Nepal
Successful German mountaineer found dead in the Himalayas
There is snow on the top of Kangchenjunga. The well-known mountaineer Luis Stitzinger was found dead there. photo
© Indranil Aditya/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press/dpa
The experienced mountain and ski guide Luis Stitzinger was alone on the third highest mountain in the world. He has been missing since Thursday. Now there is a sad certainty.
The well-known mountaineer Luis Stitzinger from the Allgäu is dead. His body was found on the third highest mountain in the world, the eight-thousander Kangchenjunga in the Himalayas, said the Nepalese official Khimlal Gautam, who is responsible for the mountaineering season, the German Press Agency on Tuesday.
The experienced mountain and ski guide Stitzinger has been missing since last Thursday. The 54-year-old from Füssen had previously been alone on the 8,586-meter-high mountain on the border between India and Nepal.
Body found at 28,000 feet
Stitzinger’s body was found at an altitude of 8,400 meters and was brought down by five Sherpas, said Mingma Sherpa, head of the expedition company Seven Summit Treks, which organized Stitzinger’s expedition, according to the local “Himalayan Times”. Accordingly, Stitzinger was traveling without artificial oxygen.
Stitzinger is particularly known as a “big mountain skier”. According to his own statements, the extreme athlete has already skied on seven eight-thousanders. On his tours he was sometimes accompanied by his wife Alix von Melle, who is also a mountaineer. Together they published the book “Passion for Life: Together on the highest mountains in the world”. The description of the book says: “Luis felt at home in the mountains even as a child; the experienced mountain guide and expedition leader crowns ascents with spectacular ski descents. Worrying about each other often puts relationships to the test.”
The German mountaineer Billi Bierling, who lives in Kathmandu, said on Tuesday evening in the BR “Abendschau” that Stitzinger was a very experienced and careful mountaineer. After 22 hours at high altitude, without bottled oxygen and with his own luggage, he was probably very exhausted. One can only speculate about what exactly happened.