Veikka Gustafsson’s last conquest awaits

Finnish climber sets off to the Himalayas one more time

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By Arno Seiro
     
      Veikka Gustafsson chews over the question for a short while.
      “Hmm. Have I ever failed in mountain climbing?” he ruminates.
      “No I haven’t, because I'm still here to tell the tale. Around half of my attempts have ended with me conquering the summit, but even the other times I wouldn't say I failed. They, too, have been insanely fantastic experiences”, Gustafsson says.
     
But indeed Gustafsson, 41, has himself rubbed shoulders with death a few times.
      His stories of climbing buddies who have died in his arms seem neveretheless somewhat distant when chatting in Gustafsson’s detached house in the municipality of Kirkkonummi, just outside Helsinki.
      The Finnish wilds start virtually from Gustafsson’s front door, but somehow the element of danger is not quite there.
      “I don’t believe I will ever set off to climb any great mountains after this summer. The risks are undeniable, and it does not pay to shrug them off. Still, I'm looking forward with enthusiasm to getting back to the Himalayas for one last time.”
     
Gustafsson wants to add one more summit to his list of conquests.
      So far he has scaled 13 of the world’s 14 peaks with a summit at an altitude above 8,000 metres.
      In July Gustafsson will face the last one, the 8,080-metre Gasherbrum I in Pakistan.
      We are in the realm of truly extreme "collectors" here.
      In the entire world there are only seven* climbers who have conquered all fourteen peaks of over 8,000 metres without bottled oxygen. Gustafsson intends to be #8.
      And even when the breathing apparatus users are added to the mix, the total number of these "8,000" daredevils is still a measly 14.
     
Gustafsson began his “8K project” in 1993, when he became the first Finn to conquer Mt. Everest.
      Last summer Gustafsson already tried to scale Gasherbrum I, but his efforts fell short just 70 metres below the summit.
      The climb was brought to a halt by such a heavy blizzard that it prevented the climbers from seeing where they were putting their feet.
      “Even in good weather, the remaining climb to the summit would have taken us two hours”, Gustafsson says by way of clarification to a layman of what a 70-metre ascent means in the Himalayas.
     
It is Gustafsson’s prudence and his acknowledgement of the risks that have kept him alive. Many other scalers of the Himalayas have had a different fate.
      “For example out of the French bunch who used to climb the Himalayas back in the 1990s, none of them, not one, is around any more. Why? They have all met their end on difficult routes”, Gustafsson explains.
     
In Gustafsson’s opinion, the Himalayan peaks are difficult enough to climb without having to look specifically for the most troublesome routes.
      Even on the easiest routes, one’s life is often saved by the resourcefulness of the climbing buddies and the durability of the rope.
      “Falling into cracks is commonplace for me, as I often lead the party. On the mountains there are countless cracks and crevices, some of which are hundreds of metres deep."
     
The crevices are often concealed by a snow cover, through which an unsuspecting climber then falls.
      In most cases the potential death fall remains a short and harmless one, however, especially if the following climber has kept the correct distance and the rope is tight enough.
      During this summer’s gig, Gustafsson’s rope will be shared by just one other climber, Japanese Kazuya Hiraide, with whom he completed an ascent of Broad Peak, the world's 12th highest mountain, last August..
      “Two guys and a mountain. Those have been the finest climbs. In the tent there is time to discuss, say, the Japanese taxation system or the cloud formations going by. The gigs may have lasted for up to three months, involving only 20 to 25 days of intensive climbing.”
     
The sense of unhurriedness that mountain climbing entails is something that one does not get to experience in one’s everyday life.
      “I have had the luck and bliss to stay 'in the station' for three months at a time, whereas other people usually press on at the speed of an express train for 11 months a year.”
      Gustafsson speaks a lot about the importance of not hurrying things, and about how people are becoming estranged from nature. He cannot understand why people bother to use athletic heart rate monitors, for example.
      “It is a worrying trend when people externalise their physical wellbeing into a gadget. But of course for some, such a device may act as an additional motivator to keep on training.”
     
Only recently, just out of interest, Gustafsson had his physical condition tested at the Sport Institute of Finland in Vierumäki.
      He was encouraged to improve his anaerobic fitness level.
      “I don’t have to do that. I need the kind of fitness level that would enable me to work as a lumberjack for eight hours and then go and inspect and empty the fishing nets.”
      Gustafsson’s physical endurance may be tested in the exertions at an altitude of over 8,000 metres, but in addition to the height there is something else there that also cannot be simulated back home in Finland.
      “Here one can never reach such levels of stress. The amount of fear and anxiety attached to climbing in the Himalayas is on an altogether different planet.”
     
Veikka Gustafsson’s last 16 years have each contained at least one trip to the Himalayas, with the exception of 2007, when he built his house in Finland.
      What are his plans after the last eight-thousander is in the bag?
      The answer comes as a surprise.
      “Next I have thought about going to Namibia.”
      What? The mountains left behind for the savanna of south-west Africa?
      “Yes. I am an avid hunter, and a move to Namibia could relate to this passion. This would open up a whole new world for me, as did Nepal when I first arrived there in the early 1990s.”
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 17.5.2009
     
     
* Note: After this article was published, Denis Urubko from Kazakhstan became the 8th man to complete the task without oxygen and the fifteenth in all, when he reached the summit of Cho Oyu (8,188m), the world's sixth-highest peak.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Veikka Gustafsson reaches summit of Broad Peak, at 8,051 metres (1.8.2008)
  Mountain climbing: Into the death zone (17.6.2008)

Links:
  Veikka Gustafsson (Wikipedia)
  Explorers Web
  Eight-thousanders (Wikipedia)
  8000ers.com, a site dedicated to 8000m peaks and the mountaineers who climb them

ARNO SEIRO / Helsingin Sanomat