Mountain climbing | Veikka Gustafsson is one of only four conquerors of all six-tons

On Earth there are fourteen mountains reaching a height of more than eight kilometers, and only a few dozen people have climbed to the top of each of them. He was the first to do the feat Reinhold Messnerperhaps the world’s most famous mountaineer.

This has been believed for a long time, but now these achievements have come into question. German Eberhard Jurgalski has been researching mountain climbing achievements for over 40 years by, among other things, comparing satellite images and climbers’ narratives, photographs and other evidence.

He has ended up in the world of mountaineering to a shocking result. According to Jurgalski and his team, a significant part of the claimed casitonne conquests are either not true or cannot be verified.

According to Jurgalski’s list, only four people – not 44, as has often been claimed in the public – have been verified to have reached all the peaks of more than eight kilometers in the world. They are Edmund Viesturs, Nirmal Purja, Said Sherpa and Veikka Gustafsson. According to Jurgalski’s list, Gustafsson achieved the feat as the second person in the world after his climbing partner Viesturs.

“In a certain sense, this doesn’t change anything, but I got a good feeling that something was done right,” says Gustafsson.

Gustafsson needs to be asked about the issue that the discussion boils down to. When has the mountain been conquered?

“In my opinion, when you have been to the de facto highest point or as high in the immediate vicinity of the peak as it makes sense to go. Some of the peaks are where the wind blows all the time and the wind makes the highest point of the ridge at the top look like the ridge of a house. When the wind blows, a snow cap forms on it. It’s not a very healthy place to stand and wave flags,” Gustafsson replies.

In Gustafsson’s mind, there is no room for interpretation.

“It’s always been clear to me when I can say I’ve been at the top. I haven’t always stood on the top, but I have been on the top, sat or lay on my stomach on it. It has also been clear to me when I haven’t reached the top. There have been those situations as well,” says Gustafsson.

“

“It’s always been clear to me when I can say I’ve been at the top.”

Jurgalski according to studies, the journey to the top is often caught up in the small. For example, Reinhold Messner joined Jurgalski in 1985 on Annapurna, 65 meters away from the actual summit. That means a height difference of five meters.

The thing about those 65 meters is that, according to Jurgalski, Messner didn’t actually conquer all the two-ton ones. It’s a claim that has attracted worldwide attention because Messner is a living legend in mountaineering. He conquered together by Peter Habeler with being the first to climb Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen and the first solo climber.

Climbed Annapurna with Messner in 1985 Hans Kammerlander is of the opinion that a margin of error should be tolerated when determining the mountain peak.

“We were at the top. Visibility was poor and it would have been impossible to see the higher point if there had been one. If Jurgalski claims we weren’t at the highest point, that’s splitting hairs for a theorist that has nothing to do with actual climbing. If you’re standing at the top in snow up to your stomach, you weren’t quite at the top, were you? Childish”, Kammerlander uploaded in the magazine Der Spiegel issue 42/2022.

Jurgalski follows a strict line.

“Only the one who has really been to the highest point has conquered the mountain, and the one who didn’t get there should admit it,” answered Jurgalski.

“

“Only he who has really been to the highest point has conquered the mountain.”

One or two ten meters may sound like an insignificant difference to a person walking at sea level, but those last few meters can be extremely dangerous, arduous and require an extra hour of effort at a height where any delay can cost the climber his life.

On Shishapangma, the 14th highest mountain in the world, the last hundred meters to the top have to be waded on a ridge of snow resembling a house brush, feet on different sides of the edge like riding a horse, a seemingly endless drop under each foot.

A large number of those who aim for Shishapangma prefer not to wade those last hundred meters. Edmund Viesturs also did so in 1993, but returned eight years later and this time went all the way to the top together with Veikka Gustafsson.

Based on satellite images, Jurgalski has revealed that even a couple of thousand climbers have turned down too early on the 8,163-meter-high Manaslu. There are twenty meters left to the real summit, which means a difference in height of four or five meters.

“I remember exactly those 20 meters at Manaslu. I remember when I was on the rope and the guy secured me. It was a weird place, very airy, but it felt great to get there. The top of Manaslu is a rock, it’s not a snowball,” says Gustafsson.

The last minutes of Manaslu’s ascent have been published video, which gives an idea of ​​how tight the last few meters are. At an altitude of more than eight kilometers, in the so-called death zone, a person’s capacity for action and judgment is stretched to the limit.

“It can even be the case that mistakes can go so far that the ability to observe is no longer at its best. There are stories that there is a snow anchor standing at the top, but it could be that someone has stuck it in the wrong place,” says Gustafsson.

According to Jurgalski, in addition to Manaslu, the most common reason for falling short of the true summit is when climbing the southern route of Annapurna, where climbers have typically fallen about a hundred meters away from the true summit. At Dhaulagiri, you typically stay 60–140 meters from the summit, because near the summit, the pole mentioned by Gustafsson is stuck in the snow in the wrong place.

“

“It can even be the case that mistakes can go so far that the ability to observe is no longer at its best.”

Gustafsson welcomes the discussion opened by Jurgalski, because he says that he himself has seen the exaggeration of achievements and has been able to suspect some climbers.

“It’s good that in everything you do, someone shakes the box and the impurities come out. When I was young, it was a huge disappointment when I saw the deliberate deception and lying of a few well-known climbers.”

In the background are eternal human motives.

“When I think about the reasons, fame and honor, the possibility of cheating, lack of control come up. Finally, we come to why we climb. At some point I noticed that fame and honor are not enough motivation. It has to be that we do it together for ourselves and experience it as a group.”

“Different cultures have different pressures to succeed. For Asians, success is a matter of honor, they strive for victory at any cost. Another example is the French extreme culture and mutual competition for money.”

In Gustafsson’s mind, the conversation opened by Jurgalski does not change the importance of Reinhold Messner, even if his list of all two tons falls short of Annapurna by 65 meters.

“It doesn’t make him worse in my eyes or reduce his importance. He is one of the most significant climbers in history. Messner did solo climbs and climbs, but I’ve met him and that doesn’t make him a nicer person either. His attitude is such that, having been there, only I can understand it. When you have put yourself in such a position, you definitely feel like this,” says Gustafsson.

Messner has publicly reacted strongly to Jurgalski’s views.

“If they say that on Annapurna I was five meters from the summit somewhere on that long ridge, that’s perfectly fine. I don’t even defend myself if someone says that what I did is horseshit. Think what you will,” Messner said for the New York Times.

“

“When I think about the reasons, reputation and honor, the possibility of cheating, lack of control come up.”

Veikka Gustafsson links the exaggeration of achievements revealed by Jurgalski to the growth of commercial climbing.

“It has contributed to creating a consensus among climbers that this is the peak and that this is sufficient.”

A guide experienced in commercial climbing leads paying customers to the famous peaks of the Himalayas. Prices range from several tens of thousands of euros per customer. Gustafsson seeks a point of comparison from fishing.

“If someone just wants to experience how to catch a big fish and hires a guide for that, they want the experience of that moment. Then it is not relevant, whether the rise was less than a meter, but a consensus emerges that the peak has been reached. For example, climbing to the top of Manaslu is an exciting place, you always have to have a rope installed by a professional. Putting it in place is a big deal, and then it’s easier for the organizers to believe that this is here. And send the bill afterwards.”

Commercial climbing has made climbing the world’s highest mountains an achievement that a person in good shape and able to pay, but inexperienced as a climber, can buy on their resume. It has also exploded the number of climbers.

Gustafsson was reportedly the 440th person to conquer Mount Everest, when he first climbed the world’s highest mountain on May 10, 1993. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first to conquer Everest in 1953, so in the next 40 years, only about 400 people followed.

But with the boom in commercial climbing that began in the 1990s, the number of conquerors of Everest to date has already increased to over six thousand.

“Thousands of people have visited Everest, most of whom are not climbers by heart and background,” says Gustafsson.

Gustafsson frankly admits that the beginning of his Himalayan conquests took place in commercial climbing. Gustafsson climbed Everest in 1993 with a well-known guide By Rob Hall in the expedition.

“It was a big leap for me. I was a climber and could technically climb all the platforms required by Everest, although I had no Himalayan experience. When you think about commercial climbing, the majority of climbers have no climbing experience or background.”

As more and more inexperienced customers crowd the death zone, the risks also increase. Rob Hall died on Everest in May 1996 with seven other people in a dramatic series of events, from which a journalist who was part of Hall’s expedition Jon Krakauer published the bestselling book Into Thin Air.

“From a safety point of view, honesty about one’s own performance in relation to nature is good. Someone wise said that you can’t beat nature, but you can ally with it,” says Gustafsson.