Ogre: the Huber, Arnold, Walder and Zenz's attempt

Mountaineers had to give up the attempt to climb the Ogre's est Pillar

Alexander Huber, Dani Arnold, Mario Walder, and Christian Zenz after have given really everything, were forced to withdraw from the attempt to climb the Ogre (7285 m) to the Eastern Pillar in Karakorum.

Alexander had already tried 18 years ago, but did not succeed, to climb the south pillar of the Ogre with Thomas, Toni Gutsch and Jan Mersch. This year he returned with Dani Arnold, Mario Walder and Christian Zenz, deciding to climb this time from the east pillar, one of the most beautiful and still unresolved challenges on this mountain.

The four organized the base camp at the edge of the Choktoi Glacier, but soon they had unfavorable conditions for ascending. The temperatures were too high and the condition of the snow was risky: there were both an old layer of snow this winter with the one made in summer. For these reasons the only hours of the day when it was possible to move were those from midnight at five in the morning.

Moving with extreme caution costs decisively much energy to keep the risks under control. Seracs, collapses, and limited time left little chance of action for mountaineers who then found themselves forced into a tent to wait for 19 hours to resume climbing. Despite this, they managed to reach the entrance of the Eastern Pillar, but in these conditions the peak would have been impossible.

"We are ready to give a lot for a mountain. Energy, motivation, suffering, cardiac blood and risk, but when it is hopeless, it soon becomes clear that it is time to say "no." Untill then, we had done everything to keep the risk manageable, but at the same time we knew how close we were to the limit.
It is a very difficult decision to leave it here. But I guess we understand what the mountain wanted to tell us. " Alexander Huber