Fin avril Ueli Steck et David Goettler sont partis pour le Népal en vue d’ouvrir une nouvelle voie en face Sud du Shisha Pangma.
Durant les deux premières semaines, ils se sont acclimatés dans la vallée du Khumbu. Ils ont réalisé le parcours entre Chuckung et Namchebazar, via les cols Kongma La, Cho La et Renjo La.
Un total de 58 kilomètres et 3169m de dénivelé avalé en 12h47min pour ensuitre gravir l’Island Peak depuis Chuckung
Au shisha, ils ont tenté deux itinéraires mais les mauvaises conditions météo n’ont pas permis de parvenir au sommet.
Contents, ils pensent avoir vraiment profité de la montagne et passé de bons moments
Message de Ueli :
‘Without one full day of good weather we still climbed a lot. David and I climbed the Girona Route up to 7800 meters followed by the British Route to 7600m. Both in a single push up and down. It was interesting to see what it takes to climb in bad conditions on such a huge face. Until now I always climbed single pushes on 8000 meter Peaks, and in ideal conditions and weather. This time we were forced to climb in difficult conditions. Both times we went as far as we could in terms of taking risk and staying safe. Unfortunately we did not have a whole day of good weather the entire trip, instead we had daily strong winds or precip. Not ideal for climbing 8000 peaks. In one way, you always like to reach the summit, but on the other hand we climbed a lot and we are coming back with a huge amount of experience! Thanks to David for such a great trip. It feels great to know we pushed ourselves and at least tried to climb! If I look back on the last two months, we simply had a great time. Climbing Island Peak from Chukhung, running the 3 Passes in a day, and finally doing laps on a 8000 meter Peak! I look forward to the next trip with David. We definitely reached our goal this trip: come back stronger!’