Australian, Andrew Lock, along with his climbing partner Neil Ward, reported today they have topped out on the true summit of the world’s 14th highest mountain, Shishapangma in Tibet. This now puts Andrew in the exclusive club of only 18 climbers to have climbed the 14th highest mountains – all above 8,000 meters. He did all 14 without supplemental oxygen. He started in 1991 with Everest his first 8000m attempt.
In his usual humble style, he posted on his blog a dispatch simply titled “Did it”:
Summitted the true summit of Shishapangma at 5.05pm, 2nd October, with Neil Ward.
Very tough climb via a variation of the Inaki route on the north face, caught in a storm on descent with an open bivouac at 7600 metres without equipment thrown in for good measure.
Just into basecamp now, bit tired, more later.
This was the 47 year-old’s third attempt on Shisha. Sometimes you will see that a climber has “summited” this mountain but really only made it to the central summit. The true summit, while only about 60′ higher, is significantly more difficult and dangerous. Often avalanche danger prevents teams from climbing the north face or crossing the ridge between the central and true summits.
I interviewed Andrew as he left home for an attempt this past spring. He never got there due to difficulties with obtaining a visa from China. Here is the interview:
Q: Given you have been to Shisha twice before, what will you do different this time to attain the true summit?
I’ve previously been to Shisha in the post monsoon and found the conditions for the traverse to dangerous. I’m hoping that in the pre monsoon the mountain will be a little cleaner. I’m also planning to do a variation of the normal route to avoid both the summit ridge and the nasty traverse from camp 3. I’ll try to traverse lower.
Q: Your goal is to climb all the 14 8000m mountains. Can you tell us a little about your motivation for this project?
I just climb for the love of it. I set myself the goal of climbing Everest after I saw a slide show in the ‘80s, so I learnt to rock climb, then alpine climb and gradually climbed higher and higher peaks until I was ready for the 8000ers. Everest was my 7th 8000 metre summit, so after that I just thought I keep on climbing them. There isn’t any pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for me when (if) I finish them; I just love climbing them.
Q: Of the 13 you have summited, which has been the most challenging and the most satisfying and why?
That’s a hard one because all the 8000ers have been challenging and very rewarding. If I had to choose it’d be Annapurna I think. My first attempt in 2005 ended in tragedy when we were hit by an avalanche. My 2007 ascent was terrifying but I climbed with a fantastic team (Ivan Vallejo and Fernando Gonzalez – the rest gave up) and we pushed through very technical climbing on the German ridge and serious avalanche danger to finally crack the summit. It was the first Australian ascent but more importantly it was incredibly enriching to succeed in the face of so much adversity.
Q: You summited K2 in 1993. Any thoughts on the disaster of 2008?
I don’t really know enough about it to make an informed comment. But it’s a tough hill and needs to be ed with respect. It isn’t a place for punters (novices).
Q: Any other thoughts for us followers this year?
Climbing the 8000ers is an immensely dangerous and challenging activity and I’ve a lost a lot of friends over the years. If you are thinking of hitting an 8000er, build up some good experience on challenging, lower altitude, peaks for a few years first. You’ll have a better time on the 8000er when you do try it and you’ve a better chance to come back from it.
If you want to follow my progress on the next expedition, you can log onto my website www.andrew-lock.com and hit the despatches button for regular live updates from the hill.
I was on Shisha with Andrew in 2006 but everyone was stopped by weather – no climber made the true summit that season. My sincere congratulations to Andrew in accomplishing this life long goal. Well done!
