For days, there has been no trace of the German high-altitude mountaineer Luis Stitzinger. The mountain guide from Füssen in the Allgäu has been missing since Thursday at the 8586-meter-high Kangchenjunga in eastern Nepal. Stitzinger wanted to start his ascent from camp four at 18 meters towards the summit at 7600 p.m. on Wednesday, which he apparently reached on Thursday around 17 p.m. For the fifty-four-year-old, it was the tenth of 14 eight-thousanders. At about 21 p.m. there was another radio contact with him. He is said to have been at an altitude of 8300 meters. Afterwards he wanted to ski down to camp four. But he didn't get there. Because his GPS does not send signals, he cannot be located. At Kangchenjunga, too, Stitzinger was on the road without bottled oxygen.
As Stefan Nestler, who is in contact with Stitzinger's wife, the high-altitude mountaineer Alix von Melle, reports in his blog "Abenteuer Berg", Luis Stitzinger had set off for the summit for the first time in mid-May, but entered the wrong gully in the upper part of the mountain, which is why he missed the highest point. He then told his wife, who had accompanied him on several eight-thousanders, that the snow conditions between about 8000 meters and the base camp were no problem for a ski run.
Luis Stitzinger, who is considered one of Germany's most experienced high-altitude mountaineers, made a name for himself worldwide with his bold skiing. On a total of seven eight-thousanders, Stitzinger skied down. At Nanga Parbat (8125 meters) he completed the first ski run of the central Diamir flank. At K2, the second highest mountain in the world at 8611 meters, he reached the foot of the wall on skis from an altitude of 7900 meters via the Kukuczka route. In his younger years, he was also interested in speed. In 2006, together with Sebastian Haag, who later died in an avalanche at Shishapangma (8027 meters), and Benedikt Böhm, he succeeded in making the first complete ski ascent of Gasherbrum II (8034 meters). From the advanced base camp at an altitude of 5900 meters, it took them only twelve and a half hours to reach the summit, despite strenuous track work. In 2007, Stitzinger reached the 4450-meter-high summit of Lenin Peak from base camp at 7134 meters in less than ten hours via the north face and skied down again. "I'm not going up a mountain because I want to break a record," he said at the time. "For me, it's about the experience of nature and body. It's even more intense when the body is at full speed."
Stitzinger is considered an extremely level-headed mountaineer
Despite these achievements, Stitzinger does not belong to the category of alpinists who flaunt announcements but then cannot report any successes. The fact that he was planning something for this season in the Himalayas could be guessed from posts on Facebook in which he reported on longer ski tours. However, it was not clear that he was preparing for a specific project and would go to Nepal. In addition to his private projects, Stitzinger also led commercial expeditions to eight-thousanders. Most recently, he worked twice as a mountain guide on Mount Everest. Last year, he accompanied Graham Keene to Mount Everest, the oldest Briton ever to reach the summit at 68. He also wanted to ski down Mount Everest, but both times something came up, last year a respiratory infection.
Only on these Everest expeditions was Stitzinger on bottled oxygen for safety reasons. But he still had his plans for the highest mountain in the world: To climb Mount Everest without bottled oxygen – that was still a wish he would like to realize, he told the F.A.Z. magazine in March.
Stitzinger is considered an extremely level-headed mountaineer, mountain guide and expedition leader. Lukas Furtenbach, for whose company Luis Stitzinger was on the road as a mountain guide, describes the Allgäu native as one of the "most experienced, reliable and prudent expedition mountain guides" he knows. "That's why you're not immune to the residual risk on high mountains, but that's why he was an integral and fundamental part of our Everest Guide team." In addition to his professional quality, Furtenbach also emphasizes Stitzinger's human side. "An exceptional person."
In a post on Instagram on Monday, Graciela Flor Cuenca Blas, who was traveling at Kangchenjunga at the same time as Stitzinger, complained that no one had rushed to help to look for him. In the Himalayas, there is no organized mountain rescue service like in the Alps, which would also work on a voluntary basis. Search and rescue operations must be organized and paid for there in advance. As can be heard from Kathmandu, the search team could not be brought to the base camp of Kangchenjunga until Monday due to the weather.