What comes to mind when someone says, Mt Everest? A majestic mountain, the highest peak in the world, snow, deadly and steep glaciers, dangerous terrain and perhaps also a sense of achievement - remember the 66-year-old woman from Hyderabad who trekked to the Everest base camp?
The mountain means a lot of things to a lot of people. But while it still holds the air of being majestic, trekking up to the top of the world is no longer a ‘rare’ feat.
Money, time, a little training, a group and good guides can get you up to the highest peak in the world even without any mountaineering experience. For professional mountaineers, it has made it quite difficult to achieve truly notable feats on this peak and they are looking for various ways to make the trek worthwhile to their experience of Mt Everest.
Now, a German mountaineer is trying to up the ante by taking the routes avoided by climbers throughout history to make the ascent possible.
WHO IS JOST KOBUSCH AND WHAT IS HE TRYING TO ACHIEVE?
Jost Kobusch is a 29-year-old German mountaineer who’s currently on Mt Everest at a time when no one dares to be. He is the only person for miles around in difficult mountain terrain with a 29,031-foot challenge to complete.
Kobusch is attempting to scale Mt Everest
He's doing all the things climbers avoid while making the ascent to Mt Everest.
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Imagine being all alone on the unwelcoming, unpredictable, and impossibly cold terrain of Mt Everest. It is exciting and at the same time scary. Temperatures here can drop to nearly -62 degrees Celsius.
If Kobusch succeeds in his feat, he will leave a mark on the history of scaling Everest.
HOW IS KOBUSCH PLANNING THE TREK?
Jost Kobusch plans to trek to the top of Everest through the most unpopular route called the West Ridge. 98% of the climbers often prefer to take two other common routes.
Kobusch doesn't intend to achieve the feat of reaching Mt Everest peak in the peculiar conditions this year itself. The plan is to complete the ascent next winter. This winter, Jost Kobusch wants to make the ascent till Hornbein Couloir, a narrow and steep gully made of snow, rock and ice. It is located at 8,000 meters or 26,247 feet.
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“If I can go higher I would like to, but I would be happy to reach 8,000 meters. Nobody has even had a look at the couloir in winter. Maybe it will be impossible to climb it. It’s a journey into the unknown,” he told the New York Times.
In January 2020, Kobusch had managed to reach the height of 24,167 feet or 7,366 meters before turning around. The goal this year is higher.
HOW DIFFICULT IS THE TREK?
To be clear, only a handful of people have scaled the Everest all alone, but they undertook the trek during more manageable summer months, unlike Kobusch who’s attempting it during winter.
During regular times, climbers have to be wary of avalanches coming their way, steep glaciers that can result in an accidental and fatal fall, frostbite and several other extreme weather conditions.
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To understand the difficulty level better, American mountaineer Cory Richards was reported by Climbing.com saying that climbing Everest in spring by the normal route (South Col) is itself a difficult feat without supplemental oxygen.
The risk is immense and goes without saying a risk to life. Jost Kobusch is not the only mountaineer to have tried to achieve the Mt Everest ascent through the routes less taken.
Swiss climber Ueli Steck tried to climb to Everest via the West Ridge without supplementary oxygen in 2017. He attempted the feat not during the winter but during the more moderate April month. Unfortunately, he died when trying to acclimatise for the attempt. Reports said Steck likely suffered an accident and slipped on the Nuptse wall and died.
The West Ridge is also infamous for having been the cause of more deaths than ascents in the past.
It needs to be seen whether Kobusch is able to achieve this feat that no one has ever been able to. If he does, he will witness Mt Everest during a period no one ever has.