The “Snow Leopard” from Mount Everest is no longer among us. The legendary Ang Rita Sherpa died today at the age of 72 years in Kathmandu. Three years ago he had suffered a stroke, from which he continued to suffer. Ang Rita also had problems with his liver.
The Nepalese reverently called him “Snow Leopard”. No other climber has scaled the highest mountain on earth as often without bottled oxygen as Ang Rita did in the 1980s and 90s. “His record of nine will probably stand for a long time since current climbing Sherpas are required to use O2 by their companies,” Richard Salisbury from the “Himalayan Database” wrote to me some time ago.
From 17 October, foreign mountaineers and trekking tourists are to be allowed to enter Nepal again. This was announced by the government in Kathmandu. Those entering must present a negative corona test, which must not be older than 72 hours. After arrival in Kathmandu a quarantine of at least one week in the hotel is mandatory. Because of the corona pandemic, foreigners are currently not allowed to enter Nepal – unless they are diplomats or work for UN aid organizations.
All mountaineers are the equal, but some mountaineers are more equal than others – one could say freely after George Orwell’s novel “Animal Farm”. Actually, the Nepalese government had declared that, due to the recent sharp increase in corona infections, only Nepalese returnees, diplomats and employees of UN aid organizations would be allowed to fly to the country from 1 September . There was no mention of foreign tourists – and these usually include mountaineers. This fall’s climbing in the Himalayas seemed to be over before it began.
However, this week a government spokesperson in Kathmandu suddenly declared that an 18-member expedition from Bahrain had received a permit for the eight-thousander Manaslu and – for the purpose of acclimatization – for the six-thousander Lobuche East near Mount Everest. The team of the Royal Guard of Bahrain will arrive in Kathmandu in mid-September on a charter flight, enter a one-week quarantine and then head for the mountains, it said.
The routes of Halecek/Hak (read) and Eberle/Köhler (green) on Chamlang
Marek Holecek and Zdenek Hak are a strong climbing team. After the two Czechs had already received the Piolet d’Or in 2018 for their new route through the Southwest Face of the eight-thousander Gasherbrum I in Pakistan, they will again be awarded the “Oscar of climbers” on 19 September at the mountain festival in Ladek-Zdroj in Poland: for their new route via the Northwest Face of the 7,321-meter-high Chamlang in Nepal, which they climbed in Alpine style in spring 2019. Afterwards Marek and Zdenek traversed the summit and descended via the route of the Japanese first ascenders. A Piolet-d’Or-worthy performance, without question.
But Holecek’s statement on his sponsor’s website that it was “the first ascent of the 2,000 m high grueling Northwest Face climbing Alpine style” is only correct if “complete” is added before the word “ascent”. Because already 30 years ago two German mountaineers climbed the Northwest Face – at least up to 6,600 meters, in order to ascend from there via the West Face to the summit. They were also climbing in Alpine style.
The son of Everest first ascender Tenzing Norgay is outraged. “This is very disgraceful that a falsified summitter of Everest is being given the highest adventure award of India,” writes Jamling Tenzing Norgay to me. “Shameful!”
The prize is named after Jamling’s father and is awarded annually by the Indian government. Next Saturday, the Indian mountaineer Narender Singh Yadav, among others, is to receive the “Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award”. Singh Yadav claims to have scaled five of the Seven Summits, the highest mountains on all continents. In 2016, the then 21-year-old was celebrated as the youngest Indian Everest summiter so far. But obviously, the mountaineer did not even reach the highest point at 8,850 meters.
The hope of the Nepalese tourism industry for the upcoming fall season in trekking and mountaineering is fading away. After the government in Kathmandu had postponed the planned resumption of flights to and within Nepal from 17 August to 1 September 1, it announced a few days ago that the number of people entering the Himalayan state would be limited to 500 per day. Only Nepalese who were stuck in other countries because of the corona pandemic, expats, diplomats and employees of international aid organizations would be allowed to enter the country. There was no mention of foreign tourists in the government’s announcement. They will have to stay out until further notice.
It’s running smoothly for the team of the expedition operator Summit Climb in the remote Shimshal Valley in northern Pakistan. Within three days, expedition leader Felix Berg, the well-known Pakistani mountaineer Mirza Ali Baig and their German clients succeeded in another first ascent. “This second mountain explored by our team is 6,105 meters high and today’s summit action was longer and technically more demanding,” Summit Climb announced yesterday, Saturday, via Instagram. On Wednesday, the five-member team had already first climbed a yet unnamed 5,770-meter-high mountain.
Three Czechs want to remove a white spot on the map of the world’s highest mountains. Pavel Korinek, Pavel Bem and Jiri Janak arrived in Pakistan to first climb the seven-thousander Muchu Chhish. “We are happy to be here, after all the troubles caused by the COVID pandemic around the globe,” Bem said after arriving in Islamabad (see the video below): “We hope we have a good luck, Inshallah!”The three climbers now want to acclimatize first in the north of the country. Up to two summit attempts in Alpine style are then planned for late August, early September.
His girlfriend at the time hardly recognized him. “It seems that a drunk came down from the col and not the same man who left four days ago,” Nena Holguin wrote in her diary. “He looks at me with tears in his eyes. His face is yellow, his lips are chapped and frayed.” Reinhold Messner was all run down, physically and mentally too. This alpinistic stroke of genius had demanded everything from him.
Again he had pushed a limit, made possible what others had thought impossible. In the middle of the monsoon, the South Tyrolean had scaled Mount Everest via the Tibetan north side: climbing solo, without bottled oxygen, on a partially new route: Messner crossed the north flank below the Northeast Ridge, then ascended through the Norton Couloir and finally reached the highest point at 8,850 meters in the afternoon of 20 August 1980, the third day of his ascent.
The Norton couloir through which Messner ascended
For a long time, the first man to climb all 14 eight-thousanders described the Everest solo as the “icing on the cake” of his mountaineering career. Now, four decades later, Reinhold Messner classifies his pioneering achievement differently. I spoke with the 75-year-old.
Reinhold Messner, do you still sometimes think of that 20 August 1980, when you reached the summit of Mount Everest after you had solo-climbed it?
One of the best-known famous Nepalese climbers, Chhiji Nurbu Sherpa, is no longer with us. “We are extremely saddened to express the demise of our managing director”, the company “Highlight Expeditions” announced yesterday on Facebook: “He was one of the top climbers accomplishing 13 out of the 14 x 8000m summits.” The expedition operator did not mention the cause of death. Chhiji Nurbu turned 40 years old. He leaves behind a wife, a son and a daughter.
Felix Berg in the Hunza Valley in northern Pakistan
“I have a less queasy feeling than when I book a seven-day hut tour in the Alps, knowing that I will meet different people every day,” Felix Berg, who I reach by phone in the small town of Karimabad in the Hunza Valley in northern Pakistan, tells me. The 39-year-old German professional mountaineer, working for the operator Summit Climb, leads the first foreign expedition team to Pakistan since the outbreak of the corona pandemic. The governments of the European Union continue to warn “against unnecessary tourist trips to Pakistan”. Berg considers this to be exaggerated and points out that Pakistan is no longer on the list of countries with an increased risk of infection in the non-EU country Switzerland.
The fall mountaineering season in Nepal can – if at all – only start later. According to unanimous reports in the Nepalese media, the government in Kathmandu postponed the reopening for flights to and within Nepal until 1 September at the earliest. The reason was the increasing number of infections with the coronavirus, it was said. So far (as of 11 August), more than 23,000 cases have been registered in the Himalayan state, 83 people have died of COVID-19. The number of unreported cases is likely to be significantly higher.
The international mountaineering scene is shocked. Doug Scott, the living legend of climbing in the Himalayas and the Karakoram, is terminally ill with brain cancer. The 79-year-old Englishman has an inoperable cerebral lymphoma, the “Sunday Times” reported this weekend, referring to Scott’s wife Patricia. Doug received the diagnosis on the first day of the corona lockdown in Great Britain in mid-March, according to the Times. Since then, he has been staying on the ground floor of his house in the Lake District of Cumbria County.
Mountaineers on the 7000er Putha Hiunchuli in Nepal
Mingma Gyalje Sherpa is fed up. He doesn’t want to wait any longer for the government in Kathmandu to get going. The head of the Nepalese operator Imagine Nepal canceled the expeditions to the eight-thousanders Manaslu and Dhaulagiri planned for this fall season. “The Nepal government ended a three months lockdown without proper planning and resulted in a rapid increase of corona cases in Nepal,” Mingma explained his decision on Facebook. “The international airport will be opened from 17 August 2020 but there is no guideline prepared yet. We are still not sure if it is obligatory to stay 14 days in quarantine or not.”
When they reached Everest Base Camp, Julie and Chris Smith had a sip of Scotch whisky. Apart from the couple from Scotland, their two children – the nine-year-old daughter Erihn and the four-year-old son Jacob – and their Nepalese companions Kevin Sherpa and Dhanku Rai, nobody else was then at this point at almost 5,400 meters, the destination of one of the most popular trekking routes in the world.
The corona pandemic had made the hike of the Scottish Smith family an exclusive adventure. Julie, Chris and their children had been stuck in Lukla for three months before the lockdown in Nepal was eased a bit and Kevin Sherpa could organize the necessary papers for the family to continue their trek.
Everest trek after three months in lockdown
Jacob and Erihn marvel at the Khumbu Glacier
When they had just started their trekking tour to Everest Base Camp in the village of Salleri in the Solukhumbu mid-March, the pandemic reached the Himalayan state: The government of Nepal imposed a lockdown. The Smiths hiked on to Lukla, which was their final destination until the end of June. Then they were allowed to continue their trip
About one year ago, at the end of July 2019, the family from Aberdeen had set off for their lifetime trip which had finally taken them to Nepal via Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, the Middle East and India. In their Facebook blog “Clan Wander” the Smiths have been reporting about their adventures.
Meanwhile, 46-year-old Julie, her 41-year-old husband Chris and the two children are on their way back from Everest Base Camp through the Khumbu region. They also made a side trip to the Gokyo valley. I have reached the couple from Scotland by email.
Julie and Chris, when the lockdown was announced, most foreign tourists tried to return to Kathmandu as soon as possible to fly back home. Why didn’t you do it that way?
