The climbers had to rope up and belay each other on the last pitches, across a fragile snow cornice which led to the rocky summit. In this image, Ralf takes the last steps toward the summit (click to enlarge).
Ralf and Hiro are regular climbing-mates since they first met on Nanga Parbat. They usually team up with Dujmovits' wife Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner. In the image, the two men eat in C1 (click to enlarge).
Eight team members (such as Richard Stihler in image) and one Sherpa followed Ralf and Hiro to the summit. All images courtesy of Ralf's Amical Alpin (click to enlarge).
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Ralf’s and Hirotaka’s Amical team summit Manaslu
Posted: May 21, 2007 10:03 am EDT
(MountEverest.net) On a second summit push after excess of snow thwarted a previous attempt, Ralf’s Dujmovits Amical team reached the top of Manaslu on Saturday, in good weather conditions. This is Ralf’12th 8,000er and Hirotaka’s 9th.
Climbing on unstable terrain
Ralf himself and Hirotaka Takeuchi took turns to break trail on fresh snow from C3 - the team had used snow-shoes on a large part of the route. The climbers also had to rope up and belay each other on the last pitches, across a fragile snow cornice which led to the rocky summit. Ralf and Hiro topped out by 9:15 a.m.; some time later some other team members joined them: Richi, Peter, Pasang Sherpa, Sepp, Angelo Vernadi, Rolf, Jürgen, plus Austrians Peter and Oliver.
The expedition's descent was rather eventfull though, since team member Angelo Vernadi got lost in the dark and was uncapable of finding C3. He had to spend the night in the open, and resumed the climb back down as daylight returned.
Next, Pakistan
The team is currently dismantling the camp, so that Hiro and Ralf will soon be back at home in Japan and Germany, respectively. Not for long though: This summer Dujmovits is attempting K2 together with his wife Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, while Takeuchi is also flying to Pakistan on June 11, aiming for a double-header: Broad Peak and GII.
Ralf Dujmovits started climbing at the age of 7 at The Battert, a climbing school near Baden-Baden (Southern Germany). Currently he is in charge of Amical Alpine, and has summited 12 out of 14 8000ers: Dhaulagiri in 1990, Everest in 1992, K2 in 1994, Cho Oyu (1) in 1995, Shisha Pangma Central Summit in 1996, Shisha Pangma Main Summit in 1997, Cho Oyu (2) in 1998, Broad Peak in 1999, GII in 2000, Nanga Parbat in 2001, Annapurna I in 2004, GI in 2004. He traversed Shisha Pangma (2) in 2005, summited Kangchenjunga in 2006, and now has added Manaslu to the list.
Dujmovits is married to one of the leading female climbers nowadays: Ausrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner. The couple climb together most of the times, and they usually have long-time friend Hirotaka Takeuchi as third member in the team.
Born in Tokyo in 1971, Hirotaka Takeuchi summited Everest and K2 back to back in 1996 and, at the age of 25. Back then he became the youngest person to have summited the two tallest peaks on Earth. Then he would summit Makalu, Nanga Parbat, Annapurna, GI, Shisha Pangma (first traverse), Kangchenjunga, and now Manaslu. Hiro met Ralf Dujmovits on Nanga Parbat.
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