Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger summit Manaslu

46-year-old Alix von Melle is collecting 8000ers like no other German alpinist. On 30 September she summited Manaslu together with her climbing and life partner Luis Stitzinger; in doing so they have now climbed seven 8000 m giants without supplementary oxygen.

With this latest summit von Melle is currently the German who has climbed the most 8000ers - Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, who with her 2011 ascent of K2 became the first woman in the world to have climbed all 14 x 8000ers without supplementary oxygen, is Austrian.

As to the Manaslu ascent, after various acclimatisation trips von Melle and Stitzinger waited for the first huge "wave" of mountaineers to push towards the 8163 summit (La Gazzetta dello Sport reported at least 69 mountaineers accompanied by 80 sherpa).

On 26 September von Melle and Stitzinger set off from Base Camp, reaching C2 at 6300m on 27 September, Camp 3 at 6730m on 28 September and Camp 4 at 7400m on 29 September. From here they set off at 04:30 due to high winds and reached the summit at about 13:00 on 30 September together with 6 other alpinists.

On facebook von Melle recounted: "on the summit in 'warm' temerpatures of -18°C and almost no wind." In 2012 the duo attempted Manaslu but were forced to turn back circa 15 meters below the summit.

1. 29/06/2006 Gasherbrum II 8034 m
2. 21/06/2008 Nanga Parbat 8125 m
3. 18/05/2009 Dhaulagiri 8167 m
4. 02/10/2010 Cho Oyu 8188 m
5. 25/07/2011 Broad Peak 8051 m
6. 01/05/2013 Shishapangma 8027 m
7. 30/09/2017 Manaslu 8163 m