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.
Eleventh eight-thousander without bottled oxygen for Horia Colibasanu
According to information from SST, eight climbers reached the summit at 8,125 meters yesterday (Thursday). According to the operator, another four reached the highest point today.
Among them was Horia Colibasanu. As always, the Romanian climbed without bottled oxygen and without a Sherpa companion. “Summit! Today, on 4 July, at 7:00 a.m., I stood on Nanga Parbat (8,125 m). A feeling of deep gratitude after nine hours of climbing. It was a long and hard night,” Horia wrote on Facebook.
For the 48-year-old, it was the eleventh eight-thousander he has summited without bottled oxygen. Colibasanu’s first was K2 in Pakistan in 2004, over two decades ago. In 2017, he also scaled Mount Everest without a breathing mask. In his collection of eight-thousanders, Gasherbrum I and Gasherbrum II in Pakistan and Cho Oyu on the border between Tibet and Nepal are still missing.
