Szilárd Suhajda attempted to conquer Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen, but he disappeared not far from the summit.Continue reading
Climbing Nanga Parbat was a special challenge, Csaba Varga told MTI on Friday, after arriving at the Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport.
The climber conquered the 8,125-meter peak in the Himalayas on the border between Pakistan and Kashmir, without supplemental oxygen or high-altitude load carriers.
Csaba Varga, an architect and mountaineer living in Nagyvárad (Oradea, in today’s Romania), told a journalist that climbing Nanga Parbat in the Himalayas was particularly challenging compared to other mountains above 8,000 meters, as the peak rises very steeply from its surroundings and some parts of the expedition required climbing vertical rock faces.
There is about a 4,000 meter difference in elevation between the base camp at 4,200 meters and the 8,125-meter summit. So the difference in altitude is greater than on Everest, the world’s highest mountain at 8,848 meters, where climbers have to overcome a difference of about 2,300 meters, Varga added.
The climber said that he has more than 20 years of experience as an alpinist;
he had prepared for the expedition by climbing, cycling, cross-country skiing, and several rounds of acclimatization.
The alpinist emphasized that he remained in good shape throughout the climb, kept his inner balance and never gave up.
Varga told MTI that the weather was very variable during the expedition: when he reached the summit (where he could spend about 15 minutes), a strong wind was blowing, but later he was also challenged by the heat of the strong sun.
He would like to dedicate this successful expedition to the memory of his two climbing companions and friends, Ákos Győrffy and Szilárd Suhajdaa, who passed away this year.
The climber emphasized that
as a Hungarian from Nagyvárad and a Hungarian citizen, he wanted to use the successful expedition to strengthen the motivation of Hungarians living across the border to preserve their Hungarian identity in their homeland.
Varga set off for Nanga Parbat at dawn on June 29. From Camp 3 at an altitude of 6,750 meters, he began his climb at 10 p.m. local time on July 1. After 17 hours of climbing, he reached the 8,125-meter summit of Nanga Parbat around 3 p.m. on July 2. From there, after a seven-hour descent and a short rest at temporary Camp 4, he reached Camp 3 at 10:00 p.m. After a total of 24 hours of continuous climbing, he spent the night at Camp 3 and then descended back to his base camp.
The climber from Nagyvárad is the only living Hungarian climber who has conquered the most peaks above 8,000 meters without supplemental oxygen and high altitude porters.
Zsolt Erőss was the first Hungarian to reach Nanga Parbat on July 18, 1999 (since he did not have a permit, his result is not official). On July 19, 2013, the Romanian expedition led by Zsolt Török, a Hungarian from Transylvania, also reached the summit.
Via Ungarn Heute; photo: Facebook/Barna Pál Zsigmond
