Luck finally ran out for the world-famous Slovenian mountaineer, Tomaz Humar, who died several days ago on Langtang Lirung (7,227m) in Nepal.
Full details, as far as they will ever be known, will no doubt emerge over the next few days. Humar was soloing most likely a new route on Langtang Lirang, an elegant but infrequently climbed peak above the Langtang Valley, but at the time of writing it is not completely certain of the line, or whether he was descending after a successful summit bid.
On the 9th November, Humar appears to have contacted a friend in Slovenia, and his Sherpa support at base camp, reporting he’d had an accident and was at 6,300m. Next day a helicopter was dispatched and that same morning Humar made his last contact by satellite telephone, reportedly sounding very weak. An air search failed to locate him, as did a strong Sherpa team who began to fix ropes towards the point Humar had described as his location.
Contacts at home mustered the services of the Air Zermatt Rescue, members of which arrived in Kathmandu on the 13th. The following day the Swiss flew a Nepalese helicopter to Langtang and pilot Robert Andenmatten located Humar at c5,600m.
The helicopter was carrying the well-known, young, Swiss alpinist Simon Anthamatten, who was lowered to the site. He discovered that 40-year-old Humar was already dead and had apparently broken his leg in a fall and possibly sustained other serious injuries. Reports quote that Humar’s body was airlifted from the South Face.
Although much tried and easily accessible, Langtang Lirung has seen only 13 ascents, all but two via the South East Ridge - the left-hand arête in the photograph.
Humar's Himalayan career began in 1994 with a partial new route on Ganesh V (6,989m) in Nepal. He reached the summit of Annapurna I via the Normal Route the following year and then in the spring 1996 made the first ascent of the North West Face of Ama Dablam, an ascent that would gain him and his partner, Vanja Furlan, the Piolet d'Or.
In the autumn of 1996 he made an outstanding solo first ascent of 6,808m Bobaye in West Nepal. From 1997-1999 he made three ascents that would put him firmly on the map: the West Face of Nuptse West II (7,742m), on which he lost his partner Janez Jeglic and was lucky to survive a gruelling solo descent; a solo ascent of the El Cap test-piece, Reticent Wall; and a solo ascent of an indirect route on the South Face of Dhaulagiri.
More recently was his much-publicized attempt on, and subsequent helicopter rescue from, a new route, solo, on the giant Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat, and then in 2008 the first solo ascent of Annapurna East.
Ironically, despite walking very close to the line on a number of occasions, Humar's worst accident before his death was domestic: while working on his house he fell, badly breaking both legs.
Although Humar's widespread use of the media made him unpopular with a number of climbers and several of his ascents sparked controversy, he was undeniably one of the foremost and most forceful mountaineers of his generation.
His life is well covered in Bernadette McDonald's excellent biography, Tomaz Humar (2008), which also gives a great insight into the politics of both former Yugoslavia and Slovenian mountaineering.
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