Horia Colibășanu, the first Romanian to climb Everest Mountain without bottled oxygen and without the help of Sherpa, has been awarded the National Order ‘Star of Romania’.
“Romanian President Mr. Klaus Iohannis singed on Wednesday, June 14, the decree to decorate Mr. Horia-Dan Colibasanu, mountain climber. As a sign of high appreciation and recognition for the outstanding sporting performance of the Himalayan expedition, the determination, passion and perseverance with which he has perfected its position as a high-performance alpinist at national and international level, as well as for his significant contribution to the Romanian mountain climbing, the President of Romania awards the National Order ‘Star of Romania’ in the rank of Knight to Mr. Horia-Dan Colibasanu, mountain climber,” the presidential administration informs.
Horia Colibasanu managed a premiere for Romanian climbing on Tuesday, but also a remarkable international sporting performance: he climbed the Everest peak (8,848 m), the highest on the planet, without bottled oxygen and without the help of a Sherpa team.
The climbing lasted almost 12 hours, Horia’s last camp being at 8,300 m. He climbed in parallel with the Sherpa who installed the strings for the 2017 season, and Horia’s decision to move faster to the top had two reasons: to avoid crowding in order to reduce the exposure time to extreme heights, to have some time in case of unfavourable weather to try to climb several times.
The Everest peak is the eighth in Horia Colibasanu’s sports record. He wants to climb all the 14 peaks of over 8,000 meters.
It was Colibasanu’s 19th international expedition.