reached in Camp 2 at around 6,200 meters. “Last year, the ‘Naked Mountain’ (translation of Nanga Parbat) stripped me to the bone,” she wrote in her last Facebook post on June 16. “This year, we want to climb to the summit.” Her husband was also part of the team.

3. July 20253. July 2025

David Göttler after success on Nanga Parbat: “Highlight of my mountaineering career”

David Göttler (r.) with French ski mountaineers Tiphaine Duperier (l.) and Boris Langenstein on the summit of Nanga Parbat

Even after returning to his home in Spain, David Göttler still seems to be floating on cloud nine. “It will probably take a month before the euphoria subsides and I can realize it all,” the 46-year-old German climber tells me.

On Tuesday last week, Göttler – together with French female climber Tiphaine Duperier and her compatriot Boris Langenstein – scaled the 8,125-meter-high Nanga Parbat in Pakistan.

It was only the eighth ascent of the mountain via the challenging Schell route. An Austrian expedition led by Hanns Schell first climbed this route to the summit of Nanga Parbat in 1976. It leads via a pillar on the left side of the Rupal flank to the almost 7,000-meter-high col between the Mazeno Ridge and the Southwest Ridge. At 7,400 meters, the route changes to the Diamir side.

18. June 20252. October 2025

New routes on the seven-thousanders Ultar Sar and Spantik in Pakistan

Ultar Sar (in the center of the picture, the Southeast Pillar) — Ultar Sar (in the center of the picture, the Southeast Pillar

Two alpine highlights at the start of the summer climbing season in the Karakoram in Pakistan: US-American Ethan Berman, Australian-Argentine climber Sebastian Pelletti and Dutch-born Maarten van Haeren opened a new route on the 7,388-meter-high Ultar Sar. The Frenchman Mathieu Maynadier and the Pakistani Mueez Ud din managed a first ascent on the 7,027-meter-high Spantik. Both teams were climbing in alpine style, i.e. they did without fixed ropes, fixed high camps, high altitude porters and bottled oxygen.

19. May 202519. May 2025

Sirbaz Khan – the first Pakistani to climb all eight-thousanders without bottled oxygen

Sirbaz Khan (on an earlier summit success)

“I am delighted for Sirbaz that he has now also completed the 14 eight-thousanders ‘topless’,” writes Ralf Dujmovits, Germany’s most successful high-altitude mountaineer. “My heartfelt congratulations to him.”

Sirbaz Khan has fulfilled his self-proclaimed “Mission 14”: On Sunday at 11.50 a.m. Nepalese time, the 37-year-old reached the summit of Kangchenjunga at 8,586 meters with the team from expedition operator Imagine Nepal. Sirbaz also scaled the third highest mountain on earth without a breathing mask. This makes him the first Pakistani to climb all 14 eight-thousanders without bottled oxygen.

16. May 202516. May 2025

Anja Blacha after her Dhaulagiri summit success: “Not in competition with other German female high-altitude mountaineers”

“So, what’s next? Another record-setting expedition? Maybe. As a by-product,” writes Anja Blacha on her website. “Rather than defining my goals based on records, I like to let curiosity guide my way. Following my interests, and living up to my values, virtues, capabilities. The art of striving well. Eudaimonia.” This term from Greek philosophy is made up of “Eu” (good) and “daimon” (demon, spirit). In other words, Anja is trying to live out her own good spirit.

And the 34-year-old German adventurer does this very persistently. This is how Blacha reached the South Pole on skis in the winter of 2019/2020, after pulling her sledge almost 1,400 kilometers from the coast of Antarctica, alone and without outside support.

She has scaled Mount Everest twice – in 2017 via the Tibetan north side and in 2021 via the Nepalese south side. And with her successes on Annapurna I and Dhaulagiri this spring, she has summited twelve of the 14 eight-thousanders in commercial teams via the normal routes – with the exception of Everest, all without bottled oxygen. After her second eight-thousander summit success this season, Anja Blacha answered my questions.

Anja, first of all, congratulations on your 12th eight-thousander. The weather conditions were difficult at first. Then a weather window opened up. How did you experience the ascent and descent on Dhaulagiri?

Category: Expeditions