Adventure Mountain

11. May 202211. May 2022

Rope-fixing team reaches summit of Lhotse – Summit rush expected on Everest

Lhotse in the first daylight (seen from Tengboche)

Not only on Mount Everest, but also on neighboring 8,516-meter-high Lhotse, the normal route is now secured to the summit with fixed ropes. According to the Nepalese expedition operator Seven Summit Treks, the seven-member team in charge of it, led by Sona Sherpa (he was among the ten Nepalese who succeeded in the first winter ascent of K2 in 2021), reached the highest point today. It was the first summit success of this spring season on Lhotse. Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism has issued 127 permits for foreign mountaineers to climb the fourth highest mountain on earth this spring.

10. May 202210. May 2022

Royal style: Sheikha Al Thani on Kangchenjunga

Asma Al Thani (2nd from right) with Nirmal Purja (r.) and Co. on the summit of Kangchenjunga (in front Tenji Sherpa)

Nirmal “Nims” Purja will probably not have to worry about tickets for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar at the end of the year. The Nepalese mountaineering star – in 2019, he scaled (with bottled oxygen) all 14 eight-thousanders in just over six months, in 2021 he was one of the climbers, who succeeded in the first winter ascent of K2 (in his own words, without bottled oxygen) – will certainly be invited to the football tournament as a VIP. After all, the 38-year-old has the best connections to the Qatari ruling family Al Thani. Since the head of the commercial operator Elite Expeditions took Sheikha Asma Al Thani on the rope as a premium client, things have been going well for the 32-year-old on the highest mountains in Nepal.

9. May 202210. May 2022

Summit success reported from Makalu

Now there is also the first success report of the spring season from the fifth highest mountain on earth. According to expedition operator Pionier Adventure, Nepalese climbers Kami Sherpa and Pem Lakpa Sherpa led a client from the U.S. and another from Mongolia to the 8,485-meter-high summit of Makalu today – using bottled oxygen. The success of Pem Lakpa and the Mongolian was also confirmed by the operator 8K Expeditions.

9. May 20229. May 2022

8000er weekend summary: Kami Rita’s record, summit successes and two deaths

“When I’m on Everest, I’m totally focused,” writes record climber Kami Rita Sherpa in his little book “How to climb Everest.” The 52-year-old has done it once again: for the 26th time Kami Rita stood on the roof of the world.

On Saturday, he reached the highest point on earth at 8,849 meters – with bottled oxygen – as the head of an eleven-member team of Climbing Sherpas. The team fixed the ropes to the summit, paving the way for commercial expedition teams. This week, Mount Everest is likely to see its first major summit wave.

Meanwhile, German professional climber David Göttler is practicing patience on his third Everest attempt without bottled oxygen. It’s getting too crowded for now, the 43-year-old writes me. “So I wait.”

5. May 20226. May 2022

Successes reported from Kangchenjunga – summit wave expected on Everest

West, Main, Central and South Summit of Kangchenjunga (from l. to r.) — Kangchenjunga

In the second attempt it obviously worked. After a first summit attempt by a commercial team narrowly failed last week, the first summit successes were reported today from Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain on Earth. Exactly how many climbers reached the highest point at 8,586 meters is not yet clear. The Nepalese expedition operator Seven Summit Treks initially gave a total of six names.

Among them was the 31-year-old Nepalese photographer Purnima Shrestha, who thus scaled her fifth eight-thousander – with bottled oxygen. Probably also wearing a breathing mask was the 20-year-old Shehroze Kashif, who was the first Pakistani ever to reach the summit of Kangchenjunga. For him it was also the fifth eight-thousander. He has now already climbed the three highest mountains on earth: Mount Everest, K2 and Kangchenjunga. In his native Pakistan, he is called “Broad Boy” – because of his first eight-thousander success at the age of 17 on Broad Peak.

3. May 20225. May 2022

Summit successes reported from the north side of Mount Everest

Everest north side — North side of Mount Everest (in spring 2005)

The first summit successes of the spring season on the highest mountain on earth have apparently the Tibetan north side of Mount Everest. Mingma Sherpa, head of the commercial Nepalese expedition operator Climbalaya with good connections to China, reports that last Friday a team from the Chinese operator Yarla Shampo Expeditions fixed the ropes to the summit at 8,849 meters.

On Saturday, a commercial team of 20 Tibetan climbers and eleven paying clients ascended to the summit (almost certainly with bottled oxygen, if it were not, it would have been announced). Another team is aiming for tomorrow (Wednesday, May 4) as summit day, Mingma informed.

2. May 20222. May 2022

Hans Wenzl after Annapurna success: “Without risk it does not work”

Goal achieved: Hans Wenzl on the top of Annapurna

Unlike the two climbers with whom he set out for the summit of Annapurna, Hans Wenzl will return home from the eight-thousander in western Nepal without frostbite. As reported, the 51-year-old Austrian reached the 8,091-meter-high summit last Thursday – and returned safely to base camp. It was Wenzl’s tenth eight-thousander that he scaled without breathing mask.

The Italian Giampaolo Corona and the Swede Tim Bogdanov, with whom Hans had teamed up on the ascent, also reached the summit, but had to be rescued by helicopter from high altitude on the descent. Hans Wenzl answered my questions after his return to base camp.

Hans, when will you let the bottle caps fly after your tenth eight-thousander success?

I don’t feel like celebrating until I’m back in Kathmandu. I didn’t feel like it at base camp – especially because two of my friends were still on the mountain this time and we didn’t know how it would turn out for them.

How was it for you, up there on the summit at 8,091 meters? What was going through your mind?

28. April 202230. April 2022

Summit successes on Annapurna I – Hans Wenzl’s tenth coup

Summit day on Annapurna I. About 20 climbers from three commercial teams reached the summit of the tenth highest mountain on earth at 8,091 meters today, according to the Internet portal ExplorersWeb: about half Climbing Sherpas, the other half paying clients. In the latter group was also the Austrian Hans Wenzl, who thus scaled his tenth eight-thousander.

This is particularly remarkable for two reasons. First, Hans is not a professional mountaineer – nor is he a zillionaire: The 51-year-old earns his money as a foreman for an Austrian construction company, and takes time off for his expeditions. Wenzl lives in Metnitz, a town with 2,500 inhabitants in northern Carinthia, and has two grown-up sons with his wife Sonja.

On the other hand, he climbed his first nine eight-thousanders before Annapurna all without bottled oxygen. And I have no reason to believe that this time was any different.

26. April 202228. April 2022

Summit attempts on Kangchenjunga, Annapurna and Makalu

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa is again in the lead. After leading the first commercial team to an eight-thousander this spring, on the 8167-meter-high Dhaulagiri, the head of the Nepalese expedition operator Imagine Nepal had himself flown by helicopter to Kangchenjunga in the east of the country. There, his Climbing Sherpas had already begun securing the normal route on the south side of the mountain.

Today, Mingma and Co. wanted to fix the ropes above Camp 4 (at about 7,550 meters). Planned summit day is Wednesday. The highest point is at 8,586 meters. This makes Kangchenjunga the third highest mountain on earth after Mount Everest and K2.

19. April 202221. April 2022

Dhaulagiri again “bitchy” to Carlos Soria

Carlos Soria (l.) and Sito Carcavilla (r.)

Probably no other climber on the eight-thousanders in Nepal this spring has as many people crossing their fingers as the Spanish senior Carlos Soria. And just as many are likely to be a bit disappointed again today: “After seeing the weather forecasts, Carlos Soria and Sito Carcavilla decided to descend to base camp and wait for a more favorable opportunity,” Carlos’ team let it be known via Twitter. Snowfall is expected for the next few days on Dhaulagiri in western Nepal.

The climber, now 83, his Spanish teammate Sito Carcavilla and their six-member Sherpa team had ascended to Camp 3 at around 7,400 meters. One stage was still missing to the summit at 8,167 meters.

17. April 202217. April 2022

Happy Easter!

I wish you all and your loved ones happy and peaceful Easter days. And the “Picasso of the Rhine” ? has once again put you an Easter riddle. Which mountain I have conjured on the egg?

12. April 202212. April 2022

Antonis Sykaris dies on Dhaulagiri

Two days after the first summit success of the spring season on the eight-thousanders of Nepal, the first death is reported from the same mountain. Antonis Sykaris, the most successful high-altitude climber in Greece to date, died while descending from the summit of Dhaulagiri at an altitude of 7,400 meters, near Camp 3, “after a huge physical and mental effort and a lack of supplemental oxygen,” the 59-year-old’s Facebook page reads.

On Monday, Nepali expedition operator Seven Summit Treks (SST) had reported that Sykaris and his companion Dawa Sherpa had reached the summit at 8,167 meters. Dawa Sherpa, who remained with Antonis until the Greek’s death, is apparently waiting for support at Camp 3. According to SST, a rescue operation has been started.

9. April 20229. April 2022

Summit success reported from Dhaulagiri

The first success report from a commercial expedition this spring season on Nepal’s eight-thousanders is in. The operator Imagine Nepal let it be known that today 22 team members reached the 8,167-meter-high summit of Dhaulagiri in the west of the country: expedition leader Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, the head of the company and eleven Nepalese Climbing Sherpas, as well as ten clients from seven countries. It was not disclosed whether anyone climbed without bottled oxygen. Mingma, one of ten Nepali climbers who succeeded in the first winter ascent of K2 in 2021, had announced two days ago that the team’s summit push was underway.

8. April 20228. April 2022

Mount Everest: Route through Khumbu Icefall completed

Dangerous job: Icefall Doctor in the Khumbu Icefall

The season of commercial expeditions on Mount Everest can begin. The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) announced today that the six Icefall Doctors – Ang Sarki Sherpa, Dawa Nuru Sherpa, Pemba Tshering Sherpa, Sonam Tshering Sherpa, Chewang Nuru Sherpa and Ngima Gyaljen Sherpa – have successfully completed their work in and above the dangerous Khumbu Icefall after two and a half weeks.

Every year, the Icefall Doctors prepare the route for the commercial teams – with fixed ropes and ladders up to Camp 2 at around 6,400 meters. They also maintain the route until the end of the season in early June. For this service, the teams have to pay $600 per expedition member to the SPCC.

7. April 20227. April 2022

Mountain tourists return to Nepal

Ang Dorjee Sherpa is pleased. “Today 471 trekking tourists arrived in Namche, a new record this spring,” the 53-year-old owner of the “A.D. Friendship Lodge” in Namche Bazaar, the main village of the Everest region, wrote me yesterday, Tuesday. By comparison, last fall there were a peak of about 250 new arrivals per day.

Lodge owners like Ang Dorjee are thirsty for guests – two lean years in the wake of the corona pandemic lie behind the people of the Khumbu region, almost all of whom live from mountain tourism. According to Ang Dorjee, 33 planes and helicopters landed at the airfield in Lukla, the gateway to the Khumbu, on Tuesday. That almost sounds like normalcy again.