Simon Messner, Reinhold’s Son, Solos Unclimbed Himalayan Peak
He climbed the peak alone after his team opted to join due to bad conditions
Simon Messner, son of the accomplished Reinhold, has made a solo first ascent of Toshe III, a 6,200-metre peak in Pakistan that is known by locals as Geshot Peak. The mountain rises above the Bunar valley about 18 kilometres southwest of Nanga Parbat.
Messner, 29, visited the area with his fater, Günther Göberl and Robert Neumeyer to make the first ascent of the peak together and to film it. However, the weather forced everyone by Messner to not climb. The weather in the area hadn’t been good for climbing with snow and rain falling nearly every day. He climbed from base camp to the summit in 5.5 hours and descended in dangerous avalanche conditions.
“This was also an important factor for the team and convinced me to try to climb fast and light in order to avoid the bad weather,” Messner told planetmountain.com. “And it worked. Even though I had to break the trail all by myself, sometimes wading through knee-deep snow! What a beautiful mountain. I don’t know any other 6200-meter peak that has as many seracs as Geshot Peak. The great thing was to how happy the locals of the Bunar valley were that “their” mountain had been climbed. On the way back I received wreaths of flowers in every village, that really made me happy!”
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