User:Blazpetrich/Stane Belak - Šrauf

Stane Belak - Šrauf was a famous Slovenian mountaineer, mountain rescuer and mountain guide. In his 35 years long career he did more than 1200 climbing tours in Europe, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Argentina.

Early life and Career
Stane Belak was born on November 13, 1940 in Ljubljana, where he finished primary school, high school and became certified Engineering technician. He first worked in a forklift factory Indos then as a department manager in a candy factory Šumi and later as a project manager for a development of medical equipment in Soča, Slovenian central rehabilitation center in Ljubljana.

He started climbing in 1960 and after two years completely dedicated himself to alpine climbing. During his career Stane Belak became one of the greatest Slovenian mountaneers and as well an elite world mountain climber, with more than 1200 climbing tours and 60 new routes. In June 1966, Stane Belak and Boro Krivic climbed a new route on Frdamane police (2284 m, 7493 ft) and named it Poldačeva route after a deceased slovenian climber Polde Potočnik.  In October 1966, together with Mitja Košir, Belak climbed a new route on Goličica (2101 m, 6893 ft) in the Julian Alps. Stane Belak and Kazimir Drašlar in August of 1967 became the first Slovenians who managed to climb the famous Bonatti pillar on Aiguille du Dru (3754 m, 12316 ft). From January 31 until February 7, 1968 Stane Belak, Aleš Kunaver and Tone Sazonov climbed Čopov steber, a famous route in the North face of Slovenian tallest mountain Triglav (2864 m, 9396 ft). That was the first winter climb of the route, and accompanied by extremely bad weather and insufficient equipment propelled Stane Belak amongst the best in the region. The same year he made the first trip outside of Europe.

Early International Expiditions
Between June 27 and September 24, 1968, Stane Belak, Kazimir Drašlar, Tone Sazonov, Franc Štupnik and leader Aleš Kunaver travelled to Afghanistan where they climbed in Hindu Kush mountain range. They climbed new routes on Lunkho e Dosare (6901 m, 22641 ft), Lunko e Hava (6872 m, 22545 ft), Kohe Myami (5860, 19226 ft) and Kohe Dashen (5902 m, 19364 ft). They also repeated a route on Kohe Hevad (6849 M, 22470 ft). In June of 1970, Belak returned to Hindu Kush with Dr. Tomaž Ažman, leader Lojze Šteblaj, Danilo Cedilnik, Mitja Košir and Boris Krivic for another two month expedition where they climbed two new routes.

On August 15, 1972 Belak was a part of the fourth Yugoslavian trip to the Himalayas or JAHO IV. The goal was the fifth highest mountain in the world - Makalu (8463 m, 27766 ft). The group was lead by Aleš Kunaver and had 6 climbers, a zoologist, a geographer, a journalist, a botanics expert, a doctor and 9 sherpas. Climbers Janko Ažman and Matija Maležič attempted the south wall of Makalu until the height of 8200 metres on October 22, and became the first Yugoslavians, also Slovenians to reach 8000 metres. Unfortunately they did not reach the summit and the group finished the mission on November 18.

From August 4 until November 9, 1974, Stane Belak was a part of JAHO V. This time the goal was Kangbachen (7902 m, 25925 ft). Belak, Roman Robas and Peter Ščetinin reached the summit on September 29. Less than two weeks later, on October 10, Stane together with Danilo Cedilnik, managed to achieve the first ascent on Mojka or Mojca Peak (6024 m, 19764 ft) in Mahalangur range of the Himalayas.

A year later, from August 4 until November 15, 1975, Belak joined JAHO VI. The goal was again Makalu (8463 m, 27766 ft). This time the summit was reached through the new route on the south wall of the mountain on October 6, when Stane Belak became the first Yugoslavian/Slovenian on top of a Eight-thousander, together with Marjan Manfreda who did it without supplementary oxygen, which was at the time the world record.

Mt. Everest '79
In spring of 1978, Belak joined a reconnaissance party in Nepal to start the preparation for the expidition on the worlds highest mountain Mount Everest (8848 m, 29029 ft) the next year. A group of 25 members left Yugoslavia in February '79 and reached Kathmandu between 10 and 14 of March in 4 separate parties. The leader of the group Tone Škarja described the preparations:

''"Between 29 March and 6 April we fixed ropes on faces between the base (5350 m) and the edge of the saddle Lho-La (6050 m), set up a 200 m long hand lift with which about 6 tons of loads were transported, and erected Camp 1 consisting of tents and snow caves with 40 beds. The degree of the difficulty of the face was between II and III, the upper 150 m between IV and V grades. Between 7 and 14 April we were gathering the equipment on Lho La, ascended and equipped the ice (50-55°) and rock face (IV) above the saddle, and erected Camp 2 (6770 m) with 12 beds. Between 14 and 18 April we completed our supplies and erected camp 3 (7170 m) with 12 beds above the moderate slope (40°) below the top of the West Shoulder (7220 m). From the West Shoulder a gentle and easy ridge, but 2-5 km long, leads towards the upper pyramid. From the Western Cwm the American route of 1963 joins the ridge, follows it for some time, and then turns to the northern slope below the Hornbein Couloir. At the end of the snow ridge Camp 4 (7520 m) was erected on 27 April with 12 beds. Between 3 and 7 May a storm with 150 km/h prevented us from climbing above 8000 m, so that Camp 5 (8120 m) was erected on 9 May. The degree of the difficulty of the face was between II and III. On 10 May a pair of climbers, Groselj and Manfreda, tried to reach the top. They were forced to retreat from 8300 m because they spent too much time searching for a route, because of the damage of the value on the oxygen bottle and because of frost-bite. However they climbed and equipped the first hard pitch (V). On 12 May Podbevsek and Robas went astray and arrived at the gendarme above Camp 5, then found the right way but had to return from 8300 m because of the lack of time. On 13 May two brothers, Andrej and Marko Stremfelj, and Nejc Zaplotnik set off from Camp 5 in strong wind at - 35 °C. Marko had to retreat because of the damage of a valve of his oxygen bottle, while the other two progressed quickly along the ridges (II and III), climbed, after several tries, the second hard pitch (1 rope length of V, 2 rope lengths of IV), and across the American grade IV, at 13.51, conquered the top of Everest (8848 m). They descended the American gully and reached Camp 4 late in the evening."''

Stane Belak, Stipe Božič who filmed the whole expidition and sherpa Ang Phu left Camp 5 on May 15,1979. At 14:30 local time they managed to reached the top of Mount Everest despite heavy snowing; Phu did it as the first human from two different routes. Unfortunately, the weather got even worse so they could not finish their descent and had to bivouak on the Hornbein Coulouir at 8200 metres, where later Ang Phu slipped and fell 1800 metres in to his death. They recovered his body the next day.

Dhaulagiri
The very next year Belak did another reconnaissance trip to Nepal. This time the focus was the South face of Dhaulagiri (8167 m, 26795 ft). On October 15, 1981, Stane Belak for the first time as a leader, Cene Berčič and Emil Tratnik started out from a base camp at 3924 meters. The trio climbed for five days on the right side of the south face before joining the Southeast Ridge route at the rock band at 7185 meters. They continued up the ridge for four more days, reaching their 7950 meter high point near the junction of the Southeast and Northeast ridges. In increasingly unstable weather and leaving behind their tent, food and stove, they began their descent of the northeast ridge. Four days of open bivouacs in strong storms followed before they reached the base of the mountain. By the time they regained safety in the village of Kali Pani, they had gone six days without food. This failed attempt made Šrauf obsessed with the mountain, organizing three more trips to Daulagiri; name of the mountain which can be translated as "dazzling, white and beautiful".

In autumn of 1985, Stane Belak again as a leader, Andrej Štremfelj, Marjan Kregar and Dr. Iztok Tomažin decided to climb East face of Daulagiri. The expedition managed to reach it's aim only partly, because of the extreme bad weather conditions. They climbed the new Slovene Route up to a height of 7500 metres in alpine-style without using oxygen supplement. The greatest difficulties apart from the very bad weather conditions were a very dangerous icy stretch at 4400 metres, slippery rocky wall up to 4800 metres and a difficult rocky blockade between 4900 and 5100 metres, leading from the left up to the right over the whole lower wall, the upper parts up to the plateau from 5000-5900 metres where there was danger because of the avalanches, and the part between 6000 and 7000 metres where there was a risk of falling ice.

Stane Belak and Marjan Kregar, were anxious to complete the route unsuccessfully attempted by them and two others in the autumn. However again, in the pre-monsoon season of 1986 did not manage to climb the east face but crossed over at about 6500 meters to the normal northeast-ridge route. Their high point was 7650 meters, which they reached on May 9. They abandoned their effort on May 30 when it was apparent that constant heavy snowfall made the climb impossible for a two-man, semi-alpine ascent.

On November 13, 1987, Belak as a leader, Pavle Kozjek, Marjan Kregar and Dr. Iztok Tomažin tried to reach the summit of Dhaulagiri again. On December 4 at 17:00 local time, Tomažin reached teh summit and 20 minutes later Kregar followed. Unfortunately Stane Belak failed again:

''"Dhaulagiri Winter Ascent. Our Slovene expedition consisted of Dr. Iztok Tomazin, Marjan Kregar, Pavel Kozjek and me as leader. We established Base Camp at Hiangdi Chuli at 4100 meters on November 27. We planned to climb the mountain by a combination of routes, the east face to the northeast ridge at 6000 meters. Snow on the mountain had melted abnormally in three weeks of sunny weather, which caused us difficulty in the rocky bottom part of 1800 meters. The snow conditions on the upper 2300 meters above the plateau were reasonably good. Our main difficulty was the lack of acclimatization. On December 1, we began the ascent at eight A.M. By eleven A.M. we crossed a dangerous icefall and got to 5600 meters to bivouac. We were on the east face on the route Kregar and I already knew. On December 2, I descended to 5100 meters to get some pitons and a hammer we had left there. I climbed back up to the bivouac and we four continued up the very rotten rock and then up the tongue of a hanging glacier to a plateau at 5860 meters. By evening we had crossed the plateau and bivouacked in a big crevasse at the foot of the northeast ridge. On December 3, we climbed solid snow in high winds to 6600 meters, where we set up our tent at three P.M. That night, just before midnight, Kozjek, Kregar and Tomazin set out; I followed at two A.M. We climbed for the whole of the next day and night. Tomazin reached the summit at five P.M. and Kregar at 5:20 in winds so strong that they could not stand upright. Because of the conditions, Kozjek and I returned from 8050 meters. The latter bivouacked at 8000 meters without bivouac gear. I waited for Tomazin at 7100 meters in a snow hole for nine hours. On December 5, Tomazin and I reached the tent in the crevasse at 6400 meters at 3:30 A.M. Kregar returned at 8:30 and Kozjek at five P.M. We all bivouacked together. Kregar and Tomazin descended during the next two days. Meanwhile, Kozjek and I set out for another summit attempt. We began at nine P.M. and by dawn were at 7450 meters. The wind was strengthening and Kozjek was showing signs of pulmonary edema. By night we had descended to 5100 meters and continued to Base Camp on December 8."''

Last time Stane Belak saw Dhaulagiri was in 1995, few months before his death, when he was on another reconnaissance party.

Later Expeditions
In October of 1983, Stane Belak was the leader of the expidition on Gangapurna (7455 m, 22457 ft) in th Annapurna range of the Himalayas. On October 27, they reached the summit via new route, Belak wrote:

"On October 27 Kozjek, Kregar, Emil Tratnik and I set out from Camp II in the moonlight and reached the ridge in the early morning hours. We fixed the last 650 feet of rope to protect the descent. We had fixed in all 4000 feet of rope. At nine A.M. we started unroped up the technically easy northeast ridge. The wind grew stronger and stronger and at times we had to crawl. We completed the new route to the summit (7455 meters, 24,457 feet) at 12:40. In 100 mph wind and - 30° C temperatures, we had to leave in 15 minutes. The wind abated lower down and with the fixed ropes we reached the support party of Božidar Alic and Boris Kofel at Camp II. We evacuated the high camps and were in Manang on October 30. The other members of the party were Marjan Brišar, Vid Mesaric, Andrej Beg and Marjan Novak."

In 1985, Belak became the first Yugoslavian mountain guide to lead his client on a succesful trip outside of the country. They managed to climb the North wall of Eiger (3967 m, 13015 ft) in the Bernese Alps. In 1986 Stane Belak travelled to Argentina and climbed Aconcagua (6961 m, 22837 ft), the highest mountain outside of Asia and one of the Seven Summits. In 1988, expedition members: Mišo Jamnik (leader), Dr. Damjan Meško, Stane Belak, Milan Romih, Slavko Svetičič, Pavle Kozjek, Rado Fabjan, Andrej Štremfelj, Filip Bence and Dani Tič attempted a climb on the world's second highest peak K2 (8611 m, 28251 ft), through the Southwest pillar, also known as the Magic line. They climbed up to 8100 in 3 weeks, but after total of 60 days, had to end the attempt.

On October 12, 1989, Andrej Štremfelj, Stane Belak, Filip Bence and Pavle Kozjek accomplished the first ascent on the Nyanang Ri (7071 m, 23199 ft) as they were acclimatizing. The main goal was the Southwest face of Shishapangma (8027 m, 26335 ft), the world's 14th highest mountain. Only Kozjek and Štremfelj were succesful at climbing the new route on the South face of the mountain, although they did not reach the summit, Andrej Štremfelj wrote:

''"On a reconnaissance in 1983, Tone Škarja and I made the first ascent of the Ice Tooth, the peak just south of Nyanang Ri. Since then, I have considered Nyanang Ri to be a most convenient peak for acclimatization before the ascent of the southwest face of Shisha Pangma. Unclimbed, it is close to Base Camp and of appropriate altitude (7071 meters, 23,200 feet). We arrived at Base Camp at 5300 meters on October 7. On the 10th, Stane Belak, Filip Bence, Pavle Kozjek and I bivouacked at the foot of the face on a rocky island at 6200 meters. The next day, we climbed the southwest face to the last big notch in the northwest ridge of Nyanang Ri, where we bivouacked at 6850 meters. On October 12, we reached the summit via the west ridge. Only the first 150 meters above the notch gave us some difficulties. After a three-day rest, on October 16 Kozjek and I moved to Advance Base at 5600 meters. A three-hour walk up a broken glacier took us onto the face at 5900 meters. A steep gully led us to the large icefield of the lower face. We started up a gully above the icefield, but a stream of snow and stones forced us around the gully and to the left, where we found the first difficulties on the rock. At the bottom of the buttress, at 7200 meters, we bivouacked. A thin layer of ice and snow made it hard to dig the platform, which sufficed for only half the tent. We spent the night sitting, still roped. Just behind the tent, the face rose steeply. We climbed mostly in ice gullies, often interrupted by time-consuming rock sections and traverses. We left the edge of the buttress at the bottom of a black tower. We crossed far to the left where we placed our second bivouac on a gently-sloping snowfield at 7700 meters. On October 19, we climbed gullies. The face did not give up easily and we climbed steep rock until we were 50 meters from the top. The route ended very close to the actual summit (8027 meters, 26,336 feet). We descended to the col between Shisha Pangma and Pungpa Ri and bivouacked there at 6750 meters. Kozjek suffered severely frozen feet. We rate the route at UIAA IV to V, 50° to 65°. It is 2150 meters high. From October 18 to 20, Bence and Viki Grošelj climbed a route farther right, along the line of the 1982 British descent (with variants), to the southeast ridge. For Grošelj, this was his eighth 8000er. Meanwhile, Belak and Marko Prezelj were attempting a third line, but they had to give up at 6500 meters because of illness."''

During a climb in the North wall of Triglav, in 1992, Belak feel and got hurt very badly, which affected him for the rest of the career, nevertheless never broke his famous will and spirit. In 1994, an expedition of 7 Slovenes led by Stane Belak followed the 1989 Nepalese-Japanese route on Ganesh V (6986 m, 22919 ft) in the Ganesh Himal range of the Himalayas. On November 13, only Belak, who that day celebrated his 54th birthday, and Tomaž Humar managed to climb the rest of the way to the summit by a variant of the previous route. This was the first Himalayan expedition for the then 25 years old Humar who during the descent, unaccustomed to conditions in the Himalayas, almost died of cold and exhaustion. The next year, 1995, Belak took another reconnaissance trip to Nepal. His goal was again Daulagiri, peak that Šrauf could not get out of his mind.

Death and Legacy
On January 2, 1996, they found Stane Belak's car on the road through Vršič pass with the note on his windshield, as he usually did when he would go hiking. The note revealed Šrauf, together with a young climber Jasna Bratanič, went on a training route on Šitna glava (2087 m,6847 ft) and Mala Mojstrovka (2332 m, 7650 ft) in the Julian Alps, at 1030 AM on December 24, 1995. The next day they started the searching party, however, unsuccesfully due to the heavy winter conditions. On May 19, 1996, they found Jasna's backpack and two day later finally her body as well. On May 23, they also found Stane Belak - Šrauf's body, he was 55 years old. The conclusion was they died because of a rock avalanche on December 24, the day they started the trip, on the North side of Mala Mojstrovka.

Stane Belak's expiditions were some of the most important in Slovenian rich mountaneering history. In 1976, director Radovan Riedl released a documentary Makalu 1975, about the conquest of the first Yugoslavian Eight-thousander. In 1979, Stipe Božič released a documentary titled Zašto (Why?), depicting the Everest expidition that he filmed that year. There were two more documentaries released about the 1972's ascent on Makalu. One, directed by Matija Malešič titled Makalu 1972 - Južna stena (South wall) and another, directed by Borko Radešček and Dušica Kunaver titled simply Makalu. In 2012, Radešček and Kunaver also released a documentary film named Čopov steber - Dvakrat prvič, about the famous route in the North wall of Triglav. Posthomously, in 1997, a book written by Stane Belak was released, titled Veliki Dnevi (Glorious Days).