The Netherlands most successful mountaineer has died in Tibet. Ronald Naar died descending the Cho Oyu (8201) after he became unwell.

The expedition to the summit had aleady been abandoned due to the terrible weather conditions. It was to be his last climbing expedition.

Ronald Naar was the first Dutchman to climb the Seven Summits, the world’s highest seven mountains on different continents. He was also the first Dutchman to conquer the notorious northface of the Eiger in the 1970s. In 1995, he climbed the world’s most dangerous mountain K2 in Pakistan.

He was also a controversial figure. Fellow mountaineers accuse him of leaving an Indian climber to die on Mount Everest. He is also accused of lying about reaching the summit of Nanga Parbat in the Himalayas, but in 2003 he won a court case on the matter.

In recent years, he concentrated on polar expeditions, skiing over the ice caps of Greenland and the Antarctic. In one of his books he wrote about his motivation for climbing “You want to feel you are alive.”

Ronald Naar was 56 years old.

(nc)

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