Category Archives: Mountaineering

Bodies of three hillwalkers recovered from ridge in Scottish Highlands

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Mountain rescue teams and coastguard helicopters searched for two men and a woman on Aonach Eagach in Glen Coe

The bodies of three hillwalkers have been recovered from a mountainside in the Scottish Highlands after they failed to return from a trek, police have said.

Police Scotland said concerns were raised shortly after 9pm on Saturday when the trio did not return from their walk of the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glen Coe. Coastguard helicopter and mountain rescue teams searched the area and three bodies were found.

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Hiker describes squalid conditions at evacuated Swedish mountain lodge

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Airlifts were carried out from STF Kebnekaise in Lapland on Sunday after a stomach bug outbreak

A hiker has described squalid conditions at a mountain station at the foot of Kebnekaise, Sweden’s highest peak, in the days before it was forced to close due to a stomach bug outbreak.

STF Kebnekaise, a lodge in northern Lapland run by the Swedish tourist association, had to be evacuated on Sunday after attempts to manage cases of stomach sickness through quarantine had failed. The mountain station said on Sunday that it was not known how the outbreak had started.

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Nepali sherpa saves climber in rare Everest ‘death zone’ rescue

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Gelje Sherpa was guiding Chinese client to summit when he saw Malaysian climber clinging to rope

A Malaysian climber narrowly survived after a Nepali sherpa guide hauled him down from below the summit of Mount Everest in a very rare high-altitude rescue, a government official has said.

Gelje Sherpa, 30, was guiding a Chinese client to the 8,849-metre (29,032ft) Everest summit on 18 May when he saw the Malaysian climber clinging to a rope and shivering from extreme cold in the area known as the death zone, where temperatures can dip to -30C or lower.

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German mountaineer Luis Stitzinger found dead near Himalayan peak

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Body found on Mount Kanchenjunga five days after he went missing shortly after reaching summit

A leading German mountaineer and extreme skier has been found dead on the world’s third highest mountain, in the Himalayas, five days after going missing.

The body of Luis Stitzinger was discovered on Tuesday on Mount Kanchenjunga at a height of 8,400 metres, the head Sherpa of the company that organised the climb to find him told the Himalayan Times.

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Climate change to blame for up to 17 deaths on Mount Everest, experts say

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Nepal’s head of tourism says variable weather on the mountain has led to one of the deadliest years on record

Experts say this is likely to be one of the deadliest years on record on Mount Everest, with variable weather caused by climate change being blamed as one of the main reasons for the deaths of up to 17 people.

A total of 12 people have now been confirmed dead during Everest expeditions this season and another five are missing, presumed dead, as no contact has been made for at least five days in all cases, according to the Himalayan Database, which tracks mountain fatalities.

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Spanish climber, 84, injured in bid to be oldest to scale world’s 14 highest peaks

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Carlos Soria forced to abandon ascent of Nepal’s Dhaulagiri, one of two 8,000-metre summits he is still to conquer

An 84-year-old Spanish mountaineer has been forced to abandon his 15th attempt to reach the summit of Nepal’s Dhaulagiri – one of the two “8,000ers” he had left to climb to claim the title of the oldest climber to conquer the world’s 14 highest mountains.

A Sherpa fell on Carlos Soria, injuring his leg, a message posted on his behalf on his Twitter and Facebook accounts said.

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Nepali sherpa scales summit of Mount Everest for record 27th time

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‘Strong climber’ Kami Rita Sherpa beats own record for number of ascents on world’s highest mountain

A Nepali sherpa has scaled Mount Everest for a record 27th time, beating his own record, a government official and his hiking company said.

Kami Rita Sherpa, 53, scaled the 8,849-metre (29,032ft) mountain early on Wednesday morning along the traditional south-east ridge route, guiding a foreign climber.

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Northern Irish man dies and Indian man missing on Annapurna climb in Nepal

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Noel Hanna died during descent of world’s 10th highest mountain, say expedition organisers

A Northern Irish climber has died and an Indian climber is missing after falling into a crevasse in separate incidents on Mount Annapurna, the world’s 10th highest mountain.

Another Indian climber fell ill on the way down from the 8,091-metre (26,540ft) summit but survived after spending the night in harsh conditions on the mountain.

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Avalanche in Indian Himalayas kills at least four with dozens missing

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Indian air force searches for remainder of group consisting of 34 mountaineering trainees and seven instructors

At least four people died and several others were missing in the Indian Himalayas after a group of 41 mountaineers was hit by an avalanche on Tuesday, the mountaineering institute in northern India said.

The group, consisting of 34 mountaineering trainees and seven instructors, was hit by the avalanche at 8.45am local time, the institute said.

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US skier Hilaree Nelson given Sherpa cremation after death in Himalayas

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Friends and family fly in and Buddhist monks light pyre at funeral in Nepal of extreme skier

A famed extreme skier from the United States who was killed after falling from one of the world’s tallest mountains was on Sunday given a traditional funeral at a Sherpa cremation ground.

Buddhist monks officiated at a ceremony attended by family, friends and government officials.

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Body of missing US mountaineer Hilaree Nelson found in Nepal

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Nelson, 49, fell down narrow slope on ski back to camp after scaling Nepali peak of Manaslu with partner

The body of the renowned US big-mountain skier Hilaree Nelson was found on Wednesday morning after she fell down a narrow 5,000ft slope during a trek in the Himalayas two days earlier.

Nelson and her partner, Jim Morrison, had scaled the 26,781ft peak of Manaslu on Monday morning. They reached the summit at 10.42am “in tough conditions”, Morrison wrote in an Instagram post on Wednesday. The pair transitioned from climbing to skiing down to regroup with their sherpa team.

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Hilaree Nelson, famed US mountaineer, missing on Nepal’s Manaslu peak

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Trek organiser says the US climber had an accident on Monday as bad weather hampers rescue efforts

The renowned US big-mountain skier Hilaree Nelson has gone missing on a trek in the Himalayas after apparently falling into a 2,000ft crevasse.

Nelson and her partner, Jim Morrison, had scaled the 26,781ft peak of Manaslu mountain on Monday morning. Jiban Ghimire of Shangri-La Nepal Treks, which organised the expedition, told Outside Magazine that the pair reached the summit at 11:30am local time.

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Kilimanjaro gets high-speed internet so climbers can tweet or Instagram ascent

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Tanzanian minister hails move and says connectivity will also improve safety of porters and visitors

Tanzania has installed high-speed internet services on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, allowing anyone with a smartphone to tweet, Instagram or WhatsApp their ascent up Africa’s highest mountain.

The state-owned Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation set up the broadband network on Tuesday at an altitude of 3,720 metres (12,200ft), with the country’s information minister, Nape Nnauye, calling the event historic.

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Heatwaves put classic Alpine hiking routes off-limits

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Routes that are usually safe at this time of year now face hazards as a result of warmer temperatures

Little snow cover and glaciers melting at an alarming rate in Europe’s heatwaves have put some classic Alpine hiking routes off-limits.

Usually at the height of summer tourists flock to the Alps and seek out well-trodden paths up to some of its peaks. But with warmer temperatures – which scientists say are driven by climate change – speeding up glacier melt and thawing permafrost, routes that are usually safe at this time of year now face hazards such as falling rocks released from the ice.

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New Zealand climbers survive avalanche and blizzard, thanks to snow cave and muesli bars

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The two men were at the end of a three-day trip in The Remarkables above Queenstown when they triggered an avalanche

Two climbers who were buried by an avalanche and then caught in a blizzard atop one of New Zealand’s most famous mountain ranges survived their ordeal by digging themselves out of the snow, building a cave and living off muesli bars.

The two men in their 20s were on a three-day ice climbing adventure in The Remarkables – a 2,300-metre high range above Queenstown – when they triggered an avalanche and were carried about 20 metres downhill.

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Australian mountain climber Matthew Eakin one of two men found dead on K2

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The bodies of two mountaineers, Eakin and Canadian man Richard Cartier, found on the world’s second-highest mountain in Pakistan

An Australian and a Canadian climber have been found dead on K2, with the world’s second-highest mountain in Pakistan claiming at least three lives in recent weeks.

The Himalayan Times identified the Australian mountaineer as Matthew Eakin and the Canadian climber as Richard Cartier, after reports the two had gone missing last week during their descent from Camp 2 to Camp 1.

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British tourists survive avalanche in Tian Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

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The group of 10 people, including nine from UK, managed to take shelter when avalanche struck

Ten people, including nine Britons, are reported to have survived after a huge avalanche swept over them in the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan.

Footage uploaded on Instagram by Harry Shimmin, one of the people on the trekking tour, showed snow starting to break down a mountain in the distance, before sweeping towards them and forcing the group to take cover as the snow went over the top of them.

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Nepali mountaineer Kami Rita Sherpa scales Mount Everest for 26th time, beating own world record

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Fifty-two-year-old used customary route up 8,850-metre mountain while leading 10 other climbers

A Nepali sherpa has scaled Mount Everest for a record 26th time, breaking his own previous record set last year, a government official says.

Kami Rita Sherpa, 52, scaled the 8,849-metre mountain on Saturday along the traditional south-east ridge route leading 10 other Sherpa climbers.

“Kami Rita has broken his own record and established a new world record in climbing,” Taranath Adhikari, director general of the Department of Tourism in the capital of Kathmandu, said on Sunday.

Kami Rita’s wife, who gave her name as Jangmu, said she was happy at her husband’s achievement.

The climbing route used by Kami Rita was pioneered by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepali sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953 and remains the most popular.

This year Nepal has issued 316 permits to climb Everest in the peak season, which runs through May, compared with 408 last year, the highest ever.

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Indian climber dies in summit bid on Mount Kanchenjunga

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The 52-year-old man collapsed in the final stages of climbing the world’s third highest mountain

An Indian climber died has during a summit push on Mount Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest mountain, an official said.

The death is the third to be reported on Nepal Himalayas during the current climbing season which started in March.

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