Jost Kobusch is known for his solo winter expeditions on some of the highest mountains in the world. But how does he know when it’s time to push forward—and when it’s time to turn back? A conversation about limits, intuition, and the mindset you need to handle extreme situations.
I’ll be honest—everything actually went according to plan. I injured my back during training at the end of 2023. It wasn’t some dramatic fall or big incident, just overuse. My hip couldn’t handle the sheer number of training hours I was putting in every week.
So I went into this expedition fully aware that I wasn’t in the right shape for a proper summit push. The main point was to show my sponsors how my training was progressing and to test out a few new strategies and prototypes. Reaching the summit was never the goal. What I really wanted was to break the existing winter altitude record of 7,500m—a record that had stood since 1984.
I broke the record within six days of the winter season officially starting, completely solo. I tested my new strategy, pushed the prototypes to their limits, and ticked off everything I set out to achieve. So honestly, it was an easy decision.
It showed me that my approach works and that I’m making huge progress in the right direction. I’m building the skills I need to gradually become the mountaineer capable of reaching the summit of Everest in winter—solo and without oxygen, via the West Ridge.
It’s all about balancing risk and reward. If the risk outweighs the reward, I turn back. Simple as that.
At the end of the day, that decision is intuitive but that intuition is built on my own ‘big data’. Years of experience, lessons learned, and values I’ve developed over time. The key is feeding the system with good data because if you don’t, intuition can lead you way off course. You get good data by questioning yourself, reflecting—not just when things go well, but especially when they go wrong.
1.) Ask yourself: is this decision driven by fear, or by curiosity?
2.) Which option fits better with your personal ‘why’?
No. I live my life in a way that leaves no room for regret.
“For me, going all-in means fully exploring the potential of a situation—right up to the point where the risk outweighs the reward.“
I think of it in three zones:
If I’m not healthy, I can’t prepare, mentally or physically. And without a trained body and mind, nothing works.
AG1 is really helpful, especially when I’m travelling or on the mountain, where fresh food is limited and getting enough nutrients becomes a real challenge. But even in my regular training routine, when my body’s under constant strain, AG1 helps me push that bit harder before my immune system starts to struggle.1
At home, my morning starts with a glass of water. Then I do push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups, followed by an ice-cold shower. After that, I have my smoothie with AG1. Same routine every single day.
On expeditions, I use my hot water bottle. I keep it in my sleeping bag overnight, and by morning the water’s cooled down to the perfect temperature for AG1. After that, I cook breakfast, prepare my tea for the day and make my morning coffee. Then I get into my down suit and pack up the tent. That whole sequence is the same every time. It brings stability to the unknown.
At night, when I get into the tent, the first thing I do is get straight into my sleeping bag and cook from there. First the meal, which warms me up inside my down suit, then my evening tea. Same routine, every day—it becomes automatic.
At the end of the day, I’m just climbing a meaningless, ice-covered pile of rocks. Mountaineering is completely pointless—like a lot of things in life. The meaning comes from what you make of it.
