Historic No-Oxygen Climbing Team Returns to Nepal 40 Years Later.

While the teams up in Everest Base Camp and on other mountains in the Himalaya continue to get settled in for the climbing season ahead, an historic reunion was taking place in Kathmandu. That’s where the surviving members of the first team to summit Everest without the use of bottled oxygen joined one another to celebrate their achievement 40 years after they changed the paradigms of mountaineering forever.

The expedition took place back in 1978 and consisted of 12 members, of which 8 are still alive. They include mountaineering legends Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler, as well as their support team consisting of Wolfgang Nairz, Helmut Hagner, Hanns Schell, Robert Schauer, Oswald Ölz and Raimund Margreiter. The four members of the squad who have since passed include Horst Bergmann, Josl Knoll, Reinhard Karl and Franz Oppurg.

40 years ago when this team gathered on Everest to attempt to climb the world’s highest mountain without the use of oxygen, the thought of going to the summit without wearing a mask and oxygen tank was pretty much unthinkable. It was thought at the time that man simply couldn’t exist at those altitudes without bringing their own oxygen supply. The entire team proved this theory to be wrong by putting Messner and Habeler on the summit without using supplemental O’s.

Messner has long been a proponent of climbing under the “fairest means” possible, which to him means leaving the oxygen tanks behind. He also laments the commercialization of Everest in general, calling the current state of affairs on the mountain “tourism,” and not climbing.

During the 1978 expedition, most of the climbers did summit, although Messner and Habeler were the only ones to do it without oxygen. Then successfully topped out on May 8. Bergmann, Schauer and Wolfgang climbed Mt Everest on May 3 while Ölz and Karl stood atop the peak on May 11, with Oppurg following along on May 14. Margreiter, Hagner and Schell were forced to turn back due to poor weather, while Knoll abandoned his attempt when his oxygen mask stopped working.

The entire team – now all in their 70’s – is currently traveling in the Khumbu Valley where they are visiting some hospitals damaged in the 2017 earthquake. They’ll also spread the ashes of famed mountaineer Norman Dyhenfurth who passed away at the age of 99 last year, before attending a special function held in their honor by the Nepal Mountaineering Association back in Kathmandu.

A major salute to this group of men from The Adventure Blog. They truly changed the way we see high altitude mountaineering and pushed the envelope in terms of what humans can do in the big mountains.

Autor : Kraig Becker

* source: – Historic No-Oxygen Climbing Team Returns to Nepal 40 Years Later

** see also: – Trekking – posts on my site :

– Trekking in Nepal Himalaya : GOKYO, KALA PATTAR and EVEREST BASE CAMP TREK (19 days).

– Everest Base Camp – CLASSIC treks. / Version polish and english /

– Trekking in Nepal Himalaya : EVEREST HIGH VALLEY – Travel Guide. /Version english/

Everest and K2 in the Winter by alanarnette.com.

Recommended by us…. amazing website …

Everest and K2 in the Winter.

Will there be a winter summit of Everest and finally on K2 this winter? This is always a question as we approach winter. And teams usually keep their plans quiet. The recent suspects include Alex Txikon on Everest and the Poles on K2.

To claim a true winter ascent of a northern hemisphere peak, the summit must be reached during the calendar winter of the northern hemisphere. For 2017/18 this begins with the winter solstice on December 21, 2017 at 11:28 am EST and ends with the spring equinox on March 201, 2018 at 12:15 pm EDT.

Also to be fully certified as a winter ascent, not only the summit has to be reached within the winter calendar, but the start of the expedition cannot be before winter solstice either. Practically this means that the Base Camp must be reached after the winter solstice.

8000ers in Winter

As this table shows, Polish climbers have dominated first winter ascents of the 8000 meter peaks.

Peak	First Winter ascent	First Winter summiter(s)
Everest	17 Feb 1980	Krzysztof Wielicki Leszek Cichy
Manaslu	12 Jan 1984	Maciej Berbeka Ryszard Gajewski
Dhaulagiri I	21 Jan 1985	Andrzej Czok Jerzy Kukuczka
Cho Oyu	12 Feb 1985	Maciej Berbeka Maciej Pawlikowski
Kangchenjunga	11 Jan 1986	Krzysztof Wielicki Jerzy Kukuczka
Annapurna I	3 Feb 1987	Jerzy Kukuczka Artur Hajzer
Lhotse	31 Dec 1988	Krzysztof Wielicki
Shishapangma	14 Jan 2005	Piotr Morawski Simone Moro
Makalu	9 Feb 2009	Simone Moro Denis Urubko
Gasherbrum II	2 Feb 2011	Simone Moro Denis Urubko Cory Richards
Gasherbrum I	9 Mar 2012	Adam Bielecki Janusz Gołąb
Broad Peak	5 Mar 2013	Maciej Berbeka Adam Bielecki Tomasz Kowalski Artur Małek
Nanga Parbat	26 Feb 2016	Simone Moro Muhammad Ali Sadpara Alex Txikon
K2

source: Wikipedia

K2 This Winter?

Of course, K2 remains the only 8000er not summited in winter. Last year, Nanga Parbat succumbed to the team of Alex Txikon, Ali Sadpara, Simone Moro, and Tamara Lunger. It took 31 winter attempts before summiting Nanga in winter.

Now on K2, Krzysztof Wielicki, 67, who was in the first team to scale Everest in winter in 1980 will lead the Polish K2 attempt this winter.

Funding had been a problem but it appears they have received $275,000 from the Polish Ministry of Sport and Tourism according to this article.

They will be a team of 10 but only four will be on the “summit team.” They will climb in traditional siege style establishing several camps along the route. Of course weather is the primary concern as K2 is always hit with high winds but in winter the jet stream tends to sit on top of it with 200 mph winds and experience heavy snowfall.

The team is scheduled to include: Janusz Goląb, 50, with a Gasherbum I ascent, Artur Małek, who made the first winter ascent of Broad Peak, Marcin Kaczkan, K2 in the winter of 2002/03 to 7,600m and summited K2 and Nanga Parbat in the summer, plus Marek Chmielarski, summits of Gasherbrum II and Broad Peak.

Other team members include Rafał Fronia (Lhotse and Gasherbrum II), Piotr Tomala (Broad Peak and Cho Oyu), Dariusz Załuski (filmmaker / climbed five 8,000-metre peaks) and doctor Krzysztof Wranicz.

They are not sure which route they will take but it most likely will be either the Abruzzi or the Česen.

See this post for a nice overview of K2 winter attempts. But these are the highlights from Gripped:

• 1980 Reconnaissance: Pol Andrzej Zawada and Canadian-resident Polish national Jaques Olek
• 1987/88 Attempt: 13 Poles, 7 Canadians and 4 Brits / made to Camp 3
• 2002/03 Attempt: 14 climbers from Poland, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Georgia / made Camp 4
• 2011/12 Attempt: 9 climbers from Russia / made Camp 2
• 2014/15 Near Attempt: Denis Urubko and team lost permit

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything

* source: – Everest and K2 in the Winter

** see also – Polish Team Prepares for Winter Ascent of K2.

Reinhold Messner on the Future of Climbing Everest.

Italian climbing legend Reinhold Messner has weighed in on the current state of affairs on Everest, and where mountaineering on the world’s highest peak is headed, and as usual his thoughts are quite fascinating. Messner recently spoke with The Diplomat about these subjects and more, bringing his years of vast experience and knowledge to the table. In his typical style, the iconic climber doesn’t mince too many words.

In the interview, Messner talks about the crowded conditions on Everest, and the guided climbs to the summit that are now very different than when he made his famous ascents on the mountain. In describing what it is like there, the Italian says that it is not alpinism but is instead tourism. A very different game than previous generations. He also says that with the path more well prepared and set out for the climbers to follow, the sense of adventure and exploration is gone. It is simply a guided trip to the top of the world.

The Italian also discusses the growing sense of resentment amongst Sherpas and how that has led to more locally owned trekking and climbing companies in Nepal. Those companies are able to offer less expensive trips into the mountain, and as a result they are slowly but surely eroding the business of foreign operators. That will have a dramatic impact on the future of climbing on Everest. Those same Sherpa are also now very experienced and talented mountaineers in their own right, and no longer need to follow the foreign climbers up the slopes.

Messner goes on to touch on the dangers of climbing the mountain, the fact that no one listens to the danger signs until it is too late, and the fact that so man inexperienced climbers are traveling to the Himalaya. He also talks about his relationship to Buddhism and his hopes for a free and autonomous Tibet, amongst other topics.

Most of what Messner talks about isn’t especially new, and anyone who follows the climbing scene on Everest probably is aware of the things that are going on there. Still, it is always interesting to hear a man of his prominence and stature share his opinion on where mountaineering was, where its at now, and where it is heading. Check out the full text of the interview here.

Autor : Kraig Becker

* source: –Reinhold Messner on the Future of Climbing Everest

** see also: – https://himalman.wordpress.com/category/travel/