Kanchenjunga, Solo Ascent. Hoping to climb the normal southwest route on Kanchenjunga, Hanns Schell and I, accompanied by Dr. Hermann Krüttner and photographer Franz Haigermoser, set off on March 16. After a 17-day approach, we set up Base Camp on April 10 at 18,050 feet. Unfortunately we had much bad weather, hurricane winds, masses of snow and often avalanche danger. We set up Camps I, II and III at 20,175, 21,150 and 23,450 feet on April 21, 29 and May 4 respectively. Many summit attempts failed in bad weather. On May 24 Hanns Schell decided against continuing. As if to spite him, the weather turned better. I took advantage of this last chance and, with Sherpas, reached Camp III on May 26. On the 27th we climbed to establish Camp IV at 25,600 feet. The weather was beautiful, but the Sherpas did not want to climb higher. I set out solo at 5:30 A.M. on May 28 and stood on the summit (8586 meters, 28,170 feet) five hours later. The climbing on the upper part was rather difficult and I had to concentrate hard. The weather was completely clear and the view fantastic. I stayed on top for only ten minutes and an hour later was back in Camp IV. I descended that same afternoon to Camp III and the next day to Base Camp. I climbed without supplementary oxygen.

Georg Bachler, Österreichischer Alpenverein