Climbing
After more than three years of trying, the Austrian climber has made mountaineering history by summiting Nepal's unconquered Lunag Ri mountain.
He's done it. David Lama has scaled the mighty Lunag Ri peak in Nepal for the first time to make mountaineering history once again. The story behind his ascent began several years ago with his first expedition to Nepal, his father's homeland. Here we detail how it all came off, including the hurdles he had to overcome along the way.
2015: A visit home with a record height
In 2015, before his expedition to Lunag Ri, Lama visited Phablu, the home village of his father, Rinzi. Nepal had recently been hit by a major earthquake, and Rinzi's childhood home was damaged.
Straight after the visit, Lama and American mountaineering legend Conrad Anker headed to Lunag Ri, one of the most challenging unconquered mountains in Nepal. The pair reached a new high point, but due to a tactical error they had to descend having come within just 300m of the summit.
2016: The second attempt
Lama and Anker return to Lunag Ri to try once again to complete their planned first ascent. Thanks to the promising attempt the year before, they were very confident and had no idea of what would await them.
Sadly, during their mission Anker suffered a heart attack, and the attempt was immediately aborted. Anker was flown from the advanced base camp to Kathmandu for surgery, while Lama remained on the mountain with a camera crew and decided to try to ascend the mountain by himself. Even though he'd not made any prior plans for a solo attempt, in two days Lama reached the pair's highest point from the previous year, and even a reached little further – he just didn't quite have enough left in him to complete the final section, and the mission had to be aborted again.
2017: Lunag Ri on hold
Despite the frustration of having come so close again, Lama remained determined to ascend Lunag Ri, but wanted to give Anker the chance to recover and make a decision in his own time about whether he wanted to return to the project. He therefore decided to put Lunag Ri on hold for 2017. Instead, he concentrated on a second attempt to climb the south-east face of Annapurna III.
Find out more on the unusual events of this expedition in the feature below:
2018: To the summit
Anker let Lama know that he wouldn't return to take on Lunag Ri, because he didn't want to put his family through another attempt. Lama therefore decided to complete the project alone. He prepared for more than six months for the solo ascent, and after a three-year mission he finally became the first person to reach the summit of the legendary Lunag Ri.
"I crossed the last few metres over wind-pressed snow that sticks to the granite on the Nepalese side of the mountain," recalls Lama. "Even though my head was full of the idea that I should be absorbing every moment up there, my thoughts were somehow empty. The knowledge that I couldn't afford to make a single mistake was constantly nagging me, and dominated any other feelings. It resulted in intense, almost exhausting concentration – a feeling I know all too well from other solo ascents in the mountains.
"Suddenly there were just a few more steps. In front of me lay the summit spur of Lunag Ri. I can still remember well how Conrad and I sat by our tent in 2015 at the advanced basecamp, with binoculars in hand. We wondered if this granite jag, barely visible from below, was actually the summit. It was just one of the many questions that came up when we first set out to try a first ascent. That was four years ago now. A lot has happened since then, and that has helped make these final steps so special.
"Having arrived at the very front of the summit spur, I stood still. It felt strange that suddenly I had no further to go. I sunk to my knees, tired and happy. I thought briefly about Conrad. He's the only one who I'd have liked to share this moment with. Then the short wave of emotion was over, and the knowledge that I should descend the mountain as far as possible took hold. I achieved my goal, but I'd have only fully managed it when back down from the mountain again."
