Nives Meroi

Nives Meroi, Rome, award ceremony 2010

Nives Meroi (born September 17, 1961 in Bonate Sotto , Bergamo province ) is an Italian mountaineer . She is one of the best and most successful high-altitude mountaineers . After Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner , Nives Meroi is the second woman to have climbed all 14 eight-thousanders without the aid of bottled oxygen. Together with her husband Romano Benet , she forms the first mountaineering couple to succeed.

Since 1989 Nives Meroi has been married to the mountain guide Romano Benet , who is also her constant rope partner. As a team, they gradually developed into extreme mountaineers and are also all together on the eight-thousanders in the Himalayas . They live in Fusine Laghi, a small town in the Fusine fraction, municipality of Tarvisio , province of Udine , Friuli-Venezia Giulia region .

Expedition style

All activities to the Himalayan giants are small expeditions . Restriction to minimal equipment and a close circle of friends makes it possible to get by with little sponsor support and provides the flexibility necessary for success. Leila Meroi, sister of Nives Meroi and life partner of Luca Vuerich († 2010), organizes the expeditions and supports them from home. All eight-thousanders climbed by Nives Meroi were reached without additional oxygen or external support.

With the ascent of Manaslu in 2008, Nives Meroi had climbed their eleventh eight-thousander . Romano Benet fell ill with bone marrow aplasia in the spring of 2009 and Nives Meroi did not undertake a new expedition without her husband. In January 2010 the multiple expedition participant and future brother-in-law Luca Vuerich had a fatal accident while ice climbing.

In mid-August 2011, Nives Meroi announced her husband's illness. Two bone marrow transplants and a long period of isolation had been necessary for his recovery . The couple had started mountaineering again that year.

On May 17, 2014 Nives Meroi and Romano Benet climbed the Kangchenjunga and on May 12, 2016 the Makalu . With the Annapurna , both reached the last remaining eight-thousander together on May 11, 2017.

chronology

• 1994: K2 as the first 8000er, but an attempt remains to be the first woman to climb the NW wall on a partially new route, 8450 m are reached.
• 1995: Bhagirathi II ( 6450  m ) in the Garhwal Himalayas , new route on the north face, new route in the descent over the south face, subsequent ascent via the normal route.
• 1996: Mount Everest, failed at 8000 m due to bad weather conditions together with Romano Benet and Filippo Sala on the north ridge.
• 1998: First eight-thousander summit, the Nanga Parbat , the first Italian and ninth woman in the world at the summit, reached the summit via the Kinshofer route in just nine hours from the last camp.
• 1999: Summit of Shisha Pangma , only 10 days later summit of Cho Oyu , attempt on Mount Everest .
• 2000: Attempts to climb the previously unclimbed north side of Gasherbrum II , one of the last "problems" of the Himalayas. Bad weather prevents success, but five more difficult six-thousanders can still be climbed for the first time.
• 2001: Mazeno Peak ( 7120  m ), the political situation after the events of September 11th led to the early termination of the "Dreier" expedition (Meroi-Benet-Vuerich) and thus prevented a successful first ascent of the difficult combined 3000 meter high north face in the Alpine style.
• 2003: First woman and only second rope team to climb the three 8000ers of the Gasherbrum group ( Gasherbrum I , Gasherbrum II and Broad Peak ) one after the other. It took them 20 days, in 1983 it took Erhard Loretan , Marcel Ruedi and Jean-Claude Sonnenwyl 15 and the latter 17 days; Attempt of the K2 from the north.
• 2004: Summit of the Lhotse . An attempt to climb K2 via the north side to mark the 50th anniversary of its first ascent had to be canceled due to poor weather conditions.
• 2005: Ascent of Dhaulagiri failed at the 8157 meter high pre-summit due to poor conditions and lack of a rope. An attempt at Annapurna is canceled due to bad weather.
• 2006: Summit of Dhaulagiri . An attempt on the Annapurna is canceled because of constant ice avalanches at 6600 meters. Summit of the K2, first Italian, up to then only the seventh woman in the world, besides the Italian couple, only two other Japanese mountaineers (but with additional oxygen) will reach the summit this year.
• 2007: Summit of Mount Everest, first summit success of an Italian without bottled oxygen. An attempt to climb Makalu in the post-monsoon period fails above Makalu La ( 7400  m ) due to excessive amounts of snow, which two people could not track through to the summit, other expeditions were not on the mountain.
• 2007/2008: Attempt to climb Makalu for the first time in winter , stormy winds destroy the camps that have been set up , resulting in loss of all equipment, food supplies and communication devices . While fleeing to Hillary Basecamp, Meroi broke his fibula, and spent several days in the hospital in Kathmandu until he was transferred to Italy .
• 2008: Manaslu with her husband and Luca Vuerich . The main summit was reached just 13 days after arrival at the base camp, the descent from the summit to the base camp with dismantling of all intermediate camps took place in 10.5 hours, at 6,900 meters, Leila Meroi carried out altitude medical examinations.
• 2009: Originally planned ascent of the Kangchenjunga already canceled during the approach due to regional political unrest. Instead, an attempt on the Annapurna south face ("Poland route"), unfavorable glacier conditions and unstable séracs make the ascent to the wall more difficult, another demolition, reached a height of 5600 meters (material store ). Return to Kangchenjunga. Demolition between camp 3 and 4 at an altitude of approx. 7500 meters, one day before the summit storm. Romano Benet suffered from increasing exhaustion, brain edema could be ruled out by rapid tests. Nives Meroi renounced another ascent in order to be able to bring her husband to the base camp, the descent became a martyrdom.
• 2010: On March 8th, Nives Meroi received the title Commendatore della Repubblica , the third class of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, from President Giorgio Napolitano .
• 2011: Ascent in the Alps with her husband, who has recovered so far, in autumn ascent of Mera Peak ( 6476  m ) in the Khumbu Valley.
• 2012: At the beginning of April, for the first time since Romano's illness, departure to the Himalayas for Kangchenjunga. After the expedition went well and both were on the move quickly, they got lost in the route in the dark as they climbed the summit. When they saw the error at dawn, they returned to base camp without having achieved anything and traveled home.
• 2014: On May 17th, Nives Meroi and Romano Benet reach the summit of Kangchenjunga.
• 2016: On May 12th, Nives Meroi and Romano Benet are at the summit of their 13th eight-thousander: the Makalu.
• 2017: On May 11th she reached the summit of Annapurna together with Romano Benet . Your 14th eight-thousander.

Publications

• I won't keep you waiting The Kangchenzönga, Romano and me. Or our 15th eight-thousander . Tyrolia Verlag, Innsbruck 2016, ISBN 978-3-7022-3505-5 .

See also

• Ascent of all eight-thousanders , section "Women's title hunt"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stephanie Geiger: Ewige Hochzeit , in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , accessed on May 11, 2017.
2. ↑ Personal homepage of Nives Meroi (Italian)
3. ^ Eberhard Jurgalski : Statistics on the ascents of the 8000ers on www.8000ers.com
4. ↑ Sara Sottocornola: Nives Meroi e Romano Benet tornano in Himalaya: dopo la malattia, il Mera Peak In: montagna.tv, accessed October 13, 2014 (ital.)
5. ^ Nives Meroi and Romano Benet: I am the mountains I have not climbed , accessed April 24, 2012
6. ↑ report on orf.at
7. ↑ Homepage of Nives Meroi (ital.)
8. ↑ Nives and Romano: Only in doubles. May 20, 2014, accessed July 11, 2014 . 
9. ↑ Nives and Romano climb Makalu. May 13, 2016. Retrieved May 16, 2016 . 
10. ↑ Stephanie Geiger: Ewige Hochzeit , in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , accessed on May 11, 2017.
11. ^ The summit of the waiver in FAZ from May 19, 2016, page R4