IDM North Italy-Alto Adige/Andreas Mierswa

On foot through Mongolia, a winter expedition through Siberia, or climbing K2 without artificial oxygen. You'll probably think of Reinhold Messner. But the über-mountaineer from Villnöß is not the only north Italian whose love of the mountains and passion for extreme experiences has driven him beyond his local peaks and borders. Tamara Lunger, born in Bolzano in 1986, already stood on the summits of two eight-thousanders in her twenties, lived at the limit and found herself in the mountains. Today she describes herself as a "soul mountaineer". Shaped by her love of nature and the mountains, she's also a successful motivational trainer thanks to her experiences at the limit. Behind the thirty-eight-year-old lie experiences and challenges whose intensity is enough to last two lifetimes: magnificent successes, dangerous moments and a tragedy.

The right equipment is half the life insurance when climbing and mountaineering. Mattia Zoppellaro/contrasto

Since early childhood, Tamara has been particularly familiar with mountain sports, even by north Italian standards. She grew up with two younger sisters in a village in the Val d'Ega. The children are always out in nature, in the mountains. Dad Hansjörg is a well-known ski mountaineer, a member of the Italian national team and celebrates success in competitions. Daughter Tamara is always there. Even as a small child, her father takes her up the Schwarzhorn - on skis.

So it's not a surprise that she became one of the world's top ski mountaineers, won titles as a member of the national team, won the Pierra Menta race twice and became world champion in the marathon distance in 2008. Even as a teenager, she dreamed of climbing eight-thousanders. When she met Simone Moro, the husband of her sports teacher and one of Italy's best alpinists, at her graduation ball, she was given the chance to make her dream come true. In 2009, she traveled to Nepal for the first time. With Moro, who is particularly interested in winter first ascents, she'll undertake expeditions to the highest mountains in the world and through Siberia.

In the footsteps of Reinhold Messner

High-altitude mountaineer Tamara Lunger experienced challenge, happiness and loss in the mountains. © seasons.agency / Jalag / Lengler, Gregor

Success has paved her way since she won her first ski mountaineering competitions. In May 2010, the not-yet-twenty-four-year-old stood on the summit of Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain in the world at 8516 meters - the youngest woman to achieve this ascent. Four years later, she added another 100 meters: In July 2014, she became the second Italian woman to reach the summit of K2, the second highest mountain in the world and considered the most difficult of the fourteen eight-thousanders. What's more, she did it without bottled oxygen - a discipline that Reinhold Messner had once set the standard for real mountaineering.

Her failure on the winter ascent of Nanga Parbat in 2016 seems tragic: she turned back less than a hundred meters below the summit. She had become accustomed to the icy temperatures of more than thirty degrees below zero. But now, with the goal in sight, exhaustion and strong winds are getting to her. While her three companions, including Simone Moro, make it to the top, she sets off alone on the dangerous return journey.

IDM North Italy-Alto Adige/Andreas Mierswa

In truth, her turning back is not a failure, but wise insight. Because unlike too many others, she returns from the expedition injured by a fall, but alive. She later explains that she listened to her inner voice: "It told me: if you go on now, you won't come back." Two years later, she was back in Pakistan with Moro; the two of them wanted to climb two eight-thousanders in winter: Hidden Peak, aka Gasherbrum I, and Gasherbrum II. The tour almost ended in disaster when Moro - who had succeeded in the first winter ascent of Gasherbrum II together with two other mountaineers in 2011 - fell into a crevasse. Through concentration and luck, they managed to be rescued, but the expedition was over. Nevertheless, winter remains a challenge that Tamara cannot get out of her mind. Because unlike in summer, the Himalayan mountains are virtually deserted.

Return to K2 in freezing temperatures

The path always leads steeply upwards: Climbing on the wall. Mattia Zoppellaro/contrasto

Seven years after her first ascent, she returns to K2 at the age of 34 - in winter. Never before had the 8611-metre-high mountain been climbed at this time of year. Moro is traveling elsewhere. So Tamara forms a team with Alex Gavan. Right from the start, Tamara decides to climb without artificial oxygen, even in adverse conditions. But the chemistry between her and Gavan is not right. The first winter ascent was made by a group from Nepal on January 16, 2021. On this day, the Spanish climber Sergi Mingote suffers a fatal accident, whereupon Gavan breaks off.

For North Italian Tamara Lunger, the Dolomites are the most beautiful mountains in the world. IDM South Tyrol/Andreas Mierswa

Tamara joins forces with Chilean Juan Pablo Mohr, Mingote's rope partner, with whom she quickly hits it off. But Tamara doesn't feel fit during the ascent: her stomach rebels. She has to stay behind again - on K2 of all places, her "mountain of the heart". But the distance to the summit is great, the freezing cold as agonizing as the stomach problems. She stays in Camp 3 at an altitude of 7,350 meters, while Mohr joins three others. One member of this group has to break off because his oxygen device is not working. The other three continue on - and never return.

"I started with a positive attitude and believed that I could do anything," writes Lunger on her website. "However, K2 made it clear to us after the success of the Nepalese that this wasn't our place." The shock of what she experienced runs deep, and she is plagued by anxiety and depression. The north Italian mountains, which she considers to be the most beautiful in the world, give her strength. A year later, she returns to base camp to take part in a memorial service for her friends who have lost their lives in the accident. While no challenge was big enough for her in the past, she now knows how important it is to respect her own body. "We have to have the courage to follow our intuition, our instinct."

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