![]() ![]() ![]() Pictures Adrian Ballinger took during his trip up K2. ![]() The route which 43-year-old Ballinger picked combined both technical rock as well as ice climbing and also required going through something called the Bottleneck, an hourglass-shaped gully with about 50 degrees of steepness. Prior to that final ascent by Ballinger, Perez and the other three members of their team (two Nepali Sherpas and one Ecuadorian guide), they had spent the better part of July climbing on the mountain, getting to know the route and acclimatizing (the process of building red blood cells so you can survive at progressively higher altitudes). We were pretty determined to stay and to try to be patient and just give things time. Notice: Undefined index: sfsi_tiktok_display in /home/“And 170 or so of them left in that third week of July when conditions looked really dangerous on the mountain with really high avalanche conditions. Notice: Undefined index: sfsi_fbmessenger_display in /home/www/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-social-media-icons/libs/controllers/sfsi_frontpopUp.php on line 271 Notice: Undefined index: sfsi_reddit_display in /home/www/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-social-media-icons/libs/controllers/sfsi_frontpopUp.php on line 274 Notice: Undefined index: sfsi_snapchat_display in /home/www/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-social-media-icons/libs/controllers/sfsi_frontpopUp.php on line 277 Notice: Undefined index: sfsi_mastodon_display in /home/www/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-social-media-icons/libs/controllers/sfsi_frontpopUp.php on line 268 Notice: Undefined index: sfsi_mastodonIcon_order in /home/www/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-social-media-icons/libs/controllers/sfsi_frontpopUp.php on line 175 Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial W ere you at the limit in the summit area of K2, possibly even beyond it? You also save weight and are more flexible on the mountain if, for example, there are delays on the ascent or descent. On K2, I didn’t want to leave this question unanswered for me. Since then, I’ve been wondering if I could have done it. In 2017 on Everest, I didn’t have the opportunity to try an ascent without bottled oxygen due to my prior agreement with the expedition operator, although I felt very well during the acclimatization phase and would have liked to try it without it. When did you decide to attempt K2 without breathing mask and what were your reasons for doing so?įor me it was clear from the start that I wanted to attempt K2 without bottled oxygen. And I am still amazed at how few female expedition mountaineers there are still in Germany and around the world – there were probably only about 30 women worldwide on the top of K2 so far.Īs on Broad Peak, you were climbing without bottled oxygen. I guess I compensate a little for what I missed in my childhood in Bielefeld. When she returned from Pakistan, she answered my questions.Īnja, first German woman on the K2 – how does this feel for a mountaineer whose roots lie in Bielefeld, which is just 118 meters above sea level? There she works in the management of a Swiss telecommunications company. And she has planned another adventure for this year: She wants to reach the South Pole on skis, from the Antarctic coast.Īnja Blacha grew up in Bielefeld in North Rhine-Westphalia. At the beginning of July, Blacha had already scaled the neighbouring eight-thousander Broad Peak (8,051 m) without reathing mask. But she will always be the first German woman to scale the second highest mountain on earth: Almost two weeks ago, on 25 July, the now 29-year-old stood on the 8611-meter-high summit of K2 – without bottled oxygen. At the age of 26 she was the youngest German woman to reach the highest point on earth. In the same year she had also summited Mount Everest, from the Tibetan north side, with bottled oxygen. By the end of 2017, Anja had completed her collection with the ascent of Mount Vinson in Antarctica, 4,897 meters high. At the beginning of 2015, she scaled the 6,962-meter-high Aconcagua in South America, her first of the “Seven Summits”, the highest mountains of all continents. Only in 2012, at the age of 22, did Anja Blacha buy her first mountain boots for a holiday trip to Iceland. She is a late bloomer as climber, but one who then hit the ground running. ![]()
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