Sad March Summary
Thursday, 29 March 2012 19:43

Since March 9th Austrian climber Gerfried Göschl (39), Swiss climber Cedric Hählen (30) and Pakistani climber Nisar Hussain (36) are missing on Gasherbrum I. It would be the loss of three great climbers indeed! Gerfried ascended seven different 8000ers, one of them was Everest without supplementary oxygen. Cedric summited K2, Kangchenjunga and Broad Peak Foresummit and also Gasherbrum II East from China. And Nisar climbed all five Pakistani 8000ers plus three repetitions of Gasherbrum II and two repetitions of Gasherbrum I. While Gerfried's home team gave up hope two weeks ago, Cedric's home team is still hoping for a miracle.

In the beginning of March there already was a big tragedy on Elbrus. Ukrainian lady climber Maria (Masha) Khitrikova died there only 21 years young. Last year she was only the fifth lady climber and also the youngest person, who summited Gasherbrums II and I in a single season (GII 22.07. and GI 04.08.).

On March 20th Lincoln Hall died in Australia, aged 56. In 1983 he summited a rarely ascended high mountain, Annapurna II (7937 m) and in 2006 he survived Everest after he was in trouble on descent and was already declared dead.

Report

The only cheerful note on the 8000ers in March 2012 is the first winter ascent of Gasherbrum I by Polish climbers Adam Bielecki and Janusz Gołąb on March 9th.