German climber to make rare winter attempt to scale Everest via West Ridge route

A 34-year-old German mountaineer leaves this week on ​a rare mission to try to scale Mount ​Everest along the formidable West Ridge ‌route ​in winter, the most difficult climbing season.

Jost Kobusch, from the town of Borgholzhausen, made three attempts on Everest in 2019, 2021 and 2024 but could not climb ‌above 7,540 metres (24,737 ft) because of strong winds. No one has successfully climbed the West Ridge route in winter, and only 14 people have reached the summit in winter by other routes.

Kobusch will attempt the 8,849-metre (29,032 ft) peak solo, which ‌means without any support from guides above the base camp. He said he would not use bottled oxygen. “West ‌Ridge is more beautiful, and as an alpinist I am looking for this beauty,” he told Reuters in Kathmandu.

Everest has so far been climbed by more than 10,000 people since New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay first scaled it in 1953. Only 14 mountaineers have ⁠climbed it ​in the December-February winter season, ⁠however, and none have gone via the West Ridge route, according to official data.

“(My) ultimate goal is to be the best alpinist ⁠that I can be,” Kobusch said, adding that the mountain provided the right kind of setting for this in winter when ​it is not crowded like in other seasons. “I am looking for the wilderness,” he said.

Temperatures in the death ⁠zone of Mount Everest, so-called because of thin air above 8,000 metres (26,246 ft), can drop to minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit) ⁠or ​lower, and the accompanying winds make winter climbing more challenging and risky than climbing in the popular spring season. “For me it is about experiencing Everest in its purest stage … that is what I am looking for,” ⁠Kobusch said.

He said he would climb other smaller peaks as part of training for the Everest attempt, which he ⁠hopes to make at the ⁠end of December. Climbing experts say shorter daylight hours in addition to the extreme cold make winter climbing even harder.

Four Sherpa climbers were beaten back by heavy snow forcing ‌them to call off ‌their winter West Ridge attempt in 2020.