Ralf’s and Hirotaka’s Amical team summit Manaslu

(22.05.2007)

Climbing on unstable terrain

Ralf himself and Hirotaka Takeuchi took turns to break trail on fresh snow from C3 - the team had used snow-shoes on a large part of the route. The climbers also had to rope up and belay each other on the last pitches, across a fragile snow cornice which led to the rocky summit. Ralf and Hiro topped out by 9:15 a.m.; some time later some other team members joined them: Richi, Peter, Pasang Sherpa, Sepp, Angelo Vernadi, Rolf, Jürgen, plus Austrians Peter and Oliver.

The expedition's descent was rather eventfull though, since team member Angelo Vernadi got lost in the dark and was uncapable of finding C3. He had to spend the night in the open, and resumed the climb back down as daylight returned.

Next, Pakistan

The team is currently dismantling the camp, so that Hiro and Ralf will soon be back at home in Japan and Germany, respectively. Not for long though: This summer Dujmovits is attempting K2 together with his wife Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, while Takeuchi is also flying to Pakistan on June 11, aiming for a double-header: Broad Peak and GII.

Ralf Dujmovits started climbing at the age of 7 at The Battert, a climbing school near Baden-Baden (Southern Germany). Currently he is in charge of Amical Alpine, and has summited 12 out of 14 8000ers: Dhaulagiri in 1990, Everest in 1992, K2 in 1994, Cho Oyu (1) in 1995, Shisha Pangma Central Summit in 1996, Shisha Pangma Main Summit in 1997, Cho Oyu (2) in 1998, Broad Peak in 1999, GII in 2000, Nanga Parbat in 2001, Annapurna I in 2004, GI in 2004. He traversed Shisha Pangma (2) in 2005, summited Kangchenjunga in 2006, and now has added Manaslu to the list.

Dujmovits is married to one of the leading female climbers nowadays: Ausrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner. The couple climb together most of the times, and they usually have long-time friend Hirotaka Takeuchi as third member in the team.

Born in Tokyo in 1971, Hirotaka Takeuchi summited Everest and K2 back to back in 1996 and, at the age of 25. Back then he became the youngest person to have summited the two tallest peaks on Earth. Then he would summit Makalu, Nanga Parbat, Annapurna, GI, Shisha Pangma (first traverse), Kangchenjunga, and now Manaslu. Hiro met Ralf Dujmovits on Nanga Parbat.

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Autor: MountEverest.net

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