A leading German mountaineer has been found dead five days after going missing on the world’s third-highest peak in the Himalayas.
The body of Luis Stitzinger, 54, was found on Mount Kanchenjunga at a height of 8,400 metres on Tuesday.
The experienced climber had planned to fulfil a “lifelong dream” by skiing down from the tip of Kanchenjunga without supplemental oxygen or assistance from Sherpas.
He vanished at nightfall on Thursday sending his final radio transmission to base camp, saying that he was at an altitude of about 8,300m and planned to ski down to the next camp, at 7,600m.
He never arrived. A fellow climber from his party, Flower Hirkawarmi, raised the alarm the following morning.
But the search for Mr Stizinger was hampered by poor visibility, his GPS tracker failing and bad weather.
His wife Alix von Melle penned an emotional tribute to him shortly after his body was found by Sherpas.
She wrote on Instagram: “Dear Luis, the mountains were your life and ours. The Kangchenjunga, your very big lifelong dream, which you still wanted so badly to fulfil.
“Your eyes shone with excitement when you talked about him. The 25 years by your side were the best of my life.
“Thank you for allowing me to accompany you during this time. With deep love, gratitude and endless sadness - we still had so many dreams that we wanted to fulfill...”
The pair had released a book Living Passion – Conquering the World’s Highest Mountains Together in which they reported on their shared adventures as a mountain climbing couple.
The officially certified mountain and ski guide Luis Stitzinger was born in Füssen, in the southern Bavarian region of Allgäu, in 1968 and has roamed the mountains since childhood.
His website calls him one of the most “successful big mountain skiers” in the scene with his skiing on seven eight-thousanders.
In 2022, he accompanied 68-year-old Brit Graham Keene on an expedition that made Keene the oldest Briton to scale Mount Everest.
