extreme athlete
Mission Everest: Wind affects German extreme mountaineer
Mountaineer Jost Kobusch (undated photo). Photo: Daniel Hug/Jost Kobusch /dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
From Borgholzhausen to the Himalayas: mountaineer Jost Kobusch wants to scale Mount Everest without oxygen bottles. But the weather is currently thwarting his plans.
The German extreme mountaineer Jost Kobusch has a big, dangerous goal: he wants to be the first person to climb the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, all alone, in winter, when it is coldest and windiest, and without oxygen bottles.
The 29-year-old, who originally comes from Borgholzhausen near Bielefeld, reported that he was already at the eight-thousander in the Himalayas, but just couldn’t climb it. The wind is simply too strong. Wind speeds of up to 250 km/h prevailed at the summit.
“Of course it’s frustrating to sit down here in the base camp and wait instead of going up, but safety comes first,” he told the German Press Agency, adding with a view to the current situation: “The goal is not the summit, but to survive.” During an attempt to climb it stormed so hard that his tent was completely shredded when he was in it. “I could be really glad that I didn’t fly down with the tent like on the magic carpet.”
Waiting for more favorable weather
Kobusch had already tried his difficult mission two years ago, shortly before Corona – and according to his own statements made it to 7350 meters. So far this time he has made it to 6450 meters and he does not know whether there will be another favorable weather window for the highest possible ascent before the end of winter at the end of February. “It’s really extreme this time and as a result I’ve made less progress than I had hoped.”
But he doesn’t want to give up. It irritates him not to know whether his project is even possible. For him it is a long-term project. He hopes to be able to reach the 8,848.86 meter peak, alone and without artificial oxygen, at some point in the winter. According to the Ministry of Tourism of Nepal, he is currently the only climber on Mount Everest.
According to the «Himalayan Database» expedition archive, only one Sherpa has made it to the top in winter without oxygen, but not alone. Ang Rita Sherpa, who died in 2020, was traveling with a group of Korean mountaineers in the winter of 1987/88. He made it to the top with one of them, but he had artificial oxygen with him.