Topic: Mountain climber Tomaz Humar dies during solo attempt on Himalayan peak (Read 9232 times)

admin · « **on:** November 16, 2009 »

The body of the Slovenian mountaineer recognised as one of the greatest climbers of the modern era has been brought to Kathmandu after he died while making a daredevil solo attempt on a treacherous Himalayan peak.

Tomaz Humar, 40, went missing on the south face of Langtang Lirung, a notoriously dangerous 7,234 m (23,700 ft) mountain in northern Nepal last week. A single distress message was received by his support team on Tuesday, when he made a satellite phone call to warn them that he had been seriously injured and feared he would not live.

"I have broken my back and leg,” he said. “I am afraid it will be difficult for a helicopter to locate me. My pulse is weak and I think I am going to die.” He added: "This is my last ..." before the phone link was broken.

Humar was married with two children.

Dawa Sherpa, who had been coordinating the failed rescue effort, said that Humar had fallen during the climb and broken his spine and leg. He was climbing alone, with no guides or porters.

His body was discovered on Saturday, during an aerial search of the mountain, which is situated north of Kathmandu and close to the border with Tibet. Bad weather, an avalanche alert and the belief that Humar was higher up the mountain than he was had foiled earlier attempts by local sherpa guides flown in to locate the mountaineer. His family was waiting in Kathmandu to receive his body.

Humar shot to fame in 1999 after he achieved the first solo ascent of the vast south face of Dhaulagiri, the world's seventh-highest mountain and rated one of the very deadliest.

Dhaulagiri, in central Nepal, has a 40 per cent fatality rate for those who try to reach its peak. The route Humar took, which traversed massive vertical slabs of rock and ice, was the equivalent of scaling eight Empire State buildings stacked on top of each other, at an altitude where there is less than half the oxygen than at sea level.

The task Humar set himself had been regarded by many of his peers as near-suicidal. His success won him international fame and the adoration of his countrymen while securing his reputation as one of the world's finest and bravest mountaineers.

Among those to laud him was Reinhold Messner, the first man to climb the world's 14 8,000-metre peaks. He said that the Slovakian was the greatest climber of the modern era. The Slovenian journalist Matija Grah, who had covered Humar's career, said that he had “climbed the peaks others had avoided”. Viki Groselj, a fellow Slovenian mountaineer, said that Humar “was a supreme climber who moved the boundaries of possible ... He had an amazing gift and amazing strength.''

Humar’s antics had seen him flirt with death before. In 2005, he found himself pinned on a tiny snow ledge about one-third of the way up the Rupal Face of the 26,657-foot Nanga Parbat – a peak known as the “Killer Mountain” in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

After six days in a snow cave he was rescued by two Pakistan Army helicopter pilots, who were later decorated with Slovenia's highest award for bravery.

After the rescue, Humar "fell on his knees since he could barely walk from exhaustion," his own website reported at the time. "They laid him on the sleeping bag, he cried, hugged everyone around him and kept thanking the (helicopter) crew."

His worst injury came when he fell backwards into a hole while building a new house. He severely injured both legs and doctors thought that he would never walk again, but within two years, he returned to mountaineering. He made 1,500 ascents in total, 70 of which had never been tried before.

His daredevil style summed up the evolution of climbing, experts said. In the1950s, mountaineers would set out in large teams, laden down with bottled oxygen and other heavy equipment. In the 1980s these “siege tactics” were abandoned for “fast and light” alpine-style ascents. The transition was driven by pioneers such as Messner and the Pole Jerzy Kukuczka. The new methods of climbing were refined further by mountaineers including Jean-Christophe Lafaille, Pierre Beghin, and Humar. Of those, only Messner is still alive.

Source:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6917896.ece

chris · « **Reply #1 on:** November 16, 2009 »

bad luck chap.

although it does really make me want to get out there and see the world.

MG1 · « **Reply #2 on:** November 17, 2009 »

Bad death poor guy was missing for a few days. God only knows how long he lay there before he died.

ulsterwalker · « **Reply #3 on:** November 18, 2009 »

Had read that he was missing on OM, pity he didn't make it back this time, what a guy.

At least he was doing something he loved, no matter what the circumstances were.

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Author Topic: Mountain climber Tomaz Humar dies during solo attempt on Himalayan peak (Read 9232 times)

admin

Mountain climber Tomaz Humar dies during solo attempt on Himalayan peak

chris

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MG1

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ulsterwalker

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