News
Mondinelli makes history: north and south sides without oxygen
(27.05.2010)LHASA, Tibet – The second European after thirty years to climb Everest from both sides without oxygen. Only eight people in the world have accomplished this feat. Silvio Mondinelli has recently entered history with his recent climb of Everest. But from base camp, the climber says: "We did it because we stayed together. We waited for each other and we got to the summit together, leaving the last few metres to Michelino and Marco because they were climbing for the first time. Gerlinde was an important part too, we definitely couldn’t give up if she was up ahead!" Here are the comments and stories from his Montagna.tv interview.
Mondinelli, a comment on the spur of the moment...
We’re a great team: oldies and youngsters, all together on the peak. Now we’re at base camp, we’re all fine and we’re very happy. Some of us have had a shower already, or drunk some mineral water, or are tidying themselves up and having a shave... You need to do that because when you come down from the summit, you don’t know who you are anymore, a bit because of the altitude and a bit because you haven’t eaten or drunk for days.
How was the ascent?
It was hard. Going up, at camp 3, we slept in a broken tent with poles made out of ski sticks. The weather was pretty bad but luckily enough, the temperature was quite high and it wasn’t too cold. Kari Kobler’s expedition was there, heading for the summit, so we tried. It was a success.
Hard, but from camp 3 you wrote that eating an apple, you felt like you were in heaven...
Yes... what can I say? It’s the small things that make life good. We don’t need Ferraris or yachts.
Did you all summit together?
Yes and that was the best part. We all waited for each other. For the last few metres, we sent Michelino and Marco ahead, the "youngsters" who had never climbed Everest. It was special for them. It’s a shame the weather wasn’t nicer. All we photographed were 4 flags in the ground, on the peak. But that’s alright.
And was Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner with you?
Yes. She really is a war machine. She was lucky to find us and we were lucky to find her: otherwise, she would have been on her own, but having her with us encouraged us. When it was hard and maybe you thought about giving up, the fact she was there kept you going, it made you say: no, I can’t give up, there’s a woman with us! No, I’m joking. But we were lucky, even if the descent was not nice.
Problems?
There were some ugly moments coming down. We hit a really strong blizzard for an hour and when you’ve got no energy, it’s hard. But we stuck together. Abele, wise man that he is, who kept us calm for a couple of months, before setting out from camp 3 said: “If we stick together, then the summit is ours". That’s what saved us. But do you know what else is bad? We’ve already forgotten all that effort...
So are you ready for another summit?
Eh, yes... you forget them so quickly that you are ready to set off again right away, even if your body is stressed. On the summit, you cry, you hug and you don’t care about anything else. Now I don’t know what Abele is going to do, he was planning to go to Annapurna... if he does, he must have a great head on his shoulders, a great will, because after two months here, it isn’t easy to try another eight-thousander.
Do you know that you entered the history books with yesterday’s summit? Only eight people have climbed Everest from both sides without oxygen.
Really? I didn’t know... in any case, record or not, I think we are an unpretentious group and that’s what counts. Without going into it too far, the other night we set off, even if conditions were harsh. For a few days, we had been thinking of giving up, we’d been waiting such a long time. But we held on, thinking that it was stupid to go home after we’d spent two months waiting for good weather.
And you managed it...
We were lucky, because it wasn’t cold and also because of our training, our mindset, but we have always been unpretentious and our actions have spoken louder than our words. Summiting Everest without oxygen is not easy. It takes a lot of things. There was a group from Valle d’Aosta, including Marco’s wife, doing the holy tour of Kailash. Did you know, they crawl along to pray? Well we told them to crawl twice a day for us; perhaps this is because of them too...
A lot has been said about the 13-year-old, Jordan Romero, who summited Everest. Your son is the same age. What do you think about this?
Marc Batard was also there, trying to beat the record in I don’t know how many hours, but he turned back. I haven’t met the boy but I have already told my son that if he starts climbing mountains, he’ll have me to deal with... No, seriously. Generally speaking, I think records are a good thing because they raise the bar. But a 13-year-old kid on top of Everest... I don’t know what that means. I wouldn’t want my son to reach the summit just for that reason.
The record?
Yes. Mountains are not just about records: it’s great to summit, take pictures, and be with friends but it isn’t a competition. It is about following the rules though, about worrying about the environment, about knowing how to manage your body. That makes it a great experience. Look at Abele, he could have gone to Annapurna, where everyone finished the 14 eight-thousanders and instead he decided to come back here and not use oxygen. He took Marco and I took Michelino... or Michelino took me – I’m not sure how it went. Anyway, we have lots of people to thank, starting with Kari Kobler, who has helped us in this period, making forecasts and putting us up in his tents. There is a lot of work, by many people behind the scenes. Even the people who gave us money; I don’t like the work sponsor, they are people who helped us reach the summit and without them, we wouldn’t be here.
News of Mondinelli’s record comes from the archives of Eberhard Jurgalski, who has reconstructed the story of the men who have climbed Everest from the north and south sides, without oxygen. The first was Messner, who summited from the South in 1978 and the North in 1980. Then there was Australian climber Timothy Macartney-Snape, Nepalese Ang Rita Sherpa and Lhakpa Dorje III, Kazakh Anatolii Boukreev, American Ed Viesturs and Ecuadorian Ivan Vallejo.
