Billi Bierling – Journalist and Climber

It has been six months since the floods in Pakistan caused huge devastation, left more than 1,000 people dead, killed around 500,000 animals, destroyed more than 2.2 million hectares of crops and affected almost 18 million people. I happened to be here when the water started to spread across the country and it was shocking [...]

„I have written some poetry for you,“ Mohammad Zai Parishan proudly told me when I finally found him at the local hospital at Surkhab Refugee Village in Balochistan, where he had been for a regular check-up. “I knew you would be coming back.” About six weeks ago, I visited the 21-year-old man, who is suffering [...]

Last weekend was another weekend filled with sporting activities and first of all I would like to share with you that my good friend and Ironman World Champion, Chrissie Wellington, has yet broken another world record. Chrissie stunned the sports world again by finishing the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and the 26.2-mile run in [...]

Quite a lot has happened since I posted my last newsletter, in which I wrote about my amazing encounter with Mohammad Zai, the wheelchair-bound man I met in Pishin near Quetta. Following the article I posted on the UNHCR website, I received an email from a university in Toronto offering to collect some money to [...]

My work in Pakistan has taken me to Quetta in Balochistan, which is in the south west of the country and is very close to the borders with Afghanistan and Iran. I came here more than one week ago and even though the city is surrounded by beautiful looking mountains, I am not allowed to [...]

Life after Manaslu has been reasonably hectic with barely three days gap between the summit and getting back to Kathmandu. Russell managed to organise a couple of helicopters that took us straight from Samagoan (the last village before base camp) o to Kathmandu, where I immediately got on my bike to find expeditions for Miss [...]

I am sitting in the sun at base camp watching the hard-working Sherpas clearing up the camp and packing everything away. It has been almost six weeks now that I left Pakistan and after all the waiting and acclimatising the expedition is finally over and we managed to ‘knock the bastard off’ as Edmund Hillary [...]

Forty hours in a tent We have just come back down from spending four nights higher up on the mountain. On Monday we set off towards Camp I, where we were going to spend one night before we were supposed to move to Camp II at 6,270m. However, due to the fact that the ropes [...]

Well, I thought the waiting game on Mount Everest was a huge challenge, but little did I know what climbing Manaslu in the  post-monsoon season entailed. Here, we are not only waiting for the winds to drop on the summit while we are basking in the sunshine. Here, we are mainly bound to our tents [...]

On Friday morning we went climbing and it was great! For the first time in two weeks we got closer to the mountain, wore crampons and a harness and were actually using our ice axes – and it just felt right. We have been at Manaslu base camp for four days now and slowly but [...]

I am sitting in my tent with the rain pounding on my roof and the downpour seems relentless and never-ending. I had heard a lot about the bad weather on Manaslu, however, I did not expect it to be that bad. On Tuesday, it poured down heavily all day and even though we had a [...]

This is just a brief note from Manaslu base camp, where we have just arrived after having spent a few days at Samagoan, the last village before base camp. Monica, our doctor, Lacchu, our chef, Phurba Tashi, the Sirdar, and I had a fabulous five days walking and considering that we were still in the [...]

Hello, Namaste and Grüß Gott, This is not Billi, but her robot. Just updating the site to re-mention that Billi is writing on the Himex blog and the first two posts can be found here: 1. http://www.himex.com/english/news/2010-08-26Manaslu.htm and the most recent here: 2. http://www.himex.com/english/news/2010-09-05Manaslu.htm Enjoy reading!

This is just a quick note to let you know that I have arrived back in Nepal and am busy packing my bags, interviewing a few expeditions for Miss Hawley and just getting used to my very different life here again. Monica, our expedition doctor, Lakchu, our amazing chef and I will take the bus [...]