Horia’s climbing partner will be Peter Hámor (Slovakia), atop of ten 8,000-meter mountains so far, and one of the best mountaineers nowadays.

Horia made the announcement on Tuesday, December 10th, in front of an audience of 400 people at the Western University in Timisoara.

Horia Colibasanu, now 36, has ascended three out of the world’s five most dangerous 8,000-meter peaks: Annapurna, K2 and Dhaulagiri. He carried out those expedition-style – without supplementary oxygen. Five out his six successful ascents were firsts for Romania.

Horia has attended 15 international expeditions spanning his career (as of 2013), joining climbing partners from various countries, such as Slovakia, Russia, Spain and Poland. Click here to read about his successful attempts at extreme altitude: http://horiacolibasanu.com/expeditions/.

Mount Everest (8.848m) is the tallest in the world and is located at the border between Nepal and Tibet (China). Its Tibetan name, Chomolungma, means Goddess Mother of the world.

Everest Peak was first reached in 1953, by legendary Edmund Hillary (New Zealand) and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (Nepal). Up to 2012, Mount Everest had registered 5,656 successful ascents, most of them with additional oxygen and Sherpa.

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There have passed almost ten years since the successful attempt of K2, a fearful and respected mountain. I was so enthusiastic and exhausted after the summit day, that I couldn’t realize the meaning of that moment (one day, I will share with you which were my thoughts those days, as well as the adventures throughout the expedition).

I still smile when I remember that only Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner’s words – she is a reputed mountaineer – showed me the proper dimension of what I had just accomplished, just before leaving Pakistan. I had had success, Gerlinde assured me. Oh, what a heavy word, I was thinking…

On the day I landed back home, in 2004, I felt like I was a different person. I had won my place among the world’s respected mountaineers. Besides, I became kind of famous. I was surprised – and overwhelmed, too – by the press articles, by the TV cameras and flashes, and by the hundreds of messages coming from all over the country…

I used to feel strong and self-confident atop of a mountain, but I didn’t know how to deal with the notoriety which came all of a sudden… So, I concentrated on my next move and on my next expedition every time. I carefully wasted every drop of energy and time.

Throughout those ten years, I walked the ways between my dental clinic to home and to the training spots, for thousands of times. I always saved resources for my family and friends.

Other successful attempts on the world’s highest mountains followed – some of them didn’t happen from the first time. I succeeded to climb Annapurna, a dreadful mountain, on my third attempt. Many of you know the circumstances… I learnt that U-turn, failure and postpone are part of any success story. Those make it even stronger.

Messages from you have never stopped coming. They were so many and diverse. They talked about encouragement, congratulations, thanks, appreciation, respect… there were some negative ones, as well.

They thrilled me and gave me joy; they motivated me and gave me power to move on; sometimes, I learned things from you.

I would like you to take these words as a way to thank each one of you.

I will try to drop some words from time to time here, in my tiny spare time. I will share life events, training methods, experiences which are worth-telling, and so on… I will try to make room for adventure, humor, friendship, stories and to life itself.

I kindly invite you to my world and I thank you all for joining me. If my presence on this blog will be occasional, please understand that I am working hard for my next adventure, while I am thinking about you all.

Kind regards,

Horia Colibășanu

horia@horiacolibasanu.com