Same mountain, different wall, same fate. The Nepalese seven-thousander Langtang Lirung, on which Slovak climber Ondrej Húserka recently died, recalled the tragedy of fifteen years ago. The sad main actor in 2009 was the Slovenian Tomaž Humar.
Photo: ČTK / AP /
Slovenian climber Tomaž Humar in northern Pakistan.
The story of both climbers is a little different, but the main difference was in the very composition of the expedition. While Húserk was accompanied by Czech veteran Marek Holeček on the east wall, Humar tried to climb the south wall alone.
Humar was a climbing loner with a reputation as a self-confident soloist. He preferred to conquer the most famous peaks of the Himalayas alone, at most as a member of really small teams.
With this, he built a huge name in the climbing community. When he climbed the south face of the world’s seventh highest mountain, Dhaulagiri, in 1999, the legendary Reinhold Messner also paid him a tribute.
Of course, the negative side of his solo outings was the huge risk involved in every expedition. In 2005, he wanted to conquer Nanga Parbat by climbing the Rupál wall, but he got surrounded by avalanches and snow overhangs.
He survived by taking refuge in an ice cave, from where he communicated with rescuers for six days until a Pakistani army helicopter found him.
But his luck ran out during the fateful expedition in November 2009. That’s when he called from the south face of Langtang Lirung to his Sherpa Jagat, who was waiting for him at the base camp.
A voice over the walkie-talkie announced bad news. The Slovenian reported that he had an accident at an altitude of about 6,300 meters, he probably has a broken leg, ribs and spine and pleaded for quick rescue. At the time, the forty-year-old adventurer was seriously worried that he would die this time.
The next morning, Humar called again. “Jagat, this is my last…” came a faint voice on the walkie-talkie and then the connection went dead. The climber did not speak after that.
The rescue team could not fly to the site until the next day. The helicopter at an altitude of 6300 meters did not discover anyone, and it ended the same way the next day. Then the weather worsened and the search became more complicated.
The body of the Slovenian alpinist was not discovered until the fifth day, but seven hundred meters lower, as Humar reported on the radio.
Whether the miscalculation caused the shock after the fall, or whether Humar tried to save himself and fell again in the process, remains a mystery.
As well as what actually caused the fatal accident on the south wall. The climber left behind a wife and two children.
“He simply loved climbing, that mystical connection with the mountains. In Slovenia, he was in constant contact with people, had many duties, deadlines he had to meet, took care of his family.
Then he liked to escape to the mountains for a few weeks, where he wanted to be alone. It was part of his personality,” Canadian writer Bernadette McDonald wrote about him in her biography.
Source: sportweb.pravda.sk
