Another sad news from the eight-thousanders: Richard Hidalgo, one of South America’s most famous climbers, has died on Makalu. Sherpas of the Nepalese expedition operator “Seven Summit Treks”, who had been fixing ropes on the fifth highest mountain in the world, found the 52-year-old Peruvian dead in his tent in Camp 2 at 6,600 meters. Hidalgo had set himself the goal of climbing all 14 eight-thousanders without bottled oxygen by 2021 – the year in which Peru will celebrate the 200th anniversary of independence.
Five times failed on Everest
The mountain guide already had six 8000er summit successes without breathing mask on his account: On Cho Oyu (in 2007), Manaslu (2011), Annapurna (2012), Shishapangma (2014), Gasherbrum II (2015) and Broad Peak (2017). Hidalgo failed five times in attempts to climb Mount Everest without bottled oxygen: three times on the Tibetan north side of the mountain (2009, 2010, 2017), twice on the Nepalese south side (2013, 2016). Three times he reached an altitude of about 8,400 meters.
“That is what climbing is all about: sometimes you come down, sometimes you don’t,” Richard said in 2009 in an interview with the “Peruvian Times”. And in 2018, he quoted on Twitter from the song “Falsos Maestros” of the Peruvian group Laguna Pai: “And every step is a challenge and every breath a blessing … When I walk, I find myself, when I walk, I learn to fly.” Fly high!
