Mount Everest, Austrian Expedition. Our expedition consisted of Dr. Oswald Ölz, Dr. Raimund Margreiter, Peter Habeler, Franz Oppurg, Helmut Hagner, Reinhold Messner, Hanns Schell, Robert Schauer, Horst Bergmann, Josl Knoll, the German Reinhard Karl and me as leader. We also had British movie photographers and a reporter from Graz. By March 24 all of us had reached Base Camp. The notorious Khumbu Icefall was in particularly bad condition in 1978 and the Sherpas told us that it was much more broken-up than usual. It took eight days, 3500 feet of rope and 70 aluminum ladders to fix the route through it. At the beginning of April Camp I was established at the start of the Western Cwm. Camp II, Advanced Base, was placed up the Cwm. The Lhotse Face was more difficult than in other years; the lower half was bare ice and the whole slope from 22,300 to nearly 26,000 feet at the Geneva Spur had to be fixed with rope. Camp III was at 23,625 feet on the Lhotse Face. On April 21 Messner and Habeler left on the first summit attempt, but Habeler had to turn back from Camp II with stomach trouble. Messner went on with two Sherpas and set up Camp IV on the South Col. The weather deteriorated and hurricane winds prevented movement for two days. After two oxygenless nights on the col, they had to descend. The weather improved and after carries to Camp III, the second summit team, Bergmann, Schauer, Sherpa Sirdar Ang Phu and I, left Camp II on April 30. We got to the South Col on May 1 and placed Camp V at 27,900 feet on May 2. On May 3, despite wind and drifting snow, we toiled upward in snow sometimes knee- and even hip- deep in two-and-a-half hours to the South Summit. We managed to climb the steep, corniced Hillary Step and reached the summit at noon. By then the weather was so good that we stayed on top for an hour and a half before descending to the South Col. Dr. Margreiter, Hagner and Schell left Camp III on May 4 but the fixed rope was buried by 18 inches of snow. Breaking trail was so hard that they gave up. The next team was Messner and Habeler, who got to the South Col on May 7 without artificial oxygen. They continued on May 8, also without supplementary oxygen, with light packs and a still and a movie camera. They took about eight hours to the summit. On the way down Habeler was swept off by a windslab avalanche but was able to extricate himself and descend to the col. We expedition members have no doubt about this having been done without supplementary oxygen, despite doubts that have been expressed. Messner and Habeler’s word should be enough. We can, however, prove to doubters that the ascent was made thus. The first team to reach the summit checked oxygen supplies on the South Col on their descent and reported what there was to Ölz and Karl. That team checked the oxygen when they ascended on May 10 to the South Col after the Habeler-Messner climb and found that the supply tallied exactly. On May 11 Dr. Ölz and Karl climbed from the South Col to the summit and returned. On May 13 Knoll and Oppurg spent the night at Camp V. Knoll’s oxygen apparatus was defective and so on May 14 he did not climb; Oppurg went to the summit solo. Another summit team was to start up but by this time the Sherpas had become demoralized by countless incidents in the Khumbu Icefall. Lacking this support, the team did not make the attempt.

Wolfgang Nairz, Österreichischer Alpenverein