Jost Kobusch plans to climb Everest’s West Ridge alone and without bottled oxygen at the end of December. The route has no winter summit on record.
The 34-year-old German climber is leaving this week and will train on smaller peaks before attempting the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) mountain. His solo plan means he’ll have no guide support above base camp.
Winter offers the solitude Kobusch wants on a mountain that more than 10,000 people have climbed since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit in 1953. Official data records just 14 winter summiteers, all on other routes, during the December-February season.
“West Ridge is more beautiful, and as an alpinist I am looking for this beauty,” Kobusch said in Kathmandu. “I am looking for the wilderness.”
Kobusch, who’s from Borgholzhausen, attempted Everest in 2019, 2021 and 2024. Strong winds kept him from getting higher than 7,540 metres (24,737 feet).
Above 8,000 metres (26,246 feet), the thin air gives Everest’s “death zone” its name. Temperatures there can fall to minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit) or below. Winter adds powerful winds and fewer daylight hours to the climb’s hazards.
In 2020, heavy snow forced 4 Sherpa climbers to abandon their own winter attempt on the West Ridge.