Obviously, Carol Peter Riemann revealed what he called one of the few people who climbed the secret in the winter of 1992/93. "Peter told me unequivocally that he climbed Mount Zhuooyou from Nepal alone without using supplementary oxygen. He has always avoided auxiliary oxygen and never used it. Besides, Peter always climbs alone. "
That winter, did he really successfully complete the milestone feat of Himalayan mountaineering? Peter Riemann died on June 4th, 2006 at his home in Lanchester, Pennsylvania, USA. As his widow wrote in her obituary, "After a fearless and elegant struggle against cancer", Peter took his secret from Mount Zhuooyou to the grave. Carol Davis said that he didn't write a mountaineering diary or take relevant photos. She said that apart from his equipment, he only brought a walkman and listened to his favorite van morrison music on the mountain.
When he climbed the mountains in Nepal or the Himalayas in India, he never got permission from the authorities. Carol wrote: "He has no money to apply for permission. If allowed, he has to bring a backpack or something He is not interested in that kind of climbing. He climbed not for external glory, but for inner desire. "
Peter Riemann later repaid his licensing "debt" to Nepal in other ways. 1996, he and carol founded the "Nepal Health Project". They use drama performances to educate people in remote villages in Nepal and let them know the importance of hygiene to health. Carol estimates that over the years, about 500,000 people have participated in these information activities. In addition, about 65,438+05,000 8th grade and ninth grade students attended the first aid and basic life support seminars, all of which were designed and organized by Peter.
His professional training is very helpful to him. 1950, born in the town of Forden, Lower Saxony, Germany, studied sports science at Bremen University. Later, he worked as a medical educator in Bremen, teaching first aid courses. Peter Riemann specializes in life-saving measures in motorcycle accidents.
Peter is also an avid motorcyclist. In Carol's obituary, she described him as an "all-round athlete". He is also a skier, marathon runner and competitive bodybuilder. However, mountaineering is his greatest hobby. His awakening of mountaineering passion was purely accidental. "While vacationing in the mountains, he was fascinated by climbing mountains," Peter's sister Ilsa Pahlman recalled. "Then, almost overnight, he became an amateur mountaineer. He really likes to do something unusual. " Especially on the ice and snow, his widow Carol added, "Peter likes climbing ice as much as anyone else-he likes climbing ice best."
She said that over the years, he also led hiking teams in Greece and Norway, especially in Zanska, northern India. In 2000, Peter and his wife were hiking in the Himalayas in India. Peter told her, "See those peaks? I climbed up every one. " Carol recalled that one of the peaks was the double-topped nun-Kun Peak, and each peak was more than 7,000 meters high.
Carol gave this explanation to the fact that Peter always climbs the mountain alone. "I think, on the one hand, when he was young, the stories of reinhold Mesner and his brother (Gunter Mesner died when he went down from the mountain in Nanga Parbat in 1970, and reinhold survived) and other mountaineering partners had an influence on him. If something happens to the person who climbs the mountain with him, he doesn't know how to feel at ease. He doesn't want to worry about anyone, nor does he want anyone to worry about him. "
"He knows his skills, he can rely on these skills, he knows and challenges his limits, he is willing to take risks with his own safety, but he never wants to put others in danger. Moreover, he climbed alone in order not to attract attention, because he had no permit and no porter. "
1994, the year after Peter Riemann climbed Mount Zhuooyu in winter, he met his later wife, Carol Davis, at the Tongboqi Temple in the Everest region. Peter later told his girlfriend that he stayed in the mountains for a month. They got married on 1998. Carol recalled that he did not disclose details, such as which route he chose, how many camps he used, and how long it took him to try to reach the top. However, Peter described in great detail the dramatic experience in the last few days of his expedition.
Carol recalled what Peter had said. After returning to the base camp from the top of the mountain, it began to snow. "He decided to stay in the tent and wait for the storm to pass, instead of walking back to Wukong. However, it snowed for almost four days and four nights. After all, it is January. "She said that Peter shoveled the snow in the tent again and again. However, in the end, the snow was so deep that he had no food.
"So, in the end, he started to go out, but he got too deep and was exhausted from driving. He was always stuck in the snow. Therefore, he threw away some equipment, such as his stove and tent. Then start swimming and stretch as much as possible to avoid falling into the snow. " Carol said that in the end, Peter left his backpack behind, wearing only a down jacket, gloves and a pair of mountain boots, and walked on.
"Progress is slow, he is very cold. Sometimes, when he swims in the snow, he falls asleep. He said he didn't want to wake up or get up. He stayed there very well, and he will rest there for a long time. But a faint voice in his heart told him that this is death and he must continue to try. " Four days later, in the evening, he arrived at the only inn at that time-Gofan Inn.
The owners of the hut, Mr. and Mrs. Sharma, prepared steaming food and drinks for Peter. They may have lent him some money because he put his wallet in his backpack. Carol was suspicious. "He told them that in exchange, when the snow melted, they could get his things and have them." She said that the next year, Peter found his tent and other equipment in a shop in Nanchibazha, which is the main village in the Khumbu area. Later, he went to Sharmas's house in Gohan, and the owner Surendra returned Peter's wallet. "It was full of cash," Carol recalled.
The Sharma family still remembers the German climber. "Peter and my parents have a good relationship. The couple's youngest son, Sonam Sharma, wrote in the letter: "He has been to Wukong several times, and he has tried to climb Zhuoyoufeng two or three times before." . "He told my parents that he had found the route and that he could reach the top of the mountain in winter. They said it was about 1993 1. "
At that time, Riemann brought food for three weeks. The Nepalese couple said that if he didn't show up in three weeks, they would look for him. "When he didn't come back, my parents went to rescue him back to Wukong," Sonam Sharma wrote. So in this detail, Sharma's memory is different from Carol's, but there is no difference in basic sentences. "That year, as Peter told my parents, he did climb Zhuoyou Mountain."
Sonam asked his parents to draw Riemann's base camp on the map of Gohan Valley to decide which route he would choose. Sonam Sharma replied, "Peter once told them that there were two base camps. Once before crossing the glacier and once after the glacier. "
Later, these pictures were shown to Austrian climber alois Futner. He and his compatriot Edikob Lü ller successfully climbed the southeast mountain wall of the 3,000-meter-high Zhuooyou Peak at 1978 for the first time-by the way, they didn't get permission from the Nepalese authorities at that time.
"These camps are not a reasonable starting point for climbing Zhuoyoufeng," alois replied. Perhaps these two places are not Riemann's camp at all. Maybe Peter wants to tell Sharma's family where he put the first supplies, and then tell them where his backpack is on his way back to Wukong-so that they can get the equipment later.
According to Peter Riemann's family, Peter's toes were frostbitten because he was exploring Joyo Mountain. His half-sister Ilsa Ilsa recalled: "He reported that he had problems climbing mountains and that he didn't have suitable shoes." After returning to Kathmandu, he went to the hospital immediately. Carol added: "The doctor told him that they need to cut off his toes because they have been frostbitten and turned black."
She said that Peter refused and flew back to China under the mediation of the German Embassy in Kathmandu. Riemann's father paid for the plane ticket. According to his family, after that, Peter went to Roland clinic in Bremen, where his frostbite was treated. This hospital is a specialized clinic for plastic surgery. It is still uncertain when Riemann was sent there. According to the management of the clinic, the storage period of files has expired.
Carol said that at first, it seemed that a big toe had to be amputated. "After staying in the hospital for about four weeks, they finally saw some pink in the place where there was only black, so they didn't cut off their toes, just trimmed some. So Peter's big toe is very thin. When we are in a cold place, or go skiing or something, his feet are always frozen badly. "
1993 65438+ 10, did Peter riemann really reach the top of Mount Zhuooyu? Without using oxygen, did you really climb the south wall of this 8000-meter mountain with extremely high technical requirements, which few people have ever reached? If it is true, it will be the second solo climb of this mountain, which is an outstanding mountaineering achievement. 1988, Fernando garrido, a Spaniard, climbed this 8000m mountain in winter for the first time through the regular route in Tibet without wearing a breathing mask. On 1985 three years ago, Polish Marchie Berbeka and Maciej Pavlicovschi successfully completed the first 8,000m winter summit on the Nepalese side through the southeast mountain pillar.
1 February, 993, that is, the winter when Riemann lived, five Spaniards,1Argentine, like Swiss Marian Cha Pusat and Fernando garrido, reached the peak of 8 188 meters by the conventional route in Tibet without bottled oxygen and Sherpa support. Marianne is the first woman to successfully climb this 8000-meter mountain in winter. The mountaineering team set up a base camp at 1993 65438+ 10/3, with an altitude of 5070 meters. The camp is located in Nangpa La, on the Nepalese side leading to the Tibetan mountain pass. It was built because of a lot of snow-probably after Peter Riemann's difficult return to Gokyo.
As there seems to be no evidence of his successful summit, his climb may always be a mystery and be suspected. Piece together the fragments of his climbing process and you can distinguish a vague picture. But there are too few to be sure.
Imagine that an amateur climber from northern Germany successfully climbed alone. This was a team including top Polish climber Vojtek Kutka, reinhold messner from South Tyrol, Hans KaMoellander and Hans Peter Eisendel even in the winter of 10, that is, 1982- 1983. On the one hand, it sounds ridiculous. It's easy to think that Peter Riemann is one of the impostors on the mountain. There have been such impostors in the history of high-altitude mountaineering, and there are several now.
On the other hand, if, as his relatives and friends have consistently described, he climbs the mountain only for himself, with no affectation at all and no impulse to communicate, and he is a lone ranger who only seeks personal mountaineering exploration, then why should such an enthusiastic climber lie? What can he gain by telling a lie? Maybe the few people he told knew something about his success, but what else? I have nothing.
Less than a year after Peter died of lung cancer, Carol Davis went to Nepal with the ashes of her late husband. A nun in Tamo Temple near Nanchi Bazaar crushed some ashes into two small sacred objects and told her to put one in the river and the other on the mountain. "So before I went back to Nanchi, I made a mulberry stew ceremony by a secluded river," Carol wrote in the letter.
The second thing she brought back to Wukong. Riemann's widow said that Surendra Sharma and a chef accompanied her to Peter's so-called Zhuooyou peak base camp. There, she also held her own prayer ceremony for her late husband. On Christmas Day, according to the Tibetan calendar, it was exactly one year after Peter's death-"I cried in the wind and missed him very much. I heard his deep and beautiful voice say in my heart,' There is nothing you want here, go back to life!' "
Note: The story information is provided by Korean climbers Young-Hoon Oh, Carol Davis, Bohlmann's family in Forden and Sharma's family in Gyoko Inn.