Why I Failed To Climb Mount Everest Without Oxygen! 

Yeah you are right. Being a dead body on the mountain would be a failure, but also I did not succeed. But I am not mad at all, because I learned a lot and already became a better mountaineer than I was going into the expedition.

It’s a fail, stop the ridiculous everyone gets a blue ribbon crap, he FAILED that’s reality son, now he gets to try again.

Thank you buddy! I was afraid of my own courage, but I am happy that I was able to turn around. I can tell you I had a lot of fear, that I would not be able to do that and I was really afraid of death the days and weeks before.

Exactly! I will be stronger than ever! Thank you so much buddy!

Thank you for your kind words! Set backs let us grow the most!

For sure🫡

Yes he did, he failed. He had a goal and fell short, that’s a big FAIL! Get back to reality and stop the madness of the weak woke mindset. There are winners and losers in this life.

Thank you Hernan! It was a tought decision but I am not sad at all! I will train like a beast to be stronger in the future!

Haha, yeah it takes a while to adapt from sea level but every human body can do it. I learned a lot from this expedition, which will help me to adjust and become better for the next big mountain! Greetings!

Haha, thats for sure! I will stand up there one day! Thank you so much! Greetings back to Genoa, beautiful city

Thank you for your comment! Yeah you are right it is a learning experience!

Thank you so much for your comment and your nice words Richard! I cant wait to visit NZ one day and climb Mount Cook / Aoraki! Being able to control my Ego, was one of my most important and biggest lessons I had to learn as a young solo mountaineer in my 20s. I was a completely relentless climber when I was younger and it almost got me killed one day, when I got captured by a fierce storm on the summit of Mont Blanc and I had to dig myself into the snow just below the summit to survive until the next day. It was a long and hard learning journey, but it made me become the climber I am today. Happy to hear, that you enjoy the videos! I will continue to take you guys with me!

Hey, thank you so much for you comment and your kind words! If we dont reflect on what happened and if we are not able to see our mistakes, we will never be able to progress and become better at what we do and also we wont be able to develop as human beings. I love this about life in general, but thats also what makes the journey of a mountaineer so beautiful, rich and fulfilling. I think everyone can "almost" achieve anything, if they are not severely handicapped and if they are very passionate about it and are willing to put all the necessary hard work into it. It takes mostly discipline and a desire by heart to reach almsot anything in life. Thanks to comments like yours I will keep on sharing my story and continue to take you all with me! And you are absolutely right, hopefully more climbers understand, that it is ok to turn around and avoid death. Mountaineering is esepcially dangerous for young climbers in their 20s.

@@norrdinenouar That last sentence is especially eye-opening and mature. Obviously, climbers in their 20s seem to be the most capable, physically. But you just illustrated how much the mental aspect, maturity and experience is just as important, if not more. Bravo Sir. You will get there someday, and live to tell about it! I will be cheering for you!

Thank you so much! It is incredibly hard but so much more rewarding and my philosophy how a mountain should be climbed. It is the only way to truly experience the mountain and suffer to reach the summit. I will definately have another chance one day!

True mountain climbing? Do you realize that Sir Edmond Hillary and Tenzing Norgay wore oxygen on the very first ascent of Mt Everest? Does that make the mountain any less climbed or any less real? I understand when a true purist says that, but for anyone who doesn’t climb to say something like that is not only disrespectful but shows a complete lack of awareness of what high altitudes do to the body. Sure, anybody can read a book and learn about the death zone and its drawbacks, but until you’ve experienced the burning pain and pressure of altitude it’s just not credible for a person who doesn’t climb to make that kind of statement. I had a hard time I climb a 14er, but learned how to do it and I don’t think of myself as anything less because of that. Learning the way I did allowed me to successfully do Denali and Aconcagua without any breathing aides but it had needed to do so I would have, and I wouldn’t have cared what some so called purist thought.

Yeah wanrapea, there were many little things adding up on Everest this time. There is a lot I can learn and improve from this climb, so I am glad I had this very important lesson in my life. Lets see if I am able to setup a small expedition next year in Pakistan! :D I will upload a little bit of footage of Spain for you aswell! I am thinking.... the best Ice Cream of Andalusia would be a nice video :P

Thank you Johnbell! I will share my mountaineering journey of the past and future!

Thank you buddy! Yeah I will train like a beast to be successful the next time! Happy to hear that you enjoy the videos!

Hey Rinohals, you are absolutely right, the things you learn from these expeditions or "mistakes" are soo important and can be considered a "success" but yet, I still did not reach the summit, but its just a matter of time and hard work. To be honest with you it is probably quite important, that I did not succeed to climb Everest and had to turn around. If you have to much "success" in a row, I could run the risk of becoming fearless or overconfident. I think this lesson just happened at the right time and I needed this for my future climbs. So many good mountaineers, that are 100 times better than me died, because they were too "successful". Ueli Steck, David Lama, Jerzy Kukucka and many more... They thought they were invincible because of all the success they had.

Hey, happy to hear that you enjoy the content! It motivates me and keeps me hyped to upload more of my journey to you! Well you can not always succeed and you have to respect either the mountain or the signs of your body. This is just how mountaineering is and it is a beautiful way to learn and to develop!

Thank you Scotty!

Hey @mielmonteir8495! Thank you so much for your kind words and your contribution! I still cant stop thinking and dreaming about Everest, but I have to give it some time :D I hope I will be able to climb a few 8000ers in Pakistan next year or at least one of the Seven Summits :D we will see!

@@norrdinenouar I am for sure you will reach the highest peak! Continue your effort and nothing will be to much! Please keep us updated with all the progression! Ill be watching🙏

Thank you Carl, I heard of spirulina but didnt know there is Protein Powder. Ill give it a try and see what I can add to make it more tasty! I think I am able to upload the next video tomorrow :D . I will try to keep up with the comments as good as I can :D

@@norrdinenouar The organic Taiwanese spirulina I use contains 67g of protein per 100g. Whey protein is around 75-80g per 100g but lacks all the other good stuff spirulina contains. So I think it's totally viable as an effective food supplement for mountain endeavours. Just avoid the cheaper stuff from China as there may be heavy metal contamination in the product.

Thank you for your comment! Yeah, failure would be to die up there. But ultimately I did not succeed in summiting but I learned a lot and I am very thankful for this super important lesson. Wow, getting Long lined from Ama Dablam sounds scary. Glad to hear, that they were able to rescue you. Did you get sick because of the altitude?

you are absolutely right! That is what makes our life so rich! Happy to hear, that you enjoy the videos!

Yeah exactly! And you are right the weather seemed to be quite good until the mid of June this year.

Willem! I never forget our time in Montenegro! Until today I am still convinced and tell the story many times that we drank the best coffee of my life there!. Thank you for your nice comment and your kind words! Maybe we will sea each other one day again!

Hey, thank you for your comment! Yes usually its a combination of factors and not just a single reason. This is how life works but especially this is the way of a mountaineer, we try, we fail, we learn, we adapt and ultimately become better as a mountaineer and as human beings! What the pioneers of 1953 did is unimaginable. The logistics and everything was so much harder. Just think about their gear and limited knowledge about the body, acclimatization or weather data we have today. Even though they climbed with Oxygen it was incredibly hard. The frist time I went to Lukla last year I arrived via Jeep further down in the valley and walked to Lukla.

Thank you so much buddy! Was a hard decision but I am not mad at all since I learned a lot! You are absolutely right sir, more people need learn this skill!

Thank you so much for all the love!

Thank you so much for your comment! Yes failing would be if I died there, but still I did not succeed, but I will the next time!

Hey Florenco my friend! Thank you so much for your kind words! Wish you the best! Greetings to Tanzania!

Hey, there is already one video on my channel: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6hKgv0DWzm0.htmlsi=pwnUyWaifIsHVJ4f I will take a look into it and make a video about gear for sub 3k mountains

Congratulations on your achievements to date. Very inspirational. Looking forward to seeing future vlogs on your mountaineering experiences. Coolio

😅 I will have some smaller adventures for you in the near future, but the next very big adventure above 8000meters has to wait a little bit 😉

Glad you enjoyed it

@@norrdinenouar your content is very well thought out and educational. I'm just a beginner climbing mountains in the USA mainly. I am dreaming of expeditions in Nepal. Stay safe and keep up the amazing work.

Yeah, it is quite insane up there and almost impossible for us humans to survive at these altitudes. These are some of the most hostile places on earth yet so beautiful. I would say my fitness level is quite good, but you lose a lot of muscle and stamina when you go on an expedition like that, so you have to do a lot of rebuilding. My current PB for 10k is 44minutes. 42k is 3h20min. I am trying to get faster though :D. Spending a lot of time in the mountains helps too! Another underestimated factor is your mental strength. It is probably even more important than your phyiscal strength.

​@@norrdinenouar All very impressive! Documenting with video takes a lot of effort in and of itself. Doing it while climbing the highest peaks on earth without oxygen is crazy. It's much appreciated though. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you ✌🏾

Thank you so much for your comment! Life is beautiful, so I rather turn around!

Thank you so much!

Haha, there you can do almost anything! Thank you for your comment. Next time Ill just make sure my tent is with my equipment :D

Thank you! More people should learn how to listen to their body and act accordingly. A lot of people dont do that in their everyday life, even though our body has a clear message for us and sends us all the signs we need.

Hey buddy, it is pretty situational and very individual how every body and composition adapts to high altitude. There is still so much we dont know, but for researchers it is hard to find money to do more necessary research in the field. There are a lot of treks and mountains in Nepal where you dont need a guide at all. For example around Everest or Annapurna you dont need a guide. But if you go to Mustang for example a guide is mandatory. You can still climb any mountain alone by yourself.

Yeah, but most people dont want all the effort, they want just the summit picture as fast and as easy as possible thats it. To be able to climb Alpine style is a long journey and requires so much knowledge, skills and experience. It takes years to learn the necessary skills. About avoing crowds on Everest. I am dreaming about climbing the Hornbein Couloir one day in Alpine Style. Check out how Thomas Hornbein climbed it back then in 1963, absolute legend!

Thank you buddy! Hope the transaction is working:D

Thank you Natali! :D

Yeah... it is intense up there and we really almost need a Space Suit

Thank you buddy! As long as you prepare yourself and train hard you can do it if you are careful! But please dont die!

Hey Mike, yeah it was to much time up there especially considering that I moved to Everest after I summited Annapurna I successfully solo without oxygen in the days before. The cold then was to much and I made the mistake to not climb down to regenerate. But well we make mistakes to learn from them. I also thought my body could handle it quite well, because when I summited Lhotse last year solo without oxygen I also spent a lot of time in C2, C3 and C4. But this time it simply did not work out due to a combination of factors. But I will try again and be stronger next time! Btw I am not wealthy at all. I have to work hard to be able to finance these expeditions and now I have to go back to work since I am broke after 2 years of travelling and 3, 8000er expeditions. Greetings!

@@norrdinenouar well, the best thing to see in your video was that you were able to take the experiences you had, both positive and negative, and turn them in to future learning opportunities. When you’re going over 7000m, let alone 8000m, the more you know about your body the better. I’m curious…doing it solo, did you just make guesses on the weather? Now days, these expeditions use such sophisticated weather tracking models, and yet even THEY get it wrong. So, were you tracking weather or did you just send it, hoping it would work? Also, since you were solo (which i TOTALLY admire, and is how i do all my trips) did you get any pushback from people anywhere, either on the trail or in camps? Did you use the fixed lines or did you forgo them and just pass people? So many questions for you😉 You did such an amazing job with your videos, and your experience is much closer to how I do things…solo. Cheers man.

It is... especially back then, when there was so little knowledge compared to todays knowledge

Garmin Descent Mk II, since I am also a Divemaster :D

@@norrdinenouar sick.

You are absolutely right and the death of David Sharp was a tragedy. If you need to be rescued up there you already made a significant mistake and should have turned around before. I will do my best to be as careful as possible! :D

It was a NoName Tent, which only weighed about 2kg. I will need a more professional lightweight tent for the future. I have a Vaude and a Salewa tent, but they are not specificly made for high altitude. In my Annapurna videos you can see the lightweight tent I used in more detail. It was from Red Fox I think

Yep, and I will come back stronger than ever. Mountaineering and life is about learning, adapting and developing

Thank you for your question. It is not an easy one and very subjective and situational. I think as you can see by my style, that it is possible to minimize the risk of what you are doing, be making good and conservative decisions. But climbing mountains is dangerous and death is the possibility. But is a possibility everyhwere in life. I could die, any day driving to work or getting cancer living a life I do not enjoy. And as you saw I am not willing to die for my goals, but I am ready to go all out and take risks to reach my goals. But we are all free to decide how we want to live our life.

Julbo Shield 2-4. And usually on summit day Jolbo Aerospace 0-4 but I lost them on the way to the summit of Annapurna. The wind took them into the abyss.

Hey, thank you for your question! My answer to this may be controversial to some people. It is already scientifically proven, that Sherpas have a special genetic combination, that helps them to perform hard tasks at high altitude. But genetics do not play a role at all for the rest of us. Reinhold Messner, Jerzy Kukuczka, other non oxygen climbers or myself dont have any special genetics that enable us to climb these mountains. It is all preperation, training, strategy and hard work. The most important factor is the amount of time you spend at high altitude and how much time you give your body to adapt. But also how often you are at high altitude and how used your body is to adapting to high altitude. By the way there is no correlation between physical fitness and the ability to acclimatize. Some studies even indicate, that overweight people seem to acclimatize easier than Marathon runners for example. I personally think the one and best strategy to acclimatize very well and climb 8000ers wihtout oxygen is Time, give your body enough time to adapt and do proper rotations to high camps and then go down again.

Thank you Bro! ✌🏾

You nailed it! People need to learn how to listen to your body and overcome their ego.

Yeah... it is a huge mess right now and definately going into the wrong direction. I would love to see the sport change for the better.

Exactly man! Our planet has so many beautiful things to offer! It is a great time to be alive!

Yep, and actually we dont get better by succeeding all the time... we develop the most, when we fail

Unfortunately this is not how it works these days... :/

I think u'd be disappointed. Have you seen the lines! A mile long line of just people. Waiting to take a selfie 😢 The Sherpas do all the real work. And for pennies 😢