Industry News
After losing 9 fingers to Everest during 5 attempts to summit in 6 years, would you give up on your Everest dreams? Even if you now had to attempt the mountain solo and without supplemental oxygen? Nobukazu Kuriki is not giving up and it’s a risky move.
Nobu is the only climber to attempt Everest this year due to the devastating earthquake that caused an avalanche that killed 18 people at Everest base camp in April. It was the worst ever disaster in Everest history narrowly beating out the avalanche the previous year that killed 15 people on Everest.
“I realized if I kept going, I wouldn’t be able to come back alive. It took too much time to move in deep, deep snow.” – Nobu told CNN on Monday
Nobu posted on Facebook on Monday saying that he’d left his high camp at 24,000-feet and was headed down to base camp at 17,000-feet.
Now, according to the Telegraph, Nobu is planning on staying and doing one more summit push.
“He is staying at Base Camp for a few days but will try again for the summit starting October 1. He is in good physical condition and experienced no major problems on the climb.” – Tikaram Gurung, managing director of Bochi-Bochi Trek, the company in charge of the expedition, told AFP, according to the Telegraph
Nobu had a 6-person team who accompanied him to Camp 2 (20,000-feet) on his summit push in September. His summit push in October will be solo and without supplemental oxygen and during the Autumn when winds can be vicious and temperatures can be brutally cold.
One finger, solo, no supplemental oxygen, in October… This is the definition of pushing it.
Sounds like a very risky maneuver to many, but this guy is obviously hell-bound to summit. If losing 9 fingers doesn’t detour you, not much else will.
