Italian mountain climber Simone Moro is to try the first winter ascent of the Himalayan giant Makalu.
Moro will be assisted by Denis Urubko of Kazakhstan, whose bid for the first winter conquest of what mountaineers call The Big Black was foiled by an ice storm last year.
''It will be tough. They've been trying to do it for 30 years,'' Moro told the climbing website montagna.tv.
''Makalu in winter has defeated the world's best climbers, Reinhold Messner twice, Jerzey Kukuczka, and Christopher Lafaille who tragically died there.
''Who knows, with a bit of luck, it might go better for us''.
Moro, 41, was the first man in the world to climb another 8,000-metre Himalayan peak, Shisha Pangma, during the winter season.
Makalu is the fifth-highest mountain in the world.
It is located 22 km (14 miles) east of Mount Everest, on the border between Nepal and China.
Makalu is an isolated peak whose shape is a four-sided pyramid casting a huge shadow that gives it its nickname.
