Winter Exclusive: Jost Kobusch And His Ambitious Quest on Everest West Ridge

Alpinist Jost Kobusch is embarking on his fourth winter attempt on Everest, with an ambitious plan to solo climb the West Ridge. His primary objective is to surpass 7,500 meters, aiming to break the previous record set by a French team in 1983. During his acclimatization climbs, we at Dream Wanderlust had the opportunity to catch up with him. In a detailed interview, he shared insights into his preparations, plans, philosophy of winter ascents, and more.

DW: Jost, thank you for taking our questions. You are headed for Everest again this winter.
Do you have the same objective, Everest West Ridge solo without 02?

Jost: Yes.

DW: What time period have you set this time? Meteorological winter or astronomical winter?

Jost: I always set the tightest definitions so that means I begin at the 22nd of December with the astronomical winter and the winter for me ends like always the 28th of February with meteorological winter so I basically take the overlap of those two winter definitions because that's what I believe is truly winter in the Himalayas if you're climbing a summit on the 1st of December it's still very good weather and if you're climbing on the 22nd of March same that's not really the deep winter so the modern Himalayan winter definition is yeah basically taking the shortest time window making sure that it both satisfies the astronomical and metrological winter definition at the same time.

DW: Like your previous attempts, you have been acclimatizing on 6k/7k peaks this year too.
Does it feel different in any way from previous years, both physically and mentally?

Jost: Yes, I acclimatized with an attempt on an unclimbed 7000m peak. Then I went to Dolpo, did a lot of 5000m passes there. And right now, as we're talking, I am on my way up to Mera Peak. And I will do Lobuche East and try to spend a night on the summit of Lobuche East to acclimatize. So yes, acclimatization is key to this project.

Yes, it feels different, the project is constantly evolving, changing, I'm learning, I'm building skill and all this experience, I'm way more relaxed going there now. I remember when I went the first time, I was pretty scared, I thought, that's a really big project and there were all these alpinists saying, you can't do it, I remember there was one very well-known alpinist whose opinion I do value and he said, I give you a 0.1 percent chance to reach 6,000 meters.  So yeah, that felt pretty intimidating, but then I went and now I know a lot about the  route and I gained valuable experience and I'm way more confident.It feels way better, feels like coming back home after a long time, but this is a project  and obviously it doesn't offer the comfort of a home.

DW: The weather during winter remains a challenge, and you may find that the West Ridge route is unsafe to go on.
Will you then consider the traditional South Col route as an alternative way to do Everest solo in winter?

Jost: Right now I do not consider the normal route via the South Col as an option. And yes, I'm not there to die, so I'm there to learn, to explore, and I will not push super, super hard. I will try my best, but the goal here is to reach higher than 7,500 meters this year, because that is something that has never been done on the Westridge in winter. And so it's important that, yeah, I'll learn more, explore more, and I build skill to become the alpinist that one day is able to do that project.

DW: You have said that "options for success are always scarce" and "you are not ready to take very very high risks"
Will you follow the same principle this time too, or will you "push your limits to get to the top?

Jost: Well, I guess my previous answer already answers that. Yes, I'm pushing, but the summit is a bonus. Obviously, if I can go to the summit, yeah, I go there.I'd love to go. That's the goal. Finally, I want to be on the summit.
But that's  a journey. And yes, you said that, I said that every expedition has its own challenges and  it's different. Yeah, that's because I'm evolving as an alpinist, but also the mountain is not static. It's changing. It's dynamic. And this year, for example, it is unusually cold already lower down in the Khumbu and it's snowing and the weather is strange.
It's supposed to be better in the beginning of the winter, but it's not. So yeah, it's just like new challenges all the time. I think that's the fun of it. If it was easy, it would be boring.

Acclimatization for Winter Everest: Jost with Kirra Balmanno on the summit of Mera Peak (6476m) on 3rd December 2024

DW: You are on record saying, "Every expedition is a different chapter with different challenges."
Everest Solo in Winter is now a familiar chapter, but are you facing, or expect to face new challenges?

Jost: The challenges will be the same old challenges. It's going to be the weather,  it's going to be the conditions on the route, and it's going to be the equipment, and  finally me, huh? All these things need to work together to create a successful climb.

DW: A few years ago you had said that you wanted to leave your own trail, instead of following the footsteps of others
Do you still want to do the same; new peak new route?

Jost: I don't really understand your question here but to me alpinism is a journey into the unknown. So yes I love to climb unclimbed summits, open new routes or do things that I'm not 100% certain if they are possible. Like if somebody has done already a route or a summit then you know it's possible but to me I'm really intrigued by this journey into wilderness into questioning whether that's possible and also into the necessity of growing as an alpinist, building skill. I need to become somebody who is better. I'm forced to develop skill in order to complete the project and ultimately I’m driven by the question: “How can I be the best version of myself” and I hope that this project helps me. This is my journey.

DW: Your style could be described as light, fast, and solo alpinism.
Do you think it would also work on The West Ridge Hornbein Couloir on Everest?

Jost: Well, again, here I don't fully understand your question, but if you're, how do I say, trying to apply my light and minimalistic style to Everest Westridge and asking me if I think that's possible, then yeah, the answer is why not, why shouldn't it be possible? The light and fast style has advantages, it has disadvantages, but ultimately to me that's the closest connection to that wilderness and it's also the hardest possible way to do something and I like this saying, like somewhere I think it was in a movie or somewhere I heard that the Tibetan said that a journey is purification and the harder the journey the greater the purification. To me, I mean, this is also in a way a way into myself, so just being there alone with not so much equipment separating me from the experience allows me really to reach this deep meditative state, I just exist, I'm just there and I'm just experiencing it and I don't compete with anybody and there's also no audience, no applause on the mountain, it's just really, really tough sometimes and I'm really curious about what's up there and just taking in all of that experience and yeah, I mean, to me that's just a beautiful place to be.

DW: Do you plan to do the route in a single fast push, or do you want to stock higher camps before a final summit push?

Jost: The best style would definitely be to do it in a single push and that's exactly how I'd love to do it. Here are the challenges. I need to go to altitude before to climatize. I need to spend at least one night at 8,000 meters, return, recover, refuel, to then be able to really have a serious summit attempt. But since I'm soloing, I don't have the capacity to really stock camps up there with all these things. So nothing will be installed. So in a way, I'm doing it in a single push. But I will have reached certain altitudes already before for acclimatization. But my route, my tracks, everything will be blown away. So it's not like a traditional expedition where you have teams to bring up tons of equipment and stuff.

DW: During the acclimatization phase of your previous expeditions, you kept a check of your biochemistry and hematocrit.
Do you plan to do the same this year too?

Jost: Well, all I can say to that is that I definitely have done my biochemistry homework and I have looked at those things more closely and it's a field of study and interest that I'm working on. And, yeah, like there are so many elements to this project. It's not about just being super fit and having luck with weather. I believe it's also about building better equipment and understanding the science of acclimatization better and um try new things and that's exactly what I'm going to do this year.

DW: Or, do you now understand your physiology well enough to do without the tests?

Jost: I would argue I have built a sufficient understanding that allows me now to go without the tests. So I'm not testing any values on the mountain right now. It's really more about feeling because if you feel great and the value says shit then it doesn't matter. But if you feel shit and the value says go up and you feel shit then you don't go up. So in the end it's about getting to know your body better. Trying certain acclimatization techniques and different ways and experimenting and it's a constant learning. But in the end I would say I've reached a state where I have a very good feeling for my body and I've built a system that hopefully works. The system is evolving always.

DW: You go solo because you want to enjoy the "wilderness experience", and you choose to stay away from traditional routes and seasons to avoid the traffic.
This time too you have done the same, but, will you have someone out at Basecamp to help with the logistics and weather updates?

Jost: This time my base camp is very minimalistic. There will be only one single tent parked there and I stay in Lobuche in the village. So I stay further away and use the local infrastructure that's there. I wish I had somebody to do the weather updates and to support the expedition. Truth is I am doing a lot myself and it would be nice in the future to have somebody who stays in the base camp and does help me with social media and weather updates and these things because It’s already a big job to climb Everest, it's my job and there are many people that are interested in what I'm doing and it's important that I'm also able to share what's going on. In the end mountaineering doesn’t make sense, you're climbing some meaningless ice covered pile of rocks. I'm not producing anything I'm not leaving anything behind everything that happens really just happens in my brain, it's not like I'm building a road or I doing something where you can see a result. Therefore I believe in telling the story and it's great when people write me a message that I somehow what I do has changed their life. That just adds some extra meaning to what I do. But in the end I do believe if the motivation for what you do is not coming from deep within yourself then you're not able to to do something this hard, to suffer this hard. No medal, no money, no applause, no award, nothing extrinsic can motivate me to go up there when it's really, really painful, hard and difficult. My motivation is based on my curiosity, it's coming from within me. I want to see these landscapes. I want to experience life and experience this place and that's what drives me ultimately.

DW: Thank you again, and the very best of wishes for a safe and happy climb.

Photo Courtesy: Jost Kobusch