Summit success Archive - Adventure Mountain

16. October 202528. October 2025

Jim Morrison completes first ski descent of Mount Everest’s north face

The North Face of Mount Everest (in spring 2005)

When I close my eyes and think back to the North Face of Mount Everest 20 years ago, I see the so-called Supercouloir in front of me. The Japanese Couloir in the lower section and the Hornbein Couloir further up run through the wall like a straight line. An aesthetic line, a route that seems almost logical even to amateurs like me. And yet so steep, demanding, and dangerous.

In 2005, I was traveling as a reporter with Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Ralf Dujmovits, and Hirotaka Takeuchi, and I admired the Supercouloir for weeks from the Advanced Base Camp on the Central Rongbuk Glacier. The trio’s attempt to climb this route failed at the time due to conditions in the lower part of the wall.

Skill and luck

The fact that ski mountaineer Jim Morrison skied down this combination of two couloirs yesterday and survived unscathed borders on a minor miracle in my opinion.

“When I finally crossed the bergschrund [crevasse between the base of the wall and the glacier], I cried,” Morrison told a reporter from his sponsor National Geographic. “I’d risked so much, but I was alive.” The 50-year-old must realize that, despite all his skiing skill, he also needed luck – and got it.

15. October 202515. October 2025

Summit success reported from the north side of Mount Everest

North Face of Mount Everest (in spring 2005)

On the Tibetan north side of Mount Everest, several members of the team led by American ski mountaineer Jim Morrison have apparently reached the summit at 8,849 meters today. This was reported by the Nepalese internet portal “The Tourism Times,” citing sources close to the expedition. The mountaineers climbed through the Hornbein Couloir, it said. There is no other source for this information as yet.

According to this information, Morrison planned to ski down from the highest point through the couloir on the North Face of Everest. With his project, he wanted to commemorate his partner Hilaree Nelson, who fell to her death in fall 2022 while attempting a joint descent from the summit of Manaslu, according to The Tourism Times. It is not yet known whether Morrison was able to carry out his plan.

25. September 202511. November 2025

Andrzej Bargiel successfully climbs Everest and skis down – without oxygen mask

Andrzej Bargiel raises his arm in greeting back at Everest Base Camp — Andrzej Bargiel back at Everest Base Camp

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 2 0 22 at the South Col at almost 8,000 meters, where the wind was so strong that it was impossible to pitch a tent.

3. July 20253. July 2025

David Göttler after success on Nanga Parbat: “Highlight of my mountaineering career”

David Göttler (r.) with French ski mountaineers Tiphaine Duperier (l.) and Boris Langenstein on the summit of Nanga Parbat

Even after returning to his home in Spain, David Göttler still seems to be floating on cloud nine. “It will probably take a month before the euphoria subsides and I can realize it all,” the 46-year-old German climber tells me.

On Tuesday last week, Göttler – together with French female climber Tiphaine Duperier and her compatriot Boris Langenstein – scaled the 8,125-meter-high Nanga Parbat in Pakistan.

It was only the eighth ascent of the mountain via the challenging Schell route. An Austrian expedition led by Hanns Schell first climbed this route to the summit of Nanga Parbat in 1976. It leads via a pillar on the left side of the Rupal flank to the almost 7,000-meter-high col between the Mazeno Ridge and the Southwest Ridge. At 7,400 meters, the route changes to the Diamir side.

27. May 202528. May 2025

Breaking news: Anja Blacha is the first German woman to scale Mount Everest without bottled oxygen

“At the moment, I see it above all as an unbalanced combination of numbers.” That was Anja Blacha’s answer a week and a half ago when I asked her what it meant to her that she had climbed eleven of her twelve eight-thousanders without bottled oxygen. Now she has provided a balanced combination of numbers.

The 34-year-old German adventurer also scaled Mount Everest today without a breathing mask. “She was all alone on the summit,” Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, head of the expedition operator Imagine Nepal, informed me at around 8.30 a.m. Central European Summer Time. According to Mingma, Blacha had climbed to the highest point on earth without bottled oxygen and without a Sherpa companion.

21. May 202523. May 2025

Furtenbach team reaches the summit of Mount Everest in five days – thanks to xenon preparation

Lukas Furtenbach and his team at the base camp at the foot of Mount Everest will soon be popping champagne corks. The four Britons Garth Miller, Alistair Carns, Anthony Stazicker and Kevin Godlington reached the highest point on earth at 8,849 meters today (with bottled oxygen and Sherpa support) – five days after setting off from London last Friday. Furtenbach Adventures announced this in its Instagram story.

The Brits arrived at Everest Base Camp (EBC) by helicopter on Saturday and left for high camp that evening with a strong Sherpa team. They are expected back at base camp today or tomorrow morning at the latest and will return home on Friday, Lukas writes to me from EBC. The goal: to be back in London within seven days.

Regardless of how you think about it, Furtenbach’s controversial experiment to radically shorten the time for an Everest expedition by using xenon for pre-acclimatization was a success. Provided, of course, that nothing happens to his clients on the descent.

9. May 20259. May 2025

First summit success of the spring on Mount Everest

Mount Everest (before sunrise, seen from Gokyo Ri)

The job is done. Today at around 5 p.m. local time, the seven-member fixed rope team of the operator 8K Expeditions reached the summit of Mount Everest at 8,849 meters. Tsering Pemba Sherpa, Ashok Lama, Pem Nurbu Sherpa, Tashi Sherpa, Karma Gyaljen Sherpa, Tashi Gyalzen Sherpa and Pas Tenzi Sherpa secured the route to the highest point with ropes, the company announced. The route is now officially open on Everest.

8. May 20258. May 2025

Rope-fixing team on Lhotse summit – rescue from Everest South Summit

Sunrise over Mount Everest and Lhotse (r.) in fall 2019 — Sunrise over Mount Everest and Lhotse (r.) – in fall 2019

The first summit success of the spring season on Lhotse, the fourth highest peak in the world, is perfect. “Lhotse summit route is officially open,” announced Nepalese operator 8K Expeditions in its Instagram story. The five-member rope-fixing team – consisting of Pasang Tenje Sherpa, Migma Dorjee Sherpa, Lakpa Sherpa, Ming Dawa Sherpa and Pas Rinzi Sherpa – reached the highest point at 8,516 meters today at 5.40 pm, the company announced.

For this season, 8K Expeditions had been commissioned to secure the normal routes on Mount Everest and the neighboring Lhotse from Camp 2 (6,400 m) in the Western Cwm, the “Valley of Silence”, to the summits with ropes for all commercial teams. The Icefall Doctors are responsible for the route from base camp through the Khumbu Icefall up to Camp 2.

6. April 20256. April 2025

Summit success reported on Annapurna I

Annapurna massif — Northwestern view of Annapurna (the main summit on the left)

The first summit success of the spring season on Nepal’s eight-thousanders is achieved. The expedition operator Imagine Nepal announced that the Nepalese mountaineers Dipan Gurung and Phinjo Dorjee Sherpa, together with their Chinese client Zhao Yiyi, had reached the 8,091-meter-high summit of Annapurna I in western Nepal today. According to the company, it was not an easy summit success.