The German mountaineer Felix Berg has, in his own words, scaled the 8,163-meter-high Manaslu in western Nepal – alone and without bottled oxygen. This was reported to me by his home team of the expedition operator Summit Climb.
The 42-year-old climbed from base camp to Camp 2 at about 6,300 meters on Monday, it said. The following night, Felix set off at 1 a.m. local time and reached the summit after 15 hours – in whiteout. At 9:30 p.m. he was back at Camp 2. The descent was difficult due to storm, snowfall and poor visibility. Yesterday, Wednesday, Berg returned safely to the base camp.
Fifth eight-thousander
According to Summit Climb, two Japanese climbers were still with him at the beginning of the climb. However, they had at some point created a material depot and then turned back, it said.
For Felix it was the fifth eight-thousander. Twice (in 2004 and 2021) he scaled Mount Everest as well as – in each case without breathing mask – Broad Peak (in 2014), Cho Oyu (in 2018) and Gasherbrum II (in 2018). This spring, as reported, he originally wanted to open a new route through the rarely climbed Northwest Face of Annapurna I with the two Poles Adam Bielecki and Mariusz Hatala.
Update 22. April: This is what Felix writes today on social media about his summit push: “First around the summit wind clouds build, and there was nearly no visibility. Cumulus clouds had also started to build up. With so much effort put in and so close to the goal, I head up higher as fast as possible to the rocky outcrop or the main summit. By a 45*-slope below a ridge I reached a big rock boulder in whiteout and high winds. That was my Manaslu summit, and I turned around immediately.”
