The summit push on GII was aborted due to bad conditions, and the expectations for Broad Peak and K2 are equally discouraging.
However, a few stubborn climbers are willing to wait for a possible weather window at the end of July.
No one wants to surrender first
"The expeditions will officially end on August 2, but our teams on K2 and Broad Peak are [already nearly finished], as the situation seems not so good," Lakpa Sherpa of 8K told ExplorersWeb.
Nepal-based blog Everest Chronicle stated that Elite Exped has called off its expedition, and leader Mingma David Sherpa will have to wait another year to break his own record by summiting the mountain for the seventh time. As Lukas Supergan wrote on Saturday, no outfitter wants to be the first to call the expedition off.
"Several Sherpas have sustained climbing-related injuries, but their agencies are not discussing this publicly," the Polish climber added.
K2 climbers need at least acceptable conditions for the Sherpa guides to fix ropes and set higher camps, but the weather is not cooperating. Conditions have been bad all season. Already, one Pakistani climber has died.
Heavy monsoon rains are hitting northern Pakistan, wreaking havoc at several places in Gilgit-Baltistan. As we posted last week, a hanging bridge at Shigar collapsed, cutting off the route back to Skardu. Even if climbers leave, they may have difficulty getting out.
K2
"It's 3 degrees at Base Camp at 8:30 am," no-oxygen Everest summiter Lenka Polackova of Slovakia reported.
She adds that water continues to drip at 6,200m, and she has experienced rockfall even near 7,000, the highest she's reached.
However, most climbers believe that better weather is coming at the end of the month, after the current snowy spell. But will conditions on K2 be stable enough, and will the climbers -- stuck in Base Camp for so long -- be prepared?
Good weather and colder temperatures could stabilize K2. Then, perhaps, some very strong climbers could launch a last-minute summit push if they manage to pitch a couple of tents on Camp 3 and head up right behind the rope fixers. But it's a long way from Camp 3 at 7,000m to the 8,611m summit. Climbers planning to proceed without oxygen have a nearly impossible mission ahead, especially if they are not acclimatized enough.
Gasherbrum II
On Gasherbrum II, Imagine Nepal launched a summit push from Camp 2 on Saturday night, but eventually retreated because of deep snow. They safely returned to Base Camp today, and leader Mingma G bluntly stated: "Gasherbrum II will remain unclimbed in 2025."
Nirmal Purja of Elite Exped is also on Gasherbrum, but the company has not yet spoken of its plans.
Meanwhile, Selena Khawaja of Pakistan, just 16 years old, is aiming to climb Gasherbrums I and II with her father. The young Khawaja has been attempting 8,000'ers -- and raising concerns because of her young age -- since she showed up on Broad Peak in 2021 at age 13.
Last year, the Khawajas attempted Nanga Parbat. This year, before heading for the Gasherbrums, Selena and her father climbed Khosar Gang, a 6,004m peak near Skardu. They arrived at Base Camp on Friday after dealing with tough conditions due to heavy rains during the trek up the Baltoro.
Broad Peak
On Broad Peak, Madison Mountaineering's sole client and its Sherpa team are still in Base Camp waiting for a weather window. They will need better conditions and a more collaborative atmosphere amid growing tensions between climbers and outfitters on the mountain.
"Opening a route to the summit requires crossing deep snow above Camp 3," Lukas Supergan wrote on Saturday. "This could be achieved by a large, combined team from agencies and independent climbers working together, but such cooperation is not there. Leaders keep their plans secret; groups set out despite obviously bad forecasts and return exhausted and resigned. Each agency wants to be the one at the top, but by acting alone, it reduces its chances. Joint action has been replaced by a lack of communication."
Wrote Vibeke Andrea Sefland: "It is getting warmer and it is melting more day by day. On top of this, we have had several days with heavy snowfall up high, and rain below 6,000m, giving us hip-deep snow to break trail through."
The Norwegian climber and her group said they are going to wait a little longer, but the situation is complex. "I will do my best, but in these conditions, the only way to manage is [for] all of us to get together in a good team effort."
Time is running out for climbers on the Karakoram 8,000'ers because of stubbornly bad conditions. Yet a few equally stubborn individuals are fighting to summit before the season ends.
GII push
Summit Karakoram, the local company outfitting 8K Expeditions and Imagine Nepal teams, reports that their climbers on Gasherbrum II have started for the top. "We are planning to reach the summit on July 27, contingent on favorable weather," they noted. Other teams could follow.
Broad Peak problems
In contrast to K2, where all teams seem to be coordinating their efforts, the situation on Broad Peaks looks chaotic. Climbers have gone up and down at their own pace, sometimes in bad weather or despite contradictory forecasts. Today, nearly everyone is in Base Camp, checking weather forecasts but fully expecting to leave shortly.
But not everyone. Charles Page of Canada went up yesterday to 7,600m -- about the altitude of the Broad Peak col -- before turning around, according to his tracker. In previous reports, Page wrote that his goal was K2.
Litter, and no progress
Yet the weather is not the only source of tension in Base Camp. Vibeke Andrea Sefland of Norway, back from a rotation to the top of the fixed ropes, describes Camp 3 at 7,000m as a "tent graveyard" with large amounts of trash. Climbers every season share similar comments about this spot.
On July 21, after a night in Camp 3, Sefland and other climbers descended back to Base Camp. That day, they crossed paths with another small group on their way to the summit despite bad weather forecasts.
"[On the way down,] we had to wait at least an hour in C1 to let climbers come up due to the risk of kicking rocks at them...We were wondering why they are [on a] summit push. The weather forecast is bad, and there are no fixed ropes and not enough manpower to break trail."
The Norwegian climber also noted how alarmingly fast the snow was melting. They had problems crossing a swollen glacier river and rappelled down "in waterfalls which should have been icefalls."
The management of the ropes is also a source of conflict in Base Camp.
As posted on social media, Karakorum Expeditions is in charge of fixing the ropes on the mountain. Climbers complained to ExplorersWeb about KE's leader Mirza Ali's lack of transparency about how and when the ropes will be fixed to the summit. These climbers say they have offered extra money and to help carry the loads. The uncertainty remains. The frustrated climbers have asked to remain anonymous until the expedition finishes and they are safely out of the country.
Karakorum Expeditions last reported on July 20 about the rope fixing:
Season's end
Whatever teams do, they must do it soon, as the season officially ends at the end of July. The problem in Pakistan is not the pending expiration of permits but the weather.
"Permits usually last for 60 days, so teams could remain for longer in Base Camp if they wished," sources from Pakistan Alpine Club told ExplorersWeb.
However, the weather typically becomes more unstable by the end of July, and the monsoon's influence makes climbing too hazardous in August. That is why high-altitude Karakoram expeditions take place in July.
However, changing weather patterns have not helped. As we reported yesterday, the monsoon has already caused serious flooding in northern Pakistan. It is likely that future expeditions will have to adapt to climate change by starting earlier.
Bad weather has thwarted all attempts to reach the summit of Broad Peak and diminished hopes for K2 climbers, especially since the worst of the storm is yet to come.
Further down the valley, the consequences of the heavy rains are catastrophic. The Baltoro has been isolated since floods swept away a suspension bridge in Shigar.
K2 summits in peril
"A major storm is approaching K2, bringing heavy snow, strong winds, and freezing temperatures," Mingma David Sherpa of Elite Exped wrote today. He and his team remain in Base Camp, ready to ride out the storm and wait for the mountain to improve afterward before making a decision.
If the situation is dire for guided climbers, it is worse for those without oxygen. Santiago Quintero of Ecuador, who was climbing with Sajid Sadpara of Pakistan (also no-O2), has cancelled his attempt. Quintero and Sadpara had done two rotations. Both times, but especially on the latest trip up to Camp 2, they had several close calls with falling rocks.
"The peak cannot be climbed at present, [in these] highly dangerous conditions," Quitero noted. "It's a deadly gamble, and without a proper Camp 3 and a complete acclimatization, it makes no sense to try."
Quitero admitted the only option would be to buy four bottles of O2 and a porter to carry them up, but he does not have that extra $6- $7,000. "In addition, I don't want to risk an accident," he noted.
He managed to return to Skardu, although some trails are blocked or flooded at the moment.
Same on Gasherbrum II, Broad Peak
A small group of climbers summited Gasherbrum I last week, and Nirmal Purja followed with regular client and Qatari royal Asma Al Thani and a strong support team. However, no one has summited GII this season. The mountain has no fixed ropes, and some teams are reportedly giving up.
Charles Dubouloz of France has done two rotations in the Gasherbrums with climbing partner Symon Welfringer. Over the last few days, they have endured everything from scorching heat to near-constant snowfall. Yet he still hopes to launch an alpine-style push on one of the peaks in the region. They have not confirmed their specific plans, but a previous post by Welfringer suggests they could be willing to return to their original goal of the west face of Gasherbrum IV, if conditions improve.
On Broad Peak, bad weather thwarted the few climbers who launched a summit attempt. Madison Mountaineering reported that their small group (a client with two Sherpa guides) and three other similarly sized groups tried to break trail in fresh snow but turned around before reaching the Broad Peak col because of a storm and whiteout conditions.
Altitude thieves
To make things worse, climbers are reporting thefts in the higher camps again this season. Climbers and staff use others' tents -- that's normal and okay as long as they ask permission -- but the camp crashers also reportedly stole gear, fuel, and food.
"Losing even a small item can mean that a year of preparation, thousands of dollars, and a 1.5-month expedition will be wasted because the equipment needed on summit day has disappeared," Lukasz Supergan reported.
He also mentioned a specific case: "Two weeks ago, my friend's crampons disappeared from his tent. It transpired that a Nepalese guide had taken them and used them for 10 days. After a brief investigation, I found them in his agency's tent," Supergan said.
He added that some people who had recently gone up to the summit "despite the obviously bad forecast," used their tents in Camp 3.
Finally, he also reported problems with a different type of thief: Crows pecked holes in one of his tents and ate all the food.
Gilgit-Baltistan disaster area
Unless conditions improve quickly, we might end up seeing a season without summits on K2, Broad Peak, and Gasherbrum II. Conditions are only expected to worsen, and the teams are approaching the end of their planned stays. Both their climbing permits and the period that they have contracted with the agencies will expire soon.
That's frustrating for climbers, but the heavy rains have disrupted daily life for the local communities down the Baltoro.
This year, the monsoon has slipped into normally dry northern Pakistan. Floods and landslides have stranded thousands of locals and travelers in Gilgit-Baltistan. Even the Karakoram Highway is blocked at some points.
The situation is particularly serious in Diamir, near Nanga Parbat. At least six tourists have died in landslides near Babusar Pass, and many others had to be rescued and taken to Chilas, where authorities and local hoteliers are putting them up, Dawn reported.
"Moreover, river erosion caused the collapse of the Hotu suspension bridge in Shigar, cutting off the only access to K2 Base Camp," the paper noted. "A large number of foreign expedition members and trekkers were stranded, while eight villages were also disconnected."
On Tuesday, Al-Jazeera published a tally of 21 people killed by flash floods in northern Pakistan and at least 200 more rescued during this rainy spell.
The Madison Mountaineering team has announced a summit push as their team leaves Base Camp on Broad Peak. However, they have not provided even a tentative summit date, given the unclear weather forecasts and delayed rope-fixing work.
This year, Madison Mountaineering is focusing most of its efforts on K2, and has just one client, supported by a Sherpa team, on Broad Peak. Earlier today, the client and their Sherpas departed for Camp 2 and plan to reach Camp 3 tomorrow, weather permitting.
No-O2 climbers
Lukasz Supergan of Poland, climbing without supplementary oxygen, is on the opposite timeline: he reached Camp 3 last weekend and returned to Base Camp yesterday. According to the forecasts he is using, weather conditions will remain bad for the next few days. "There is a possible window from July 27 to July 30," he noted.
Lukasz Supergan on Broad Peak. Photo: Lukasz Supergan
Vibeke Sefland of Norway, also without oxygen, followed a similar itinerary on her second (and final) rotation before the summit push. On Sunday, she reached Camp 2 at 6,100m in "wet, slidy snow." Yesterday, she continued toward Camp 3 and then retreated to Base Camp.
Laura Mares of Romania also spent a night in Camp 2 last weekend, reached Camp 3 the following morning, and returned to Base Camp when bad weather settled on the mountain again.
Teams on Broad Peak and K2 are reporting poor weather, though it is not too cold. Rains are frequent this year at Base Camp.
No ropes on the ridge
It is also worth bearing in mind the state of the ropes. Karakorum Expeditions has a team on the mountain, carrying ropes to fix the final sections, and mending some anchors between Camp 1 and Camp 3 that have become loose over the last two weeks of bad weather.
A rope-fixer with Karakorum Expeditions on Broad Peak. Photo: Karakorum Expeditions
Karakorum Expeditions say they have repaired the route up to Camp 3. At approximately 7,000m, it is usually the uppermost camp set on Broad Peak. They have also stocked bottles of oxygen there.
However, there is still a long way to the summit. The route goes up from Camp 3 to a big col, and then follows a very long ridge across several ups and downs and secondary points, until it reaches the main summit. Commercial teams need most of these final sections to be fixed with ropes. Otherwise, they can get stuck, as happened in 2021 with tragic results.
Karakorum Expeditions also plan to start their summit push this week, after one or two days' rest in Base Camp. With them is Sabrina Filzmoser, supported by Zaman Karim. According to the team's latest update on Sunday, they were in Camp 3.
The forecast promises better weather, but climbers cannot afford to fully trust predictions that have failed often over the last two weeks. Despite this, climbers are cautiously ascending with summit hopes on Gasherbrum I and Broad Peak.
Fortunately, the skies have cleared enough for rescue services to airlift Waldemar Kowalewski to the hospital after a few agonizing days waiting in Base Camp with a broken leg.
Gasherbrum I
"The Gasherbrum I team climbed to Camp 2 today, planning to go further up and hoping for a summit chance," Sakhawat Hussain of Summit Karakoram said. "The weather seems to be OK between July 19 and July 22, but conditions are proving unpredictable. We can only hope for the best."
Broad Peak
On Broad Peak, everyone is still in Base Camp, but a significant number of climbers will move up tomorrow, toward Camp 2. The plan is to go to Camp 3 if the avalanche risk is acceptable, and then wait there until the weather allows a summit push. As mentioned in previous updates, there are no ropes from Camp 3, so the guides will have to fix the route as they move along the long summit ridge.
Kowalewski Airlifted
A helicopter has finally airlifted Waldemar Kowalewski to a hospital, one week after he broke his leg in an avalanche. Bad weather kept helicopters grounded until today. Rescue services admitted Kowalewski to the Kuwait Medical Complex (KMC) in Skardu.
K2
On K2, there is no news of any progress beyond Camp 2. However, Mingma G of Imagine Nepal mentioned his team would try to open the way to Camp 3 this weekend.
Yakshin Gardan Sar
The Italian Alpine Club has published Stefano Ragazzo's expedition report on their Facebook page, where they provide further information about Chris Wright's accident, which put an end to the team's expedition. According to the report, Wright had a foot injury:
During an acclimatization climb at approximately 6,100m, Wright suffered a foot injury that prevented him from continuing. His climbing partners immediately took action to rescue him, rigging approximately 500m of abseils on abalakov ropes to lower him to Camp 1 at 5,500m. There, after approximately 24 hours, a Pakistani Army helicopter was able to evacuate Wright and transport him to Skardu Hospital, where he is currently in a stable condition.
You can read the report in Italian here.
The current spell of bad weather is halting everyone on the Karakorum 8,000'ers. The helicopter meant to airlift Polish climber Waldemar Kowalewski, injured in an avalanche last Friday, remains grounded.
"The weather forecast is not clear for the next two to three days," charter airline company Askari Aviation told Kowalewski's outfitter, Lela Peak Expedition. "The injured climber should start going down from Base Camp on a horse or mule."
A tough decision
Kowalewski has a broken leg, which requires urgent treatment. Waiting for an airlift is bad, but a trip on the back of a mule down the very rough Baltoro, over glacial and rocky terrain, could be even worse.
A regular on 8,000'ers, Kowalewski was injured when he broke a slab of unstable snow as he descended to Base Camp after enduring two days in a snowstorm at Camp 3. Climbing partner Jarek Lukaszewski and Pakistani climber Hassan helped him to a tent at 6,500m.
An aerial pick-up was never an option, so outfitter Lela Peak Expedition hired a Sherpa team for a ground rescue mission. They climbed to the injured climber on Sunday and brought him down to Base Camp on a stretcher. Since then, he has waited for aerial evacuation, but bad weather has grounded the helicopters.
Waldemar Kowalewski's ordeal on Broad Peak is almost but not quite over. The Polish climber, who broke his leg in an avalanche on Friday, was supposed to fly by helicopter to a hospital in Skardu today. But bad weather has grounded the flight until tomorrow.
An avalanche hit Kowalewski, 45, as he was descending from Camp 3 in risky conditions. His partners helped him down to a tent at 6,500m, from which a Sherpa rescue team brought him down to Advanced Base Camp. Local climbers then helped him the rest of the way down.
Sherpa rescuers
The Sherpa rescuers were Dawa Sangay Sherpa, Pasang Tenje Sherpa, and Mingtemba Sherpa. All three work for Seven Summit Treks, assisting climbers and fixing ropes on K2. However, bad conditions on the mountain during the second half of last week forced the teams to halt the rope fixing. Everybody was waiting in Base Camp, and so were available. Israfil Ashurli of Azerbaijan coordinated the rescue.
The three set off from Broad Peak's Base Camp on Saturday night and reached Kowalewski Sunday morning. By evening, they had passed Camp 1 and continued down until they met a second local team dispatched from Base Camp to relieve them. Kowalewski arrived back in Base Camp that night, weak but conscious.
Rescuers have brought Waldemar Kowalewski back to Broad Peak's Base Camp two days after the Polish climber broke his leg in an avalanche at 6,500m. The strong Sherpa team climbed from Base Camp to the stranded climber and back to Advanced Base Camp in less than 24 hours.
A second team of Pakistani climbers left Base Camp in the afternoon to take over from the exhausted Nepalese on the last leg, according to Anwar Syed of Lela Peak Expedition, the company managing the rescue.
Kowalewski is conscious but extremely tired and weak, the outfitter told ExplorersWeb.
From Base Camp, Kowalewski will be airlifted to a hospital in Skardu tomorrow, said a spokesperson for Askari Aviation.
Hopefully, tomorrow we will have more details about Kowalewski's condition and the names of the rescuers.
A team of three Sherpas has reached Waldemar Kowalewski of Poland, stranded at 6,500m with a broken leg.
The Nepalese rescue team hopes to reach Camp 1 later today and Base Camp tomorrow, Anwar Syed from outfitter Lela Peak Expedition told ExplorersWeb. However, rescuers will have to deal with difficult conditions during their descent, including crossing avalanche-prone areas.
Kowalewski has waited in a tent -- supported by his climbing partner Jarek (Jaroslaw) Lukaszewski -- since an avalanche hit him on Thursday. Kowalewski had ascended to Camp 3 with at least two other climbers on an acclimatization round despite forecasts warning of incoming bad weather.
Polish climber Lukasz Supergan, reporting from Base Camp, says that the group spent three nights in Camp 3 in stormy conditions before finally starting to descend on Thursday. It was during this descent, as they entered a section of fresh, unstable snow, that the climbers broke a snow slab and triggered the avalanche.
The Nepalese climbers, whose names have not been shared, were previously working on neighboring K2. They had remained in Base Camp because of the bad weather hitting the Karakoram. Kowalewski's outfitter, Lela Peak Expedition, hired the Nepalese climbers after failing to find anyone in Broad Peak's Base Camp willing to perform a rescue on foot in the risky conditions.
Evacuation, insurance, and liability
The Pakistani Army told outfitter Lela Peak Expedition that an aerial pick-up via a long-line operation was not an option. The military pilots will evacuate Kowalewski, but only from Base Camp.
Kowalewski has an insurance policy with Global Rescue that will cover the helicopter costs, but not the ground rescue team. That means that the Polish climber and his home team will have to foot the bill for the Nepalese rescuers.
Outfitter Lela Peak has hired three Nepalese Sherpas to rescue Waldemar Kowalewski. The Polish climber is still stranded in a tent at 6,500m on Broad Peak after breaking his leg in an avalanche. The Sherpas left at around 11 pm Pakistan time.
Kowalewski's accident occurred when he and two other climbers tried to descend to Base Camp after a snow storm trapped them in Camp 3 for two days. They released a snow slab; the other two escaped but Kowalewski was injured.
The two climbers, identified only as Jarek and Hassan, helped him a little way down and pitched a tent for him at 6,500m. Jarek -- apparently a Polish friend of Kowalewski's -- is looking after him. They have sleeping bags and fuel for cooking.
For many hours, his situation did not improve. Snow continued to fall today, making the area even more avalanche prone. Lukasz Supergan and other climbers in Base Camp saw several slides today.
Helicopters are grounded due to the bad weather. Even if it improves, they have warned they will not fly any higher than 5,000m, roughly the altitude of Base Camp. Other Pakistani outfitters explained to ExplorersWeb that this is as high as their rescue helicopters typically go.
Took risks
Supergan noted that Kowalewski took significant risks by going up to Camp 3 when forecasts warned of bad weather ahead. Several other climbers on the mountain, Supergan included, did rotations to Camps 1 and 2, but returned to Base Camp earlier this week.
"Kowalewski was descending in terrain highly prone to avalanches, and that was the cause of the accident," he said.
Kowalewski's outfitter, Lela Peak Expeditions, had a hard time finding a local team to go up on foot, but eventually hired three Sherpas. They left Base Camp at night, when the cold makes both the snow and the bare rocky sections less unstable.
After weeks of drought, the first snowfall in the Karakoram has triggered an accident on Broad Peak. Earlier today, a slide hit Waldemar Kowalewski of Poland between Camps 2 and Camp 3, and he is waiting for rescue.
Fellow Pole Lukasz Supergan broke the news this morning from Base Camp. Supergan returned from Camp 2 on Monday, with the mountain in extremely dry conditions. Since then, snow has fallen for two days and covered the upper half of Broad Peak.
"We were sitting outside our tents at Base Camp when we spotted an avalanche descending [from] 6,600-6,800m, between Camp 2 and Camp 3. At first, we dismissed it as a curiosity until we saw the silhouette of a person in the avalanche," Supergan reported.
From Base Camp, climbers saw three people in the slide path, but two of them quickly moved away while the other one remained in the same place. Shortly afterward, they received word that Waldemar Kowalewski had a broken leg above Camp 2.
According to Supergan, the liaison officer in Base Camp has contacted the rescue services of the Pakistani army. However, it is unclear if the helicopters will be able to fly, since a storm front is approaching.
Climber safe for now
In a later update, Supergan wrote that Kowaleski has been helped down to a tent at 6,500m, about 330m above Camp 2.
"Two friends, Jarek and Hassan [surnames unknown], are with him," he wrote. "Jarek is looking after Kowalewski, while Hassan has descended to Camp 2 to get some gas."
A team of several people, including a doctor, is leaving Base Camp tonight. As Supergan explained, the lower slopes of Broad Peak are still dry and prone to rockfall, so rescuers will have to wait for the cooler night to go up.
Supergan also showed concern about avalanche risk for the rescuers above Camp 2. "The line where the snow slab broke can be clearly seen from Base Camp," Supergan wrote.
Apparently, the accident took place when the climbers were coming down from Camp 3, which is usually pitched at around 7,000m. The three climbers had spent three nights at that altitude. The avalanche triggered as soon as they entered a snowfield slightly below.
Waldemar Kowalewski is a regular on the 8,000m scene. Last winter, he summited Ama Dablam and then spent the spring cycling and trekking in Nepal. Before heading to Pakistan, he was on Denali. According to his Instagram, Kowalewski intended to climb Broad Peak this summer and then head to Cho Oyu in the fall.
As usual, climbers are advancing on Broad Peak before anyone tackles K2. But conditions during a particularly hot and dry season are making the going hazardous.
Lukasz Supergan of Poland has been up to 6,000m, above Camp 1, on a first acclimatization round. He reports how high temperatures are negatively affecting the route.
"[Above Camp 1,] we climbed a steep slope between brittle rocks in the middle of the night. High temperatures mean that we are not climbing in comfortable snow but on ramps covered in ice, on which there is a thin layer of 'sugar,' in which crampons have little grip."
The dry terrain also features unstable rock between Base Camp and Camp 1.
"I was standing at the base of the wall when a rock the size of a large microwave hit my friend who was descending with me," Supergan wrote. That made him decide to climb during the night and avoid the warmest hours of the day.
Supergan, who climbs without oxygen or a personal guide, attempted Gasherbrum II last year but had to turn around, again due to bad conditions from high temperatures.
This year, he is climbing with Seven Summit Treks in a team of 12 climbers, including some independents like himself. A guided group and the rope fixers are ahead of them. Supergan carries his own gear but has used the fixed ropes on the most difficult sections. Overall, there is a relatively low number of visitors in Pakistan this season.
Why Broad Peak first
Broad Peak offers a convenient, safe way for climbers to acclimatize (and to bag a summit if they have signed onto a K2-Broad Peak double-header). The logistics on Broad Peak are simpler, as the normal route requires only three altitude camps, while 8,611m K2 typically needs four. The normal route on 8,051m Broad Peak is a shorter, more straightforward climb from Base Camp to the start of the summit ridge.
Typically, porters fix until Camp 3 (about 7,100m) and eventually to the col that marks the start of the ridge at 7,600m. That allows complete acclimatization, usually done without supplementary oxygen, on mostly easy terrain.
Once acclimatized, climbers can either summit Broad Peak -- often right behind the rope-fixers -- or turn to K2 if conditions are good and the route is prepared. K2 is a harder mountain, with no easy sections. As on Everest, where climbers try to cross the Khumbu Icefall as few times as possible, climbers with a permit for Broad Peak try to do all their acclimatizing there, and then head to do K2 in a single summit push. They usually use bottled oxygen on K2 from Camps 2 or 3.
Unfortunately, conditions on Broad Peak this year are not ideal, with broken glaciers at the base and dry sections prone to rockfall between Camp 1 and Camp 2.
While several climbers have already returned to K2 Base Camp after summiting over the weekend, other teams topped out a little later and are still on the mountain. All climbed via the normal Abruzzi Spur route.
Nepalese guide Siddhi Tamang summited twice within 24 hours, matching Mingma Gyabu Sherpa's past achievement. Tamang summited on both July 28 and 29 while accompanying clients to the top.
Tommaso Sebastiano Lamantia of the Italian Alpine Club team reportedly summited alone, without bottled oxygen.
Australian Allie Pepper continued her summit list by climbing K2 without bottled oxygen. She topped out with Mikel Sherpa, her usual guide. Madison Mountaineering had 18 people on the summit, including Garrett Madison. Summiters with Seven Summit Treks included Jorge Egochega of Spain and Valery Babanov of Russia. Nepalese sherpas and Pakistani climbers also summited, including Ali Durani, who celebrated the third K2 ascent of his career.
Jean-Yves Fredriksen, climbing alone via the Cesen route, also summited. At Camp 3, the Cesen route joins the normal route.
Sultana Nasab was the only member of the Pakistani Women's Expedition to K2 to successfully reach the top.
It seems that Fredriksen and new K2 speed record holder Benjamin Vedrines did not paraglide down from the summit. This was possibly due to restrictions from local authorities after a recent paragliding tragedy.
Pakistan's Naila Kiani led a team to retrieve the body of Mohammad Hassan Shigri, who died last year on the Traverse, above the Bottleneck. Yesterday, Kiani's group brought down Hassan's body to Camp 4. From here, they will carry it to the lower camps.
Gasherbrums and Broad Peak
Marco Camandona of Italy summited Gasherbrum I, thereby completing his 14x8,000m series. Several climbers also summited Broad Peak, including an Italian party.
Uta Ibrahimi and Waldemar Kowalewski have summited Gasherbrum II this week.
According to Ali Saltoro of Alpine Adventure Guides, the Italians who summited Broad Peak are now heading to K2.
We are still waiting for news about Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima. In the meantime, dozens of climbers summited 8,611m K2 this morning. There are also more summits on Broad Peak and Gasherbrum I.
Given all the delays, speed climber Benjamin Vedrines lowered his expectations by suggesting that he might summit K2 in two days instead of one. However, he reached the top today. We are waiting for confirmation about his time and whether or not he paraglided down.
According to Chhang Dawa Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, a group of SST sherpas and clients summited at around 9 am this morning.
According to Dawa, several teams collaborated with the rope fixing. From Base Camp to Camp 1, the Italian expedition did the work. From Camp 1 to 150m below Camp 3, Seven Summit Treks rope fixers took over. Imagine Nepal continued from there to Camp 3. Then Seven Summit Treks again fixed to lower Camp 4. From lower Camp 4 to the Bottleneck, Madison Mountaineering, 8K Expeditions, Imagine Nepal, Glacier Himalayan, and Seven Summit Treks combined forces.
Finally, from the Bottleneck to the summit, a mixed team led by Mingtemba Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks fixed the ropes. Mingtemba made his fourth successful ascent of K2. Sirbaz Khan of Pakistan also assisted in the fixing work.
Dozens of summits
Today's summiters included eight clients and 10 sherpas from Imagine Nepal, nine clients and sherpas from 8K Expeditions, Da Dendi Sherpa from Mashabrum Expeditions, and others.
In a glimmer of good news for Japan in what has otherwise been a terrible year for climbers from that country, Naoko Watanabe summited K2 for the third time, thus becoming the first woman to do so three times.
Jean Yves Fredriksen is climbing no-O2 via the Cesen route. It seems he is the only one on that route. According to his tracker, he was at 8,000m this morning, above where the Cesen and Abruzzi routes converge.
Broad Peak
More teams have topped out on Broad Peak. Yesterday, a team that included Abid Baig of Pakistan and climbers from Italy, Peru, Canada, and Romania summited. Today, Jean Descat from France, along with two sherpas and Ricardo Segreste of Mexico, successfully summited at 10:11 am.
Gasherbrum I and II
Dorota Rasinska Sanocko of Poland has summited Gasherbrum I. We are waiting for outfitters to release the names of other climbers who also reached the top.
Lukasz Supergan and Pawel Wikowski from Poland aimed to climb Gasherbrum II without bottled oxygen but had to turn around. They are now back in Base Camp.
The Poles spent the first weeks of the expedition searching for a route through the icefall, which drained a lot of energy at the start. For the past few days, they have hunkered down at Camp 1 near 6,000m, waiting for a weather window.
"Each day, the forecast promised a sunny day, and each day, we woke up covered with 20 to 30 cm of snow."
They finally climbed the ridge to Camp 2 but that was as far as they managed. The weather is poor again, and no other window is forecast for the near future, so Supergan and Witkowsi called it quits.
Several climbers summited 8,051m Broad Peak this morning.
Karakorum Expeditions has announced that the rope-fixing team topped out on Broad Peak today at 7:15 am. They fixed ropes all the way to the summit.
"Braving waist-deep snow, our team worked tirelessly through challenging conditions all night long," according to the outfitter.
The party left Camp 2 at 5:30 am, and continued from Camp 3 at 11 am yesterday. They plowed through deep snow and navigated around newly exposed crevasses, finally reaching the summit this morning.
The summiters on the rope-fixing team are: Ahmed Baig (climbing leader), Arshad Karim, Rizwan Dad, Waqar Ali and Daukat Muhammad, all from Pakistan. They were followed at the summit by Zaman Karim (Pakistan), Iya Pershina (Russia), Afreen Shah (Pakistan), and Murad Ali (Pakistan).
Sanu Sherpa from Summit Karakoram also reached the top, as did members of Mashabrum Expeditions, including one client (last name Methew) with Phurba Sherpa and Temba Sherpa.
One of Summit Travel's guides and other team members also summited.
Sheroze Kashif of Broadboy Adventures has posted that one of his clients, Asmar Butt of the U.S., summited along with Anum Uzair and high-altitude porters Ali Akbar and Ali at 11:30 am local time today.
Mingma G of Imagine Nepal confirms that this morning at 8:16 am, Pasang Namgel Sherpa topped out on Broad Peak, thereby completing his 14x8,000m list.
Summit pushes on K2 and Broad Peak have cautiously begun, although the winds are still high, and the weather window looks short.
Smaller teams
There are several smaller teams on K2 this year, rather than massive groups, and they are working together on the mountain.
Mingma G estimates that his team will summit on Sunday, July 28. Garrett Madison confirms he has teams going for the summits of both K2 and Broad Peak. Summit Karakoram, working in Pakistan with Nepal's 8K Expeditions, is also on its way up, led by Dawa Ongchu Sherpa.
Overall, there is little information coming from K2. Climbers no longer openly share their experiences on social media. It is unclear whether this is due to the lack of Wi-Fi at Base Camp or whether recent controversies involving abandoned climbers and crowds have made outfitters request/demand secrecy, at least until the expeditions end.
Broad Peak
"This is a summit attack out of despair," Tom Kitta told his home team before setting off toward the top of Broad Peak. The current summit window is unstable, uncertain, and likely short, but people have run out of time and patience. In yesterday's update from the rope-fixing team, they planned to move today from Camp 2 to Camp 3 despite high winds. They hope tomorrow will be calmer.
As Gasherbrum II summiters return to Base Camp, they are sharing some details of their difficult climb -- long hours in fog, high winds, and breaking trail on both summit days.
On Broad Peak, many frustrated climbers have abandoned the mountain, while a few still hope for a last-minute push, despite uncertain weather and questions about the fixed ropes.
No FKT for Druelle
Vadim Druelle returned to Base Camp yesterday after his fast, single-push ascent of Gasherbrum II in tough conditions. Druelle left Base Camp at 4:55 pm and reached the summit 17 hours, 17 minutes later. He told his home team that he started on his own from Base Camp.
At around 7,000m, he caught up with a team going for the summit. From that point, Druelle broke trail through fresh snow until he reached the highest point on July 22 at 10:12 am local time.
As usual on the 8,000'ers, it is hard to establish an official FKT since previous fast climbs typically didn't record their exact starting point. Conditions on the route also vary widely. But however fast Druelle was -- and he was fast -- he can't claim an FKT. In 1997, Anatoli Boukreev of Kazakhstan went alone from Advanced Base Camp (5,800m) to the summit in 9 hours 30 min.
Base Camp on Gasherbrum II is located on the moraine and varies in altitude. Uta Ibrahimi's tracker shows the altitude of this year's Base Camp is 5,100m.
Summit marathon
Ibrahimi and Sanu Sherpa needed 30 hours from Camp 2 (at around 6,400m) to the top and back. Thanks to their marathon effort, they reached the summit at 7 am Pakistan time on July 21. Theirs were the first summits of the year on Gasherbrum II. Ibrahimi of Albania-Kosovo has now completed all the 8,000m peaks in Pakistan.
"I summited at 10 am [on July 21], after almost 23 hours of summit push from 6,500m," Dorota Rasinska-Samocko, climbing with Seven Summit Treks, wrote on social media. "We were opening the trail, there were a lot of crevasses and strong wind on the ridge. We set off looking for a route from Camp 3 because there were no fixed lines, and traverses were really dangerous."
According to SST, more climbers topped out today.
So far, no one has attempted Gasherbrum I, also known as Hidden Peak, this season. But SST said today it still hopes to lead a team to its summit in the next few days.
Unhappy clients on Broad Peak
On Broad Peak, the situation remains confusing. Climbers in Base Camp confirm that the rope fixers retreated from the mountain with no apparent intention of climbing again. As a result, several have decided to call their expedition off, including Andres Vilalta and Cristobal Cuello of Spain.
Some climbers -- who wished to remain anonymous -- told ExplorersWeb that the rope-fixing team retrieved gear and supplies as they went down to Base Camp. Previous posts on social media denouncing the ropes situation have been deleted, hinting at a tense situation.
Expedition leaders met in Base Camp yesterday evening and decided to try one last time if the weather improves in the next few days. However, the fixed ropes end below the Col, and there are no ropes on the long summit ridge. So even if the weather cooperates, we will have to see how this plays out.
Several oxygen-assisted climbers summited Gasherbrum II yesterday and today. Others turned back and are heading home.
Young speedster Vadim Druelle of France bagged his second no-O2 8,000m peak in just 12 days, after Nanga Parbat. He will give more details when he is back in Base Camp.
Sashko Kedev of Slovenia and Tracee Metcalf of the U.S. summited with Imagine Nepal's Sherpas Dawa Gyalje Sherpa, Kilu Pemba Sherpa, and Angdu Sherpa. The climbers spent three windy nights in Camp 2, waiting for an opportunity to summit.
This is Tracee Metcalf's 10th 8,000'er. After the deaths of Anna Gutu and Gina Rzudidlo on Shisha Pangma last year, the medical doctor is now closest to becoming the first American woman to complete the 14x8,000'ers. However, she has clearly stated that she is in no hurry.
Seven Summit Treks, whose team bagged the first summits yesterday, noted today that Nhadira Al Harthi and Pasang Sherpa also reached the top.
Success and failure
Lukasz Supergan and Pawel Witkowski of Poland reached Camp 3 yesterday and then retreated as planned. They didn't intend to summit on this go since they still needed a last rotation before attempting a no-O2 ascent. They are prepared to wait patiently in Base Camp until it is safe to try again.
Supergan noted that Seven Summit Treks' oxygen-aided ascents yesterday took 17 hours and that several climbers retreated during the marathon push.
"Georges Abou Rjeili reached 7,400m and started to go back down," Supergan wrote. "Laszlo Csomor descended to C2, very tired. He said he had searched for a route on the summit dome [to the very top] without success.
Among those who retreated were Horia Colibasanu and Silviu Balan. Climbing without oxygen and therefore more vulnerable to frostbite, they turned around in bitter cold. Colibasanu noted that some sections carried a moderate risk of avalanches. This marks the end of their expedition; they are currently running down the Baltoro to catch a flight home.
A last try on Broad Peak
At the meeting that took place among all the climbers left at Broad Peak Base Camp last night, they eventually decided to make another attempt, according to Shehroze Kashif of Pakistan.
"The rope-fixing team will depart in a day, followed by the climbers," he wrote.
Now 22, Kashif summited Broad Peak at 17, earning him the nickname Broad Boy. He now has only Shisha Pangma left to complete the 14x8,000m. He has also started his own outfitting company and has a small team of Pakistani clients and porters who will join the upcoming last-minute attempt.
High winds continue to thwart all attempts on Broad Peak. The mood in Base Camp is one of fatigue and frustration. This weekend, three Russians tried their best but had to turn around at 7,800m in very bad weather. They spent last night in Camp 3 and returned to Base Camp today.
Tom Kitta writes that the climbers remaining in Base Camp will listen to the Russians' report tonight at a general meeting and make their final decisions.
"Everyone has had enough," he says. Yet hope remains for a last-ditch attempt on July 25-26 if the weather improves.
Ropes controversy
Some accusations have further dampened the mood in Base Camp. Sabin Thakuri of Nepal's Blue Ski Treks & Tours notes that Karakorum Expeditions -- the Pakistani agency in charge of laying the ropes on Broad Peak -- fixed until 7,400m and then retreated.
"On the way back, they also took all the 19 bottles of oxygen, [which were] deposited in Camp 3 for their clients, " Thakuri wrote on Instagram. "[This] means they are not going back."
Back in Base Camp, they said that their fixing members are tired, Thakuri added. "They also mentioned that the rope they took is not enough."
The quality and amount of rope on Broad Peak have been a topic of controversy and some rancor. Thakuri noted that this year, over 80 people have permits for Broad Peak, and they have all waited in vain for the route to be fixed.
Samiya Mirza of Karakorum Expeditions responded to Thakuri's statements in the comments section of his post.
"Karakorum Expeditions possesses ample rope to secure routes up to the summit," she wrote. "Despite experiencing two unsuccessful summit attempts, our team remains determined and prepared for another push."
Same vibes on K2
K2 Base Camp projects a similar sense of disappointment. Some expedition leaders, such as Mingma G, believe that 2024 could be a year with no summits. Others, such as Benjamin Vedrines of France, continue to hope for a weather window.
The Karakoram forecast was wrong again. Relentless snowfall and high winds forced Broad Peak climbers back from their summit attempt.
"This was supposed to be the best day of the summit window, and it has turned to be the worst," Tom Kitta reported.
The Canadian-Polish climber explained that almost all the climbers left in Base Camp, around 30 of them, had agreed to join forces to break trail to the summit. It didn't work, though.
The Karakorum Expeditions rope-fixing team said that the day looked promising when they set off from Camp 2 at 9 am. Then the wind picked and soon was blowing at 50-60kph. They fixed some ropes above Camp 3 but didn't reach the Col, despite two attempts. They eventually returned to Base Camp.
"The ropes are fixed to 7,600m," Kitta noted. "If the weather continues so bad, there will be no summits on Broad Peak this year. The situation in K2 is similar; the wind is too high. Yet," Kitta added, "there is already talk of another push."
The weather has not improved much, but impatient climbers are heading off anyway. "People are tired of sitting in Base Camp, so off they go," said Waldemar Kowalewski, currently on Gasherbrum II.
Because of unstable weather, Gasherbrum II climbers are simply hoping to reach at least Camp 3. If conditions allow, they may go for the top.
On Broad Peak, climbers are equally uncertain but will try to summit this weekend.
Broad Peak: Summit Saturday
Jean-Francois Descat of France reports on Livexplorer.com that he joined 20 to 30 people for a meeting in Base Camp yesterday.
"Consensus is to attempt the summit during the night of July 19-20," Descat wrote.
He intends to set up Camp 2 tomorrow, spend the night there, move to Camp 3 in the morning, rest, and then set off for the summit that night. He will take two bottles of oxygen and a porter to at least Camp 3.
Climbers will have to be careful. Tom Kitta of Canada earlier reported a big avalanche along the normal route on Broad Peak. It did not hit him, but he had to help Donatella Barbera (climbing with an Italian team from CAI Biella). Barbera was partly buried but uninjured.
Kitta explained that avalanches release frequently, but they are usually small. "The fresh snow is very sticky but does not adhere to the sugar-snow layer beneath," he explained.
Gasherbrum II: Camp 3 and then will see
Waldemar Kowalewski of Poland, who is with Seven Summits Climb, told the Alpymon blog that it is extremely hot at the glacier.
It's also foggy, according to recent photos from Horia Colibasanu and Silviu Balan. The Romanians, who climb without oxygen or porters, are skiing across the tricky, heavily crevassed glacier to Camp 1. Located at 6,000, that camp marks the start of the mountain face.
Lukasz Supergan, also from Poland, shares the frustration of hearing good weather forecasts that never come true.
"Every night, we plan our ascent and the snowfall always prevents us from going," he explained. He added that today, he joined a group to Camp 1. The plan is to continue at least to Camp 3.
Uta Ibrahimi is also attempting Gasherbrum II after aborting her expedition on Kangchenjunga earlier this year. This time, Ibraimi's husband, Metodi Chilimanov, is with her.
Her tracker locates her on the South Gasherbrum Glacier on the way to Camp 1.
K2 has to wait
The current weather conditions will force a later summit push on K2. Many climbers are now gathering in Base Camp, including some recent Nanga Parbat summiters. The route must be ready to Camp 4 before a summit push is viable, but the weather is not cooperating. Climbers have gone only as far as Camp 2 to acclimatize in variable weather.
Several teams reported that a big avalanche fell down K2 yesterday. The slide began at the serac maze right below Camp 1 and fell down toward Base Camp. No one was injured.
Tom Kitta of Canada, climbing without porters or oxygen, was among the first to reach Broad Peak this season. He hoped to experience the mountain without crowds for at least a few days. Kitta has made two acclimatization trips and reached as far as Camp 2.
In a letter to ExplorersWeb, Kitta warned about the poor state of the fixed ropes.
We have a problem with ropes on Broad Peak, as they were fixed by a small team from Shimshal, [which has] done a very poor job. They just went up with spools of rope and, at some point, dropped them down with 200 meters or more between anchor points. The rope is not climbing rope and it is already showing wear. It is unsafe. (Check the rope-fixing team and the coils of rope on the IG post below):
When I told the fixers about this, they refused to do anything about it and replied that the angle of the route is not steep enough for people to fall down all the way if the rope breaks.
The situation will get worse on the summit ridge, since the loose rope there will be useless. Snow just fell, so I don't know how much of last year's rope is still available, because it is in a better state than this year's. I hope that no one dies, but I intend not to use the rope when large commercial teams are on them.
Kitta left Base Camp today toward Camp 3 on his third and possibly final rotation up the mountain. He might wait there in Camp 3 until his summit push.
Karakoram Expeditions (from Shimshal) is handling the rope fixing on Broad Peak, as the company stated on social media:
Seven Summit Treks has also pointed out that, while they are in charge of fixing ropes (in collaboration with other teams) on all other Pakistan 8,000'ers, the task on Broad Peak fall to Karakoram Expeditions.
Bitter memories
If rope fixing on Broad Peak becomes a problem, this would not be the first time. In 2021, an anchor came out, causing first Nastya Rustova of Russia and then Kim HongBin of South Korea to slide some meters down toward the Chinese side of the mountain, with a void at their feet. Rustova was rescued, but Kim eventually fell to his death.
For hours while this was going on, a large number of climbers, not skilled enough to proceed without the ropes, waited on the ridge. They eventually ran out of oxygen, and several suffered from frostbite. Nepalese companies and citizens were not allowed to enter Pakistan that year because of COVID restrictions, and Karakoram Expeditions laid the ropes for the first time.
Kitta also notes that some climbers went to Camp 3 but that there is a huge amount of snow on the upper sections of the mountain. No one has gone beyond 7,500m, he says. That means that fixing teams have not reached the Broad Peak Col, from which the route turns and follows the long summit ridge. Check the Broad Peak route, camp by camp, here.
Movement on K2
Meanwhile, on neighboring K2, staff and clients of Seven Summit Treks are on the go, as the weather has improved after the snowy weekend. The clients doing their first rotation to Camps 1 and 2, according to SST. At the same time, the six-member sherpa team has resumed its rope fixing, which the blizzard halted last Friday near Camp 3. So far, only one person has reached Camp 3, at some 7,350m: Benjamin Vedrines. The sherpas will advance to Camps 3 and 4.
Spaniard to repeat disputed summit?
Jorge Egocheaga of Spain is on the SST team this year. He has not revealed his plans, but he is likely attempting K2. While Spanish mountain media include him on the list of successful no-O2 14x8,000m summiters, Egocheaga's K2 summit in 2009 was disputed. He refused to provide summit photos and details of his climb or to share further explanations.
The team at 8,000ers.com never accepted his K2 summit. Their new assessment also claims that the Spaniard didn't reach the true summits of Manaslu and Annapurna.
In the post below, Egocheaga, at left, poses in K2 in Base Camp with Sajid Sadpara.
Samina Baig of Pakistan is one climber who will not be able to use the improving weather. She summited K2 last year and wanted to do it again with an Italian-Pakistani women's team. But a pulmonary infection worsened over the weekend, and she has decided to retreat to lower altitudes. She left Base Camp on horseback, on oxygen.
Finally, Gasherbrum climbers are finally ready to go up the mountain as the fresh snow around them melts, and the route to Camp 1 over the broken glacier has now been worked out.
On Nanga Parbat, further southwest in the Himalaya, the remaining climbers have started their summit push. Anna Tybor of Poland and Tom Lafaille of France set off from Base Camp today and plan July 11 as their summit day.
After years of silence, the voices of Pakistani porters are reaching the public, and with this, the conscience of the entire expedition industry. The aftermath of the possibly avoidable death of Muhammad Hassan on K2, as dozens of climbers passed over him on their way to the summit, continues. Just this week, a long-awaited documentary aired in Austria and Germany on Servus TV.
Murtaza Ghulam Sadpara, rescued by Lukas Woerle on Broad Peak shortly before Hassan died on K2, has also spoken about how he was left behind on the mountain. He survived, barely, but several frostbitten fingers will have to be amputated, leaving his future ability to support his family in doubt.
Alone on Broad Peak's summit ridge
Two weeks before Muhammad Hassan died on K2, Murtaza Sadpara narrowly escaped the same fate on Broad Peak. On July 17, we reported about an Austrian climber who had sacrificed his summit bid to help this abandoned porter.
"On the summit ridge, I found a Pakistani HAP [high-altitude porter] lying in the snow,” Lukas Woerle told ExplorersWeb. “It was not possible to communicate properly with him, he was unable to remember his name, so I started dragging and pushing him back down.”
During their descent, Woerle was helped by an American climber and a Pakistani guide. The guide gave the sick porter one of the oxygen bottles he carried for clients, thereby saving his life.
Climber Stefan Fritsche also responded to Woerle's SOS call. No one else on the mountain came.
The small coterie of rescuers gave him medicine and helped him back to Camp 3, where others took charge. That is just the beginning of Murtaza Gulam Sadpara's story.
'Don't cut off my fingers!'
Murtaza was taken to a hospital in Skardu with badly frostbitten fingers. He was penniless. El Correo states that Murtaza received an extra 50,000 rupees ($178) from the outfitter for medical treatment. But this was far from enough to have his frostbitten digits properly treated.
Doctors there said they could only amputate, but the 24-year-old father of two from the village of Sadpara refused. He needed his hands to work, he cried, and left the hospital.
Without proper treatment, his fingers soon turned black with necrosis. His fate didn't look much brighter. Then his celebrated cousin, Sajid Sadpara, asked some friends for help. Sajid is the son of the late, great Ali Sadpara and a member of Murtaza's family.
Sajid contacted a number of climbers. One of them, Alex Txikon of Spain, brought Murtaza to his hometown in Spanish Basque country for medical care. Earlier this week, Murtaza landed in Bilbao, where members of Txikon's team and some journalists greeted him. He gave details about that day on Broad Peak.
Wet gloves, frozen fingers
Murtaza was working with outfitter Blue Sky Tours on behalf of Mexican climbers Sebastian Arizpe and Max Alvarez. Alex Txikon told Barrabes.com that Murtaza's salary was 50,000 rupees ($178). He also received a tip of 100,000 rupees ($357).
"He was carrying two bottles of oxygen for the clients, but he himself was climbing without gas, as he had none assigned for him by the agency, and he couldn't afford to buy a mask and canister," Fernando J. Perez of El Correo reported.
After 10 hours of climbing, they were at the summit ridge when bad weather forced the three of them to stop and wait for an hour. During that time, Murtaza's poor-quality gloves soaked and froze his fingers.
"When the clients saw he couldn't go on, they took the oxygen bottles and proceeded to the summit, leaving Murtaza behind," Perez wrote. ExplorersWeb is trying to contact the Mexican climbers for their side of the story.
Rescuer Lukas Woerle has refused to point his finger at anyone. "I will not take part in blaming others in public," he said recently. "Everyone has to live with their actions."
Pakistan's local government gave Woerle an award for his heroism. He also received a free climbing permit should he return to Broad Peak.
Solutions needed
Murtaza Sadpara's case has shown again the conditions under which porters work and what befalls them if they become injured or sick. Rather than seek culprits -- possibly the entire high-altitude tourism industry, including the media, share the blame -- we need solutions.
Unfortunately, there is no solution for Murtaza's fingers. No doctor in Spain or elsewhere can save them. He will have to find a way to provide for his family. (Check El Correo and Barrabes.com for information about fundraising initiatives).
Muhammad Hassan's family secure
The shameful circumstances under which Muhammad Hassan died on K2 had an unexpectedly positive effect, at least for his family.
The photos of Philip Flaemig and the efforts of teammate Willhelm Steindl, plus their testimony to ExplorersWeb, made Hassan's story viral. It shed a new light on some climbers and prompted an investigation by the Gilgit-Baltistan government.
It has also raised a remarkable amount of money for Hassan's family via a GoFundMe program set up by Steindl. Some weeks ago, Steindl traveled to Shigar in Pakistan to transfer the money to the family. It will allow Hassan's children to have a proper education. In collaboration with Austria's embassy, he is also building a climbing school near Skardu.
During the visit, Steindl also had a chance to interview Muhammad Hassan's cousin, also named Hassan, who stayed by his side until he died. It was the footage of this man rubbing Hassan's chest that made Steindl and Flaemig realize that something serious had happened at the top of the Bottleneck when they checked their drone footage in Base Camp.
ExplorersWeb had access to an English transcription of the interview. Hassan's cousin insisted that the accident took place at about 11 pm, hours before earlier estimates. He described how Hassan had tried to climb back up several times until he gave up, exhausted.
When the "main members of the team" came around dawn, Hassan's cousin said that three Nepalis tried to lift Hassan back up to the trail. They soon gave up because "they had no pulley."
"Then came Gabriel [Tarso], who did have a pulley, and helped Hassan back to the trail," the Pakistani recalled.
30 to 40 climbers ignored him
He estimates that 30 to 40 people passed by his stricken cousin and continued to the summit. Someone told him that Hassan was beyond help, but the Pakistani refused to leave his cousin until he died.
"Suddenly somebody hit my leg with his crampon and asked me to move up a little, and helped me move Hassan further up, off the trail," the surviving porter said. Although keeping track of time was difficult, he estimates that Muhammad Hassan died between 10 and 11 am.
Hassan's cousin also admitted that they both wanted to go further than Camp 3. Even if no one had promised them a summit bonus, they felt strong and able to go all the way to the top. He also described how Hassan fell when the ground (probably a snow slab) gave way under his feet.
Finally, like other porters, Hassan's cousin asks for better conditions. Most of all, he wants to acquire proper climbing skills and to have suitable equipment for this sort of work. There is currently no way for young porters to learn from one another and gain experience.
Documentary aired this week
The porter's testimony was added at the last minute to the documentary about K2 that Austria's Servus TV had hired Philip Flaemig to film. Originally, it was a wider, less focused story, but producers eventually decided to narrow the plot to the events that took place on summit day.
They titled it Die Schande am K2 ("Shame on K2"). Willi Steindl was the central character, and it included comments from several K2 climbers that season, as well as from prestigious past veterans Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Hans Kammerlander.
The documentary also included an interview with Gabriel Tarso, recorded while he trekked back from K2 Base Camp back to Skardu with Steindl and Flaemig. Tarso recalls emotionally how he tried his best to help Hassan. During the interviews, neither Hassan's cousin nor Tarso mentioned Kristin Harila.
We will never know if a coordinated rescue effort could have saved him. Several climbers consulted believe it may have. All agreed, however, that in future, no one must be left behind -- neither porter nor client nor guide.
Muhammad Hassan only had his cousin for company in his last moments, and Murtaza's soon-to-be amputated fingers will not grow back. Yet something is changing. Steps are being taken, thanks to both Pakistanis and foreign climbers, who are raising their voices and exposing a situation that can and must be improved.
Last year on July 19, Rafal Fronia of Poland sped alone up Broad Peak. It was a dream ascent on his dream mountain. Yet on the summit ridge at around 8,000m, Fronia saw something that shattered his heart: the body of Tomasz Kowalski. Kowalski's body had remained there frozen since he died during the first winter climb of Broad Peak in 2013.
Fronia says that he was not thinking of the deceased climber when he climbed Broad Peak. "But for some reason, we finally met: Tomek (Tomasz Kowalski) was lying on a rocky spur, where Jacek Jawien and Jacek Berbeka had left him."
Background: The 2013 winter tragedy
The National Polish Mountaineering Association's 2013 winter Broad Peak expedition was an epic climb, despite the tragic descent and later controversy in Poland. The leader, Maciej Berbeka, had a history with the mountain. On a previous attempt 25 years earlier, he had mistakenly stopped at the foresummit.
Berbeka, Kowalski, Adam Bielecki, and Adam Małek took part in the final summit push. All four summited on March 5 in harsh conditions. But some climbed faster than others and they became separated on the final, long summit ridge.
Berbeka and Tomasz Kowalski never made it back to Camp 4. While Berbeka's body was never found, Kowalski passed near the so-called Rocky Summit. When the survivors returned home, the mountaineering public sharply questioned their tactics and why the climbers had not turned around or waited for each other.
Ten years on the ridge
Fronia knows about winter ascents and rescues: He attempted Winter K2 in 2018 and is also a member of Poland's National Climbing team. He felt compelled to do something.
"Tomek had lain there for 10 years, 4 months and 13 days; 3,787 days and 3,787 nights; 10 of the world's harshest winters," Fronia said.
The thought made his own descent sad rather than joyful, as it should have been after his success. He resolved to return and give the Polish winter pioneer a proper burial.
It was not easy to find support at first. Even Kowalski's family found it hard to believe that he really intended to transport a body down from 8,000m after 10 years in the ice. But he and long-time expedition partner Piotr Tomala started raising funds. Poland's Olympic Committee became involved.
The climbing community also responded. Volunteers offered to join Fronia on Broad Peak. In the end, five climbers accompanied him on this unusual mission: Jarek Gawrysiak, Grzegorz Borkowski, Marek Chmielarski, Krzysztof Stasiak, and Marcin Kaczkan.
The recovery
The team spent months researching, planning, and practicing the best possible way to perform such an operation. In June, they quietly set off.
The task was hard. Fronia explained that it was not a normal summit push with light equipment. It involved many hours of work, hundreds of meters of rope, a stretcher, some kind of reinforced bag for the body, belaying equipment, and oxygen because they couldn't take any risks. They did not bother to summit Broad Peak. They merely climbed to Kowalski's remains and began to work.
The final resting place
"The team headed up to the body from Camp 3 and spent about 14 hours working before returning to Camp 3," Piotr Turkot, publisher of Wspinanie, told ExplorersWeb. "The body was on rocky ground near the route, within sight of passing climbers. That's one of the main reasons why Fronia wanted to move him."
A Polish team had moved the body of Kowalski away from the ropes in the summer of 2013, but as years went by, it had become visible again.
"The family preferred that Tomek remained on the mountain or in the vicinity of Broad Peak," said Turkot. "So the team considered several options to give the body a proper burial -- the Gilkey Memorial below Base Camp, a crevassed area around 7,000m, building a grave with stones in the rocky area near Camp 2. But then they found the cave, an ice-rock tunnel sheltered below the ridge, on the Chinese side of the mountain. It was just the right place, so they deposited the body there and covered it."
"After a month of acclimatization, on July 19, almost to the minute a year after I met Tomek, his time on the Broad Peak ridge ended after 3,787 days," Fronia wrote. "We buried him in a beautiful ice cave."
He also said that, once back on the moraine, they all cried.
Kurtyka: The greatest feat
After the mission, the legendary Wojtek Kurtyka shared some words about it.
"It's the kind of achievement I'd trade any of my sporting achievements for," he told Wspinanie.pl. "I am convinced that this action is one of the most beautiful events in the history of Polish mountaineering. Perhaps the greatest. I mean, I'm talking about beauty here, not some f****g record or success that divides more than unites."
Andrzej Bargiel and Anna Tybor, both from Poland, carved some impressive ski tracks this week. Bargiel and his team skied from the summit of Gasherbrum II. Meanwhile, Tybor skied down Broad Peak over two days.
On Gasherbrum II, Bargiel topped out and skied all the way back to Base Camp yesterday, thereby notching a complete descent. He and his team will now rest at least two days before repeating the feat on Gasherbrum I.
Anna Tybor summited Broad Peak yesterday at 5 pm and was back in Base Camp today at 2 pm. That suggests that she stopped at a high camp for the night. Tom Lafaille supported her.
Horrible weather on Broad Peak
A constant trickle of climbers summited Broad Peak yesterday and today. Among them, Pakistanis Sajid Sadpara (yesterday) and Naila Kiani. Kiani left yesterday night, snatching a little more rest, and summited today. But the delay forced her to deal with weather that, as predicted, turned for the worse today.
"It turned for the horrible," is how she put it.
She and her Nepali guide, Phur Sherpa, were the only ones to summit today, she said.
"The descent from the summit back to Camp 3 was harder than my descent to Camp 3 [last year] on G1," Kiani admitted.
In 2022 on Gasherbrum I, Kiani encouraged her two partners, Sirbaz Khan and Sohail Sakhi -- who were exhausted and affected by altitude after summiting without supplementary oxygen -- to keep descending, despite the bad weather.
Both Sajid Sadpara and Naila Kiani are now back in Base Camp and have completed all the 8,000'ers in Pakistan.
Harila's logistics
In the Gasherbrums, Kristin Harila's approach to logistics has apparently given others ideas. Nima Rinji Sherpa, the son of Seven Summit Treks' CEO Tashi Lakpa Sherpa -- Harila's outfitter -- says he wants to climb all the 8,000'ers in record time and at a record age. He is only 17, but he has joined Harila's team on several of her recent ascents.
He summited Gasherbrum I with Harila on Tuesday. Then from Camp 1, he set off right away up Gasherbrum II, which he summited yesterday with Pasang Nurbu Sherpa.
The peak baggers next go to Broad Peak, where Harila has scheduled a July 23 summit. Then finally, on to K2.
Self-sufficient climbers
There are also numerous independent climbers on the Gasherbrums. They use no high-altitude porters or supplementary oxygen. Many are well-rested and acclimatized after Nanga Parbat. Among them is Saulius Damulevicious of Lithuania, who is currently above Camp 3 on his summit push. Hopefully, this time he will not have to sacrifice his summit to help climbers in trouble.
Hugo Ayaviri of Bolivia, also climbing independently, summited Gasherbrum II yesterday. Back in Camp 1, he is now resting while considering Gasherbrum I. Ayaviri reached the summit of Nanga Parbat some weeks ago, as well as K2 without oxygen last year.
A large group of climbers summited Gasherbrum II today and more are on the way, including Andrzej Bargiel. The Polish mountaineer is ready to set off from Camp 2 and ski down from the summit.
On Broad Peak, many will hurry toward the summit tonight, as forecasts show the weather worsening by July 20. Some will try to go all the way from Camp 2. That is a long way even for climbers on oxygen.
Gasherbrum II
Bargiel set off at 10 pm Pakistan time. Accompanied by Janusz Golab and a film crew, the climber didn't specify whether he was going immediately to the summit or would pitch a Camp 3 on the way.
The team did an acclimatization trip to Camp 3 last weekend, and Bargiel skied down from there:
Meanwhile, EliteExped's 19-member team summited two days ago. And today, Hi Jing of China summited GII without oxygen, supported by Araman Tamang. It is Hi's 13th 8,000'er, according to Seven Summit Treks.
Gasherbrum I
Kristin Harila and the Seven Summit Treks team might not have been the first on top of Gasherbrum I today. American Chris Warner, together with regular partner Chhiring Sherpa and Pemba Tasi Sherpa, summited at 5 am, shortly before the Seven Summit Treks group.
Warner, who had previously climbed Nanga Parbat and then Gasherbrum II some days ago, has followed his original plan, as he outlined to ExplorersWeb: Wait for the right moment, summit quickly, then get off the mountain before the crowds come.
Despite the large number of people on the Gasherbrums this season, there are no reports of crowding. Teams are well distributed between the two mountains.
Seven Summit Treks has added some climbers to its summit list, including Afsaneh Hesami of Iran, Sona Sherpa of Nepal (a winter K2 summiter), and recent Nanga Parbat summiter Anja Blacha of Germany.
Broad Peak
Climbers hoping for good weather tomorrow are leaving for the summit from Camp 3 or even lower down. Naila Kiani of Pakistan, with Imagine Nepal, wanted to summit on Thursday, but changing forecasts have forced her to try to hurry up from Camp 2 tonight.
Sajid Sadpara of Pakistan has also left Camp 3 for the summit. He is guiding Alina Pekova of Russia on behalf of Seven Summit Treks. Broad Peak is the only Pakistani mountain that Sadpara has not yet summited.
K2 will have to wait
Summit pushes will come later on K2, with the normal Abruzzi Spur route still not set. Ropes still need fixing above Camps 3 and 4. This will not be the first time that the sherpas fix the Bottleneck and higher, with dozens of clients right behind them. Last year, the front-line team was Harila and her sherpas.
We can expect a massive summit push once the rope fixing ends. Most climbers on oxygen have had time to acclimatize up to Camp 2, which is high enough for those on oxygen. Some teams have been on the mountain for a month already.
Last weekend we wondered about the identity of the climber who shared the summit push with Horia Colibasanu on Broad Peak. His name is Lukas Woerle of Austria. The two met in Base Camp and since both climbed independently, without O2 or sherpa support, they decided to join forces. The only difference in their plans was that the Austrian hoped to paraglide from the 8,051m summit.
But while Colibsasanu summited Broad Peak on July 15, Woerle returned to Base Camp with a very different experience.
A cry for help
On the way to the summit, while he was on the long summit ridge after Broad Peak Col, Colibasanu left the trail. He passed a group of climbers on O2 who were clipped to the fixed ropes. Eventually, Colibasanu continued without any rope.
Woerle, climbing 15 minutes behind, stayed on the trail, where he noticed someone crying for help.
"On the summit ridge, I found a Pakistani HAP [high-altitude porter] lying in the snow," Woerle told ExplorersWeb. "It was not possible to communicate properly with him, so I started dragging and pushing him back down."
"Halfway down, I met Dan [Buonome], an American climber who helped me give that person medicine and oxygen."
Woerle told us that the oxygen came from another HAP who was waiting for his clients near Broad Peak Col.
Woerle and Buonome managed to get the sick porter back to Camp 3, where someone else took over. Still, the task took them most of the day and, admitted Woerle, all his strength.
"I radioed BC, reporting on a sick person between 10:00 and 10:30 am, and arrived together with the porter in Camp 3 between 18:45 and 19:00," he said.
The Austrian climber finally descended with Colibasanu the following day in the rain. They reached Base Camp at 6 pm.
Woerle said that they had problems finding Camp 3 in the fog. Luckily, his Base Camp team (Woerle's father and brother) asked for help from guide Stefan Fritsche. He found them at 7,100m and led them to the tents. "Otherwise, no one else helped," Woerle said.
In addition to Colibasanu, at least two other teams summited Broad Peak on July 15, at around 1:30 pm: Mexicans Max Alvarez and Sebastian Arizpe. A Seven Summit Treks team with Oswaldo Freire of Ecuador, Sarah Marxer of Germany, Allie Pepper of Australia, Matteo Bonalumi of Italy, and Nepalis Lakpa Nurbu Sherpa, Dawa Sherpa, and Ngima Tashi Sherpa also summited.
Alli Pepper reported on social media that the weather was bad and the summit push took over 24 hours from Camp 3 and back. This was because the sherpa team fixed as they went until they ran out of rope. Pepper and possibly Freire climbed without oxygen.
HAP Murtaza to be airlifted
When he helped him down, Woerle didn't know the name of the HAP or which team he worked for. However, the porter himself went to Woerle's camp as we spoke to Woerle, to thank him. His name is Murtaza, Woerle said. He suffered some frostbite and will be airlifted to Skardu tomorrow.
Horia Colibasanu of Romania reached Base Camp yesterday at 6 pm. This morning, he had already begun to trek out and had reached Concordia by nightfall.
Meanwhile, Lukas Woerle hopes to get enough rest before the next weather window -- supposedly July 18-21. Then he'll again try to summit and paraglide from the top of Broad Peak.
For serial summiters like Kristin Harila, acclimatization rotations are a thing of the past. She just flew to Base Camp and climbed Gasherbrum II. Recently arrived in the Karakoram and climbing without O2, Horia Colibasanu has summited Broad Peak, his 10th 8,000'er.
Broad Peak success
On Broad Peak, teams started for the top yesterday. Horia Colibasanu, with some other independent climbers, rested at Camp 3 (7,000m) for a day, then headed for the summit last night. We only know that he summited but have no further details about conditions on the long summit ridge.
Before the current push, there were no ropes beyond the Gasherbrum Col. Not knowing whether yesterday's teams would install any ropes, Colibasanu and his partners carried their own rope.
Seven Summit Treks put seven people on top of Broad Peak as well, including 14x8,000'er lister Allie Pepper of Australia.
Urubko and Cardell break trail on GI
Meanwhile, on Gasherbrum I, Denis Urubko and Pipi Cardell have opened the trail to Camp 2. They plan to acclimatize on the normal route as far as Camp 3. Then they will descend and launch their alpine-style attempt on a new route on the 8,035m peak.
Kristin Harila and friends bag GII
Kristin Harila of Norway and Tenjen "Lama" Sherpa of Nepal are getting closer to summiting all 14 8,000'ers in three months. They reached the top of Gasherbrum II today at 7:45 am, together with Mingtemba Sherpa.
There are no details yet about conditions or whether they all used supplementary oxygen on the 8,034m peak. Harila and the Seven Summit Treks' sherpas gained some rest time in town by skipping the long Baltoro trek and helicoptering to Base Camp. Members of the EliteExped group, including Nirmal Purja and Qatari Princess Asma Al Thani, also used the airlift.
A large number of climbers should follow Harila. Teams from Nanga Parbat reached Gasherbrum Base Camp yesterday, already acclimatized from the previous peak. Those using supplementary oxygen (even on lower 8,000'ers like the Gasherbrums) can climb the peaks in one go, sipping oxygen as they go.
K2 will have to wait
On K2, summit pushes will have to wait until camps and ropes are set. Taking advantage of improving weather, most teams are on their way to Camp 2 for a first acclimatization round. Those on oxygen or already acclimatized are going even further. Ropes are fixed to Camp 3.
A second wave of climbers is between Camp 2 and Camp 3, moving to the summit of Nanga Parbat. Meanwhile, on Broad Peak, Furtenbach Adventures has chosen an early-bird strategy. Their team, guided by Argentina's Ulises Corbalan, reached the mountain before everyone else. They fixed the ropes themselves and now are ready to go for the top once the weather allows.
Hard terrain on Nanga Parbat
Nanga Parbat climbers are reporting sections of hard ice and a sustainably steep climb. A rock struck skier Ali Olszanski yesterday. He retreated to Base Camp but still hopes to launch a fresh attempt soon, the Alpymon blog reported.
A significant number of climbers are in Camp 3, ready to set off for the top tonight. This year, there is no Camp 4, but a higher percentage of clients are using supplementary O2 and so are able to tackle a longer summit day. As on all "lower" 8,000'ers, the widespread use of supplementary oxygen on 8,126m Nanga Parbat is quite recent.
Imagine Nepal and EliteExped teams are once again climbing at the same pace, with their members in Camp 2.
Broad Peak for just one team
On Broad Peak, the Furtenbach Adventures team has set their camps and fixed ropes up to the col at 7,800m. Climbers are preparing to set off toward higher camps and attempt to summit from Camp 3 sometime next week, once the weather cooperates.
The guides and high-altitude porters will fix ropes on the ridge sections as they proceed to the top. Crowding will not be a problem. They are currently the only team positioned for a summit push. Many other climbers are currently on the way, and some of them, such as a Czech expedition, plan to reach Base Camp tomorrow. They are not acclimatized enough to consider summiting yet.
K2's Base Camp is also filling up quickly, and the rope fixing has started. Summit Karakoram/8K Expeditions have already roped the way to Camp 1.
Horia Colibasanu is among the last of a fading generation of 8,000m climbers. After 20 years of Himalayan climbing, he still tries to combine a pure style and self-sufficiency on the world's highest mountains, despite their commercialization.
He has already climbed nine 8,000'ers without supplemental oxygen or personal sherpa support. And he has made some remarkable attempts on new routes, such as Dhaulagiri's NW Face in 2020 and 2021.
Despite his mountaineering excellence, he makes his living not as a climber, but as a dentist in Timisoara, Romania.
After several seasons in Nepal, Colibasanu has moved this summer to Pakistan's Broad Peak.
"I intend to complete the 14 8,000'ers, and Broad Peak is the best option because I don’t want to skip the year without an expedition," he told Explorersweb.
Colibasanu has already summited all the 8,000'ers in Nepal, plus Shishapangma in Tibet. He had no opportunity to go for Cho Oyu this past spring.
No partner
Just before he left for Pakistan, we asked Colibasanu about what he expects from a mountain that lately has suffering from crowding, littered camps and problems from missing ropes and too many inexperienced climbers.
Colibasanu, however, had nothing but positive feelings about his return to the Karakoram. He had only one concern.
"I don't have a climbing partner," he said.
After Kangchenjunga last year, his regular partner Peter Hamor of Slovakia decided he had had enough of the 8,000'ers. Instead, this past spring he climbed a new route on a lesser peak, Kabru South.
Colibasanu was hoping to enlist the third member of his former team, Marius Gane, but Gane unexpectedly dropped out a few days ago because of personal issues. Colibasanu admits that his missing friends have left him "a little blue, a little anxious, a little hopeful. But quite fit."
"All the possible inconveniences about Broad Peak fade away over the safety concerns of being alone up there," Colibasanu admitted. "But I'm staying optimistic. Basically, I want to climb the normal route, and I assume that no 8,000m peak is easy, so I am focusing on safety and enjoying the journey."
Himalaya are still the place for exploration
Contrary to some heated opinions about the decline of the Himalayan climbing experience, Colibasanu remains enthusiastic.
"The Himalaya and Karakorum are incredible places to be, and two of the last places on Earth for true adventure and exploration," he said. "I would not like to skydive clinging to an instructor or travel to space or oceans like a cargo bag. Altitude climbing is something very different.
"Also, sometimes fortune smiles on you, and you get a chance to plan different routes, meet excellent partners, or enjoy beautiful weather. That is why I go there; I love these mountains and the beautiful people whom I hope to meet climbing like I do."
Despite his Himalayan experience, Colibasanu has not set foot in the Karakoram since 2004. That summer, he got his first 8,000m experience. His goal was simply to reach 8,000m, but it ended with his first major summit, in style: K2 without supplementary oxygen or porters. This, at a time when K2 was still "The Savage Mountain."
Memories from K2 in 2004
There, Horia also found a friend for life (even if life is sometimes too short). "I met Inaki Ochoa at Base Camp," Colibasanu recalls. "His climbing partner at the time [Alex Txikon] switched to the Cesen route, and my team called their attempt off. But the two of us decided to stay and make a last-minute attempt at the summit."
They summited on July 28, 2004, and became climbing partners on other Himalayan expeditions. "Finding a friend and climbing a great mountain at the same time is all an alpinist could crave," Colibasanu said.
Together they attempted to climb Annapurna's East Ridge in 2008. Then, in Camp 5, Inaki fell sick. What followed was one of the most epic rescue attempts in mountaineering history. But all efforts by some of the best climbers of that era and the constant care of Colibasanu, who stayed by Ochoa's side for five days, were not enough. Ochoa finally died. Colibasanu and the rest of the rescue team received a special Piolet d'Or "in the spirit of mountaineering" the following year.
Horia Colibasanu is about to start his trek up the Baltoro toward Broad Peak. In another talk with ExplorersWeb from Skardu, he said he felt great to be back, fit and motivated, and also full of memories from 2004.
At the time he was young, on a shoestring budget, and probably didn't look so much like a professional climber. He was revved up at having just summited K2. "And then," Colibasanu recalled, "that Austrian woman abruptly brought me back to earth by asking, 'Trekking or Expedition?' "
The woman was Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner.
Broad Peak ready for summit action
Colibasanu plans to reach Base Camp by July 5. There, he will find everything ready for the first groups to push for the summit. Furtenbach Adventures has already set up their three camps and fixed the ropes up to the Broad Peak col at 7,800m. The most technical parts of the route, including along Broad Peak's summit ridge, can be fixed on the go.
Colibasanu, however, will need some time to acclimatize. "Acclimatization must be bistarai (Nepali for slowly). Then the summit push will be fast, strong and determined," he said.
Here are the latest updates from some interesting expeditions in Pakistan.
On 7,403m Istor-O-Nal, David Klein and Bence Kerekes are progressing along their route. These two Hungarians, plus the Japanese pair of Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima, are currently the only teams climbing this summer in the Hindu Kush.
Kharut II ends
U.S. climber and skier Luke Smithwick has ended his expedition on unclimbed 6,824m Kharut II. Dangerous avalanche conditions kept his team from summiting.
"This was not due to the strength or ability of any team member, but because of my own decision making," Smithwick wrote on social media. He said that the snowpack was unsafe, and the instability wouldn't fix itself until the summer heat removed the layers he observed.
"I have zero regrets about my decision; however, it's frustrating," he said.
Next week, Smithwick will begin an expedition on an unspecified 8,000m peak.
Spantik before Muchu Chhish
The Czech team of Pavel Bem, Pavel Korinek, Tomas Petrecek, and Radoslav Groh will shortly start their climb of the southeast ridge (normal route) of 7,027m Spantik. They are acclimatizing in preparation for their attempt on unclimbed Muchu Chhish.
The team has already crossed the Chogo Lungma Glacier and established a base camp at 4,400m. Here, their porters returned home. As the weather forecast is good, they decided to pack for six days and set off up Spantik. They want to spend at least two nights above 6,300m for acclimatization. Some members of the team want to summit Spantik and ski down if conditions are right.
"We'll see [how far] we can get," they said yesterday. "The season hasn't started yet, so we're the first ones here."
This morning, June 19, the Czechs left base camp and trekked up to about 4,900m in beautiful weather. Here, they set up Camp 1, although they didn't find the usual tent site.
"Everything is under snow," they admitted. They pitched two tents under a relatively safe serac. They will continue tomorrow morning.
There is still no news from David Goettler and Benjamin Vedrines, who are planning an alpine-style ascent of the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat.
Broad Peak and Nanga Parbat
On 8,126m Nanga Parbat, the all-Pakistani team has fixed the ropes up to Camp 3. Nanga Parbat started earlier so the progress is more advanced than on Broad Peak, where the rope fixing has just begun. Some groups have already started their acclimatization, while others are just approaching the peaks.
Karakoram paragliding
The duo of Antoine Girard and Veso Ovcharov are currently paragliding over the Karakoram. Girard's last track on June 11 showed them in the Rakaposhi and Diran areas. Four days ago, Girard wrote that they finished the first part of the acclimatization. They were awaiting the right weather window "to start serious things." He noted that heavy snow still blanketed the mountains.
Their upcoming plans are unclear, but in 2017 Girard and then-partner Julien Dusserre attempted an alpine-style climb of the virgin east face of 7,227m Langtang Lirung in Nepal. They approached the dangerous and almost inaccessible starting point of that face by paragliding. In the end, dangerous conditions on the mountain stopped their ascent.
Paragliding over hazards, then landing at a safe site to begin a climb is a new way to approach some otherwise inaccessible mountains. Last year, Fabian Buhl and Will Sim managed the first ascent of 5,810m Gulmit Tower in the Karakoram, after paragliding to its base.
Approaching Gulmit Tower on foot is almost impossible. They pair climbed the tower, then paraglided back to Karimabad.
Anna Tybor is in Pakistan to begin her Broad Peak Dream Line project. The Polish climber and skier wants to ascend 8,051m Broad Peak without supplemental oxygen, then make the first female ski descent from the summit. Guide Tom Lafaille and photographer Piotrek Drzastwa will accompany her.
Tybor has experience. On September 29, 2021, she climbed to Manaslu's foresummit, also without bottled oxygen, and skied down with Italian guides Marco Majori and Federico Secchi. The team stopped at Camp 4 for the night during the descent. Last autumn, Hilaree Nelson aimed to make a full ski descent of Manaslu but fell to her death shortly after starting to ski down.
Ski descents from 8,000'ers are difficult because of the terrain and difficulty breathing during the descent. According to Russian extreme skier Vitaly Lazo, a skier has to stop every 20m to 30m to take a break, recover, and refocus.
Polish skier Andrzej Bargiel made the first ski descent on Broad Peak in 2015. That season, another skier, Olek Ostrowski, went missing when he fell into a crevasse descending on skis from Camp 2 to Camp 1. Ostrowski's partner, Piotr Snigorski, reached Base Camp safely.
Confirmation from Trango II
Eneko Pou, Iker Pou, and Fay Manners have summited Trango II (6,237m), and are back at Base Camp.
Andres Marin, the fourth member of the team, did not join the ascent on Trango II. He recently posted that, "it was a great learning experience trying to accomplish a goal at the Great Trango Tower."
The quartet's original target was Great Trango, but they didn't make the summit.
"Exploration in the greatest ranges requires that the stars align in such a way that there is a magical flow," Marin said.
"Some adjustments will be made next time to increase the chances of success," Marin added.
The Pou Brothers have also detailed the third short line they climbed on one of the Trango groups' surrounding towers, carried out before their summit push on the Great Trango Tower.
On one of the minor spires, which they have called "Lady," they opened a 205m line (6c) and named the route "The First Minister."
Nanga Parbat and Istor-O-Nal
On Nanga Parbat, climbers continue to acclimatize in changeable weather, with several teams yet to arrive.
On 7,403m Istor-O-Nal in the Hindu Kush, David Klein and Bence Kerekes are progressing slowly but deliberately. They have recently fixed ropes up to 5,850m.
Maciej Berbeka wanted to climb K2, not Broad Peak, but the weather refused to cooperate with the 1988 Polish expedition. Alek Lwow and Berbeka didn't want to return home empty-handed. They convinced expedition leader Andrzej Zawada to let them attempt nearby Broad Peak in a fast, alpine-style push.
What happened next on Broad Peak would mark Berbeka's life forever and earn its place in the storied history of winter high-altitude mountaineering. As of today, the film airs worldwide on Netflix. That means that 212 million subscribers in 190 countries get to learn about Berbeka's fate.
What happened is something familiar to climbers even nowadays. He climbed and descended the mountain, believing he had reached the top. But like many others, he had stopped just short, at the deceptive Rocky Summit.
Just missing the summit broke his heart. Although the physical wounds of his two nights in the open healed, the feeling of failure, frustration, and betrayal persisted for 25 years. Then in 2013, a new opportunity arose to finish what he had started.
The Polish Ice Warriors
"Broad Peak" is the story of Berbeka and the poorly phrased "conquest" of the winter 8,000'ers. It is about the Polish Ice Warriors who dominated winter high-altitude mountaineering in the 1980s. It also depicts a time when the mountains were wild and climbers dealt with extreme suffering and the raw awareness of possible death. But is is also a reflective look at loss and yearning, an ethical debate on friendship and deception, and fate.
Watching the film also requires a conscious effort to return to the 1980s, not so long ago and yet seemingly eons removed. Here, events unfolded much more slowly, mountains were climbed in loneliness, and a parallel, inner expedition occurred inside the men's souls.
The bluish patina in which this film is lit like an old photograph evokes this distant view. The dialogue is brief and pointed, with not a word too many. Meanings are expressed through looks rather than words or gestures. Realistic enough, in a gale-swept winter camp, or on a summit pregnant with foreboding and destiny.
True to the time
The atmosphere is true to the time: the tents, the equipment, the old anoraks, woolen caps, and ski goggles...We see worn-out men with gaunt faces, sunken eyes, and frozen beards. And yet there are no histrionics, no overpowering egos, no artificially dramatic speeches.
Despite some small licenses, the film depicts the story of winter Broad Peak as it happened, and when it happened: in two acts, before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain in the austere 1980s, and in the 2010s, during the revival of the National Polish Winter team, featuring a new generation of young guns. Adam Bielecki still has his dreadlocks.
Overall, the sense of authenticity is almost shocking to watch, especially in this era of brightly colored mountain videos, Instagram stories with motivational platitudes, and heavily filtered summit selfies. "Broad Peak" is about the unbearable cold, slow progress on endless snow ramps, the breathtaking beauty of the Karakoram, and a climber trying in vain to escape his fate.
No green screens
The sense of reality is the result of a thoroughness that resorted to no shortcuts, neither technical nor in the storytelling. The film, directed by Leszek Dawid, has been in production since 2014. It drew on many, many hours of interviews, thousands of pages of documentation, and filming in dozens of locations from the Alps to Broad Peak itself. There are no green screens here, only actual altitude and extreme conditions, with real climbers involved in the production.
On Broad Peak, in particular, the film crew, assisted by professional climbers, reached 5,600m. From there, they used drones, a helicam, and a full-sized helicopter with a gyroscope-equipped camera.
They aimed to tell a story about an epic climb that surpassed, in its rawness, any fictional film.
"We wanted to show the viewer the state of mind of a climber who, in extreme circumstances, is wholly devoted to climbing and loses the sense of physical inconvenience," the producers explained. "We want to illustrate the state when a person is so absorbed in fighting with oneself that nothing else matters."
Overall, the film might leave those looking for video game-like climbing, with heroic characters in bright Gore-Tex armor, fast-paced mountain action, grand speeches, and triumphant endings, slightly disappointed. But real winter 8,000m climbing is a slow game of chess against death. Teamwork is the best chance of making it back alive, but success or even survival is not guaranteed.
Denis Urubko has decided to go home without breaking the record for the most no-O2 8,000'ers. After chain-summiting Broad Peak, Gasherbrum II, and K2 without supplementary oxygen, he remains tied at 26 with Basque climber Juanito Oiarzabal.
"[I'm] obviously satisfied with what has been done," he wrote on social media.
He was considering doing Broad Peak a second time for number 27 and the record, but bad weather has now settled on the Karakoram, dissuading him.
"It started snowing on the way down to K2 Base Camp," he told his wife, Maria Cardell.
With limited time available -- he is supposed to be back in Skardu by Wednesday -- he could have only attempted Broad Peak a second time in ideal conditions. Gasherbrum I, further away, was out of the question.
At 49, Urubko has plenty of time to rack up more summits. In previous interviews, he also shared some ideas for other projects: to climb a new route on an 8,000'er or a winter climb, for example.
Fast and light, but not new
On his comeback to 8,000m climbing, Urubko decided to go to the Karakoram with permits for all the Baltoro's 8,000'ers. He never intended to get first to the top or to open new routes, as he has done in the past. He simply wanted to do some "fast and light" climbs up the normal routes.
Before heading to the Karakoram, he topped out an unclimbed 5,975m peak in the Shigar Valley with his wife, Maria Cardell.
Then he moved on to Broad Peak. Here, he summited quickly, opening a trail on the upper sections on July 19. On Gasherbrum II, he set off alone from Base Camp at 3:00 am and reached the summit at 18:20 local time. His home team said that he had found no one in the upper camps.
Then on 8,611m K2, he celebrated his 49th birthday by climbing alone via the normal Abruzzi Spur route in a 36 hour-push from Advanced Base Camp to the top and back.
Editor's Note: Urubko's total number of summits varies with the source. His home team has stated that K2 was his 26th summit, so we've gone with that figure until we have a chance to confirm with Urubko himself.
The Czech team of Tomas Petrecek, Marek Holecek, and Radoslav Groh find themselves in a dreamlike setting, surrounded by beautiful high peaks but far from the crowded 8,000'ers. For the past two days, they have been acclimatizing on the hills around 6,781m Biarchedi, just northeast of Masherbrum.
They are preparing to attempt the unclimbed West Face of 7,821m Masherbrum. Holecek, Petrecek, and Groh, along with photographer Tomas Galasek and perhaps other support staff, reached 6,200m today after a hard day.
It was not easy. Crossing the highly crevassed glacier was exhausting, especially in the scorching heat. For safety, they had to rope up and jump over the crevasses.
They set up two tents and are spending the night there. "Biarchedi seems quite insignificant compared to the other mountains here,” wrote Petrecek.
Here at least, they had a closer look at Masherbrum. "It is more beautiful than we remembered, yet bigger than ever,” wrote Holecek today. He admits that Masherbrum both amazes and frightens him.
Tomorrow, acclimatization completed for the moment, they return to base camp.
Polish success on K2 and a ski descent of GII
Three climbers from the Polish Beskid Expedition team, Mariusz Hatala, Piotr Krzyzowski, and Radoslav Wozniak, summited K2 yesterday.
Another Polish climber, Bartosz Ziemski, summited Gasherbrum II yesterday and skied down. None of the Poles used bottled oxygen.
And as we reported earlier, Denis Urubko summited K2 this morning, his 26th 8,000'er without supplementary O2.
Broad Peak: More summits today
Imagine Nepal's second group summited Broad Peak today at 1:30 pm. The summiters included five clients and seven Sherpas. Heavy snow delayed their summit time.
After topping out, they descended safely to Camp 3. Tomorrow, they intend to go down to Base Camp.
Stefi Troguet cancels Broad Peak
After almost two months in the Greater Ranges, Stefi Troguet has returned to Skardu.
"I decided not to climb Broad Peak this time," the Andorran climber said. "The weather window was very close to my K2 [climb], and I was not ready yet to face the expected 30-40 kph winds, with no O2, and without a proper rest after K2.”
Troguet's outfitter, Elite Exped, also decided to give up Broad Peak because of unstable weather. Some independent climbers who took part in a rescue some days ago and have been waiting for a second chance at the summit have decided the same.
While all the attention focused yesterday on the record number of summits in a single day on K2, a series of dramatic and still unclear events occurred on neighboring Broad Peak.
Lack of official statement
Yesterday we reported that a Romanian was in serious condition and that something unspecified had happened to a British climber. What we know of both cases is only what a few climbers have reported on their own.
It turns out that the British man suffered a fatal fall, according to Francois Cazzanelli of Italy, who witnessed the event.
The names of neither the British victim nor the Romanian have been revealed. There has still been no official statement from any of the agencies about what is apparently the second fatality on Broad Peak this season.
Cazzanelli's report
Based on the information provided by Francois Cazzanelli and the home team of a Chilean group, we know the following:
On the night of July 19, 2022, Italian mountaineer Francois Cazzanelli prepared to leave for the summit of Broad Peak. At midnight (July 19-20) he and Benjamin Vedrines began to climb from Broad Peak Base Camp at 4,950m. Vedrines went much faster -- he later set a speed record of 7 hours 28 minutes. Soon, Cazzanelli was on his own.
Above 7,500m, Cazzanelli met his companions, Pietro Picco and Marco Camandona, who had summited the day before and were descending. Cazzanelli also crossed paths with Denis Urubko, who had also summited Broad Peak in 14 hours 40 minutes.
Cazzanelli meets the British climber
After 12 hours of climbing, at around noon, Cazzanelli reached the 8,035m foresummit of Broad Peak. From there, at his good pace, he was only 30 minutes away from the actual summit. This was Cazzanelli's first experience on Broad Peak. He was climbing independently, carrying his own gear, and not using supplementary O2.
Here, he crossed paths with a British climber on his way down. As they passed each other, Cazzanelli looked back and saw the Brit suddenly lose his balance in the narrow passageway, then fall, crashing into the wall.
Cazzanelli leaned out in case he could see the Englishman. There was no trace of him. After an hour, Cazanelli called teammate Emrik Favre at Base Camp. Favre advised Cazzanelli, "Get down immediately!"
Cazzanelli managed to descend safely. Before reaching Camp 3, he noticed traces of the impact of the British man's body made in the snow. Pietro Picco was waiting for him at Camp 3. There, both spent the night, descending the rest of the way the following morning.
Rescue of Romanian climber in progress
Several climbers also reported on the Romanian climber in urgent need of evacuation from Broad Peak. The rescue is ongoing at the moment. Several mountaineers, mostly Chileans, are involved.
On July 21, Israfil Ashurli of Azerbaijan, along with other climbers, were on the upper section of Broad Peak, on their way to the summit. At 7,700-7,800m, Ashurli met the Romanian climber, known only as George, who was in a "moribund” (comatose?) state.
At that moment Ashurli decided to abort his summit attempt and lowered the man to 7,300m. Here, several climbers from Chile, Poland, and Russia had climbed from Camp 3 to help, also aborting their summit attempt.
No helicopter rescue
The rescuers are doing everything possible to lower the Romanian down to Base Camp. The home team of the Chileans has just reported that the climbers started their descent from Camp 2 to Base Camp about five hours ago. Given that darkness will soon fall on Pakistan and that they are dealing with a climber who can't help himself, "we expect that the day will be really long,” the Chilean home team commented.
Israfil Ashurli summits
Israfil Ashurli commented that all the other climbers were going down. Ashurli spent last night at 7,000m and said he was alone on the mountain. After his part in the rescue, he attempted the summit of Broad Peak again today. He successfully reached it at 12:43 pm.
K2 - summit crowds
Yesterday we wrote about the massive number of clients, guides, Sherpas, and porters at the summit of K2. Alan Arnette reported that 141 people made the summit. Almost half of them were Sherpa and Pakistani support.
In the first 40 years of the climbing history of K2, fewer people summited than summited yesterday, in a single day.
More teams, including some independent groups, will try to summit K2 in the next few days.
No O2, but a Sherpa behind with emergency oxygen
Today, Flor Cuenca of Peru contacted ExplorersWeb from K2 Base Camp to say that her summit group reached Camp 4 but they decided to hold off on their final push for a few days because they needed a little more acclimatization. They had spent three nights at Camp 3 at 7,400m. They spent two hours at C4, then descended.
“In a couple of days, we will push for the summit,” says Cuenca. Her group is climbing on their own, carrying their own gear.
"Very few climbers go without supplemental oxygen and without a personal porter," she added. "Of course, yesterday some reached the summit without O2, but they went with the support of a Sherpa or a porter who went behind them with oxygen, in case something happened."
"What is more important, ambition or human life?" Azerbaijani climber Israfil Ashurli answered his own rhetorical question yesterday when he gave up his summit push on Broad Peak to help a stricken Romanian known only as George. The incident occurred at 7,700-7,800m when Ashurli found the climber in serious condition.
Abandoning his push, Ashurli dragged him down to 7,300m. Here, other climbers on their way up from Camp 3 pitched in to help. Ashurli didn't mention their names but noted that they were from Chile, Poland, and Russia. The Chilean blog Ochomiles.cl later revealed that the Chileans were Andrea Garrido and Juan Andres Covarrubias.
The effort left Ashurli too tired to resume his own climb but he plans to try again tonight.
Waiting for airlift at Camp 2
The Chileans took the injured climber to their tent in Camp 3. Today, they managed to drag him down to Camp 2. Currently, they are trying to arrange a helicopter evacuation of the injured climber directly from there. They have given up their summit push.
Broad Peak is currently fairly quiet, but it will not remain so for long. A large number of climbers will go there after finishing up with K2.
Broad Peak seems particularly hazardous this season. Besides the death of Pakistan's Sharif Sadpara, and this latest incident with the unnamed Romanian, other rescues have occurred. Francois Cazanelli of Italy had just completed a new variation route and a blitz ascent of Nanga Parbat and was expected to join the list of speed summiters earlier this week.
Yet he didn't reach the top with his Italian partners. Instead, when he was almost there, he stopped to help a British climber whose name has also not been disclosed, according to Mountainblog.it.
After yesterday's speed ascents, a large number of regular climbers (most of them on O2) have summited Broad Peak today. On K2, the rope-fixing team is at Camp 4 and is preparing to leave for the top tonight.
With good conditions and a well-broken trail, the number of Broad Peak summiters today may surpass 20. Among them, Adriana Brownlee did her 9th 8,000m peak and her guide, Gelje Sherpa, did his 13th. He has only Cho Oyu left to complete the 14x8,000'ers.
Lela Peak Expeditions reports that five Polish climbers (no complete names provided) and Lithuanian Saulius Damulevicius also reached the top. Imagine Nepal lists two clients and four Sherpa guides, including one of them, Ngima Nuru Sherpa, who did not use O2.
With Seven Summit Treks, Italians Marco Camandona, Pietro Picco, Raffaele Barbolini and Austrian Thomas Krapfl summited yesterday. Today, Moeses Fiamoncini of Brazil, Dorota Samocko of Poland, and Dawa Nurbu Sherpa also succeeded.
The home team of Chile's Juan Manuel Santa Cruz likewise confirmed his summit for ExplorersWeb and shared Cruz's tracker.
More on those Broad Peak speed records
Back in Base Camp, Denis Urubko has shared some details about his own swift ascent of Broad Peak. He summited 14h 20min after leaving Base Camp and took another six hours to descend. It turns out that he didn't stop in Camp 3 on his way back.
Urubko had summited Broad Peak twice before, and he thought that this fast climb would be a nice way to summit a third time. Broad Peak involves a gain of 3,250 vertical metres between Base Camp and the main summit (8,047m), including a long summit ridge.
Yet Urubko's feat has been overshadowed by Benjamin Vedrines' mind-blowing 7h 28 min. It is easily the fastest known time on Broad Peak and shattered the previous record of 16 hours by Krzystof Wielicki in 1984 by more than half. Vedrines, Urubko, and Wielicki all climbed without supplementary O2.
Some people find Vedrines' feat hard to believe. In the Comments section of our previous story, a reader listed the fastest ascents and descents so far (Base Camp to summit to Base Camp). He also calculated the climbers' speeds in vertical metres per hour.
According to his estimates, Denis Urubko reached 218 vm/h yesterday. Vedrines would have climbed at 430-450 vertical metres an hour! Urubko also holds the previously fastest ascent on any 8,000er, when he climbed GII in 7h 30 min. However, GII is 100m lower than Broad Peak.
As for conditions, Urubko reported several moments of stress on the lower sections, with rockfall and wet snow avalanches, but much better going on the upper slopes by morning, with -20ºC on the summit ridge.
Summits pending on K2
Such good conditions are crucial on K2, where the rope-fixing team has reached Camp 4 and prepares to leave for the summit at any moment.
Lakpa Sherpa of 8K Expeditions confirmed that the Sherpas have fixed ropes to Camp 4, although in stronger-than-expected winds. "The summit route will be fixed by tomorrow if everything goes as planned," Lakpa Sherpa wrote.
Meanwhile, the rest of the climbers are in Camp 2 or Camp 3.
"There are about 100 people between these two camps," reports Rosa Fernandez of Spain. "It's quite scary to think of those figures. I hope they'll be all okay,"
Fernandez is climbing with Carlos Soria's regular partner, Luis Soriano. The pair will wait until July 27-28 for their push.
Finally, news should come soon from Gasherbrum II, where several teams are making their summit push.
Denis Urubko and at least two other climbers reached the top of Broad Peak this morning and have made it safely back to Camp 3. There, they have joined a number of other climbers who will continue up tomorrow.
Urubko literally ran up Broad Peak. He set off from Base Camp yesterday 8:20 pm and topped out today at 11 am, according to Azerbaijani climber Israfil Ashurli.
Ashurli is also on his own. He is one of those in Camp 3, getting some rest and preparing to set off for the summit tonight.
Two more summits, plus others in C3
The outfitter Summit Karakoram reports that Jesus Catacora Monje of Bolivia and Luc Benoit of Canada summited Broad Peak at 2 pm local time. They also returned to Camp 3 for the night. All summiters are expected back in Base Camp tomorrow.
We don't know yet whether others might have also summited today, or if Urubko or the other successful climbers fixed ropes along the way or climbed without. Anyway, the trail is broken again, and climbers report awesome weather.
Among the teams in Camp 3 now are Ashurli's Lithuanian partner, Saulius Damulevicius; Pepe Saldaña and Fernando Fernandez-Vivancos of Spain; plus a five-member Chilean team and another group from Poland. Adriana Brownlee and Gelje Sherpa left Camp 2 early this morning and are likely ready to head up this evening as well.
Also attempted Gasherbrum II
In Broad Peak and K2 Base Camps, climbers are ready for a summit push but have had to wait in their tents for over a week because of bad weather.
The weather is supposed to improve by Sunday, but conditions may remain unsafe for days afterward. Yet summit fever, tight deadlines, and ego-driven decisions may drive some climbers to take risks, especially on K2 above Camp 3.
Recent failures on Broad Peak show haste to get things done, as well as too few tents for everyone. If such dynamics recur on overcrowded K2 next week, the final result, whether triumph or tragedy, will be mainly a question of luck.
Broad Peak -- pushing the limits
Indications of impatience with the prolonged delay occurred on Broad Peak two days ago, after some failed attempts in bad weather. Saulius Damulevicius of Lithuania reported that he had hoped to take advantage of a half-promised weather window between July 10 to 12. So on July 9, he set off from Base Camp.
He had to dodge falling rocks on the way to Camp 2 and passed a porter who had been injured in the leg by a flying rock. The wind picked through the night and conditions worsened, so Damulevicius decided to turn around.
On his way back to Camp 1, he crossed paths with "a lot of Sherpas and clients going up...in the brewing storm," he wrote. Eventually, Damulevicius changed plans again and followed them back to Camp 2. He noted that one of the members of that team had taken over his tent. Damulevicius had to "ask him kindly to look for another place".
The wind turned into a gale that night. By the morning of July 11, it had flattened some tents and covered the others with fresh snow.
"You can't fight the mountain," he thought while preparing to go down. The commercial team, however, had set off to try to reach Camp 3, despite the conditions.
Damulevicius asked one of them, Stefi Troguet of Andorra (climbing with Elite Exped), "Do you really hope to reach Camp 3?"
"Maybe, Inshallah," she replied.
No window in the end
Their determination lasted for some 150 vertical metres, then they also turned around, the Latvian climber discovered later. He had already hurried back to Base Camp, which he reached in four-and-a-half hours, just before it started to rain.
Neither Elite Exped nor its members are sharing many details about the expedition. But the company did post a video of climbers clinging to fixed ropes in the wind, with the caption: "Look at them go! A little bit of wind? No problem! As long as you are prepared, with the right mindset, the right kit, and most of all top guides from Elite Exped, you can conquer anything!"
Stefi Troguet reports that the team set off toward C3, but turned around about midway after Nims got a fresh forecast from BC showing summit winds of 65kph. Since then, the weather has been bad at the head of the Baltoro Glacier.
No ropes on Bottleneck yet
All the outfitters say that they're ready for a summit push on K2. At least some of them have managed to pitch tents in the tight quarters at Camps 1 and 2. Meanwhile, Camp 3, on K2's huge shoulder, has plenty of room. This is where the Sherpas have stocked the oxygen supplies, and where their clients will start using gas (if not earlier).
There are also plenty of ropes, which have not yet been fixed up the Bottleneck. Like last year, the plan seems to be for the Sherpas to fix the ropes as they go, with the O2-supported clients right behind.
But forecasts show heavy snow and high winds on K2 until Sunday. Pakistan's National Weather Forecasting Centre warns of "vigorous monsoon activity". Three days of clear but also very hot weather will follow.
Such radical weather will cause instability on the mountain's upper slopes, especially on the avalanche-prone sections between Camp 3 and the Bottleneck, at the Great Serac, and also on the final ramps leading to the summit of K2.
Listen to the mountain or the Siren?
"With this quantity of snow, you need to wait at least three days for the mountain to settle, because if the slope above C3 is loaded, it's like Russian roulette: You never know if it's going to flush as it did in 2016," Canadian alpinist Louis Rousseau told ExplorersWeb. Rousseau attempted K2 in 2007, 2009, and 2019.
"Amazing weather after...long waits in Base Camp can lead to crazy moves," Rousseau added. "I made a mistake like this in the past: not enough patience. I just wanted to climb after waiting for a long time in base camp. Things get crazy, and it's too easy to listen to the Siren...rather than the mountain."
After the wait
Most expedition leaders on K2 are typically secretive about their summit plans. But Mingma G of Imagine Nepal has declared himself ready to wait for the other teams to finish, "so that we can have the whole mountain to ourselves and can climb safely".
He may not have much choice. His group reached Base Camp later than most others. They still need to supply their high camps, and the clients must acclimatize. Given that everyone has been weather-bound for a week, this is proving difficult.
"Rockfall is a major problem on K2 at the moment," said Mingma G. "Three climbers from my team were hit by rocks, luckily with no serious consequences."
A message from Lina Snorri
K2 is not a mountain that rewards impatience or a too-bold stance. In winter 2020-21, five good climbers lost their lives. The body of one of them, John Snorri of Iceland, remains on the mountain, right on the route up the Bottleneck. Climbers will have to pass by it as they ascend.
Meanwhile, expedition leaders in Base Camp (and media outlets, including ExplorersWeb) received a message from Snorri's widow, Lina Moey.
Last summer, Sajid Sadpara retrieved the remains of his father and buried him in the snow lower down. At the time, Lina had asked Sajid not to move Snorri's remains.
After much thought and family discussion, she eventually decided that she would like to have her husband's body buried close to his friends, Ali Sadpara and Juan Pablo Mohr, who also perished up there. She has asked that if anyone is able to do it safely, to either bury her husband below the Bottleneck or at least move his remains away from the main trail.
"The family would appreciate it if there would be no filming and taking photographs of John’s body," she added. "At least if there are photos or films to be taken for some reason, at least contact me to receive explicit permission to use them."
There remain many unanswered questions surrounding the death of Sharif Sadpara on Broad Peak on July 5, especially about the reaction of other climbers and the later search-and-rescue operation.
Who was Sharif Sadpara?
Sharif Sadpara was an experienced local climber, working as a high-altitude porter for the UK's Impact Ascents. Company founders Pete Brittlenton and Paul Etheridge led the team. Sadpara had participated in previous expeditions and also took part in rescue missions with the military on the Siachen Glacier. He was the father of five children.
On the morning of July 5, Sharif Sadpara perished when the snow platform that he stood on, probably a cornice, collapsed. He fell down the Chinese side of the mountain into a 2,000m void.
The accident took place at some point along the summit ridge, while Sadpara was waiting for the rope-fixing team to proceed. The rest of Impact Ascents team was there, as well as some members of the Furtenbach Adventures team. One of the Furtenbach group, Michael Lutz, reported that dawn had come some time before 4 am. The accident took place about an hour later.
The climbers had reached Broad Peak's col at 7,900m and proceeded along the ridge for some way. They might have been at around 8,000m. The weather had turned for the worse, with wet snowfall, increasing wind, and poor visibility.
"In that storm, I didn't dare to go any further without ropes," Lutz wrote to explain why he was waiting. Furtenbach guide Ulises Corvalan also reported soft, unstable snow all the way. Czech climber Piotr Ekk, who was in Camp 3 (7,000m) that day, wrote that they had not snow, but rain! at that altitude that evening. Ekk also states that only two people have summited Broad Peak so far this season: Giuseppe Vitoni of Italy and Nicolas Jean of France on July 4.
Lutz and Ulises Corvalan saw Sadpara fall. The Furtenbach team reported that they checked that the climber had disappeared into the void and that there was no chance that he could have survived. They immediately reported the accident and, given the circumstances, decided to turn around and return to Camp 3. As far as they know, no one continued to the summit that day.
What about Sadpara's own team?
Surprisingly, Impact Ascents admitted to the accident, but only after claiming that they had summited.
"On the 5th July 2022 at 05:14 the five members of Impact Ascents summited Broad Peak, becoming the first team in 2022 to do so," stated the report on the company's website.
Later on, they mentioned that "at a height of 8,020m, a freak accident occurred and Sharif Sadpara lost his life." They do not specify whether the accident took place before or after the team allegedly summited. There are neither details of the ascent or summit pictures so far.
Here is a screenshot from the report on IA's website:
Their summit claim is unclear for the following reasons: There were no ropes on the ridge, the weather was bad, and no one on the mountain had heard of any summits other than by the two who topped out on July 4.
Also, the summit ridge of Broad Peak is tricky, with long ups and downs and several high points on the way. Many teams stop well short of the actual summit, whether on purpose or not. We asked Impact Ascents yesterday for further details and photos of their summit and we are waiting for them to reply.
Piotr Ekk of the Czech Republic, who was in Camp 3, reported that the weather turned very bad on the afternoon of July 5, with lots of rain and a rising wind. He also wrote that "a dozen climbers attempted to reach the summit on July 4 and July 5 -- only two of them summited." Saulius Damulevicius, also in C3, likewise reports only those same two summits: those of Giuseppe Vidoni and Nicolas Jean on July 4.
In addition, there is an ethical dilemma here. The Furtenbach team is sure that Impact Ascents members were behind them that morning. So if Impact Ascents did proceed to the summit, it was after the accident had occurred. Lukas Furtenbach told ExplorersWeb that after the accident, "everybody", as far as he knew, had aborted the summit push.
Impact Ascents stated that they summited at 05:14 but they never mentioned if it was a.m. or p.m. It is possible that the British team had continued their ascent after Sharif, who they described as an "integral part of the team...bringing his professionalism and experience in all that he did," fell to his death. This would raise ethical issues about the team's priorities.
On Sunday, the team posted a minor correction to their previous report, stating that since Vidoni and Jean summited on July 4, they were not the first to summit Broad Peak this year after all. The site still confirms its previous summit claim. It mentions that two members have decided to return home but the rest will proceed to K2.
Search and rescue or 'publicity stunt'?
There is a final question in this whole sad issue. Brittlenton and Etheridge have criticized the supposed aerial search-and-rescue mission.
"Yesterday, we had volunteered to lead the search and recovery of Sharif’s body, [at the] request of his family," they wrote.
This explains the "rescue" references that appeared in the local press one day after Sadpara fell. While the climbers at the site of the accident insisted that Sadpara had fallen into the void beyond any possibility of survival, it seems that his family members were not convinced. They appealed for a search-and-rescue mission.
Brittlenton and Etheridge, who were to join this search, had reportedly planned for several options. They presumed that they would land to retrieve the body or rappel from a cable. Afterward, they were disappointed. They felt that the pilots just went through the motions of looking. Below, an excerpt of what Paul Etheridge wrote about the operation. (Read the whole text here)
As soon as we knew we were over the Chinese border, we studied every dark spot, every rock, anything what would give some indication of what we were looking for...As time went by and the helicopter struggled to get much higher than 6,800m, I started questioning the pilots: “Why are we not going closer?”...Then it hit me...The family wanted a recovery attempt, the army wanted to be seen to do something and of course this was that something...We were literally looking for a tiny speck of red amongst 1000s of square metres of ice and snow from 200-300m away, in a wobbly helicopter. It was bloody pointless, it was heartbreaking. Pete and I had planned, planned and planned again as to what we were going to do, just to helplessly sit there staring through windows...We returned to base camp with nothing to report, nothing to our staff, nothing to Sharif’s friends, nothing. A sickening feeling came over us, we were just a publicity stunt.
While scouting a mountain face is frustrating, their take on the rescue could have been the result of a misunderstanding. The British did not speak to the pilots, who were in oxygen masks when they picked up the two British guides in Base Camp. Presumably, Brittlenton and Etheridge were not briefed on the details of the search.
Looking over a mountain from some distance is benign enough, but putting two British nationals into Chinese territory -- for Sadpara fell down the Chinese side -- is quite different. In Pakistan, military pilots perform the rescues. While China-Pakistan bilateral relations are good overall, the geopolitical situation is delicate. Such a flight into Chinese air space would clearly require some diplomatic approval. Obtaining permission to land foreign nationals on Chinese soil would be far more complicated.
The precedent: Kim HongBin's death in 2021
In a somewhat similar case last year, Kim Hongbin died in a fall from the ridge on Broad Peak. He too fell into China, triggering a search, but there are some important differences. Kim didn't fall into the void. He was initially clipped to a fixed rope, along with another climber, Nastya Runova. Both were stranded on a narrow ledge, still attached to the rope.
While Runova was rescued, Kim remained on the ledge for over 24 hours. Russian skier Vitali Lazo was the last to see him alive and tried to rescue him. Despite Lazo's warnings, Kim tried to save himself. While maneuvering with the jumar and ropes, unclipping temporarily, he fell. Kim was a disabled climber who lost all his fingers to frostbite on an earlier expedition.
Sources in South Korea told ExplorersWeb that Pakistan and China attempted to launch a joint rescue operation after a plea from South Korea. Pakistani pilots scouted the face from the air, while a Chinese team looked from the ground. During the flight, with Lazo in the helicopter, they scouted the face as they did this year. There were likewise no results.
That episode also featured controversy, a lack of transparency, and accusations from all parties. The accident involved too many inexperienced climbers on the ridge too late in the day. None of them tried to rescue Kim. In a hard article published on Risk.ru, Vitali Lazo asked rhetorically if any morality remained in the mountains. He decided not.
In this case, Sadpara fell without a rope, and the free fall killed him instantly.
Bucking this season's poor communications, Giuseppe Vidoni of Italy and Nicolas Jean of France have surprised everyone with a complete report about their July 4 summit of Broad Peak. They reached it without supplementary O2, ahead of everyone else, and traversed part of the summit ridge without fixed ropes.
Vidoni and Jean were the only two in a group of four who summited from Camp 3. Their team included another Italian, Tiziano Moia, and Benjamin Vedrines of France. At the time, the route was not fixed from C3 and no trail was broken.
"We started at about 4:30 am from C3, taking turns opening the trail on not-so-difficult terrain, except for some open crevasses," Vidoni said.
At the col, Moia and Vedrines turned around while Vidoni and Jean continued along the summit ridge.
"Soon we came across a Grade III rock-climbing section at 7,800m, which with heavy boots and crampons, is not exactly trivial," Vidoni noted. "From there, except for a few passages, the ridge is easier, with ups and downs. But it was longer than I imagined and it tired us a lot...Finally, we both reached the top at about 16:15 local time."
The climbers started down carefully but swiftly and managed to reach the col with daylight remaining.
"From that point, it was just a matter of dragging ourselves down to the tents at C3 while enjoying a beautiful sunset."
Sadpara's fatal accident
The Furtenbach Adventures team also set off for the summit on Monday July 4. But they left in the evening, aiming to reach the top early Tuesday morning, according to team guide Ulises Corvalan.
The Furtenbach team was divided into two groups, those with and without O2. Ahead of them, Sherpas fixed ropes to the col and part of the ridge. Unfortunately, the weather was not as good as the day before, with snow and low visibility. They reached a point where the ropes ended. Here, they stopped to wait for the rope fixers. Right behind them came two UK climbers and a Pakistani from another team.
"In a second, the place where the Pakistani climber [Sharif Sadpara] was sitting down collapsed and disappeared," Corvalan wrote.
Team member Michael Lutz, who was in the no-O2 group, was just next to the Pakistani.
"We sat down in the snow and then it happened: Just behind me, a Pakistani climber fell to his death through a snow [cornice] that broke," Lutz recalled. "He walked behind me to check the status of the rope, and as he put his hand loosely on my shoulder, he fell. Needless to say, all of us retreated afterward. The summit was in sight, with another one to two hours to go."
Corvalan explained the decision to turn around. "The altimeter read 8,019m, we couldn't see anything, the summit was at least one more hour ahead, and the group was really tired, [especially] those who had been climbing without O2 for 12 hours. The group was shocked by what happened to the Pakistani climber. It was time to retreat."
None of the Furtenbach climbers believed that there was any chance that the Pakistani climber could have survived the fall. Nor did any person there try to rescue the vanished climber. This contradicts later reports in the local press. Nevertheless, it is not possible to know exactly what happened from the details shared so far.
A tricky summit
Broad Peak provides a rather straightforward climb until the col. From there, a long, exhausting summit ridge leads to several points. These various knobs have often confused climbers, who turned back before reaching the final, highest point. You can read more about this from Eberhard Jurgalski and his team at 8000ers.com.
Vidoni's comments about wide crevasses before the col and the rocky section at the beginning of the ridge shows that the mountain is drier than usual this year.
Worsening weather
After Monday's summits, the weather worsened, forcing teams to remain low and wait. Some climbers may return to Broad Peak as soon as conditions improve. Others, especially those aiming to do both Broad Peak and K2, may attempt the juicier trophy first. They have already good acclimatization.
The Furtenbach group, for example, plans no further attempts on Broad Peak for the moment. Instead, they are now moving on to K2 as soon as weather improves, Lukas Furtenbach told ExplorersWeb.
It's been a difficult day for Pakistani climbers in their home mountains. After the sad news of Iman Karim's death near Gasherbrum II yesterday, there are now reports of a fatality on Broad Peak. Then at the end of the day, young Shehroze Kashif and his high-altitude porter Fazal Ali reportedly sent out an SOS that they are stuck on Nanga Parbat.
To make matters worse, little reliable information is currently available. Instead, rumors and contradictory or inaccurate statements are running wild on social media.
Sheroze Kashif, aka Broad Boy (after Broad Peak, which he climbed at only 17) summited Nanga Parbat earlier today, July 5, at 8:45 am. Fazal Ali Shimhsali supported him. It is unclear whether other climbers attempted the summit.
Later, social media reported that a Pakistani climber was stuck at around 7,200m and had sent out an SOS call. This is all we know for sure.
Nanga Parbat is Kashif's eighth 8,000'er. He wants to become the youngest person to complete the 14x8000'ers. Lately, however, he has had some funding problems. Until now, he has climbed with large commercial teams, but on this occasion, he went only with Fazal Ali. He was also trying to get funds to climb the Gasherbrums right afterward.
Kashif's website has not been updated since they reported summiting. Some people are providing coordinates of the climbers' location. So far, no official call for rescue has gone out. News related to missing and injured climbers and rescues is a sensitive issue. Typically, more than one source is needed to state anything reliably, and the media must ensure that families are informed before reporting news.
Casualty on Broad Peak
Earlier today, reports of an accident on Broad Peak came directly from climbers in K2 Base Camp. Currently, all we can reliably say -- confirmed by several sources -- is that a Pakistani climber has fallen from Broad Peak's summit ridge. The accident recalls Kim HongBin's fatal accident last summer.
Incomplete summit news
This morning, Furtenbach Adventures said that their team had summited. At least three other teams were also on full summit push, aiming to top out today or tomorrow. We know little about these teams. Later, the BC crew noted that all summits, including Furtenbach's, remain unconfirmed.
It is unclear whether the accident may be related to the lack of news. Furtenbach stated that the fallen climber is not a member of its team but did not say which team he was with.
The weather forecasts have changed and so have climbing plans. Several climbers will now speed up their summit pushes on Broad Peak and Nanga Parbat.
On a sad note, Pakistani climber Iman Karim reportedly fell to his death on Gasherbrum II.
Furtenbach Adventures have been working fast on Broad Peak. They set up their camps before the available space filled up, have at least some of their members fully acclimatized, and have fixed the tricky upper sections of the mountain to bag the first summits of the season.
Yesterday, they launched a summit push from Camp 3, led by guides Ulises Corvalan of Argentina and Christian Wild of Austria. The team also included Sherpa staff in charge of fixing ropes and a yet unconfirmed number of clients.
"They have summited this morning, after fixing the route from Camp 3," Lukas Furtenbach confirmed to ExplorersWeb. "Both guides have summited but I don't have a complete summit list yet."
The last time the summit team was in contact, they were descending to Camp 3. Further details will have to wait until the team is back in Base Camp.
Casualty near Gasherbrum II
Pakistani climber Iman Karim has reportedly perished somewhere near Gasherbrum II. He was with a group of clients acclimatizing before the climb. Karim was an experienced mountaineer who had participated in several expeditions and rescues, fellow climber Muhammad Arif Baltistani posted.
Reports point to a crevasse fall as the cause of death. It is not clear whether it happened on the mountain itself or rather on the Gasherbrum glacier, which is heavily crevassed and especially tricky in warm weather.
Cazzanelli's Italian team on Nanga Parbat
On Nanga Parbat, weather uncertainty pushed Francois Cazanelli and his team to run for the summit. Climbing without O2, the Italians have covered nearly 4,000m, from Base Camp to the summit, in just two days! An amazing feat for the team who opened a new route variant on the mountain last week.
The summiteers are Francois Cazzanelli, Emrik Favre, Pietro Picco, Roger Bovard, Jerome Perruquet, and Marco Camandona. Juan Pablo Toro of Argentina, currently in Base Camp, says that Peruvian Cesar Rosales joined the Italians and also summited.
As for Toro and other no-O2 climbers, they are prepared to be patient. They are acclimatized but they need a long weather window. It is not clear when a good enough, long enough, weather window will open.
Previous weather forecasts predicted high winds for the last couple of days but good conditions again from tomorrow. However, a new front is approaching and there might be snow arriving mid-week. This prediction is what pushed the Italians to launch their speed ascent and also convinced some O2-assisted climbers to take a chance and head for the summit. Among these O2 climbers was Shehroze Kashif, climbing with Fazal Ali from Shimshal, who summited today. Kashif bagged his eighth 8,000'er, at just 20 years old.
Elite Exped and Stefi Troguet
Climbers acclimatizing on Broad Peak
"Everyone aiming for the K2-Broad Peak double header is acclimatizing on Broad Peak," Troguet noted. Only those with permits just for K2 are acclimatizing up its steep slopes. One of them is Flor Cuenca of Peru, who is also climbing without supplementary O2.
Cuenca checked in from Camp 2 yesterday, sharing her gratitude for the Pakistani and Nepalese climbers fixing the ropes up the mountain.
More climbers to come
The crowding might get worse, many of the climbers who summited Nanga Parbat on July 1 and July 2 are now heading for the Baltoro. Most of them are in Skardu today getting ready to go.
Among them is Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, whose Nanga Parbat summit has been confirmed (she topped out on July 1, one day ahead of the rest of the Pioneer Adventure team). Pasang Lhamu is aiming for the 14x8,000'ers. Nanga Parbat was her ninth 8,000'er, next she'll head for the Gasherbrums or Broad Peak (the order is not confirmed), since she has already summited K2.
Urubko to the Gasherbrums
Behind her red lipstick smile, Stefi Troguet of Andorra has a clear, pragmatic mind and a sensible approach to her next objectives: Broad Peak and K2 without supplementary O2. She keeps her expectations low and her physical and technical training high. Some bittersweet lessons have made her wary of over-enthusiastic dreams.
As the only climber going without O2 on a large commercial team, Troguet will need to solve some tactical issues. "I am aware that I will keep a different pace and will need more rotations than everyone else. We are going to Broad Peak first, so I will get well-acclimatized before moving to K2," she told ExplorersWeb.
Pay not to be left behind
"Otherwise, I assume that I am a member of a commercial expedition, with all that that implies: I will have the expedition's Sherpas support, the camps, and the ropes. I will climb under the same conditions as the rest of the team and I will have a personal Sherpa with me."
Troguet bluntly explains that at this stage, she prefers to climb with a hired Sherpa companion.
"Look, last year on Dhaulagiri, I tried to fit into a smaller team and climb self-sufficiently. I really wanted to feel part of a well-coordinated team with all members at the same level. It didn't work out. So right now, I have chosen to join a commercial expedition and to have a Sherpa supporting me. It is sad to say this, but if you pay, you get a good, reliable climbing partner who is not going to leave you behind."
Troguet had attempted Dhaulagiri in spring 2021 with Jonatan Garcia. He had hoped for a fast, light ascent ahead of the rope-fixing team and was reportedly horrified at the highly commercial environment he saw on the mountain. Eventually, they joined forces with Carla Perez and Topo Mena, but the Ecuadorians soon launched an attempt of their own.
Troguet fell sick with COVID and was airlifted out without reaching higher than Camp 2. The sickness ravaged Base Camp, all attempts were canceled and no one summited the mountain that season. While always polite and discreet, both Troguet and Garcia confirmed that they didn't work well as a team. Neither came back with good memories of that expedition.
"Comradeship in the mountains has faded these days," Troguet said. "I hope someday I'll find the right climbing partners for Himalayan expeditions, but honestly, my best choice right now is this."
Reconnecting with Sajid Sadpara
It is not yet known who Troguet's Sherpa companion will be, but she is part of the Elite Exped team. "I've known Nims [Nirmal Purja] and Mingma [Mingma David Sherpa] since Ama Dablam 2018, even before Project Possible, and climbed Manaslu with them. I know and trust the way they work." Also, Troguet is sponsored by Purja personally, through his Nimsdai Foundation.
"Otherwise, I don't know anyone on the team. Which, by the way, is full of girls. I like that! However, I understand that my real climbing partner will be the assigned Sherpa," Troguet said, "although I do know several people in Base Camp."
On landing in Islamabad, Troguet found out that Sajid Sadpara is also going to join Elite Exped team. "As far as I know, he'll be with us at least on Broad Peak," she said.
The only no-O2 climber on the team
Troguet understands that commercial expeditions revolve around O2-supported teams. "For instance, there will be no C4 on Broad Peak," she said. "I guess if I was with an all-no-O2 team, we might set up a C4 or a higher C3."
Although she will have to adjust, she had to do the same on Manaslu. "We all did a first rotation together, and while the rest of the group needed no more, I went with Lakpa Dendi [also on Elite Exped's team this season] for a second rotation before tackling the summit."
O2 not an option
"Climbing without O2 on normal routes is not easy, but I am 100% positive that I'll do it without O2 or not do it [at all], just as I have done on all my previous Himalayan expeditions."
"I've had this conversation with some people around here, who say they are going to "try without" but if they cannot go on, they'll turn to it," Troguet said, "That is not my game. I am not going to carry emergency bottles."
"Yes, there is a chance that I get severely sick and have to be rescued and given O2. But that would be a rescue, and only to get down alive, not up to the summit. Going up with O2 is not an option for me."
Three Stefis
The first challenge for Troguet is how long it's been since she was last at altitude. She also feels that she's a different person now than when she first began.
"The Stefi who went to Nanga Parbat had no clue about what was going to happen but was willing to discover the high mountains and ready to be content just to reach Camp 1. But then I summited and I was like, wow!
"On Manaslu, I was more confident, and I also admit that Manaslu makes things very easy. All the route is well-packed down and fixed, I acclimatized very well and felt good.
"The Stefi who went to Dhaulagiri was broken inside, shattered after the sad losses on Winter K2 [she was good friends with Ali Sadpara and Sergi Mingote, who died on K2, and with Cala Cimenti, killed in an avalanche shortly after]. I was doubtful, insecure, not sure I really should go. But I went. And everything went wrong. There was COVID, the team didn't work out, the atmosphere in BC was really weird, I didn't acclimatize properly... a mess.
"This time, I am uncertain about how I am going to be emotionally, but I feel very strong after training intensively all winter by rock and ice climbing, and long skimo routes. And just like the first time, I am eager to live the experience and discover how my body and mind perform.
"My project was born of a dream fed by people like Sergi and Ali, and the way they lived in the mountains. They will give me strength wherever they are."
Last year, Italian Francois Cazzanelli led a team up on Kongde Ri and Tengkampoche.in Nepal. He then ran up Ama Dablam in 5 hrs 32 min 6 sec from BC to summit. In 2019, the speed climber also raced up Manaslu and made it from Base Camp to foresummit in 13 hours.
Recently, we asked Cazzanelli about his future plans, but he said that he never speaks publicly about his climbing projects until he actually does them.
Well, now he's doing them. He and his team have just landed in Islamabad, bound for Nanga Parbat, perhaps via a new route. They will then make a speed ascent of K2 and maybe Broad Peak, all without O2 or Sherpa support.
The Nanga Parbat team includes two of Cazzanelli's Tengkampoche partners, Jerome Perruquet and Emrik Favre. Marco Camandona, Pietro Picco, and Roger Bovard have also joined the K2 adventure. All are young but highly skilled alpinists and rescue specialists from the Aosta Valley, on the Italian side of Mont Blanc. None intend to use supplementary O2.
First, the team will travel together to Nanga Parbat. They don't have much time before they have to head to the Karakoram. If weather and conditions permit, they will attempt a new route swiftly. Otherwise, they'll turn to the normal Kinshoffer route.
The team then heads for K2, except for Bovard, who wil guide some trekkers up the Baltoro, and Marco Camandona, who has already summited K2 and will head instead to Broad Peak, Upclimbing reported.
Cazzanelli intends to launch a fast, non-stop push on K2. Afterward, if he feels strong enough, he will head for Broad Peak.
Oswald Rodrigo Pereira first set foot in the Himalaya in 2018, not as a climber but as a cameraman. Since then, he has not missed a winter season. A trail runner, he showed his fitness at high altitude on Broad Peak last summer, where he became one of just three to summit. He has also witnessed some of the most dramatic mountain events of the last few years.
As you read this, Pereira is likely somewhere between the Polish border and Lviv, delivering supplies to Ukrainian hospitals.
Himalayan rookie
You went to the Himalaya for the first time as a photographer for the Polish national team's 2018 K2 Winter expedition. How did you get onto the team?
I worked as a sports journalist for a Polish TV network and managed to get assigned the task. I was actually a reporter, not a cameraman. However, I didn’t want to let anyone else risk a winter Karakoram expedition, so I learned to work with cameras. Sometime later, they asked me to join further expeditions: Nanda Devi, Lhotse, and Batura Shar the following winter.
What was your previous experience when you traveled to winter K2?
Well, actually none. Back then I tried to keep quiet about it because critics were fierce, but I trained really hard, slept in hypobaric chambers, and reached base camp healthy and fit. I was not meant to climb, so I had no problems not summiting and doing my work.
I discovered that I acclimatize well –- which is surprising since I've suffered from asthma since I was a child.
Winter K2
After Batura came the pandemic, and the Polish winter program was shelved. Then in the fall of 2020, Magdalena Gorzkowska hired him to film her attempt up K2, still unclimbed in winter, on a commercial expedition.
Pereira accepted although the choice cost him his job at the TV station. “They said they could not have me leaving for weeks every few months,” he explained. “It was a tough choice, because I have no sponsorships, nor do I look for them. I just want to film documentaries, then sell them to networks."
Why did you leave a relatively safe job for such an uncertain expedition?
Because I had the feeling that the expedition was going to make history, and I just had to be there. It was also a game-changer in my career.
So on winter K2, you were there to document Gorzkowska. Were you ready to climb as far up as she did?
If possible, yes, of course. But my mission was clear: I was there to film. That certainly makes me more flexible. If I have enough material for a good documentary, I know it's fine not to summit.
Did you use supplementary O2?
I have never used it and I usually don’t want to. I discussed this during last winter’s attempt on Manaslu. Someone told me that I could risk my health by trying to film at altitude without O2, but that’s how I climb. Yet on Winter K2, I had this dilemma: Knowing how hard it would be, I might need it if Magdalena launched a summit push.
In the end, it was not necessary: When she fell sick on the last rotation, some people told me I had the strength to continue, but I chose to descend with her. That was my job.
The price is loneliness
Winter K2 had the most media coverage of any expedition in the 21st century. What did it mean to you?
It is one of those you read about in books for years to come. By then, I had been on four expeditions, but I had never experienced death so closely. Sure, the risk is always there, but I never really considered that someone in my team could die. But when Sergi Mingote had his accident, I was there and saw him fall. It was a shock. I had to ask myself seriously why we were there. We go to the mountains to enjoy life passionately, not to die. I had to accept that no one around me was safe, that each time I spoke to someone, it could be the last time I saw them alive.
And what have you learned from that?
I learned to appreciate life more and to see people in a different way. Months after the expedition, after my summer trip to Pakistan, I visited Sergi Mingote’s relatives and they welcomed me as a new member of the family. I felt I had seen death, seen people who lost their loved ones, and I gained a family. On an individual level, when I saw they brought Atanas Skatov’s body into Base Camp, and his girlfriend was there, I realized that if I intended to keep on this professional path, I simply couldn’t afford to have a family. The risk is too high. I cannot have a family and cause them the sheer pain I saw.
Do you still feel the same?
Yes, climbing and filming at altitude is my passion, and I accept the risk. But I won't put anyone else in the middle. It's the price to pay.
Rescue on Broad Peak
The following summer, you climbed Broad Peak and got involved in another drama…
Nils Jespers, Hugo Ayaviri, and I were the first to reach the summit. It was already very late. We had set a deadline of 3:30 pm and agreed that if any of us wanted to continue after that, the other two would have to convince him to forget it and go down. We reached the main summit at 3:15 pm.
As we descended, we saw people on their way up, including Mr. Kim, the Korean, and some Pakistani porters, but I can’t really tell how many and how far they got.
Eventually, I crossed paths with Nastya [Runova]. She asked me to wait for her, but I had to decline: I was exhausted, cold, hungry, and thirsty. I really needed to reach a camp. However, I said I would descend very slowly.
At the col, I met the Belgians: Nils Jespers, Sophie Lenaerts, and her husband (who had turned around at the foresummit). I stopped to take a picture of the sunset and then I noticed an SMS on my InReach. It was Nastya. She wrote, “Please wait!”
I couldn’t help thinking that if something happened to her, I would have to live with that text on my conscience. I was also concerned about the Polish 2013 expedition and how the survivors were criticized. Although I had a right to go down and save myself, in the end, I waited. Then I retraced my footsteps and went up until I met Little Hussain, the Pakistani porter. He told me that Nastya was down there, on the Chinese side.
It took us two hours to get her out. It was 10 pm when she got back on the route and she had lost a crampon. Very carefully, we went down to the col where I melted some snow for water. The descent from the col throughout the night was extremely slow, five steps and stop, until 5 am. Some 50m above Camp 3, we met the Russians.
Kim HongBin's fatal night
Did you see Kim HongBin, who somehow descended to the same ledge as Nastya? He spent the night there with no help and eventually fell to his death.
I only heard about Mr. Kim after returning to Base Camp.
You didn't see him while you were helping Nastya Runova?
I saw someone, but I never noticed that it was him or that he was in any kind of trouble. As I was helping Nastya, I was also calling for someone else to help me. But everyone was somehow paralyzed up above.
Little Hussain and I managed to get her out. Since she was in shock and exhausted, I started immediately down with her. Little Hussain remained there and I supposed he would help [the person] I thought was a second porter.
By then, more people were going down. It was only when I returned to BC that I learned that Mr. Kim had apparently rappelled down to the place where Nastya was. Of course, if I had known he was there, I would have stayed to help.
After Broad Peak, Pereira’s summit partners Ayaviri and Jespers climbed K2 in perfect weather, but he gave up his attempt in order to film a tribute at Gilkey’s Memorial by the relatives and friends of the climbers who perished on K2 the previous winter.
An apocalypse of snow on Manaslu
Then, as winter approached, you showed up on Manaslu. Was it a last-minute decision or did you have it planned?
I had started planning for Manaslu in September. Simone [Moro] and Alex [Txikon] planned to take Sajid Sadpara with them, and I thought that would be a good story to film. Finally, Sajid dropped out, but by then I had the plan in mind and the camera ready, so I went.
It seems that your trips to the mountains are focused on filming rather than climbing.
Yes, that’s true. It is my profession. I met Alex Txikon at a book fair in November and told him about my plans to join the Manaslu expedition. As for Simone Moro, I only met him in Base Camp.
There was not much climbing on that expedition, was there?
Yeah, I would have liked to have climbed a little more. But several people had warned me that Manaslu is far too overloaded with snow in winter. And they were right: I have never seen so much snow falling in the Himalaya. An apocalypse of snow.
Three hours, 200m
Do you think the climbing team did everything possible to climb Manaslu? Were conditions that bad?
I can tell you that on January 4, I climbed to Camp I and beyond with four Sherpas. Past Camp 1, we only managed to cover 200m in three hours. The amount of snow up there was mind-blowing.
Yet we thought that perhaps if we had a long good weather window, conditions might improve, so we stayed. But since Alex Txikon and Simone Moro, who are far more experienced than I, considered the mountain was not fit to go further up, I was not going to be the crazy man who climbed alone.
Did you get enough footage?
Sure, I’ll have my documentary. After returning, I spoke to the Polish climber who first summited winter Manaslu. He told me how hard it was back then. He suggested something that Simone Moro had told me in Base Camp: that the mountains remain the same, but the climbers have changed.
In what sense? Are they softer?
Nowadays, climbers have a better life year around. They have more money and sponsorship. The Polish climbers back in the 1980s were ready to risk a lot in order to be accepted in an expedition. It was their only chance to climb abroad. Once there, they knew that if they proved strong, skilled, and a good teammate, they might go on the next one. So they were ready to give their all, in whatever conditions.
The war next door
Finally, you returned home and found a war unfolding almost in your backyard. Tell us about your aid work in Ukraine.
Soon after the war broke out, I started helping refugees get to Warsaw. Then I was contacted by Alex Txikon, who wanted to collaborate through a local charity. They brought a bus filled with supplies to the border. On the way back, they took in refugees who would be hosted by families in Spain.
We have now done several trips between Bilbao and Warsaw, and I know better what kind of items are really needed in Ukraine. Mainly, medical supplies for hospitals. So after the first trip, I loaded my van and drove to Lviv in order to deliver the aid as fast as possible. Tomorrow I’ll drive there again.
There’s been some shelling and bombing there, too.
I am careful, of course, and I assess the situation constantly. If things got really ugly, I'd stop at the border, but so far it’s been almost quiet. Yeah, we can have the odd missile hitting the place, but that is a risk I can take for now.
It has been a special season on Pakistan's 8,000'ers. After the disastrous spring season inNepal, many climbers changed their plans and canceled expeditions to Pakistan. Those who stuck with it had their patience tested by ever-changing restrictions, flight cancellations, and the fear that the Delta variant might savage the season.
Pakistani outfitters, high-altitude workers, and climbers had an added incentive to press on: with most international outfitters out of the game, it was a chance to show their progress.
The Alpine Club of Pakistan issued 185 permits to climbers from around the world, Ali Saltoro told ExplorersWeb. Forty-eight of them summited K2, 25 reached the top Gasherbrum II, and 14 summits have been claimed on Broad Peak -- but without indicating whether they reached the main summit or the fore summit.
On Hidden Peak, a handful of no-O2 climbers broke trail and independently fixed ropes on the upper sections. Their hard work led to five remarkable summits. The only team on Nanga Parbat was not as lucky. Beset by bad weather and poor conditions, they retreated without reaching Camp 2.
And yet, the season had a dark side: two lives were lost, coordination faltered when things went wrong, and for some climbers, it was almost as hard to get home as to get to Pakistan.
K2
True to its name, the Savage Mountain offered beauty and ferocity in equal measure. On the normal route up the Abruzzi Spur, two Sherpa-supported commercial expeditions took the lead from Camp 2 to the summit. They were rewarded with excellent conditions on the two-day summit push.
Only two independent climbers, Niels Jesters and Hugo Ayaviri, completed the climb without supplementary O2. Ukrainian Dmytro Semerenko didn't use bottled gas until the summit but then, feeling sick, he chose to sip some O2. By doing that, he lost the no-O2 tag but avoided getting himself and those around him in trouble at 8,611m.
There were also two attempts on other routes. Ian Welsted and Graham Zimmerman reached 7,000m on the West Ridge but retreated in dangerous conditions due to extraordinarily high temperatures. They considered a second attempt but finally decided to head home, Zimmerman confirmed.
On July 24, Stephan Keck, Jordi Tosas, and Rick Allen surprised many of us when they set off to try a new route in pure alpine style, up the southeast face. Excitement turned to horror the following day, when an avalanche swept through the team between Camp 1 and Camp 2, killing Allen. As per his family's wish, Allen was buried at the foot of the mountain. Climbers from around the world sent their condolences and shared memories of a brave, understated climber.
The season also saw several Pakistani flags on the summit, starting with young Shehroze Kashif, who reached the summit just after the Sherpa rope-fixing team on the first summit day. Kashif, who summited Broad Peak at 17, has climbed Everest and K2 this year at 19.
On a call with ExplorersWeb, Kashif said he wants to become the youngest person to complete all 14 8,000'ers. "I want to do it for my country," he explained. However, it will not be this fall: Kashif said he needs some rest after spending half a year on expeditions.
ExplorersWeb also asked Kashif about comments from some climbers, who expressed doubt about his age. He explained that the rumor stemmed from a misunderstanding during his Broad Peak climb, and willingly provided ExWeb with official documents, from a photo ID to his birth certificate, to kill the chatter.
An all-Pakistani team from the Hushe region also made the summit, led by Ali Durani and including Muhammad Hassan Hushe, Mushtaq Ahmad, and Yusuf Meeri.
Sajid Sadpara was determined to find the remains of his father Ali, who went missing on the mountain last winter. Despite many challenges, he kept his word. Valentyn Sypavin found the body of Juan Pablo Mohr, while Madison Mountaineering's Sherpas came upon the remains of Ali Sadpara and John Snorri, still attached to fixed ropes above Camp 4.
Sajid rushed up, marked, and protected the remains, and on the following morning, he summited K2 in tribute. It was his second time on top of Chogori. On the way down, with the help of Niels Jespers and particularly Hugo Ayaviri (both returning from a no-O2 summit), he moved the body and buried Ali near Camp 4.
Elia Saikaly, a member of Sajid's team, is filming a documentary on Ali Sadpara's winter climb and Sajid's quest to retrieve the body. He also hopes to find out whether the deceased climbers summited K2 before perishing.
Karakorum Expeditions' commercial team, led by Mirza Ali, didn't join the same summit push. Ali canceled their expedition, due to "dangerous conditions" and seemed to refer to the death of Rick Allen (who was on a different route) as a contributing factor: "The tragedy cost my client's summit, my team and my sister's summit," Ali posted on Facebook. His sister Samina Baig was attempting to become the first Pakistani woman on top of K2.
Long Shadows Over Broad Peak
According to official data from the Pakistan Alpine Club, there were 14 summits on Broad Peak. Yet events on the only summit day suggest this figure might not be accurate. Climbers waited hours for the rope-fixing team to prepare the route, and at least three climbers decided to bypass the fixers to make a late summit at around 3:30 pm. Did all 14 make the main summit, or did some turn around at other points on the summit ridge?
So far, confirmed summiters are Oswald Rodrigo Pereira, Neils Jespers, and Hugo Ayaviri. On the way back, they crossed paths with Nastya Runova and Kim Hong-Bin, accompanied by at least one porter. Later, they saw two or three members of the Pakistani rope-fixing team.
Runova reported that she reached the main summit, and it is assumed Hong-Bin may have summited too. However, this has not been confirmed, because the South Korean climber never made it back to Base Camp. There are many unanswered questions. Why the apparent lack of communication between climbers and Base Camp? How is it possible that Hong-Bin spent a night stranded, standing on a ledge on Broad Peak's Chinese side, before the alarm was raised?
The events have been pieced together, as far as is possible, here. You can also check out an amazing timeline compiled by one reader in the Comments section under this story.
Broad Peak certainly had a complicated season. For two weeks, only Don Bowie and Lotta Hintsa were on the mountain, setting up the first two camps. Then a large group of climbers joined them in Base Camp, including a Karakorum Expeditions team and a group of rope-fixers tasked with fixing the upper half of the route.
Some climbers aimed straight for Broad Peak, such as Bowie, Hintsa, and skiers Vitaly Lazo, Anton Pugovkin, and Thomas Lone. Many others intended to acclimatize there before launching a summit push on K2.
Summits and an evacuation
After the first summit push, in addition to the climbers mentioned previously, Mirza Ali reported summits by rope-fixers Jalal Uddin, Eid Muhammad, Faryad Karim as well as Bulbul Karim, Ilyas and Inayat Ali, plus clients Fahad Badar of Qatar and Saeed Al Memari of UAE. Badar claims that he reached the main summit, but he was seriously frostbitten and had to be evacuated.
Outfitter Blue Sky Treks and Tours reported Hong-Bin's summit and four Pakistani summiters, identified as Yusuf, Imtiyaz, Mehdi, and Hussain, who is noted as the "rope-fixing leader". Sadly, none of them saw Hong-Bin mistakenly descend to the Chinese side of the mountain, where he was unable to return to the route.
The first summits were already late in the day on Broad Peak. The fact that there were more climbers on the upper side of the mountain (including two rescues), combined with Broad Peak's long, undulating summit ridge, casts some doubt on the final summit total. Further details on the subsequent summit claims would be desirable.
Some days later, a second summit push was aborted due to a dangerous snow slab before the col leading to the summit. Argentinian Nacho Lucero tried on his own one day later, believing conditions had improved, but poor visibility forced him down. He also reported constant rockfall between Camp 2 and the base of the mountain.
Finally, there is the case of 12-year-old Selena Khawaja and her father. Both were determined to turn the girl into the youngest ever Broad Peak summiter. Unfortunately, Selena's father became ill and had to be evacuated, leaving his daughter on her own, with a HAP and a cook, to climb the mountain. The full story is recounted here. The information has been confirmed by several climbers, including Lotta Hintsa and Sophie Lenaerts. Sources only differed when discussing the child's attitude. Some insist she chose to back off, while others insist she was still willing to climb the mountain and fulfill her father's wish. Whichever the case, diplomatic authorities ended her attempt when they found out that there was a minor in Base Camp without her legal guardian.
Lessons to learn
While most remained quiet while in Pakistan, several climbers have now denounced some behavior that hampered their expeditions. Climbers have mentioned very relaxed use of other climbers' tents and stolen items, O2 used by whoever happened to be in camp, and sloppy behavior such as leaving tent doors open. An increasing number of climbers have some evidence-backed complaints about their HAP's lack of experience, motivation, or reliability when compared to previous experiences on 8,000'ers.
It is no secret that a serious cleaning campaign is urgently required for Pakistan's 8,000'ers. Old ropes and flattened tents need removal, and some teams must be confronted about abandoning their rubbish in the high altitude camps. According to some climbers, who prefer to remain anonymous for the time being, it is one thing to find ragged tents and old ropes from previous seasons, but it is unacceptable to have people (of several nationalities) throwing litter onto the mountains. Pakistan deserves to lead the management of expeditions and the commercial exploitation of its mountains, but this needs to be done in a sustainable, responsible, and transparent way.
On a positive note, everyone has recognized the skill and professionalism of Pakistan's military helicopter pilots. One climber drew our attention toward a usually forgotten figure: the Liaison Officer. "Contrary to Nepal, where you rarely see them showing up in Base Camp, Pakistani Liaison Officers take their role seriously and do their best to coordinate tasks between climbers, outfitters, and authorities, especially if there is a rescue," the climber told ExplorersWeb.
Getting home harder than climbing
Tom Livingstone, back from Pumari Chhish:
"This trip to Pakistan was going smoothly until the time came for me to travel home, whereupon I very nearly became stuck in the country (first physically and then legally). [There were] major landslides, roads closed, bad weather, last-minute flights, refused boarding (I dislike Qatar Airlines), questions of citizenship, calls to embassies, many crazy ideas on ‘escaping’, and eventually feeling like an illegal immigrant or escaped convict. It was a perfect storm of COVID, Brexit, airlines being idiots, and the world going mad. The night before an alpine route is usually full of nerves and disturbed sleep, but it’s nothing compared to this!"
According to Finnish climber Juho Knuuttila's latest post, his Dansam Peak team is going through a similar nightmare.
By August 6, most Karakorum climbers were still running around airports. Saulius Damulevicius was waiting in Vilna's international area for authorities to give the green light to his COVID documentation. Niels Jespers had flown to Karachi, hoping to get a flight back to Brussels from there. However, a missing stamp on some of his papers saw him sent back to Islamabad after 24 hours. A communication problem meant that Hugo Ayaviri missed his flight back to Bolivia. Eventually, everyone made it back home despite the hurdles.
In the next few days, some climbers may post further details on their climbs and surrounding events, so expect new details to emerge.
Action on the rocks
While most are now home, a few climbers are in no hurry to leave. Mysteriously, Simon Messner and Martin Sieberer are somewhere, climbing something. The younger Messner has only mentioned that their expedition is in Pakistan and was due to begin three weeks ago. News is expected when they return.
A group of climbers is also tackling several routes on the Trango Towers. Edu Marin is trying to free-climb Eternal Flame. Barbara "Babsy" Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher are also there but have not announced their plans.
Marin reached the top of the Nameless Tower via Eternal Flame a week ago but was unable to free six of the pitches. He is determined to launch a new attempt, even after his climbing partner decided to call it a day. Luckily, he met a climbing pair from the Basque Country (Julen and Amaia, no surnames provided) who have volunteered to support him during the attempt. Marin reported from Base Camp recently, saying that they were waiting for a good weather window and "keeping the flame burning".
Niels Jespers of Belgium can't really say how different it is to climb a mountain with supplementary O2 because he has never used it. Considering his recent success doing Broad Peak and K2 back to back, he doesn't seem to need it.
Jespers summited Broad Peak with Oswald Rodrigo Pereira of Poland and Hugo Ayaviri of Bolivia. A week later, he and Ayaviri launched a summit push on K2. His modest account might make this double-header seem deceptively easy. In fact, the two climbers achieved the only no-O2 summits of K2 this season.
(Note: Ukrainian Dmytro Shemerenko reached the summit without bottled oxygen, but on top, he started to feel sick. He had some O2 shots from his climbing partners' systems, and he sipped oxygen while descending. So while his climb is not valid as a no-O2 climb, it did bring him down safely without help.)
Let's start at the end. Tell us about the summit push on K2.
We set off right behind the first group: Pioneer Adventure's strong Sherpa team, with Sanu Sherpa. He's one of the best! But at Camp 3, we were not sure if there would be a successful summit push. We decided to wait there for another 12 hours, instead of risk getting stuck at Camp 4.
So after the "Pioneers" reached the summit, we moved to Camp 4. We were aiming to summit a day later, like Madison's group. We left at 10 pm, breaking a bit of new trail because blowing snow had partly filled in the old path.
They caught up to us so quickly!
About three hours later, we saw lights below, indicating that the climbers were preparing to leave. Once they set off, they caught us so quickly! We let them pass, amazed at how fast and how differently they moved on oxygen. I mean, they just go up, while we were controlling every move, every step, not to lose a grain of energy or breathe too fast. But it was good for us because they broke a perfect trail. In the end, we needed 11 hours to summit while they made it in around 7 hours.
What was it like climbing up the Bottleneck and traversing under the Great Serac?
Well, I had heard many stories, but, honestly, the Sherpas had fixed the ropes and the group ahead of us had left a nice, snowy trail, so it was really just walking up. Of course, there is that huge, scary serac over your head. You don't want to look up. You try to forget about it.
But what I didn't expect was the steep and very icy terrain after the traverse. But again, the traffic ahead helped us, because they had left little holes for the crampons. Still, it was hard.
During the climb, did you ever consider turning around?
Well, after this steep section I just mentioned, the last 200 (vertical) metres are the hardest. We were really tired, and mainly what went through my mind was, "Ok, is what I'm doing here safe?"
I felt like I was about to faint
My friend Hugo was going faster than I, I felt like I was about to faint, and I couldn't help thinking, "F**k, if something happens now, you're gone." It was a bad moment, but then I recalled how long I had had this mountain in my mind, the total support of friends and family, and the mental preparation that I had developed for years. It all eventually came together.
We were the last two people to reach the summit. It was 9 am.
How about the descent?
We knew we had to make it all the way back to Camp 3, since C4 was only suitable for a short break to rehydrate.
No one was with Sajid
On the way down, we met Sajid Sadpara. We were the last men on the mountain, and it was getting dark. To my surprise, Sajid was completely alone, trying to move the bodies. No one on his team was with him. We started to help. We attached the rope to Ali's body and pushed it down toward the Bottleneck, but we were not sure how much further down Sajid intended to carry it. Concerned about getting down safely, I continued down. Hugo somehow found the motivation to remain with Sajid.
Did you know Hugo Ayaviri before the expedition?
No. We met in Base Camp, but it was a perfect match. I had lived for a year in Bolivia, I knew the country and the people, so we got along really well. Also, we climbed at a similar pace, which we discovered on Broad Peak. My own climbing partner was not feeling well, so it was providential.
Maybe you two could team up for some future expedition?
Well, I don't have plans for further expeditions. After doing these for years, I'd now like to focus on something more technical in the Alps or the Caucasus.
K2 was a dream since I was a kid. Eventually, after I summited Nanga Parbat, I started considering it a realistic goal. I attempted the peak two years ago but had to retreat with a frozen toe. That's why this year I was so conscious of the need for very good acclimatization before going for the summit, and the reason I asked for a permit for Broad Peak as well.
I am done
Now that I have made it, I am done, and I want to climb with my friends. Maybe I would consider some expedition to a lower mountain, but otherwise, I want to spend my time ski touring, rock and ice climbing in the Alps, those kind of things.
If you had found no fixed ropes and no broken trail on K2, would you still have tried?
Yes. In fact, we carried a rope in the backpack for just that situation. But we would have had little chance without a broken trail. Then, we were also lucky with the weather, both on Broad Peak and K2.
This was a difficult season in Pakistan because of COVID. After last spring in Nepal especially, there was a lot of uncertainty. What kind of atmosphere did Base Camp have?
Well, I found very motivated people. After all the problems to get there, they really had their goals clear. At the same time, I was surprised that nearly no one else considered climbing without oxygen. For myself, I'd rather not summit than use supplementary O2, and I thought that was the norm, but it was not. Everybody else was using O2, even from Camp 2, which is crazy, in my opinion. Then, of course, it is a question of money. When I heard how much these fully serviced clients had paid, boy, I almost fell off the mountain!
Broad Peak
You mentioned that you went to Broad Peak just to acclimatize for K2. Yet you, Ayaviri, and Oswald Pereira made the only no-O2 summits there as well. And Broad Peak did not have fixed ropes or tamped-down trails, right?
Yeah, it took two days to climb Broad Peak. On the first day, the three of us (together with the rope-fixing team) reached 7,700m through deep snow. Some of us tried to push on after the rope fixers stopped because we thought that it was then or never. But the snow was too deep. After an hour or so, we all turned around. Some had had enough then.
But a few of us thought that we could rest for a day in Camp 3, then give it another try. There were three of us, Lotta, Nastya, and five Pakistani climbers. Then we heard of a big group of about 30 also heading up the next day. They left around 8 to 9 pm, but we needed more rest and left at 2 am. In the end, Lotta decided to go down.
We arrived at the previous day's point. A little above, we were surprised to see a long line of climbers, waiting for the rope-fixing team. We were glad that we had had the extra rest! We waited for about an hour and started again slowly, in a queue, to the col.
But then, at the col, people sat down again, waiting. I thought, "God, we don't have time for this." Oswald, Hugo, and I agreed that we would pass the rope-fixing team and climb without ropes. So we did. That pumped up our motivation. We reached the rope team, took the one rope they had left, fixed it ourselves, and proceeded.
Then came the long traverse to the summit ridge. It was getting late and sometimes there was loads of snow. We used some old ropes or none. At one point, I thought, that's it, I've had enough. But each time one of us considered turning around, someone motivated the others to go on. We finally reached the last ridge to the main summit, which was surprisingly easy, to our huge relief.
On the way, we passed Nastya and Mr. Kim
We summited at 3.30 pm. It was already late, so by 4 pm, we were heading down. On the way, we passed Nastya, a little later we passed Mr. Kim, with at least one porter. Finally, we saw two or three of the Pakistani rope fixers. And that's about it. I was surprised when I read a post by Mirza Ali claiming that eight members of his team had summited. But who can tell? It's difficult to recognize people in full gear and O2 systems and to remember things at altitude.
The three of us reached the col around the same time. I continued straight for Camp 3. Five minutes later, Oswald got a message from Nastya asking him to wait for her. By then, I was lower down. In fact, I reached Camp 3, collapsed there, and found out about the terrible events the following morning. We accompanied Nastya and took her backpack from Camp 3 to Camp 2 because she was descending very slowly. We retrieved our gear from Camp 2 and continued to Base Camp.
Young Selena Khawaja made waves when she showed up at Broad Peak Base Camp to try to break an age record by summiting at only 12 years old. Some argued the girl was strong for her age and was experienced enough. She had already summited Mingli Sar (6,050m) and Spantik Peak (7,027m).
But many more considered it irresponsible to put such a young person under such pressure. No matter how talented a child is, her mental and physical development is incomplete and unable to fully grasp the perils of an 8,000m peak. Accusatory fingers pointed mainly at Selena's father, Yousef Khawaja.
Father falls ill
Two weeks ago, Selena's father fell ill and was evacuated from Base Camp. Most of us assumed that the girl had flown out with her father. We were wrong.
Earlier this week, a climber in Base Camp, who didn't want to be named, alerted ExplorersWeb that Selena had remained in Base Camp with a porter. She was expected to climb Broad Peak, in the company of strangers. Now Lotta Hintsa has spoken up about the issue, which is causing a scandal both in Pakistan and internationally.
Hintsa gave an interview to Helsingin Sanomat. Other sources, such as Il Corriere della Sera and RussianClimb, quickly picked up, translated, and shared the story.
Hintsa spoke first about her and Don Bowie's recent attempt on Broad Peak. Then she said:
“This trip has shown very strongly that one of the most dangerous things on the mountain is other people. If you don't have the ability to save yourself from a crevasse, for example, you start a butterfly effect that affects everyone else.”
As an example of the "circus" that high-altitude mountaineering has become, Hintsa mentioned Selena. “There was a 12-year-old Pakistani-Canadian girl with her father," Hintsa said. "Her Dad got sick and left the girl alone in Base Camp and told her, ‘HAPs will pull you to the top’. Her father wanted the girl to set some world record. The girl said she doesn't dare or know how to climb herself."
In the end, someone called the consulate and said that the father was playing Russian roulette with his daughter's life, said Hintsa.
In the end, thankfully, Selena got scared and refused to climb the mountain on her own. She was eventually airlifted back to town. It is unclear when.
Angry tweets
While researching this story, I received a series of angry messages, purportedly from Selena's Twitter account. It had been publishing information about Selena since 2018 and states, "I want to be the youngest to summit Everest". It is unclear who is behind the profile, but the recent tweets do not sound like a 12-year-old girl. Note that kids under 13 are not allowed on Twitter. The messages went as follows:
Whoever wrote the tweets then switched to threats:
Finally, the voice of Selena concocted a whole new version why she did not summit Broad Peak:
Exposing children to high altitude is a matter of ethical, parental, and medical debate. Yet this controversy broke not because Khawaja wanted to climb Broad Peak, but because she is a minor and was left without a legal guardian in a potentially dangerous situation.
While the world debates U.S. gymnastics star Simone Biles pulling out of her events because of the pressure, this story from one of the world's highest mountains calls for reflection too. If 24-year-old Biles succumbed to the "twisties" despite her long experience, the pressures on a child striving to meet the expectations of parents/sponsors/mentors/audiences are far worse. And the consequences could easily have been graver than losing an Olympic medal.
Ignacio Lucero of Argentina raised concern when he set off alone from Camp 3 toward the summit of Broad Peak two nights ago. One day before, a group of climbers had to retreat at 7,500m because of buried ropes and an avalanche-prone slab on top of unstable snow.
Saulius Damulevicius, still at Camp 3 after his attempt, assessed Lucero's climb as "very risky, unless conditions dramatically change."
Today, the sight of Lucero walking safely into Base Camp has relieved the tension. After some rest and lunch, Lucero himself answered ExplorersWeb's questions. (The new antenna at Concordia is now functioning.) His story throws new light on the events. He was eventually in danger, but not above Camp 3.
First of all, he says that he spoke with climbers back from their recent summit push and carefully assessed the situation before trying to go higher on Broad Peak.
"I heard about the avalanche hazard, but I also saw that snow conditions changed a lot the following day," he said. "It was really hot, which melted the snow a great deal. Then temperatures dropped radically, and the following night was very cold.
Not reckless
"I am a professional mountaineer and a ski instructor, so I am more than familiar with the changing snowpack. My perception of the situation was somehow different from the other climbers, so I decided to go up and check conditions by myself, step by step," the climber from Mendoza (Aconcagua area) said. "I also intended to climb at night, when conditions are more stable."
He added that some climbers stop their attempts based only on the opinions of other climbers. "I believe that I have to be self-sufficient and trust my own perceptions based on knowledge and experience," he said.
Lucero insists that his attempt was neither reckless nor emotional. "On the contrary, it was based on my experienced assessment of the elements, and I constantly checked the conditions."
In fact, it was not the avalanche risk that eventually pushed him back, 200 vertical metres above Camp 3.
"The weather worsened, it started to snow, and forecasts expected the snow to continue falling," he explained. "With lower visibility and fresh snow, my progress would be slower, and I had to think not only of the ascent but mainly of the descent. Still, I think I could have gotten further had I not been alone."
Lucero is glad that he decided to retreat, because the descent was "very delicate, in fact dangerous," from Camp 2 downward.
Rockfall and poor ropes
"The hazard was mainly rocks falling constantly on the route," he said. "But I also had a few hair-raising moments because of the poor state of fixed ropes."
Other Broad Peak climbers, including Fotis Theorachis, also mentioned their close calls while descending from C2. As the snow covering the rocks melted, loose rocks fell on the climbers and the ropes. Sometimes rocks became loose when climbers stepped on them and fell later. There were also broken or damaged ropes.
Lucero is now safely down and will return to Skardu tomorrow with the long caravan of climbers who are now abandoning the Base Camps of Broad Peak, K2, and the Gasherbrums.
Note: Lucero had no phone (we spoke through Akhbar Syed's) and will not be able to share photos until he reaches Skardu. The photos illustrating this story are mostly by Fotis Theorachis, who participated in the collective summit attempt on July 26.
There was some uncertainty about the whereabouts of Argentinian climber Ignacio "Nacho" Lucero, who was descending from Broad Peak when night fell on the mountain yesterday. Lucero launched a risky summit push despite buried ropes and high avalanche risk at 7,500m. All the other climbers had retreated and, eventually, Lucero also turned around.
Today, Akhbar Syed released a video of Lucero returning to Base Camp, seemingly in good health. Lucero was the last person on the mountain.
On K2, Garrett Madison has confirmed that all climbers are back down. "Our Sherpas will do a final trip to Camp 2 [today] to retrieve some gear and then we're done," he said. The Gasherbrums are also deserted.
The climbing season on Pakistan's 8000ers has come to an end, but not the reporting. There are climbers with stories to tell, some questions that still require answers, claims to be investigated, and lessons to learn. There will be time for reflection, about what has changed, and where high-altitude climbing in the Karakorum is heading.
The 8,000m season in the Karakorum has almost ended. The K2 summiters should have arrived back in Base Camp today.
Meanwhile, Niels Jespers and Hugo Ayaviri are happily decompressing after their no-O2 summit.
K2
Madison Mountaineering has published a complete list of its 21 climbers who summited K2 yesterday, some minutes after 6 am. Details to follow.
K2 had a record number of summits this season, but the massive use of bottled oxygen to reduce K2 to a tourist mountain, albeit a still-dangerous one, has disturbed veteran climbers such as Ralf Dujmovits.
"All summiters climbed the Abruzzi Route, and all but three used supplementary oxygen," Dujmovits noted. "Nobody would have believed it 15 or 20 years ago, but K2 has been tamed into a commercial summit, with the risks and difficulties minimized. What does it mean when climbers start using supplementary oxygen at Camp III (~7,200m) on K2 and follow a broken trail and fixed line to the summit?"
He added: "The two teams that tried a new route or to repeat a rarely climbed route suffered bad luck and tragedy."
Survivor syndrome
Indeed, Ian Welsted and Graham Zimmerman have safely returned to Base Camp after retreating from the swelteringly hot West Ridge of K2. Meanwhile, the survivors of the bold attempt on a new route up the SE Face lost their third member, Rick Allen, to an avalanche. No details have emerged yet, but according to some in Base Camp, the rescue of the two surviving climbers by a helicopter long line was nearly as dangerous as the new route that they were attempting.
Currently, Jordi Tosas is out of touch while Stephan Keck is back home in the German countryside, managing what he describes as the darkest moments of his life. His raw, personal posts on Instagram hint at the grief he feels losing a climbing partner.
"It's hard to stand shoulder to shoulder in an avalanche and not know why he had to go and I have to stay," wrote Keck. "It is all the harder to know that I have to live and still lose everything..."
Another tragic event overshadowed this summer's K2 summits. First, the discovery of the bodies of the missing climbers from last winter. Second, Sajid Sadpara and his own poignant mission -- both summiting K2 for the second time and paying his final respects to his father, Ali Sadpara.
Among the first climbers on K2 this year were Lakpa Sherpa of Pioneer Adventure and the Ukrainian guide (and owner of Alpomania) Valentyn Sypavin.
Sypavin was also the first person to spot and dig out Juan Pablo Mohr's body. As he told RussianClimb, "Ali and John were attached by jumars to fixed ropes. They were both without oxygen masks or O2 bottles...The Chilean [JP Mohr] lay just 20 minutes from C4. He walked quickly and maybe went first. I think he just froze on the slope. Maybe he was waiting for [the other] two..."
Broad Peak: Lucero descending, Mohammed, and Batti in BC
Broad Peak's upper sections are deserted now. Akhbar Syed of Lela Peak Expeditions reports that Ignacio Lucero is returning to Base Camp. He has decided against risking a solo summit try in high avalanche conditions. He started his descent this morning.
Saad Mohammed and Ashif Batti of Pakistan had reached Camp 3 on July 26, and Batti participated in the summit push that failed because of the avalanche danger. They started to go down from Camp 3 yesterday. Mohammed texted uneasily today at around 6 pm Pakistan time:
"At the Japanese Camp I. Almost down now. The mountain told us today what it is made of. We barely survived."
Earlier, he said that he couldn't find water or snow for melting in Camp 1 and needed to push further down.
According to reports, they were descending very slowly. It's currently the middle of the night in Pakistan and the two Pakistani climbers have just arrived, "too tired to tweet," as one said. No word yet on Lucero, who left C3 today on his own.
British team members Paul Etheridge and Pete Brittleton took part in two unsuccessful summit pushes on Broad Peak. On the first, they gave up their summit to help with "a mountain emergency," either the safe descent of the ailing Pakistani porter Mustapha or of Anastasia Runova.
The second one, as mentioned, fizzled out for everyone because of the avalanche danger. As mountaineers, they are understandably frustrated, but now they have a clear understanding of what Broad Peak is really like.
Broad Peak bites!
"Neither Pete or I have ever said that Broad Peak is easy, nor have we ever said it’s a walk in the park," said Etheridge. "But on numerous occasions, we have said that it’s easier than K2, less technical than K2, less demanding than K2, and far easier to acclimatize on than K2. Broad Peak is a hard, dangerous 8,000m mountain with the same objective dangers as any other mountain in the Himalaya."
Listing pros and cons, they concluded that Broad Peak includes:
- Fantastically sexy vistas, views for miles and miles of the Pakistani Karakorum
- Great Base Camp location in the heart of the Karakorum.
- Staged camps, C1, C2, C3
- Relatively cheap permits, $700
BUT... (in addition to the usual challenges of climbing an 8,000'er without O2)
- Steep, steep terrain right from BC to ABC and Camp 1
- Tiny, shelf-like camping at C1
- Rockfall and risk from ABC
- Long, long days from C2-C3
- A long summit day in excess of 16+ hours
- Cold, harsh camps from C2
- Large crevasses
- No fixed ropes
- No rescue plan in place
"I would wager that none of the above is mentioned in an [outfitter's] catalog," the Brits added. "Broad Peak is a hard, relentless mountain ready to bite you in the bum if you are not prepared."
Gasherbrum: Reports to come?
Gasherbrum climbers are packing up or on their way home. All GI summiters made it safely back to BC, Akhbar Syed said. Yet summit reports are still lacking. Even those who summited Gasherbrum II on July 18 have kept mostly silent.
In fact, we missed one of the expeditions that topped out on GII that day: the Czech team led by Marek Disman and including Karolina Grohova and Roman Balada. At first, we mistakenly thought that they had climbed the mountain a week later.
The Czechs reached Base Camp later than the other teams and, remarkably, summited just nine days after showing up at the Gasherbrum amphitheater. Disman and Grohova summited on July 18, while Roman Balada turned back above C1.
They only had time for a short rotation to Camp 1 and another before joining the summit push with the other teams. They climbed to the top and back with no supplementary O2 and no high-altitude porters.
"Conditions were tougher because of the absence of big teams," Marek Disman told ExplorersWeb. "Climbing meant a lot of hard work for small teams and individual climbers."
It's like a teen horror movie from the '90s, where the guy with glasses enters the abandoned house and opens the door leading up to the dark attic.
Trouble ahead.
After their failed summit push two days ago, all the climbers have returned to Base Camp or are almost there -- except for Ignacio "Nacho" Lucero of Argentina. He was the last to reach Base Camp this season and seems determined to have his go, conditions be damned. Minutes ago, he messaged Akhbar Syed, who is managing his Base Camp logistics. "I am ready to go for the summit," Lucero said.
Serious avalanche risk
The participants on the July 26 summit push stopped at 7,500m because of high avalanche risk. Fotis Theocharis reported that their hearts skipped a beat when unstable snow settled beneath their feet with an ominous boom. He even saw the crack signaling that a snow slab was about to let go.
Vitaly Lazo and Anton Pugovkin, both expert skiers, dug a pit and found a large section of unstable snow under the hardened slab. It made them retreat on the spot and descend carefully, taking all possible precautions.
Israfil Ashurli of Azerbaijan and Saulius Damulevicious of Lithuania, who remained in Camp 3 last night, were not about to try again "unless conditions change dramatically, and there is very little chance [of that]," Damulevicious told ExplorersWeb.
Yesterday, they thought that Lucero would go down with them. However, the Argentinean decided to stay. "He is alone in Camp 3 and told us that he will return on July 30," Damulevicius said from Base Camp, which they reached earlier today.
As for Lucero's decision to start a lonely summit push, the Lithuanian climber considers it "very risky". He adds: "We also do not know the route's condition above that [dangerous section at 7,500m], especially the big crevasse area and the traverse toward the col."
Ignacio Lucero summited Gasherbrum II in 2019, but he is best-known for the heart attack he suffered on Manaslu in 2011. He was rescued and taken to hospital, where his condition worsened after a stroke.
During his long recovery, he counted on the friendship of his dog Oro, meaning gold. Oro eventually became quite the character on Instagram, since he went virtually everywhere with his owner. Unfortunately, Oro died last year.
Dangerous conditions forced back a handful of climbers attempting to summit Broad Peak. Many of them had been on the previous push, complicated by several rescues and lines at the ropes at 8,000m.
This time, the threat of avalanches was too high, according to Saulius Damulevicius. The Lithuanian climber has summarized events for ExplorersWeb, straight from his tent in Camp 3.
"[Israfil Ashurli and I] started at 7 pm yesterday with Vitaly Lazo and Anton Pugovkin, and we were later joined by other members, around 20 people total," Damulevicius said. "I was working in front for most of the time, later joined by Fotis Theocharis of Greece, who was climbing with oxygen."
"Above Camp 4 (7,350m) the ropes were buried under the snow. We tried to drag them out for some time but they got buried deeper.
Avalanche risk too high
"Before the snow wall [an increasingly steep snow ramp before the saddle] at 7,550m, the avalanche conditions on the slope were too dangerous to continue. The slope cracked under my weight, it only needed a trigger to go down. We made several tests on the slope and found that there is a 5 to 10cm layer of iced up snow on an unstable 30 to 50cm of powder.
"We realized that the conditions would be even more dangerous on the way down, so we decided to retreat and suggested that others do the same. Everyone agreed."
The climbers turned around at 1:30 am and made it safely back to Camp 3 at around 4 am.
"My highest point was 7,500m," Damulevicius noted. "On my previous attempt on Broad Peak, I reached 7,965m. On that occasion, it was too late to continue pushing for the summit within a minimum margin of safety."
By now, all climbers should be about to reach Base Camp, except for Damulevicius and Ashurli, who have decided to stay at Camp 3 for one more night. "There is very little chance that the route conditions will improve dramatically. So, we'll rest now in Camp 3 and go back to Base Camp tomorrow morning," he said.
Saulius Damulevicius, Israfil Ashurli, and the two very tired Russian skiers, Vitaly Lazo and Anton Pugovkin, left Camp 3 at 6 pm Pakistan time. They are now pushing toward the summit of Broad Peak. As of 5 pm EDT, 10 pm Greenwich time, they've already been on the go for six hours.
Lazo, in particular, has had a hectic few days. Last week, he spent several hours trying to save Kim HongBin before Kim fell to his death. Then Lazo spent most of yesterday in a helicopter searching for Kim's body. He arrived back in Base Camp late and was in Camp 1 by 8 pm. There, he drank some tea and hurried to Camp 2, which he reached by midnight.
Today, he left at 6 am for Camp 3 and arrived five hours later. After a short break, he was ready to go for the summit -- sort of, looking at his face.
Thomas Lone, devastated by the death of Kim HongBin, has decided to call off his own attempt. The home team of the British "Cumbria to K2" expedition confirmed to ExplorersWeb that Paul Etheridge and Pete Brittleton were in Camp 3. They are ready to move up "if the weather window prevails".
Broad Boy passes 8,500m (10:30 pm EDT)
Shehroze Kashif and Hushe's teams were in Camp 4 and are well on their way to the summit. By 10:30pm EDT (3:30 am Greenwich time), Kashif had passed 8,500 and was closing in on the summit, according to his tracker.
A good part of the route is already fixed, according to Garrett Madison. "Our Sherpa team, which was fixing lines today, was able to make it up the Shoulder, through the Bottleneck, around the Traverse, and nearly up to the Bench on the way toward the final pitches to the summit," he wrote.
Madison and his team will rest for one day and push tomorrow night. They hope to reach the summit on Wednesday, as does Niels Jespers.
Sajid: more O2 needed
Elia Saikaly posted via InReach that Sajid Sadpara, Pasang Kaji Sherpa, and himself were leaving tonight to "complete their mission". He didn't say whether this included summiting. Saikaly also mentioned that they were running short of oxygen and asked other teams to share some.
Samina Baig cancelled her attempt earlier today. She is back in BC and warns about conditions. Baig and her team had to dodge several rocks whizzing past them above Camp 1. She noted the extremely warm weather on K2 (which Ian Welsted, on the West Ridge, also mentioned).
On Gasherbrum I, Marco Confortola and Mario Vielmo left at midnight. There have been no previous ascents on G1 this season, so no ropes or trails are in place. Rare for an 8,000'er these days, they are alone on the mountain.
Climbers on Pakistan's 8,000'ers aim to reach their summits tomorrow and Wednesday. Meanwhile, events around the discovery of the three bodies on K2 from last winter continue to unfold, so stay tuned for updates.
K2: Sajid Sadpara's search for closure
On K2, several teams are already in Camp 4 and will leave for the summit tonight. Among them are the two groups from Pioneer Adventure (Ukrainian and Russian clients), as well as Pakistan's Shehroze Kashif and recent Broad Peak summiters Niels Jespers of Belgium and Hugo Ayaviri of Bolivia.
The Pakistani team from Hushe, led by Ali Durani Hushe, includes Muhammad Hassan Hushe, Mushtaq Ahmad, and Usuf Meeri. They intended to reach C4 today as well.
Last but not least, as reported earlier, Sajid Sadpara, Elia Saikaly, and Pasang Kaji made it to C4 around 2:30 pm. The bodies, discovered by Garrett Madison's Sherpa rope fixers, are not far above.
What lies ahead
The route between Camp 4 and the summit goes through the two most infamous sections of the mountain: the Bottleneck and the oblique traverse under the Great Serac. We don't yet know what that area looks like after last week's snowfall.
Sanu Sherpa and at least one other climber from Pioneer Adventure, plus a small group of Sherpas with Madison Mountaineering, fixed some ropes above Camp 4. They then returned to their tents. They will have to go in front of everyone else, fixing toward the summit as they go, thus slowing down the push.
In this sense, Garrett Madison's strategy of waiting and climbing behind most other teams may pay off. If the weather stays as good as forecasts suggest, later groups may find the way opened and fixed, and fewer people clipped to the ropes. Madison followed a similar tactic on Everest this past spring and enjoyed what he called "his best Everest summit day ever."
Today, about 400m above C4, Sherpa rope fixers found the body of a climber in a yellow-and-black down suit. Both Juan Pablo Mohr and John Snorri wore these colors when they went missing last February 5. The body was face down and covered in ice. Shortly after, the body of Muhammad Ali Sadpara was found. Shortly after, the third and final body turned up.
Unstated conflict
Meanwhile, some unstated conflict has affected the Karakorum Expedition clients. Leader Mirza Ali said today that, "Due to the high risk of avalanches up on the mountain and lack of coordination between the expedition teams, our expedition on K2 is over."
Mirza Ali's sister, Samina Baig, has also called off her attempt (and her expedition).
Far from the Abruzzi Route, on the mountain's West Ridge, Ian Welsted and Graham Zimmerman have reached 6,900m. They seemed to be descending today, but confirmation will have to wait until they report their position.
Broad Peak: Climbers in C3 or above
On Broad Peak, a number of climbers reached Camp 3 yesterday. Currently, they are either resting in order to leave for the summit today or are already on their way to the top. Among them, Fotis Theorachis of Greece and several climbers who participated in the previous summit push last week, including British ("Cumbria to K2") team members Paul Etheridge and Pete Brittleton, Belgians Luc Beirinckx and Wouter Noterman, Saulius Damulevicius of Lithuania, and Israfil Ashurlı of Azerbaijan.
The Russian Deathzone Freeride team members Anton Pugovkin and Vitaly Lazo, along with Norwegian Thomas Lone (tracker here), are also in C3. Last week, Lazo had tried to help deceased climber Kim HongBin when he was stranded on a ledge for hours. Yesterday, he boarded a helicopter to help look for Kim's body on the Chinese side of Broad Peak, without success. He then hurried from Base Camp all the way to Camp 3 to join his partners.
Gasherbrum I
The team led by Marco Confortola and Mario Vielmo is virtually alone on Gasherbrum I. They are doing their best in difficult conditions. Today, they planned to set up a Camp 4 (a bivouac, in fact) at 7,400 to 7,500m. Here, they are grabbing a few hours of rest before leaving for the summit tonight. Carlos Garranzo notes that Confortola is climbing with Hassan Jan and Fida Ashur, while Vielmo has teamed up with Flower Wayta of Peru.
Pakistani and Chinese military forces are searching for the body of Korean climber Kim HongBin. He fell while descending Broad Peak on Monday. Asked by ExplorersWeb whether the rescuers have any hope of finding him alive, Korean journalist Oh Young Hoon said, "Well, nobody has seen him dead."
While the two countries collaborate in the air, accusations and bitterness fill Base Camp. Vitaly Lazo, who tried to rescue Kim, openly accuses climbers of passing by and ignoring the stranded climber for hours, not even sending an SOS to Base Camp.
The search operation
On Friday, bad weather grounded the search helicopters. But at 5:08 am Pakistan time today, Base Camp reported that the weather looked better than it had for days. Helicopters were just awaiting the green light to fly, Oh told ExplorersWeb.
"Three people from Base Camp will join the aerial search," Oh said. "Vitaly Lazo, a Korean cameraman, and a leader of a commercial expedition."
Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy in Seoul released a statement yesterday (July 23) reporting it had sent two helicopters to the northern base camp (at 5,000m) of Broad Peak.
"The Chinese rescue team reportedly includes nine individuals and a drone," Oh said. "Because of bad weather, however, they seem to have not yet started."
Unfortunately, both search missions are proceeding independently, with no communication between Base Camps on the two different sides of Broad Peak.
Vitaly Lazo: I Accuse
Meanwhile, Vitaly Lazo posted a scathing message yesterday on social media. He wondered how it was possible that the first SOS call only went out after Kim had spent the entire night -- over nine hours -- stranded on a ledge at 8,000m.
"The desire to conquer the summit at any cost, at any time, led a large number of unskilled tourists (tourists, not climbers) to negotiate difficult terrain at night. The principle of turning around at the turn-around point does not apply to them. Thus, people create problems not only for themselves but for those around them," Lazo said.
Anastasia (Nastya) Runova, who fell onto the same ledge, was able to climb back on the route with some help from Little Hussein, Mr. Kim's porter. But Lazo was bewildered that at least 15 climbers ignored the disabled Kim. "Yes, it was dark, but the light of his headlamp was definitely visible," Lazo pointed out.
"After saving the girl, Little Hussein wept, because he was so tired that he could not save Kim — he had no strength left. Hussein asked people to help, but all the 'hero-climbers' were exhausted and passed by."
Lazo wrote: "I can accept that they had no strength to pull a disabled person out. BUT I don't understand why it was impossible to report the accident by radio or via InReach!"
Then he accused Runova directly: "Anastasia, your InReach was working! Gentlemen, you used them! One could press the SOS button and leave the device with Kim, one could write that the disabled alpinist was on the Chinese side waiting for help.
Pathetic, not heroic
"Now on social networks, you are brave men and heroes, conquerors of an eight-thousander...And I will say that you are pathetic, insignificant people who do not care about human life."
Lazo and his partner, Anton Pugovkin, eventually helped Runova when she was approaching Camp 3. In his report, Lazo insists that had they known, they would have gone straight to Kim instead of staying with Runova, who was walking down on her own.
The Russian team has published a complete report on Risk.ru with all the details of the incident and their attempt to help Kim: who was there, when, and what happened. Although parts are difficult to follow for non-Russian speakers, despite Google Translate, the account is perfectly coherent.
After the SOS, confusion
The alarm sounded early on the morning of July 19, after Runova was helped up from the ledge and back to Camp 3. According to Lazo, she didn't tell Lazo and Pugovnik about Kim when they met. It was Kim's porter who first shouted the alarm over the radio at about 4 am. Unfortunately, it made people think that the Korean climber had fallen into a crevasse below the saddle. The British climbers were sent to look in the wrong direction!
Kim himself was perfectly healthy and endured the night standing on the ledge, waving to people to get their attention. By the time Lazo found him, he was already worn out after a night on the ledge. He said that he was very tired and cold, but his mind was clear and he was still standing.
In a previous report, Oswald R. Pereira reported that he had been trying to help Runova when he saw someone in a black suit rappelling down to the ledge. He thought that it was someone who was trying to reach Runova.
According to Lazo's account, Runova fell while clipped onto a rope. Kim told Lazo that he had rappelled down that rope, thinking that this was the route.
Kim's final accident
Lazo set up a belay, but Kim insisted on jumaring himself up. To Lazo's surprise, Kim started to do it successfully, despite his fingerless hands. However, at a certain point, Kim's jumar jammed. Lazo had already climbed back up to the ridge but went partway back down again and shouted to Kim, who was about five metres below him. Kim apparently shook the jumar, probably trying to clear it of ice or switch it to another rope. He unclipped it, then fell down the face.
ExplorersWeb has asked the Koreans who was with Kim when the incident took place, and where was the rest of his team. "There are five other Korean climbers in the team, two of whom are camera staff," Oh replied. "No Korean accompanied Kim on the summit climb."
Kim's Korean companions are currently in Base Camp. One of them will join the helicopter search. At least one high-altitude porter, Little Hussein, accompanied Kim on his summit attempt.
For the time being, searchers decline to consider Kim dead. "Of course, I guess those in Base Camp and those here in Korea may have different levels of hope," Oh said. "It's hard to say whether the hope is realistic or not. If no trace of Kim is found within a few days, we'll need to discuss when and how to have his funeral."
ExplorersWeb has also asked Anastasia Runova for her version of the events. We are awaiting her answer.
Taking advantage of good weather, most summit teams have gone up to Camp 1 and Camp 2 on the Abruzzi Spur route. But Karakorum Expeditions has announced that their IFMGA guides Jordi Tosas and Stephan Keck, plus Rick Allen, are attempting a new line on the Southeast Face. More details soon.
On the Abruzzi, Sajid Sadpara and company are bound for Camp 2, along with the two Pioneer Adventure groups. Madison Mountaineering and Samina Baig are in Camp 1, as well as the all-Pakistani team from Hushe.
Neils Jespers is also at Camp 2, but Jeff Spelmans and Oswald Rodrigo Pereira have decided not to attempt the summit climb.
Mirza Ali has mentioned that the high winds and snow of recent days have destroyed tents in Camps 1, 2, and 3. Those at the first two camps have been rebuilt or replaced.
On Broad Peak, Fotis Theorachis, the British "Cumbria to K2" team, Belgians Luc Beirinckx and Wouter Noterman, among others, are on the move. They aim to reach the top at the beginning of this week.
As expected, some K2 climbers have already started up the mountain. And on Broad Peak, some late-arriving climbers who didn't join the previous push are likewise taking advantage of the good weather.
K2
Recent Broad Peak summiters Neils Jespers of Belgium and Hugo Ayaviri of Bolivia are leading the push on K2, Carlos Garranzo reports. Lakpa Sherpa and the Alpomania group leads the Pioneer Adventure team, which also set off for Camp 1 today.
A second group, led by Mingma Dorchi, will join them tomorrow at Camp 2 by climbing all the way from BC. Madison Mountaineering's climbers will start from Base Camp tomorrow.
Pioneer Adventure aims to summit on Tuesday, while Garrett Madison eyes Wednesday as his group's likely summit day.
Yet this push will only be possible if the route is fixed from Camp 4, including the Bottleneck, the traverse under the Great Serac, and the upper slopes. Good conditions are mandatory for a relatively safe -- by K2 standards -- summit bid. The amount of fresh snow on the slopes is uncertain.
The trouble might start even below Camp 4, at the point where Elia Saikaly, Pasang Kaji Sherpa, and Sajid Sadpara "hit a wall," as Saikaly put it. When they tried to reach Camp 4 on their latest rotation, there was only one fixed rope, knee/waist-deep snow, and a deep crevasse (photo below). Pasang Kaji managed to pass that section, but bad weather loomed at the time, and he discouraged his partners from continuing.
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The 8,000m game can quickly go wrong
"It can be tempting to test your fate, just a little bit further, climb a little bit higher, but I’m a firm believer in playing the long game," Saikaly said. "There’s no ‘what you want’ up here. There’s only what the mountain commands."
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Proof that the 8,000m game can quickly go wrong: Fahad Badar of Qatar was evacuated today because of his frostbitten fingers.
Carlos Garranzo, who is currently at K2 Base Camp, has decided that he is not going to attempt the mountain that only a few months ago took the life of his best friend Sergi Mingote and regular expedition partner Juan Pablo Mohr.
He says that he is not comfortable with the 8,000'ers and the way that they are climbed nowadays. Without like-minded friends to climb with, he is quitting high-altitude mountaineering altogether. However, he will remain in Base Camp to accompany Tamara Lunger, Juan Pablo Mohr's family, and the fiancee of Atanas Skatov, another winter K2 victim. They are expected tomorrow, and together they will hold a remembrance ceremony at the nearby Gilkey Memorial.
Broad Peak
On Broad Peak, British team members Paul Etheridge and Pete Brittleton have gone back up to give the 8,047m summit a second try. They reportedly sacrificed their first attempt to help some exhausted climbers.
Carlos Garranzo reports that most climbers in BC will join the push. He also mentions that the helicopter that evacuated Fahad Badar also took out Selena Khawaja's father, who was ill. It is unclear whether Selena, who is only 12 years old and came hoping to climb Broad Peak, remains in Base Camp.
Search for Kim HongBin on Broad Peak's Chinese side
Acting as go-betweens, South Korean diplomats have obtained permission from China to let a (military!) Pakistani helicopter search for the body of Kim HongBin on Broad Peak's Chinese side. Searchers will include Russian Vitali Lazo, who tried to help Kim and was present when he fell.
Kim became stranded on a ledge about 15m below Broad Peak's summit ridge, on its Chinese side. He fell down the face while trying to jumar back up to the ridge.
Korean journalist Young Hoon Oh told ExplorersWeb that the first search flight was ready to fly today. It is unclear whether they have any hope of finding Kim alive several days later. When the accident occurred, Lazo said that it was 99% likely that Kim died immediately. We will have more details from Korea tomorrow.
The recent events on Broad Peak have impacted those at K2 Base Camp, especially when Fahad Badar of Qatar frostbit his fingers, as Anastasia Runova had.
"During the day there were various discussions about mishandling and lack of organization," wrote Fotis Theocharis. "If something similar to Broad Peak happens [here], tragedy will be certain."
"It makes a special impression on me that there are people whose first mountain was simply Mount Everest and came to 'conquer' K2," the Greek climber added. He noted the lack of previous experience and absence of technical climbing skills among some people in BC.
"They believe that with money they can do everything safely, but Broad Peak is proof that this is not true. Stress is evident on all of us... Something is not right for me in the whole organization," Theocharis said, without detailing exactly what is wrong.
A few days more
Meanwhile, it's still stormy at K2 Base Camp today, but forecasts show an imminent change for the better. According to Garrett Madison, the storm seems to be passing, but it's still quite windy at altitude. He expects to launch his team's summit push next week.
Pioneer Adventure's Sherpa teams have fixed the route to Camp 4. But the mountain has received a fresh load of snow, and they will have to assess the conditions carefully, especially above Camp 3.
West Ridge team ready
The West Ridge team of Ian Welsted and Graham Zimmerman is also prepared to go once the weather clears. They faced difficulties on their latest venture up the ridge, when they went off-route onto dangerous terrain.
"Progress on the West Ridge has been moving in fits and starts," Zimmerman admits. "Route finding on the bottom of the route has been more complex than expected, and the early spring snow has caused problems."
However, the climbers have had time to check the route thoroughly from Base Camp. They hope that the summer heat will allow the snow to sluff off the mostly rocky West Ridge.
"A weather window is on its way at the end of the week and we'll be back at it," said Zimmerman.
The Search
Before the onset of bad weather, Elia Saikaly, Pasang Kaji Sherpa, and Sajid Sadpara pushed as high as possible, in their quest to find out what happened to the three missing winter climbers. Following the trail broken by the Sherpa teams, the three searchers reached 7,800m.
"We had hoped to make it a bit higher, but a technical impasse blocked us," Saikaly wrote.
From 7,800m, on the windless day, they were at least able to fly their drones beneath the Bottleneck up to 8,300m. They looked for clues and reconnoitered the route ahead. "No traces thus far [of the missing climbers]," reported Saikaly.
Saikaly, who is filming a documentary about last winter's dramatic events on K2, has spent much of his storm-bound time in Base Camp grappling with the poor internet connection. Problems have beset the satellite tower erected recently on the Concordia Glacier, and it seems that most climbers have had to return to their slow satellite devices. "The last image I posted took me four hours to upload," wrote Saikaly.
