Henry Todd may not have been the greatest climber of his time, but he was undoubtedly an original.
“As an expedition leader, mountaineer and later an oxygen provider to climbers, Henry was a pillar of the Himalayan climbing community,” writes German mountaineer, journalist, and chronicler Billi Bierling in her obituary in the Himalayan Times. “He supported countless people across Nepal and Pakistan, making it possible for many to fulfil the dream of standing on the world’s highest peaks.”
Todd died last Monday in his adopted home of Kathmandu at the age of 80 – from a stroke after undergoing heart surgery a few days earlier.
Seven people died in an avalanche on Yalung Ri in Nepal
“Nature is unpredictable and is becoming increasingly so,” mountaineering legend Reinhold Messner told the SouthTyrolean internet portal altoadige.it: “It has changed radically and has also become more dangerous due to climate change, which has led to a rise in temperatures, making the mountains and glaciers much more fragile and unstable.”
In recent days, there have been avalanches in both the Alps and the Himalayas, resulting in numerous fatalities.
Classic alpinism is alive and well! For me, this is evident in the fact that I can hardly keep up with reporting on all the extraordinary climbs this fall season in Nepal.
The Russian team opened a “new alpine-style route on the immense, uncharted Southwest Face,” Anna wrote on Facebook. Andrey sent her a short message from the highest point: “(We) Made the summit, just got back to the tent. It was brutal. The wind up there was insane.”
Hervé Barmasse, Felix Berg, and Adam Bieleki (from right to left) at the summit of Numbur
Once again, there has been a great achievement of true alpinism in the Himalayas in Nepal: by “the three Bs.”
Felix Berg from Germany, Hervé Barmasse from Italy, and Adam Bielecki from Poland opened a new route through the approximately 1,000-meter-high South Face of the rarely climbed 6,958-meter-high Numbur in the Rolwaling Valley, not far from Mount Everest – and they did it alpine style: without bottled oxygen, without fixed ropes, without fixed high camps, and without Sherpa support.
“For me personally, it was nice to be able to do some alpine climbing again after recently being busy leading and guiding (commercial) tours,” says Felix Berg, managing director of expedition operatur SummitClimb. “I have to say, it’s one of my highlight tours in Nepal.”
The first ascent of the 7,468-meter-high Jannu East is “undoubtedly the greatest achievement of my mountaineering career,” said the 33-year-old Frenchman after his coup in eastern Nepal, which he accomplished together with his 27-year-old compatriot Nicolas Jean.
“Climbing such a challenging, long and difficult face in alpine style, on a summit that had never been climbed before, had a profound effect on me. It was a dream that Nicolas and I achieved together.” When they reached the highest point, tears flowed, said Benjamin.
I must admit that I have almost given up trying to keep track of who has climbed how many eight-thousanders, when, and in what style.
There are now so many commercial expeditions that it is – at least for me – hardly possible to keep track of them all and verify their success stories, which are mostly published on social media. The periods in which paying clients of commercial operators “tick off” the 14 eight-thousanders are also getting shorter and shorter. Therefore, I make no claim to completeness.
It took her three and a half years to achieve the feat. Cho Oyu was Afsaneh’s third eight-thousander this year, after Kangchenjunga in spring and Dhaulagiri in fall.
Benjamin Vedrines (l.) and Nicolas Jean on the summit of Anidesh Chuli
French climbers Benjamin Vedrines and Nicolas Jean have filled in a blank spot on the map of high mountains. The strong duo climbed the 6,808-meter-high Anidesh Chuli in eastern Nepal, not far from the eight-thousander Kangchenjunga, in one day – in alpine style, i.e. without bottled oxygen, without fixed high camps, without fixed ropes, and without Sherpa support.
This means that the Spaniard is now listed in the record books as the oldest person ever to stand on an eight-thousander. He replaces Japanese climber Yuichiro Miura, who climbed Mount Everest in 2013 at the age of 80 – for the third time in his life.
All good things come in threes, people say. On his third attempt, Andrzej Bargiel succeeded in scaling Mount Everest without bottled oxygen and skiing from the summit back down to base camp. “It’s one of the most important milestones in my sports career. Skiing down Everest without oxygen was a dream that had been growing inside me for years,” said the Pole.
He had abandoned his first attempt in fall 2019 because a monster serac around 50 meters high and 30 meters wide was hanging over the Khumbu Icefall and threatening to break off. His second attempt ended in fall 2022 at the South Col at almost 8,000 meters, where the wind was so strong that it was impossible to pitch a tent.
Mount Everest (before sunrise, seen from Gokyo Ri)
The final stop was at around 7,400 meters. After almost ten hours of climbing, Tyler Andrews decided to abandon his speed attempt on Mount Everest and descend again. “Slower pace than planned, snow has gotten worse and harder to break through solo,” it said on his website.
The 35-year-old long-distance runner from the USA wants to climb Everest without bottled oxygen – and faster than anyone has ever done before. The current record for reaching the summit without a breathing mask from the Nepalese south side is 20 hours and 24 minutes, claimed in 1998 by Nepalese mountaineer Kaji Sherpa.
The first reports of success from the 8,163-meter-high Manaslu are trickling in. On Sunday, the six-member Nepalese rope-fixing team – consisting of mountaineers Chhiring Bhote, Pasang Sherpa, Hira Bhote, Tashi Sherpa, Karma Sharki Sherpa, and Lakpa Sherpa – secured the normal route to the highest point and at the same time ensured the first summit successes of the fall season on Nepal’s eight-thousanders.
On Monday and Tuesday, the first commercial clients, accompanied by Nepalese mountaineers, also reached the summit of the eighth highest mountain on earth. Today, the Nepalese tour operator Seven Summit Treks alone reported that 17 clients and 17 Nepalese Climbing Sherpas had reached the top.
Ski mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel (2022 at Mount Everest)
“I’m drawn to Everest,” said Andrzej Bargiel in an interview with his sponsor Red Bull. “Partly out of curiosity, I want to see how my body copes at such altitude. And also because, although this place doesn’t have the best PR, there are moments, like autumn, when it’s peaceful and you can work there independently – without all the commotion.”
The 37-year-old Polish ski mountaineer set off for Nepal this week with eight companions to achieve his big goal on his third attempt: to climb the 8,849-meter summit of Mount Everest without bottled oxygen and ski down from there to base camp.
Bargiel abandoned his first attempt in fall 2019 because a monster serac around 50 meters high and 30 meters wide was hanging over the Khumbu Icefall and threatening to break off. His second attempt ended in fall 2022 at the South Col at just under 8,000 meters, where the wind was so strong that Andrzej and his companion Janusz Golab couldn’t even pitch their tent.
The eight-thousander Broad Peak in Pakistan (in 2004)
“Two days ago, above base camp, Ismail Akbarov from Azerbaijan was hit by a stone. This was his first ascent, and it also marked the end of his expedition. The impact damaged his tibia so that he had to be flown by helicopter to Skardu,” wrote Lukasz Supergan from Poland, who is attempting the 8,051-meter-high Broad Peak in the Karakoram in Pakistan this summer, on Instagram yesterday. He himself decided to start in the middle of the night rather than in the morning so as not to kick rocks loose and endanger those climbing below him.
Not only from Broad Peak, but also frp, neighboring K2 and the other eight-thousanders in Pakistan, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II and Nanga Parbat, exceptionally dry conditions on the mountain are currently reported, accompanied by an increased risk of falling rocks. The usual precipitation has largely failed to materialize so far. Nevertheless, light snowfall is expected in the Karakoram in the coming days.
View from the helicopter cockpit of the Western Cwm (Lhotse in the background)
“I can’t tell you how many missions I’ve flown per day. It’s not the numbers that are important to me, but the quality of the missions.” This statement says a lot about Maurizio Folini‘s character.
The 59-year-old Italian is not only a helicopter pilot with heart and soul, but also a passionate mountain rescuer. Folini has been flying regular missions on the world’s highest mountains since 2011. In 2013, he achieved the highest helicopter rescue of all time on Mount Everest when he transported a Nepalese mountaineer down from 7,800 meters on a longline.
This Everest spring season, he has once again used his aircraft from the Nepalese company Kailash Helicopter Services to rescue many climbers suffering from high altitude sick from the mountain. “I flew a lot of missions in total. There were days when I landed six to eight times at Camp 2 (at 6,400 meters). On other days, I flew less,” says Maurizio.
A week ago today, German mountaineer Anja Blacha experienced something on Mount Everest that is now a rarity: she had the summit all to herself – because she was the last summit contender of the spring season to reach the highest point on earth at 8,849 meters and was on her way without a Sherpa companion. One day later, the Icefall Doctors declared the season over and began dismantling the ropes and ladders through the dangerous Khumbu Icefall above Everest Base Camp. This deprived Anja of the chance to attempt the neighboring 8,516-meter-high Lhotse without bottled oxygen.
So be it, Blacha can be pleased to be the first German mountaineer and only the eleventh woman in the world to have stood on Mount Everest without a breathing mask. A remarkable achievement that stands out from the almost 800 Everest ascents this spring.
This means that she has climbed twelve of the 14 eight-thousanders – in commercial teams, on the normal routes – without supplemental oxygen. Only Lhotse and Shishapangma in Tibet are still missing from her collection of eight-thousanders. After her safe return from the mountain, Anja Blacha answered my questions.
Anja, first of all, congratulations on your ascent of Everest without bottled oxygen. It was your third summit success on Mount Everest, and you used a breathing mask on the first two. How did you experience the difference – with/without additional oxygen?
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