Ogre, second ascent and Ogre III, first ascent. On July 21 the team of Urs Stöcker, Iwan Wolf, and me stood on the summit of the Ogre (7285m). Having succeeded on the first ascent of the extremely difficult Ogre III (ca 6800m) on July 1, we concentrated on climbing the Ogre. Since the first ascent in 1977 by the two British climbers Chris Bonington and Doug Scott, all other attempts at climbing the mountain—more than 20 expeditions—had been unsuccessful.

On July 18, after two days’ preparation, the team left base camp in uncertain weather for their summit attempt. On July 20 we reached the top of the south pillar at 6500m, after having climbed 28 pitches. The following morning at 2 a.m. they began the final, decisive stage. Climbing the steep (up to 55 degrees) icefield was very strenuous. It led to the start of extremely hard climbing up the final buttress to the summit. This proved to be UIAA VI and A2 at over 7000m. Strong wind and extreme cold made the last meters to the summit challenging. At 3:30 p.m. we were on top. After 24 years.…

Thomas Huber, Germany