Nives Meroi and Romano Benet head to Kangchenjunga

Nives Meroi and Romano Benet departed on Sunday 15 March, destination Kangchenjunga. The mountain also called "The Five Treasures of Snows", five jewels, one for each of its peaks above 8000m. The highest culminates in 8586m, rendering it the third highest in the world. Located on the border between Nepal and the Indian Sikkim region, "Kanch" is the easternmost Nepalese 8000m peak and definitely one of the most complicated.

This great mountain will now occupy the thoughts and efforts of the world's mountaineering couple which has climbed the most 8000m peaks. The two Italians have climbed eleven, all without supplementary oxygen and without high altitude porters. Annapurna, Makalu and Kangchenjunga are the only three that missing to complete the magic tally of the fourteen highest mountains in the world.

"Kangchenjunga is a difficult mountain" confirms Romano Benet "above all because of the weather conditions: every cloud that comes from India passes over this mountain, so much so that it remains invisible for extremely long periods. Nives and I are heading there alone and seeing that we're slightly ahead of schedule we'll be at Base Camp on our own for at least a month before the other expeditions arrive." This is an ideal situation for the couple from Tarvisio who never have never made a secret of their joy about being able to climb mountains far from the the usual hordes. This is something which at times, even on the Himalayan giants, is hard to come by.

"We hope to climb the SW Face via 1955 line chosen by Joe Brown and George Band during the first ascent. We know it's complicated, but to tell the truth we haven't worried too much about reading up on the route" explains Romano. "I've learnt that on complicated and tormented mountains such as those in our Julian Alps, or like on Kanchenjunga, you just risk confusing things. It's better to put yourself in the same condition as the first ascentionist. Also because we'll be there on our own and we'll have to break trail, decide how to navigate around the crevasses... decide which route to take..."

"It'll bes omething completely new. It's the first time that we're travelling there. Even the 10 day trek to reach Base Camp will be a surprise: we've been told it's magnificent." The approach will certainly help Nives Meroi get in full shape on the field after the last operation on her leg which she broke on Makalu in 2007. But judging by last October's lightening fast ascent of Manaslu, there's probably not much to worry about.

If all things go according to plan and the weather conditions prove favourable, then the first summit attempt should be somewhere towards the end of April, just when the other expeditions reach Base Camp. These include, amongst others, Edurne Pasaban, the Spanish mountaineer who together with Nives Meroi and the Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner holds the feamle record of 8000m peaks. It has to be said though that unlike Pasaban, Meroi and Kaltenbrunner (who this spring will attempt Lhotse) have climbed all the mountains without supplementary oxygen. But this is a different story altogether... what counts now is the adventure on Kangchenjunga.