1979 Yugoslav Mount Everest West Ridge Direct Expedition

Slovenia🏔️ 6 Peaks

Andrej Štremfelj

Andrej Štremfelj was born on December 17, 1956, in Kranj, Slovenia. Beginning his climbing journey in the Julian Alps and Kamnik-Savinja Alps at fifteen, he rapidly became one of the leading figures in the golden generation of Slovenian alpinism. In 1977, at just twenty years of age, he made his Himalayan breakthrough on Gasherbrum I (8,080m) alongside Nejc Zaplotnik, opening a new route on the southwest face. Two years later, in spring 1979, Štremfelj was selected for the landmark Yugoslav Mount Everest Expedition led by Tone Škarja. The team tackled the formidable, unbroken West Ridge of Mount Everest directly from the Lho La col (6,026m). Operating at the absolute outer limit of physical endurance, Štremfelj and Zaplotnik surmounted steep, crumbly limestone bands (Grade V+) and navigated the knife-edge crest in devastating westerly gales. On May 13, 1979, they reached the 8,848-meter summit, completing the first ascent of the complete West Ridge—a line that has never been repeated in its entirety and is celebrated as one of the hardest routes ever climbed on Everest. In October 1991, Štremfelj teamed up with young climbing partner Marko Prezelj to make a pure alpine-style first ascent of the 3,000-meter South Ridge of Kangchenjunga (8,476m South Peak) without supplemental bottled oxygen. The climb was hailed as a benchmark for fair-means Himalayan exploration and earned the duo the inaugural Piolet d'Or in 1992. In 1990, Štremfelj summited Everest again with his wife Marija Štremfelj, becoming the first married couple to stand atop Everest together. In 2018, the international mountaineering community honored him with the Piolet d'Or Carrière (Lifetime Achievement Award).

Slovenia🏔️ 3 Peaks

Nejc Zaplotnik

Jernej 'Nejc' Zaplotnik was born on April 16, 1952, in Kranj, Slovenia (then part of Yugoslavia). From a young age, Zaplotnik displayed a poetic soul paired with extraordinary physical stamina and fearless technical skill in the Julian Alps. He quickly rose to become the emotional heart and leading visionary of the golden generation of Slovenian and Yugoslav alpinism, which startled the global mountaineering community throughout the 1970s and 1980s with their uncompromising boldness on the world's most daunting big walls. Zaplotnik made international headlines in October 1975 as part of the Yugoslav expedition to the colossal South Face of Makalu (8,485m). Climbing in extreme conditions, Zaplotnik and his partner reached the summit via a new direct line on the southern wall, marking Yugoslavia's first conquest of an eight-thousander. Two years later, in July 1977, Zaplotnik teamed up with Andrej Štremfelj to forge a bold new route on the Southwest Ridge of Gasherbrum I (8,080m) in the Karakoram, completing their second eight-thousander without supplemental oxygen. Zaplotnik's defining crowning achievement arrived on May 13, 1979, during the historic Yugoslav Mount Everest Expedition led by Tone Škarja. Tackling the complete, unbroken West Ridge Direct from the Lho La—widely regarded as one of the hardest routes on Mount Everest—Zaplotnik and Štremfelj surmounted the terrifying technical crux of the Yellow Band (V+) at 8,300 metres amidst hurricane-force winds to reach the summit at 8,848 metres. During their desperate descent into the Hornbein Couloir, they survived a harrowing open bivouac at 8,400 metres in minus forty-degree temperatures. In 1981, Zaplotnik published 'Pot' ('The Path'), an existential and deeply moving philosophical autobiography that became a sacred text for mountain lovers across Southeastern Europe. Tragically, on April 24, 1983, while leading an expedition on Manaslu (8,163m), Zaplotnik was swept away by a colossal serac ice avalanche below Camp I and killed at the age of thirty-one. His grave rests at the foot of Manaslu, eternally facing the Himalayan skies he so passionately revered.