David Göttler Archive - Adventure Mountain

5. February 20205. February 2020

Göttler and Barmasse: New route on Cho Oyu or plan B?

Hervé Barmasse (r.) and David Göttler in Nepal in fall 2019

Is the other one the perfect climbing partner? Yes, answer both the 41-year-old German high-altitude climber David Göttler and the 42-year-old Italian Hervé Barmasse. “We complement each other super well,” says David. “We train more or less the same way, we have almost the same fitness, we move as fast as is necessary on eight-thousanders,” says Hervé. “Sometimes we have discussions, but that’s quite normal.” In questions of mountaineering ethics, Barmasse is “sometimes even more blatant than I am”, says Göttler: “I accept fixed ropes here and there where it makes sense. He is more rigorous in this respect and says: We don’t do that.”

Fast, clean, without bottled oxygen

Therefore, Hervé reports, he did not accompany David to Everest. In spring 2019, Göttler had tried in vain to scale the highest mountain on earth without bottled oxygen – via the normal route secured with fixed ropes. “I think that for the next generation of the best alpinists, it is no longer just about reaching the summit of Everest or any other mountain, but about respecting the mountain, respecting our planet,” says Barmasse. “That’s why I want to climb clean, in Alpine style.” On the whole, he agrees with Göttler on this point: They want to be en route on the eight-thousanders fast, in a clean style, without breathing mask. This also applies to their next project.

10. June 201910. June 2019

Revol used bottled oxygen on Everest

Elisabeth Revol is not one of those professional climber who constantly informs the public about their plans and then share their adventures in real time. When her sponsor Valandre announced on 23 May that the 39-year-old Frenchwoman had scaled Mount Everest without bottled oxygen, hardly anyone knew that she was on the highest mountain on earth. One day later she also reached the summit of Lhotse.

Last Saturday Valandre rowed back. Because Revol was already pre-acclimatized to an altitude of 8,400 meters, it had been “in error” assumed that she had not used bottled oxygen on Everest, the company said.

25. May 201925. May 2019

David Göttler on Everest debate: “Pretending to be surprised is gimmickry”

Some pictures say more than a thousand words. Like that shot of Nepalese mountaineer Nirmal Purja from the crowded summit ridge of Mount Everest, which has been making headlines worldwide since the 36-year-old published the picture last Wednesday in the social media (see below). More than 300 people reached the highest point on earth on that day, among them Nirmal, who this spring scaled six eight-thousanders within four weeks as part of his project “Mission Possible” (all 14 eight-thousanders in seven months) – with bottled oxygen, via the normal routes.

Nirmal’s picture might even have opened the eyes of people who have no idea of mountaineering to the fact that such traffic jams in the death zone must simply be life-threatening. Today, two more deaths have been reported from Everest: On Friday a 56-year-old Irishman died on the Tibetan north side of the mountain, on Saturday a 44-year-old Briton on the Nepalese south side, both obviously of high altitude sickness. Ten people have already died this season on the world’s highest mountain.

Bad weather, too many people

The German professional climber David Göttler had – as reported – tried on Thursday to reach the summit of Everest from the south without bottled oxygen. Below the South Summit, the 40-year-old turned around, on the one hand because the weather was getting worse, on the other hand because a lot of people came down from above and he feared traffic jams like on Wednesday. David left Everest Base Camp today. Beforehand he answered my questions.

David, you were on Everest without bottled oxygen at 8,650 meters, which is higher than the second highest mountain on earth, K2. How does that sound in your ears?

24. May 201925. May 2019

David Göttler turns around at 8,650 meters on Everest

David Göttler during his summit attempt (with a moisture mask to keep some humity in his breath)

“I didn’t make it to the summit of Everest, but I still had a pretty special day,” writes David Göttler on Facebook after his failed summit attempt without bottled oxygen. On Thursday, the 40-year-old German professional climber turned around at 8,650 meters. On the same day, he descended to Camp 2 at 6,600 meters, today to Everest Base Camp.

“Waiting is no option”

David informs me that he left the South Col at 2.30 a.m. local time, i.e. relatively late – on the one hand to avoid most of the summit candidates, on the other hand to use the warmth of the sunlight. If you don’t use bottled oxygen, you have to climb fast, because your body cools down much quicker. David writes that his tactics “worked really well until just below the South Summit: there, the weather started closing in and I ran into all those people coming down.” That’s why he decided to turn around, says Göttler: “Waiting and wasting energy is not an option up there without supplemental oxygen.”

17. May 201921. May 2019

David Göttler: “Without bottled oxygen you are a bit of exotic”

David Göttler above Camp 3 in the Lhotse flank

On Mount Everest, the first two deaths of the spring season are to be mourned. Today an Indian mountaineer was found dead in his tent at the South Col at 7,900 meters, apparently he had died of high altitude sickness during the night. He had reached the 8,850-meter-high summit on Thursday. Meanwhile the search for a 39-year-old Irishman, who has been missing since yesterday, was stopped. During the descent from the highest point he had slipped and fallen from an altitude of about 8,300 meters into depth. There is no hope any more to find him alive. The wind in the summit area has refreshed and makes a further search impossible for the time being.

During the first good weather window of the season, more than 100 climbers reached the summit of Everest, obviously all of them used bottled oxygen. Last year, according to the mountaineering chronicle “Himalayan Database”, among 802 climbers standing on the roof of the world, only one was successful without breathing mask: 32-year-old Sonam Finju Sherpa.

Also this spring only very, very few climbers tackle the mountain without bottled oxygen. One of them is – as reported – the German professional mountaineer David Göttler. The 40-year-old has completed his acclimatization and is now waiting in Everest Base Camp for a favourable time for his summit attempt without breathing mask.

David, there are aerial photos circulating from Everest Base Camp. It doesn’t look like a camp, but like a tent city. How is it to live there?

18. April 201918. April 2019

David Göttler will try Everest without bottled oxygen

It could be another record season on Mount Everest. Until last Tuesday, the Ministry of Tourism in Kathmandu alone issued 374 climbing permits for the south side of the world’s highest mountain. On the north side, the Chinese-Tibetan authorities have limited the number of climbing permits to 300 this spring. Last year, according to the mountaineering chronicle “Himalayan Database”, 802 climbers reached the summit at 8,850 meters, only one without bottled oxygen: 32-year-old Sonam Finju Sherpa.

This season, too, only a few mountaineers will try to scale Everest without breathing mask. One of them will be David Göttler, who arrived in Kathmandu today. “Nowadays many people think it’s easy because there’s no differentiation between oxygen aspirants and the few without,” the 40-year-old German. “But to make it to the top ‘without diving equipment’ is still not easy. Everything has to fit. And so it would also mean an awful lot to me to reach the summit.”