Holecek details epic Baruntse climb

At the end of May Marek Holecek and Radoslav Groh climbed Barunste via the Western Wall before being caught in awful weather on the descend which almost cost them their lives.

Now home and safe, Holecek has recalled the events of the epic climb via the Mountain.RU website.

“The goal of me and “Radar” (Radoslav Groh) was the western wall of the Baruntse (7129m), rising from the Hunku valley, in the Khumbu region.

“For several years, I had carried this idea in my head on beautiful wall with a new line, which showed great respect in my eyes. I revived the idea in 2019, when I saw Baruntse again in its full beauty. However, at that time there was another top on the list a little further in the same valley where we went with Zdenda “Hek” Hek, to climb a new path to the NW wall of Chamlang. But that single look was enough for me to say that I had to go back there, and so it happened this year.

“We arrived at the base camp under the Barunts wall on 13 May. We were already well acclimatized from the previous trek, so we just waited for four consecutive days of good weather to appear so we could start climbing the west face. We were already well acclimatized from the previous trek, so we just waited for four continuous days of good weather, then we could start climbing the western wall.”

…The full day-by-day account can be read at Mountain.RU here.