Billi Bierling – Journalist and Climber

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 [...]