Since Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler, who succeeded in 1978 for the first time, only about a hundred climbers have managed to climb Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world at 8,848 meters, without bottled oxygen. It is even more difficult to reach the summit of Mount Everest in winter when strong storms often lash around the mountain and the temperatures in the summit area reach minus 50 degrees. In 1980 the Poles Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy made it for the first time and since then only a handful of other mountaineers. In winter, alone, without bottled oxygen and wanting to climb Mount Everest on a route that is rarely used because it is difficult, that not only requires a good portion of imagination, but also the ability to suffer and the willingness to take risks.

First and foremost, it takes chutzpah to even get this idea out loud. Jost Kobusch, 29 years old, did that in 2019. And he did not allow himself to be dissuaded from the plan when he was shaken his head in mountaineering circles and was blasphemed in ignorance about the "whiskers". Reinhold Messner recently called Kobusch unflattering a “world champion in announcing”. A few days ago he replied in an interview with the “Nepali Times”: “What Kobusch does is PR. He said he only had a one percent chance. If so, he'd better stay in the Alps, do small things there successfully or climb the challenging six or seven thousand meter peaks. ”In a way, this criticism is also an accolade. Messner took notice of Kobusch.However, the criticism is not entirely unfounded: the PR worked. Mountaineers all over the world are watching what this guy from Germany is doing on Everest.

Oscar nomination for Kobusch

Jost Kobusch grew up in the Teutoburg Forest. Maximum height: 446 meters. He started climbing when he was twelve, it was supposed to free him from his fear of heights. When he stood on the Zugspitze for the first time at the age of 17, he took the train up, as he once confessed in an interview. After graduating from high school, he joined the Bundeswehr mountain troops. After six months he resigned. Mountaineering on orders, that wasn't his. Kobusch prefers to be alone on the mountain. In 2014 he climbed the Ama Dablam (6,814 meters) solo, he was the youngest to do it alone. In 2016 he made it to Annapurna (8091 meters). According to the Himalayan Database expedition archive, Kobusch was only the seventh German to reach the summit of Annapurna. For his ascent he used fixed ropes previously laid by Sherpas.In 2017 he was the first to find his own way to the summit of the 7,296 meter high Nangpai Gosum II, which even earned him a nomination for the renowned Piolet d'Or, the Oscar of mountaineering.

Two years ago, an experienced high-altitude mountaineer puzzled about his current project on Everest: “I don't even know how he wants to get up Lho La.” It begins on the 6006-meter-high pass that forms the border between Nepal and Tibet the west ridge of Mount Everest, over which an ascent option opens up through the Hornbein Couloir in the north face. On his first attempt on Everest in winter 2019/20, Kobusch made it far beyond Lho La, at least up to 7,360 meters. There was still almost 1,500 meters of altitude missing to the summit, but the summit was not his goal on the first attempt. He wanted to try to climb as high as possible, he had announced at the time before leaving for Nepal in autumn 2019. And he wants to gain as much experience as possibleto be able to reach a greater height next time. Mount Everest as a training mountain.

There is no comfort whatsoever

The next attempt now follows two years later.

Kobusch, who has since moved to the French mountaineering town of Chamonix at the foot of Mont Blanc (4807 meters), has reduced his current expedition to the bare minimum because of the better training conditions.

Two years ago he was still on the road with a cook, kitchen helper and more than a ton of luggage, this winter he will forego this convenience.

On the Khumbu Glacier at an altitude of 5,730 meters, where in five months there will be another tent village with around 2000 residents and several helipads, the base camp of the Everest and Lhotse expeditions, there is now only its small yellow dome tent.

Kobusch spends the night there before he climbs up and when he comes back from the mountain.

The GPS tracker he has with him registered an altitude of 6,457 meters on January 4th.

Kobusch informs his followers on Instagram about his progress and the current conditions on the mountain.

“A lot of ice and avalanches fly down here!

So always stay on the left outer edge (there is a column on the right this year) and be quick! ”He wrote a few days ago.

Should that be a warning to him?

The whole idea of ​​a suicide mission?

This winter, Kobusch is aiming for the 8000 mark.

He is currently recovering from the hardships of the past few days in a lodge between the hamlets of Gorak Shep and Lobuche at an altitude of around 5000 meters.

It is his base camp.

He plans to leave there again in the next few days.