Culture & Sports
2018.11.28 19:21 GMT+8

Austrian mountaineer David Lama conquers previously unclimbed Lunag Ri

Sports Scene

Austrian mountain climber David Lama has emphatically accomplished a remarkable solo climb of Lunag Ri in the Himalayas and thus, became the first person to scale the 6,907-meter mountain, one of the highest unconquered peaks left in Nepal. 

This was his fourth attempt, and Lama started the climb at night. Three days later, he was on top of one of the highest peaks of the Himalayas. 

The 28-year-old battled bone-chilling temperatures of minus 30 degrees and gusty winds of 80 km/h during his three-day ascent. Out of the four times, the Austrian attempted to conquer the towering peak, and he made solo attempts twice, including the recent successful one. 

In his previous failed attempts, Lama was once forced to turn back just 250 meters away from the summit due to exhaustion and on another occasion, his climbing partner for the first two attempts, American Conrad Anker, suffered a heart attack at 6,000 meters, forcing him to return. 

Anker survived that ordeal but subsequently, decided to abort his dream mission for good due to health reasons. 

Lama, during his successful fourth attempt, had to navigate steep snowfields and patches of rough ice and had to complete much of the climb without any ropes.  After fulfilling his dream, a relieved Lama said, "I thought about turning back of course. I think it's always important to consider how you get back down, how you get off a mountain but I never considered taking that decision because there was no need... I was feeling weak but still confident I could stick to my plan." 

The ace climber was born in 1990. His father is a mountain guide from Nepal while his mother is an Austrian native from Innsbruck. 

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