Stories
Explore Stories That Inspire Climbs
The Nanga Parbat Massacre: Terror on the Mountain
On this day, 22 June in the summer of 2013, beneath the vast, icy walls of Nanga Parbat, Pakistan’s second-highest peak, a storm gathered. But this was not the kind that climbers feared. It was neither wind nor snow. It was terrorism. On the night of June 22, the mountain’s base camp, a place of rest, became the site of a massacre. Gunmen dressed in paramilitary uniforms reportedly disguised as Gilgit Scouts stormed the camp under the cover of darkness. Ten foreign climbers and a local Pakistani cook were executed in cold blood. It was the first time in Pakistan’s […]
Davo Karničar: The Man Who Skied Everest
In the autumn of 2000, while the world looked up in awe at Everest’s gleaming crown, a man stood on its summit — not just to climb it, but to descend it. Davo Karničar, a Slovenian alpinist and extreme skier, clipped into his skis at 8,848.86 meters — the highest point on Earth. Around him, the jet stream howled. The snow was bullet-hard. The mountain loomed in its most unforgiving form. But Davo wasn’t afraid. He was ready. On October 7, after four days of climbing, he reached the summit between 6:00 and 7:00 am, alongside his teammates Franc Oderlap, […]
Ang Tharkay – The Father Of Modern Sherpa Climbers
Waking up on a frosty morning at first light on Ang Tharkay’s farm, south of Kathmandu, in 1975, is a memory that remains vivid in my mind. With a broad smile, he poured me tea, made in the Sherpa manner with tea, sugar, and milk boiled together. We had a breakfast of chapati and eggs from his farm. He had risen before daybreak and had milked cows and goats. Ang Tharkay was about 69 and I twenty seven. We talked of the great climbers he went on expeditions with: Eric Shipton, Sir Edmund Hillary, Maurice Herzog, Gaston Rebuffat, Lionmel Lachnel, Lionel Terray, Cmdr. Kohli and others. You […]