Horia Colibasanu has managed a premiere for Romanian climbing on Tuesday, but also a remarkable international sporting performance: he has climbed the Everest peak (8,848 m), the highest on the planet, without bottled oxygen and without the help of a Sherpa team.
“It was terribly heavy, very, very cold. I succeeded. I’m fine, I’ll have pictures on the peak and get off. On the other side of the peak there are the expeditions that climb the southern route,” Horia sent a message as soon as he reached the top.
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.
Horia is to descend to an altitude of less than 8,000 meters to rest, this stage of the expedition being important and risky considering he is very tired.
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.
This was Colibasanu’s 19th international expedition.
Climbing on Everest is a project of the Timisoara Alternative Sports Club, where Colibasanu is member, club affiliated with the Romanian Federation of Climbing, which carries out climbing projects in the international sports calendar.
Horia Colibasanu is the most successful climber in the history of Romania, currently having success on 7 of the 14 mountain peaks of over 8,000 meters in the world. The success of Horia Colibasanu on K2 (8,611 m) in Pakistan, with no bottled oxygen and without Sherpa in 2004 was considered until now the best individual performance in Romanian climbing.
Colibasanu’s most notable climbing are on Annapurna, K2 and Dhaulagiri, three of the Top 5 deadliest mountains in the world, according to The Economist (May 2013), citing Eberhard Jurgalski, an authority in the field. Colibasanu has so far climbed K2 (8,611 m), Manaslu (8,163 m), Dhaulagiri (8,167 m), Shishapangma (8,027 m), Annapurna (8,091 m), Makalu (8,463 m) and Lhotse (8,516 m).
Horia Colibasanu is the only Romanian climber to receive the ‘Spirit of Mountaineering’ award from the British Alpine Club, the world’s first and most prestigious mountain club.
What a beautiful and extraordinary success. I like to read such news on this stressful background of politics and hackers.