Ondrej Huserka, an mountaineer was killed on Thursday, October 31 in the Nepal after completing the ascent of Langtang Lirung, a 7,234 m high peak, reports the BBC. Together with his colleague, Czech climber Marek Holecek, he had achieved a remarkable feat. Indeed, the two men were the first to climb the world’s 99th highest peak via the east face of the imposing mountain.
His rope breaks and he falls
As the duo were descending from this “terrifying” ascent, the 34-year-old Slovak climber’s rope broke while he was abseiling. He then fell into a crevasse, his accomplice recounted on Facebook after his descent. He “hit an inclined surface after an 8 m fall, then continued into a labyrinth in the depths of the glacier”, wrote Marek Holecek.
The Czech tried to save Ondrej Huserka, but to no avail. “I abseiled down to him and stayed with him for four hours until his light went out,” he wrote. He freed his climbing partner from the ice and realized that he was paralyzed.
A renowned mountaineer
The Slovak Mountaineers’ Association said poor weather conditions in Nepal had prevented rescue operations. This Himalayan peak is feared. Judith Swift, a climber who went to Langtang in the spring of 2024, said a local Nepalese Sherpa had described it to her as “the killer mountain”.
Ondrej Huserka, who had been traveling the world for a decade climbing mountains, was “one of the best Slovak mountaineers”. He joined the Slovak national mountaineering team in 2011 and won the SHS James award for best climb of the year six times.