Luis Stitzinger on the summit of Mount Everest in 2019. On the Whitsun weekend, the man from Füssen died on the Kangchenjunga. © Picasa
Kathmandu/Füssen – His lifelong dream was to become his fate: The extreme mountaineer Luis Stitzinger from Füssen died last weekend on the Kangchenjunga in the Himalayas, the third highest mountain in the world. On Tuesday, a rescue team found the body of the mountaineer and mountain guide, who was born in Füssen and grew up in Halblech, at around 8,400 meters. The 8,586-meter-high Kangchenjunga was the tenth eight-thousander that the 54-year-old Stitzinger climbed without supplemental oxygen.
Luis Stitzinger gave his last sign of life on Thursday, May 25, at around 21 p.m. by radio from the third highest mountain in the world. Since then, the extreme mountaineer and mountain guide from Füssen has been considered missing in the Himalayas. On Tuesday, a rescue team found the body of the Ostallgäuer.
Luis Stitzinger had reached the summit
What exactly happened on Thursday evening in the upper area of Kangchenjunga is still unclear. It is known that Stitzinger reached the summit of the third highest mountain in the world on Thursday at around 17 p.m. local time as the last of a series of mountaineers who had set off for the very top that day. This is reported by journalist and blogger Stefan Nestler, who was in contact with Stitzinger's wife Alix von Melle over the Whitsun weekend.
According to Nestler, it was Stitzinger's second attempt to climb the summit. A first one had failed on May 18 because the group had gone astray. "He felt absolutely fit and said he was doing better than on many other expeditions," Nestler quotes von Melle.
As usual, the man from Füssen did without a breathing mask and additional oxygen from the bottle during the ascent. Around 21 p.m. on Thursday evening, the experienced mountaineer is said to have had one last contact with the team at the base camp of the Nepalese expedition organizer Seven Summit Treks (SST).
According to his own statements, Stitzinger was at about 8,300 meters at that time and announced that he would ski down to the highest camp despite the darkness. He had arranged with a Peruvian mountaineer, whom he met on the way, to meet again in the so-called Camp 4 at around 7,600 meters. However, he was never to arrive there.
Because Stitzinger had not arrived at the camp the next morning, the woman sounded the alarm. However, bad weather initially prevented the departure of a four-man Sherpa rescue team from SST, so that the rescue mission could not start until Monday morning (Nepalese local time). In order to make faster progress in the search for the Füssener, the Sherpas used oxygen cylinders. On Tuesday, the rescuers finally reached the high-altitude region from which Stitzinger had sent his last sign of life. At about 8,400 meters, they found the body of the mountaineer and brought him down.
Extreme mountaineer's wife says goodbye to her husband on social media
In the mountaineering scene, there is great sadness over the death of the experienced mountain guide. On Wednesday, his wife Alix von Melle said goodbye to her husband on Facebook and Instagram. "Dear Luis, the mountains were your life and ours. The Kangchenjunga, your big life's dream, which you wanted to fulfill so much. Your eyes shone with enthusiasm when you spoke of him," Melle wrote. The 25 years at Stitzinger's side were the best of her life. "The consolation remains that you were where you loved to be and always happy until the end – in the mountains."
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Füssen's mayor Maximilian Eichstetter (CSU) told our newspaper: "It was with deep sadness that I learned of the tragic accident of the experienced and level-headed mountaineer." His condolences go out to the family.
For Stitzinger, the Kangchenjunga was the tenth eight-thousander in his career that he climbed without a breathing mask. He had previously conquered Cho Oyu (2000), Gasherbrum II (2006), Nanga Parbat (2008), Dhaulagiri (2009), Broad Peak and K2 (2011), Shishapangma (2013), Manaslu (2017) and Gasherbrum I (2018). On six ascents, his wife was by his side. Only when climbing Mount Everest in 2019 and 2022 did he wear a breathing mask as a mountain guide.