Following in the footsteps of his renowned father, Hervé "Arva" Barmasse became a ski and snowboard instructor at the tender age of 18, a mountain guide at age 22 and finally, an instructor for professional mountain guides. With the Matterhorn in his backyard and four generations of mountaineering in his genes, it is little wonder that Hervé became one of the planet’s most passionate and accomplished alpinists.
Learn more about Hervé Barmasse.
Leaving Kathmandu, getting into the Khumbu Valley
Kathmandu’s traffic, smog and chaos disappeared; around us we have just mountains, rivers, and forests: we finally are in the Khumbu Valley, the valley of the Sherpa people.
The Sherpa’s daily routine starts early in the morning. Everyday, at first dawn, the porters leave the village carrying up to ninety kg on their shoulders as they walk up the steep paths. When I look around, I see this proud people living like Europeans used to do in the 19th Century. Clean water, electrical energy, for most of them are a luxury they cannot afford. To westerners this might sound incredible, but for this people this is just their everyday life.
For the members of the expedition this is it the start of the acclimatization period. In the next 15 days we will be trekking up the valley and we will do some ascents to get our bodies used to the high altitude. This is a very important step to prepare the ascent to Cho Oyu. Without a correct acclimatization, it is impossible for anyone to climb a Himalayan peak.
- Hervé Barmasse
"The wall was the ambition, the style became the obsession."
-A. MacIntyre-
I haven’t found better words for describing what I expect of this expedition … I close my duffel size xl and now I’m ready to go …
In my head this expedition will be different things: alpine style, a new route on a big Himalayan wall with its high technical mixed and ice difficulties and then the return to Kathmandu on a bike.
On the Alps, in South America, as well as in Himalaya, I’ve always tried to follow a precise route that could brought me far away, looking for virgin peaks, untouched ridges or a style improvement on those same walls. Even if I understand that it would be easier to follow already marked tracks on the snow, i certainly prefer to risk and try to climb where nobody has ever climbed and even fail, if that’s what fate has decided for me.
This is my style and this is the mountaineering that i’ve chosen to practise on “my” mountain, Cervino, as well as on all the other world’s peaks.
- Hervé Barmasse
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