Billi Bierling – Journalist and Climber

This is just a very quick note to say Thank You to everyone who came to my Manaslu presentation and who supported the solar light project in the region. More than 100 people attended the event, which was hosted by Sport Conrad in Garmisch-Part., and it was great to see that so many of you [...]

On the second weekend in December, I will present pictures and a few stories about my two Manaslu expeditions. Manaslu, also called ‘Mountain of the Spirits’, is the eighth highest mountain in the world and is located in the Lamjung District in the northern Himalaya range. The region is very rich in variety and is [...]

In my last entry I was boasting that I would be doing a half-marathon in Lausanne on 30 October, however, these 21km were reduced to a 10km race due to various aches and pains by the participants.   A couple of weeks ago, my friend Ale, who I usually do these races with, pulled her [...]

Since I wrote my last entry, my life has literally rushed past me as it took me only five days to get from the summit of Manaslu to my new job in Bern. I am sure it is not the record but my poor body and mind were struggling to keep up with this rapid [...]

“Billli, where exactly are you?” Russell called me over the radio. “I am about 10 minutes away from the real summit,” I replied from the point everyone calls the “rock tower”. I had been climbing for exactly eight hours and as Russell was determined that I should make it back down to Camp II after [...]

This is just a brief update to let you know that I have done it! I summited Manaslu, the 8th highest mountain in the world, without the use of supplementary oxygen! I will write more and post some pictures once I get back to Kathmandu or Switzerland, where I will be working for the next [...]

While I am writing this I am lying in my tent which is engulfed in a huge cloud and I can hardly see the tent next to mine. But despite this latest fog at base camp, the weather has improved hugely over the past two days and we are planning to summit on 4th and [...]

This is just a brief update to let you know that we had to abandon our summit attempt and are back at base camp. After having spent one night at Camp I at 5,570m, during which it continuously snowed and left about 50cm of fresh snow on the ground, we were called back by Russell, our expedition leader.

Ascent of Manaslu 2011: Earthquake, acclimatisation, incessant rain, amazing Sherpas, walking with the wounded. Billi Bierling’s dispatch from basecamp.

This is Billi’s robot. Billi just called from basecamp where she is sitting in the rain, waiting. Yesterday at 6.10pm local time, a 6.8 earthquake struck on the Nepal Sikkim border, pretty much under Kanchenjunga. In Kathmandu it was felt apparently as a 4.8 earthquake which is relatively small but very noticeable. How was it [...]

Billi Bierling has returned to Manaslu with Russel Brice and the Himex crew plus a team from the UK from Walking with the Wounded.

When I arrived in Kathmandu last Sunday, I had no idea that this was the day of the country’s general elections. I had long lost track of who was actually ruling the country as the seat of the prime minister has been swapped around a few times since the election of the Constitutional Assembly three [...]

I have been in Europe for two weeks and I am enjoying the good food, the clean air, the organised life and all the outdoor possibilities Europe has on offer. I have been swimming in lakes and rivers and have been hiking in the Alps.   Last week I went up the 3,768m-high Wildspitze, Austria’s [...]

Article about the Spanish rescue on Lhotse in spring 2011

I just got back from the beautiful region of Ladakh in northern India, where I was leading a trek to Tso Moriri and Lungser Kangri, a 6,666m peak, which unfortunately we did not get to the top of due to bad weather. However, despite the disappointment of not standing on the summit, the trek and [...]

This is just a quick update whilst in civilisation before I go off into the mountains again. I have just come back from trekking to Concordia and the K2 memorial site in Pakistan and even though I had rather climb mountains than just trek, this trip was simply amazing. The Karakorum is more dramatic and [...]

After having spent one week in the sweltering heat of Islamabad I am now off to K2 base camp – a trip I am leading for a British tour operator. I am really excited to finally see the Baltoro Glacier and discover another part of Pakistan – away from the suffering and plight I saw [...]

Just about two weeks after having left base camp and the cold, I am back in Islamabad, where temperatures are currently soaring up to about 45 C. Life happens so fast sometimes and my Lhotse expedition, which I utterly enjoyed, seems so far away when I ride my bike through the Pakistani capital. It is [...]

This is just a short note to let say that I am back in Kathmandu and I don’t think I have ever come back from the mountains so quickly. After having come down from Camp II on 27 May in the morning, I just had a shower, wrote the newsletter for Himalayan Experience, which you [...]

Hello, this is Billi’s robot. Good news. Just received another sms from Basecamp, or ‘BC’ in the local language. In it Billi says “Can u do me a huge favor and just put on my website that I summitted on 26th May at 5am and Billi will eloborate more soon. Ah first German woman on [...]

This is Billi’s robot in Kathmandu. Information just arrived from basecamp by text message that Billi summitted and is now on the way back down to camp II. And the weather is lovely! Thus more directly, live from Billi very soon!

Apologies for the silence over the past week but I have been away from modern technology and have been unable to send any updates to my website. I have just come down from four days at Camp II and Camp III and enjoyed the dizzying heights of 6,400m and 7,300m.  The Lhotse team left base [...]

This is Billi’s robot! Just received a message from Billi in her sleeping bag saying that she is heading up to camp two (2 / ii ) for three (3 / iii) days. She is “acclimatising on the mountain” which is surely the best place to do it. More news as it comes. Robot.

It is the 5th of May and while many teams are going down to the lower elevations to recover from having lived above 5,000m and prepare for their summit attempt, the Himalayan Experience Lhotse group is heading down the valley in order to climb Lobuche East for acclimatisation. It seems late in the season to [...]

Greetings from my little acclimatisation hike with my friend and mountain mentor Ellen from Vale!The rest of the Lhotse group is still on their way down from the 5,455m peak and Ellen and I are happy to be sitting in the lodge as it is snowing hard outside now!  Just heard that Osama bin Laden [...]

This is just a quick update on what has been happening here at Everest base camp. Our Everest group has gone off to Camp II and Camp III for the next six days, and the Himalayan Experience camp is very quiet with only Monica, Ellen, Russell, a team of Sherpas and I left. I am [...]

I am just sitting in the legendary White Pod – the igloo-like structure that dominates the Himalayan Experience base camp – and the thought of moving over to the prayer flags from where I have a good enough 3G connection to send this update for my website is already exhausting me. But despite all the [...]

I’m on my third day in the Everest region and I reached Russell’s Lobuche camp at 4,900m on Wednesday morning. I’m feeling good despite the fact that I steamed up the khumbu in less than three days. I met a few friends on the way and arriving here was a nice reunion with guides, Manaslu [...]

After having wrapped up my job with the United Nations in Islamabad and said goodbye to the lovely people I met there as well as our CORE community, I am back in Kathmandu getting ready for Lhotse. I left Pakistan with a laughing and a crying eye but it was time for me to go. [...]