THE STORY OF HANNELORE SCHMATZ --- THE FIRST WOMAN TO DIE MOUNT EVEREST...

 

In 1979, Hannelore Schmatz achieved the unthinkable — she became the fourth woman in the world to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Unfortunately, her glorious climb to the mountain's peak would be her last.

WHannelore Schmatz was the fourth woman to summit Mount Everest, and the first woman to die there.

German mountaineer Hannelore Schmatz loved to climb. In 1979, accompanied by her husband, Gerhard, Schmatz embarked on their most ambitious expedition yet: to summit Mount Everest.

While the husband-and-wife triumphantly made it to the top, their journey back down would end in a devastating tragedy as Schmatz ultimately lost her life, making her the first woman and first German national to die on Mount Everest.

For years following her death, Hannelore Schmatz’s mummified corpse, identifiable by the backpack pushed against it, would be a gruesome warning for other mountaineers attempting the same feat that killed her.

An Experienced Climber

DWHannelore Schmatz and her husband Gerhard were avid mountaineers.

Only the most experienced climbers in the world dare to brave the life-threatening conditions that come with the ascent to the summit of Everest. Hannelore Schmatz and her husband Gerhard Schmatz were a pair of experienced mountaineers who had traveled to reach the world’s most indomitable mountain tops.

In May 1973, Hannelore and her husband returned from a successful expedition to the top of Manaslu, the eighth mountain top in the world standing at 26,781 feet above sea level, in Kathmandu. Not skipping a beat, they soon decided on what their next ambitious climb would be.

For reasons unknown, the husband and wife decided it was time to conquer the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. They submitted their request to the Nepalese government for a permit to climb Earth’s deadliest peak and began their strenuous preparations.

The pair climbed a mountain top each year since to increase their ability to adjust to high altitudes. As the years passed, the mountains they climbed got higher. After another successful climb to Lhotse, which is the fourth highest mountain top in the world, in June 1977, they finally got word that their request for Mount Everest had been approved.

Hannelore, who her husband noted as “a genius when it came to sourcing and transporting expedition material,” oversaw the technical and logistical preparations of their Everest hike.

During the 1970s, it was still difficult to find adequate climbing gear in Kathmandu so whatever equipment they were going to use for their three-month expedition to Everest’s summit needed to be shipped from Europe to Kathmandu.

Hannelore Schmatz booked a warehouse in Nepal to store their equipment which weighed several tons in total. In addition to equipment, they also needed to assemble their expedition team. Besides Hannelore and Gerhard Schmatz, there were six other experienced high-altitude climbers that joined them on Everest.

Among them were New Zealander Nick Banks, Swiss Hans von Känel, American Ray Genet — an expert mountaineer who the Schmatzs had conducted expeditions with before — and fellow German climbers Tilman Fischbach, Günter fights, and Hermann Warth. Hannelore was the only woman in the group.

In July 1979, everything was prepared and ready to go, and the group of eight began their trek along with five sherpas — local Himalayan mountain guides — to help lead the way.

Summiting Mount Everest

Göran Höglund/FlickrHannelore and her husband received approval to climb mount Everest two years before their perilous hike.

During the climb, the group hiked at an altitude of about 24,606 feet above the ground, a level of altitude referred to as “the yellow band.”

They then traversed the Geneva Spur in order to reach the camp at the South Col which is a sharp-edged mountain point ridge at the lowest point between Lhotse to Everest at an altitude of 26,200 feet above ground. The group decided to set up their last high camp at the South Col on Sept. 24, 1979.

But a several-day blizzard forces the entire camp to descend back to down the Camp III base camp. Finally, they try again to get back to the South Col point, this time splitting into large groups of two. Husband and wife are divided — Hannelore Schmatz is in one group with other climbers and two sherpas, while the rest are with her husband in the other.

Gerhard’s group makes the climb back to the South Col first and arrives after a three-day climb before stopping to set up camp for the night.

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