He once lost his fingers on Everest. This time, he lost his life
For Nobukazu Kuriki, the 2012 attempt to summit Mount Everest was costly.
Strong winds from a sudden blizzard had derailed the Japanese climber’s fourth attempt up the world’s tallest mountain. For two days, he cowered inside an improvised emergency shelter that mountaineers call a snowhole as winds howled, and temperatures plunged below zero.
The snow shelter kept him alive — but by the time he emerged, Kuriki had frostbite so bad, he would ultimately lose parts of nine fingers. For a few despondent days in a hospital, he also lost the will to climb.
“Before my fingers were amputated, I phoned my father,” he said in recounting the incident. “The first thing he said was, ‘ Congratulations.’ I asked him what for; he said because I survived.”
But, he continued: “My dream is not only climbing Mt Everest. My real goal is [to] overcome the barrier of negativity.”
Two years later, he made a triumphant return to climbing, scaling Broad Peak in the Himalayas — the 12th-highest point in the world. The next year, he was back on Everest. But the summit would forever remain out of reach.
Kuriki died at the weekend during his eighth unsuccessful attempt to climb to the top of Everest, tourism officials told the
During this most recent climb, Kuriki had suffered from a persistent cough, fever and unspecified pain, according to his Facebook page. But the post said he was feeling better, and intended to press on. “The cough and fever that [I had] in the first half are almost gone. I think there is a chance now.”
He went missing about 11.30pm local time on Sunday night and sent an emergency radio message to his climbing guides from
Camp III, the
reported. They attempted a rescue, but it was too late.
Every year, about 1200 people attempt to reach the summit of Mount Everest, an often congested dash to the top during the short climbing season in May, according to the This year, Kuriki was climbing Everest the hard way, going without supplemental oxygen, making him susceptible to the hallucinations and pulmonary edema of altitude sickness in the dangerously thin air.
Kuriki was born in Hokkaido and began to pursue his dream of climbing the world’s highest peaks in college. By the time he was 35, he had climbed the tallest points of six continents. He had made successful solo attempts on Mt McKinley, North America, in 2004, and also had climbed Mt Aconcagua in Argentina, Mt Elbrus in Russia, Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and the Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia, according to the
“My real goal is for people to share experiences of overcoming failures and setbacks,” he said in one video. “The mountains that I could not summit made a greater impression on me than the ones that I successfully climbed. . . . They overwhelmed me, and taught me modesty and humility. That is to say, being challenged means that you can benefit from something that rises above success, failure, victory, and defeat.”
In the end, he told people, his climbs had taught him perseverance through pain. This, he said, is what he wanted people to say about him: “He suffers so much and he’s still climbing.”