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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
“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…
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…
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…
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….
“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…
“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…
Fierce gusts of wind have caused a forced respite on Mount Everest and the other eight-thousanders in Nepal. This gives me the opportunity to summarise the events of the past three days. After the rope-fixing team from the Nepalese expedition operator 8K Expeditions – as reported – achieved the first summit success of the spring…
She has done it again. Today, Anja Blacha – along with the rope-fixing team of the Nepalese expedition operator Seven Summit Treks (SST) led by Lakpa “Makalu” Sherpa – reached the 8,167-meter-high summit of Dhaulagiri in western Nepal. According to SST, the 34-year-old German mountaineer was one of a total of 13 people to achieve…
