German challenges Everest in winter, alone and without supplemental oxygen

by

The tattered remains of the orange tent sway in the wind. A rope hangs, alone, from a rock wall 100 meters high. The sound of the “crampons” (metal structure with some points, attached to the sole of the shoe for better locomotion) creaking in the snow and ice breaks the silence.

Only one backpack appears, and it belongs to Jost Kobusch, the German who at the moment deserves to be described as the loneliest climber on the planet.

Kobusch is on Mount Everest in the dead of winter, trying to climb the highest mountain on the planet during a season when hardly anyone dares to risk a climb.

There is no one visible for many kilometers, only Kobusch and his 8,848-meter high challenge: becoming the first person to climb Everest alone, in winter, and without supplemental oxygen.

In a WhatsApp chat from Nepal, Kobusch described the surreal solitude of the landscape: “You have to imagine this: There’s only one tent at base camp,” he said. His, of course. The climber coughed into the phone. The frigid air, which in winter can drop to minus 62 degrees Celsius at the top of the mountain, has been hard on your lungs.

If successful, Kobusch, 29, will engrave his name in Everest climbing history, and in a high-profile position. Even the climber admits that the success of the endeavor is not guaranteed, but his attempt reflects an impulse to leave a mark on the most famous mountain on the planet.

Since Edmund Hillary and his mountain guide (“sherpa”) Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the top of Mount Everest in 1953, records show that more than 6,000 climbers have reached the summit.

These days, it has become fashionable to seek some form of specific primacy on the mountain — the oldest NFL player to reach the top, or the dinner held at the highest altitude — making truly remarkable feats on Everest increasingly rare. .

“It’s becoming more and more difficult to do anything spectacular on the 8,000-meter peaks, because so much has already been done, especially on Everest,” said Bill Bierling, executive director of the Himalayan Database.

But reaching the summit of any of the planet’s 14 8,000-metre or higher mountains in the dead of winter, battling the merciless cold and hurricane-force winds, remains a monumental feat. K2, the second-highest peak on the planet, had yet to climb to its summit during winter when, last year, it succumbed to a Nepalese team led by Nirmal Purja, known as Nims, and Mingma G.

K2 may be colder than Everest in winter, but Purja, who is leading an expedition in Antarctica, stated via email that, “in terms of a winter perspective, removing all assistance and making the attempt with only a small team , Everest would be much more difficult and dangerous, because it is almost 9,000 meters”.

Krzysztof Wielicki, now 72, climbed Everest for the first time in winter on February 17, 1980, accompanied by fellow Pole Leszek Cichy, after a team made up of a total of 16 climbers battled their way up the mountain during two months.

“You have to be able to bear suffering. It’s the art of suffering,” said Wielicki, from her home in southern Poland.

Including Wielicki and Cichy, only 15 people reached the top of Everest in the meteorological winter (which begins December 1), a period when winds on the mountain can reach speeds of 320 km/h. All climbed with partners, and only one, Ang Rita, in 1987, completed the ascent without supplemental oxygen.

Kobusch, with his penchant for solitary and daring climbs, is trying to set an even tougher standard.

Not only is he climbing alone and in the winter, without supplemental oxygen, he is trying to reach the summit of Everest via West Ridge, a far more formidable route than the two most common routes used by nearly 98% of climbers who reached the top so far.

Kobusch will face sheer walls, blue ice as hard as metal and as high as church spiers, and a final gorge – the Hornbein Couloir – filled with ice, rocks and snow, in a part of the mountain few people have visited.

“Doing a route in the winter that has been done before is another way to do something for the first time,” said Bierling. “What Jost is trying is very technically challenging, and he’s doing it all by himself. If he gets to the summit, he’ll be stepping in the same place all previous climbers have. a completely different path.”

Climbing Everest alone is nothing new for Kobusch, but a continuation of the style that characterizes him. In 2016, after he climbed Annapurna I (8,091 meters) alone, the climber decided he would set out in search of an even more monastic and remote experience.

“There were other people climbing the mountain on the same day,” he said of Annapurna. “But I kept looking for areas that hadn’t been cleared.”

In 2017, he found what he was looking for. Kobusch climbed Nangpai Gosum I (7,351 meters), which at the time was the fourth highest peak among the unclimbed peaks on the planet. “Next, I went looking for something unexplored on the 8,000-meter peaks, looking for the biggest and most difficult project I could think of,” he said. “And the answer was pretty obvious. Everest.”

This is Kobusch’s second attempt to climb Everest’s West Ridge solo, and in the winter, after an initial attempt in the 2019/2020 season. In that attempt, he reached an elevation of 7,366 meters before abandoning the climb. In both cases, his solitary experiences were completely different from the conventional Everest climbs that other people know.

In spring, Everest Base Camp becomes a bustling village and stretches nearly two kilometers along the Khumbu Glacier. In 2021, the base camp population was over 1,000 people.

The mountain itself also offers nothing new. In 2019, in the last climbing season unaffected by the coronavirus pandemic, there were more than 1,240 people above base camp, according to the Himalayan Database.

It’s “basically a highway,” congested with climbers, said Bierling, who climbed Everest in 2009. Climbers on commercial expeditions receive the mountain on a tray, line up to cross crevices in the ice via aluminum ladders installed by teams of Sherpas. at Khumbu Icefall and use fixed climbing ropes spread across the mountain.

Sherpa guides set up tents for their clients in the higher camps and sometimes even position sleeping bags for them inside the tents. And nearly every climber uses supplemental oxygen, even while sleeping.

Kobusch has none of those things. He’s installed short ropes, a total of about 170 meters of them, on some of the steeper slopes and ice steps, but other than that, he’s climbing solo, and unsupported. In contrast, in the spring there are more than three kilometers of ropes installed in the Khumbu Icefall alone, a treacherous area of ​​ice floes the size of houses and apartment buildings, before Camp 1.

Kobusch chose to climb West Ridge in part because he feels that traveling alone through Khumbu Icefall, which the route he has chosen allows him to avoid, might be too dangerous. But the climber also chose the route for aesthetic reasons.

“For a true climber, West Ridge is a prettier line,” Kobusch said. “Much harder, but straighter. The South Col route, which most people use, sort of goes through the back of the mountain. The route I’m using is a really straight line.”

The highest point Kobusch reached this year was 6,455 meters on January 4 – a GPS tracker lets you track your progress. If he makes it to 8,000 meters, he will be at Hornbein Couloir, which could prove to be the most difficult part of the ascent. The region consists of a 500-meter long, narrow and steep snow tongue that divides the rocky north face of the mountain.

Americans Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld made the first ascent via Hornbein Couloir in May 1963. In nearly 59 years since then, only five expeditions have taken this route.

“Looking back, while we were clearly very determined and determined, we were also pretty damn lucky,” said Hornbein, 91, from his home in Estes Park, Colorado. “Jost seems like a very sensible guy and he’s playing his cards with some caution. But it remains an immensely big risk. It’s not a satisfaction guaranteed or your money back situation.”

Wielicki agrees. “I think his odds are 50/50 if he’s lucky. If he gets a good weather window, what he’s trying is possible. But you have to be lucky – and luck is hard in winter.”

Kobusch acknowledges that his odds of success are low and that a third expedition may be needed next winter.

“Going higher is what I’d like to do, but for me reaching 8,000 meters would be a bliss,” he said. “No one has been able to observe that ‘couloir’ in winter until now. It’s a journey into the unknown.”

Kobusch insists he doesn’t think about the historic nature of his endeavor, or what it would mean to have his name included in the ranks of pioneers like Hornbein, Wielicki and Purja.

“I go there to do what I feel I need to do,” Kobusch said. “But when I’m on the mountain, I don’t let my mind wander too much. I always have a steady flow and a deep focus.”

Source: Folha

You May Also Like

Recommended for you