Ende September 2012 erreichte die Extremsportgemeinde die traurige Nachricht einer desaströsen Lawine am 8156 m hohen Manaslu, dem achthöchsten Berg der Erde. Aufgrund von Bergsperrungen in Tibet versuchten sich zahlreiche Expeditionen, einige darunter mit bekannten Namen wie Greg Hill, Glen Plake, Benedikt Böhm uvm. an dem schwierigen Achttausender bis eine Lawine das Lager drei traf.
Über ein Dutzend Bergsteiger, darunter auch ein Deutscher und bekannten Extremskifahrer überlebten das Unglück nicht. Aufgrund der medialen Präsenz der berühmten Bergsteiger ist das Unglück erstaunlich gut dokumentiert. Insbesondere einige der Sportler geben eindrückliche Einblicke in ihre traurigen Erfahrungen.
Videozusammenschnitt des Dynafit/Gore-Tex-Teams
Lawine Unglück am Manaslu from Outdoor Times on Vimeo.
Auszüge aus Greg Hills bewegendem Blog
"Disaster Strikes on ManasluIn all mountain travel there is an assumed risk, one that we take since we are searching for adventure. The perception of this risk usually changes with the objective, quite often becoming clouded as the objectives get personally more important.I am not really even sure where to start. I will begin part way through our expedition. (...)For 10 days we weathered rain and snow, day after day of it. So the upper mountain was getting loaded with the weight of new snow. When it finally cleared it was obvious that most of the mountain had gone through many avalanche cycles. There were crown lines, and avalanche debris everywhere. Though the slopes that we needed to climb had not slid. We waited a few more days for the snow to stabilize some more before venturing onto them."Bild: Menschenmassen beim AufstiegBild: Der Lawinenabgang im Überblick"The blast of wind from the avalanche sent our tents flapping and soon enough we could hear people yelling for each other. Lights from headlamps accompanied many voices and we knew that disaster had struck. (...)Skinning up, our headlamps lit up a down boot, and we knew that the tents had been hit. Tents, clothes, sleeping bags, lone boots, everything lay partially buried everywhere. Within minutes we were helping people get warm and digging others out of the snow. It was hard to tell how many people where involved so we focused on those that where above the snow. Knowing that those who were buried had very little chance of surviving.Immediately our group started helping out, digging out those that we could. (...)
At one point I sat and openly cried for those that had died. (...)
The line was so thin today, many survived by pure luck,while their friends passed away. With adventure comes risk. But I wonder how many people who died yesterday fully understood the personal risk they were taking. Obsessed with the possibility of climbing one of the world’s highest mountains, our vision becomes clouded and we perceive the risk we want instead of the reality of what is around us."
Lest den ganzen Blogeintrag unter: www.greghill.ca
Interview mit Glen Plake
Interview mit Glen Plake, dessen Partner Remy Lecluse (sein Zeltnachbar) und Greg Costa die Lawine nicht überlebt haben, spricht mit CNN über seine Nahtod-Erfahrung.