Marek Holecek gave himself an early present for his 50th birthday on 5 November. The Czech top mountaineer, together with 34-year-old Slovakian Ondrej Huserka, climbed the extremely challenging 2,200-meter-high East Face of the 7,227-meter-high Langtang Lirung for the first time. Holecek let it be known via satellite phone that it took them a total of five and a half days to complete the climb and that they reached the summit yesterday, Wednesday, at 11 am. The two were climbing in alpine style – i.e. without fixed ropes and without fixed high camps.
High risk of avalanches and falling rocks
During the ascent through the wall, Marek had repeatedly pointed out via satellite communication the uncomfortable bivouac sites and that the climbing on the East Face of Langtang Lirung was very strenuous.
The seven-thousander in the Langtang National Park, around 50 kilometers north of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, was first climbed in fall 1978 by the Japanese Seishi Wada and the Nepalese Pemba Tshering Sherpa – via the East Ridge. According to the Chronicle Himalayan Database, only 13 out of the following 50 expeditions were successful, most of them via the Southeast Ridge. Before Holecek and Huserka, 54 people had reached the summit.
12 climbers lost their lives on Langtang Lirung. The most famous of them was the Slovenian top climber Tomaz Humar, who froze to death in 2009 after a fall on the South Face of the mountain.
Langtang Lirung is considered to be at high risk of avalanches and rockfall. For this reason, three climbers from Ecuador led by Esteban “Topo” Mena abandoned their attempt on the East Face at an altitude of 5,800 meters in fall 2022.
A game of patience
Before the summit push, Holecek had also reported “wagonloads of snow” thundering down the East Face. The mountain had put her patience to the test before the opportunity arose to make a second and decisive attempt to climb the wall.
“After days of tedious waiting, there is an opportunity to start,” Marek let them know five days ago. “Perhaps the avalanches cleared the wall sufficiently the day before, so we put our fears aside and let’s go to business.” They have now successfully completed this. At least for the most part, because of course a success also includes a safe descent.
Two-time Piolet d’Or winner Holecek
Marek Holecek has already been awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of mountaineering”, twice – both times with his compatriot Zdenek Hak: for new routes through the Southwest Face of the eight-thousander Gasherbrum I in Pakistan in 2017 and through the Northwest Face of the seven-thousander Chamlang in Nepal in 2019. His new route through the West Face of the Nepalese seven-thousander Baruntse (with Radoslav Groh) made it onto the Piolet d’Or list of the most significant ascents in 2021.
Ondrej Huserka is one of the best climbers in Slovakia. In 2019, he and his compatriot Jozef Kristoffy successfully repeated the route via the Southeast Ridge of the legendary granite giant Cerro Torre in Patagonia for only the eighth time.
Unfortunately, Ondrej Huserka died when returning. He fell into an ice crevice as reported by his colleague Marek Holecek, who could not save him. RIP.
There is another blog post on Ondrej’s death. R.I.P, Ondrej.