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.  

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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."

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Anxiety gnaws at climbers on K2 and Broad Peak; conditions are still bad, rope-fixing work is seriously delayed, and the season is approaching its end.

This means that, for another year, there will be little or no chance to space out summit pushes. Instead, everyone on the mountain will probably go up at the same time. Fortunately, there are not that many climbers this year.

No-oxygen climbers may need to make some hard choices, particularly if the summit push timing finds them short of acclimatization.

Why the delay?

These days, the normal Abruzzi Spur route on K2 is climbed in commercial style, and Nepalese Sherpas complete the rope-fixing work, hired by international expeditions. The Sherpas are usually supported by Pakistani climbers. This year, bad conditions -- rain, snow, high winds, and rockfall -- have delayed the work.

Mingma David Sherpa, leader of the Elite Exped team, reported that he was stuck in Camp 1 for three days last week. He had stopped there because, contrary to the weather forecasts, there were storms and high winds on the mountain every afternoon. He reached as far as Camp 2 before retreating to Base Camp.

Last weekend, Mingma G and his Imagine Nepal team linked up with Madison Mountaineering's Sherpa staff and managed to get a little higher. "We fixed the rope to 7,200m, crossing the rocky section below Camp 3. Next will be the summit push on K2, depending on weather conditions."

Summit push or return home

The question is whether a summit push is a sensible option for those climbers who need more acclimatization.

"We could discuss why the damned ropes have not been fixed yet, but that is not going to solve the problem," wrote Serge Hardy of France, one of those who planned to climb without oxygen, but using the ropes and trails.

Hardy reported that he has done two trips to 7,000m (probably to the end of the ropes) across the Black Pyramid. "The fact remains that without at least one night at Camp 3 (7,300m) and a descent to recover, it's going to be pretty tough to even consider an ascent without oxygen," Hardy concluded.

Late July push

"Base Camp has split into two: those who leave and those who stay," Hardy said.

Madison Mountaineering reported a warm, sunny day in K2 Base Camp on Tuesday, but clouds are gathering again, and the forecasts show more bad weather coming. Lukasz Supergan (currently on neighboring Broad Peak) recently wrote that the next possible weather window is not expected until July 27-30.

As for Hardy, he's among those ready to stay. "If the prospect of a last-ditch push looms, while treading carefully on loose rocks and putting my brain into 'avalanche detector' mode, I'll give it a try," he said. "It's a question of principles...because that's what we're here for."

We are waiting for news about other K2 climbers planning no-oxygen ascents, such as Israfil Ashurli of Azerbaijan and Csaba Varga of Hungary.

High-altitude worker Iftikhar Hussain of Pakistan lost his life on K2 yesterday in an avalanche that caught a four-member group while they descended from Camp 1 to Base Camp.

The slide took place at around 12:30, local time, on Friday. The avalanche hit Hussain, Dawa Finjo Sherpa and Dawa Geljen Sherpa from Nepal, and high-altitude porter Niaz Ali from Skardu, Dawn reported. They are all members of the Mountain Professionals team.

It is not clear whether the accident involved rockfall, a snow avalanche, or a combination of both.

No other teams affected

A ground rescue team was immediately dispatched from Base Camp to help the climbers. Sadly, there was nothing the rescue team could do to save Hussain's life. The other three team members were able to descend under their own power.

Ryan Waters, CEO of Mountain Professionals, confirmed the news to ExplorersWeb:

Hussain, one of the porters supporting our team, who was contracted through a local partner, tragically lost his life. We are deeply saddened by this loss, and our thoughts are with his family and the local climbing community in Pakistan.

Our international guide and clients were at Base Camp at the time of the incident and are all safe. Some of our support team members were higher on the route. Everyone from our team, including climbing Sherpas, has returned to Base Camp and is accounted for.

As this situation is still developing, we are continuing to gather accurate information from our team. We understand there is wide interest and will be able to share more once we have confirmed details and have connected with all the appropriate parties.

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A helicopter will airlift Hussain's remains from Base Camp to his home in Sadpara village.

Climbers going up

Bad weather has kept K2 teams stalled for most of this week, but a slight improvement on Friday and optimistic forecasts encouraged many climbers to go up to Camp 2.

Staff members need to fix ropes and set Camp 3, and climbers without supplemental oxygen, such as Israfil Ashurli of Azerbajan (who, according to his tracker, is at camp 2), Santiago Quintero of Ecuador, Serge Hardy of France, and Csaba Varga of Hungary, need to acclimatize as high as possible if they want a summit chance.

Lakpa Sherpa of 8K Expeditions told ExplorersWeb that his team is moving toward Camp 3.

Fixing ropes on K2 is a joint effort by all the teams on the mountain. It is also a fight against the elements; the weather has moved from too hot and dry to too wet and windy.

Migma David Sherpa, 36, hoping to summit K2 for the seventh time, described the situation for ExplorersWeb. The Nepalese climber is back at Base Camp after a trip to Camp 1 leading an Elite Exped team.

"Due to unfavorable weather conditions and continuous rockfall, the rope could not be fixed above Camp 2," he said. "Although the fixing team from Garrett Madison and other teams attempted to reach Camp 3, they were unable to open the route beyond Camp 2."

Nuptse expert Dawa Tenji Sherpa, working with Madison Mountaineering, was among those in Camp 2 last Monday. He confirmed that the wind was very strong and forced his team to retreat (as relayed by Jay Whiting, Tenji's partner on Nuptse this past Spring).

High winds in Camp 2

Before the weather worsened, Mingma David's team had made good progress on the rope-fixing work.

"Vinayak Malla, Nima Sherpa, and Phuri Kitar had fixed the route up to Camp 1," Mingma David said. "Above Camp 1, another team from Seven Summit Treks fixed one anchor just below Camp 2. Later, Nima and Phuri Kitar continued and fixed the route to Camp 2."

Unfortunately, progress is now stalled until the weather improves.

Waiting for the sun

"The weather is forecast to improve from July 18, and with a collaborative effort from all teams, we will progress fast," Mingma David said.

The situation is not yet a problem for the great majority of climbers in Base Camp, who use supplemental oxygen and personal guides. In the last two years, K2 summits occurred during a single weather window at the end of July, and summit rates were still very high.

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The downside of having a single, massive push on K2 is the impossibility of avoiding traffic jams on the higher sections, especially during the dangerous traverse under the Big Serac and the Bottleneck at around 8,400m. When the time comes, expedition leaders need to be extremely cautious with conditions on that section.

Harder for no-O2 climbers

For climbers going with supplemental oxygen, it is another story. "The lack of ropes above Camp 2 may pose a challenge for climbers attempting to summit without supplemental oxygen, given the limited time remaining," Mingma David said.

Indeed, climbers without oxygen need to do more rotations and reach well above 7,000m before launching a final summit push. It all depends on conditions on the mountain after the first summit wave. In 2024, the weather remained good for long enough to permit several no-O2 climbers to top out in the three days after the first summit wave.

Some of them, such as Liv Sansoz and Seb Roche of France (who also performed a tandem paragliding flight from the summit), used a smart strategy; they acclimatized, not on K2, but on the more straightforward Broad Peak.

Ropes on Broad Peak

On Broad Peak, the ropes are ready up to Camp 3. Some climbers attempted to go up earlier this week but were pushed back by a blizzard. Like everyone else in Base Camp, they are getting ready to go up again as soon as the weather improves.

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Those on oxygen could attempt the summit directly from Camp 3, but they need a team to fix the ropes. Sakhawat Hussain, Managing Director of Summit Karakoram, told ExplorersWeb that his team counts on experienced Pakistani and Nepalese climbers willing to fix the ropes are they go. He also expects strong climbers in other teams to collaborate with the efforts.

Climbers without oxygen may use the next rotation to complete their acclimatization, and then decide if they will go again to the summit of Broad Peak or move on to K2.

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It's always exciting to get the first reports from K2. Despite commercialization, the allure of Savage Mountain has remained. But news is hard to come by this year.

French loner in Camp 1

As on other Pakistan 8,000'ers, the first reports this season have come from independent climbers. Serge Hardy of France is climbing on his own and has already been to Camp 1. The mountain is empty, but it was still hard for him to find a spot at Camp 1 (6,060m) for his tent.

"It took me three hours to build this pathetic terrace," he admitted. "There is a battle of sorts to get a decent spot to pitch tents at Camp 1, which is not exactly flat and exposed to falling rocks."

He says that "the big Nepalese agencies, the ones with wealthy clients," have snapped up all the available room. In the end, Hardy pitched his tent in a rather uncomfortable location on tilted scree.

The 8K Expeditions team reached Base Camp on June 27 and should have fixed at least part of the route by now. The Elite Exped and 14 Peaks teams are on their way to Base Camp.

Hardy, 58, is a climber and a local politician from Brest, in northern France. He summited Gasherbrum II in 2021. It is not yet confirmed whether he will climb with someone else or use supplementary oxygen.

'No one reports anything'

"Nobody reports anything, but the big Nepalese agencies are already fixing the route and waiting for their clients to arrive," the Alpymon blog confirmed. It describes 2025 as "the silent season." Everyone trying to follow the events on Pakistan's 8,000'ers has noted the lack of even basic details about the teams' progress.

Hopefully, as the mountain gets busier, some teams will be more prone to share news. U.S.-based Mountain Professionals is expected to arrive in Base Camp today. Recently, they took advantage of the Wi-Fi antenna installed at Concordia to send some photos:

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Some climbers are currently acclimatizing on Broad Peak, before heading to the harder, higher K2.

This topsy-turvy season, we have more information from alpine-style teams -- usually a reticent bunch -- than from the 8,000m commercial teams. Possible summits may have occurred on Nanga Parbat, but nothing is confirmed. Hopefully, the flow of news will increase soon, as some K2 and Broad Peak teams have just arrived in Base Camp.

K2

The first big groups have just arrived at K2 Base Camp. That is, if any group can be considered big this summer, when the Karakoram 8,000'ers are unusually quiet because of the India-Pakistan conflict this spring.

Summit Karakoram reports that its first group in Base Camp includes only 12 climbers: a small group from Nepal-based outfitter 8K and a small team from the UK's Impact Ascents -- two climbers, two high-altitude porters from Pakistan, and one Base Camp crew member.

Among the new arrivals is Vibeke Andrea Sefland of Norway, who is aiming for her 9th 8,000m peak. She has posted a nice description of the approach trek on social media, below, and will use a tracker during the expedition so that everyone can follow her progress.

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Teams from Seven Summit Treks, Madison Mountaineering, and EliteExped should also be coming, but have not yet arrived. Mingma David Sherpa, hoping to reach the top of K2 for a record 7th time, will lead the EliteExped group.

Nanga Parbat

Nowadays on the 8,000m peaks, climbers typically progress at the pace of the rope fixers. However, independent climbers may hurry ahead of them to summit before the crowds.

Yesterday, Pakistani climber Saad Mohammed wrote on X that two unidentified Czech climbers may have reached the summit. The information has not been confirmed. Today, clouds cover the upper sections of the mountain. Mohammed noted that the weather has been cloudy over the last two days, with rain in Base Camp.

At last word, the high-altitude staff have fixed ropes above Camp 2 but have not yet reached the summit. A significant percentage of those attempting Nanga Parbat this summer intend to climb without supplementary oxygen. Most of them have already been to Camp 2, then retreated to Base Camp to rest and wait for better weather.

Benjamin Vedrines will again attempt to open a route on the north face of Jannu East with Nicolas Jean. The magnitude of the challenge is so huge that the peak they have chosen for their preparatory climb is -- K2.

Considering the relentless pace that Vedrines and Jean have kept over the last few weeks -- most recently, they climbed and skied the four faces of Mont Blanc --  we wondered if the French stars were planning something big in the Himalaya. Indeed, they were. The formidable north face of 7,710m Jannu East remains unclimbed despite many attempts, including theirs last year.

"This peak fascinates us. It’s beautiful, remote, tough to climb," Vedrines wrote on social media about Jannu East.

Fell under the spell

The two climbers -- Jean is 27 and Vedrines turned 32 two days ago -- tackled the challenge last fall, together with good friend and fellow member of the new generation of top French alpinists, Leo Billon. From the first, they fell under the spell of the legendary north face of Jannu East, one of the biggest and most difficult in the Himalaya. Their goal was to open a new route, not to the main summit, but to the 7,468m eastern point of the Jannu massif, which remains unclimbed.

The trio climbed fast until 7,600m. There, Billon suddenly showed symptoms of cerebral edema. Vedrines, who had experienced the affliction himself on K2 two years earlier, immediately aborted the attempt. The three friends had previously decided that if one of them turned around, all would. (Check their expedition summary in the video below:)

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"We promised we would return for a last attempt in September 2025," Vedrines said. Which brings us to their current expedition.

Their training peak

"For training, I’ll use K2," Vedrines said. Assigning the second-highest peak on Earth as a preparatory climb may sound crazy, but Vedrines did the same last year, with impressive results. He climbed K2 independently and without supplementary oxygen in a Fastest Known Time of 11 hours from Base Camp to summit. He then paraglided down from the top. After he landed, he still had time to return to Camp 2 to pick up his tent and to help another climber in distress.

A third member?

Such a big face is usually tackled in teams of three. So will a third member join them? Leo Billon is himself frantically active in the Alps, but so far, there is no mention of him coming.

However, Vedrines did invite someone else: American Sam Hennessey, who politely declined, Hennessey told ExplorersWeb.

Hennessey had attempted to open a new route up the north face of Jannu East for the last three years. He was there last fall with regular climbing partner Mike Gardner when the French team showed up in Base Camp with the same plan. The two teams were following different lines when tragedy struck. Mike Gardner fell to his death from the bivouac where the two climbers were resting.

"As of now, I don’t have plans to return to Jannu...for a variety of reasons," said Hennessey, currently guiding in the Alps after a stint of climbing in Alaska. Hennessey rejects any suggestion that he is competing with Vedrines' team for this first ascent.

"[The French team] has every right to do so, of course, [but] having some sort of competition around alpinism is contrary to all the reasons why I find it appealing," Hennessey said.

In our recent article remembering French mountaineer Chantal Mauduit, we briefly touched on her 1992 rescue on K2. We noted how Scott Fischer and Ed Viesturs gave up their summit bid to bring her down safely. That short mention was just a glimpse of a complex rescue. Let's unpack the whole event.

International teams

Although this expedition tends to be called Russian–American, it included climbers from four countries.

The mixed party was led by Russian mountaineer Vladimir Balyberdin, consisting of two Russians, a Ukrainian, 12 Americans, and an Englishman. The other members were Gennady Kopeika, Alexey Nikiforov, Doug Colwell, Neal Beidleman, Thor Kieser, Scott Fischer, Ed Viesturs, Robert Green, Peter Green, Larry Hall, Charles Mace, Daniel Mazur, Gayle Olcott, Kelly Stover, and Jonathan Pratt. The team also included a doctor and a base camp manager.

The expedition was organized by the Russians and funded by the Americans. According to Ed Viesturs’s report, Dan Mazur was in charge of selecting the U.S. members. Scott Fischer and Ed Viesturs decided to participate when their original plans for K2’s north ridge fell through because of a lack of funding.

The Americans met in Rawalpindi on June 8, 1992. The Russians chose to travel overland and entered Pakistan one week later. The team trekked to K2 Base Camp in separate groups, with Fischer, Kieser, Viesturs, and two Americans arriving on June 21. Balyberdin, Kopeika, and Nikiforov arrived on June 30 with the rest of the expedition.

The Swiss party

In the summer of 1992, Chantal Mauduit was a member of a Swiss party led by Peter Schwitter. The team included Beat Ruppen, Norbert Huser, and Rupert Ruckstuhl. This team was already at K2 when Balyberdin’s expedition arrived.

Schwitter’s party attempted the Abruzzi Ridge but aborted somewhere between 7,000m and 7,400m at the beginning of July because of bad weather. When the Swiss left, Mauduit joined the Russian–American expedition. However, she did not have a permit to do so, which caused her serious problems with the Pakistani authorities after the climb.

On June 28, a Mexican-New Zealand-Swedish expedition also arrived. They also chose the Abruzzi route.

The different teams coordinated for the route-fixing work.

Unsettled weather

Kieser and Fischer established Camp 1 at 6,100m on June 25, and the teams progressed to Camp 2 at 6,700m at the beginning of July. On July 7, Kieser, Fischer, and Viesturs began fixing the route to Camp 3 through the Black Pyramid. They finished this section 10 days later, with Balyberdin and Kopeika fixing the last ropes at the top of the Black Pyramid.

The climbers faced unsettled weather. Short weather windows of three to four days were always followed by four or five days of snow and wind.

On July 12, Fischer suffered a minor accident and dislocated his shoulder. The Russian doctor advised him to end his expedition, but a week later, Fischer was climbing again.

Viesturs, Kieser, and Neal Beidleman continued fixing the route above the Black Pyramid. At 7,410m, they set up Camp 3 in a small crevasse, soon moving 30m higher to avoid spindrift avalanches.

On July 21, Balyberdin, Beidleman, Kieser, Mauduit, and Viesturs left Camp 3 toward Camp 4. On the way, the weather deteriorated, and all the climbers except Balyberdin turned around. Balyberdin bivouacked at 7,500m. From there, he progressed each day a little higher, reaching 8,000m in whiteouts and deep snow. He didn’t set up Camp 4 and returned to Base Camp on July 24. K2 continued to receive a lot of snow.

The first summit bid

On July 28, Balyberdin, Kieser, Beidleman, Kopeika, Mauduit, and Viesturs left Base Camp. By July 30, they arrived at Camp 3 in a windstorm. While Balyberdin and Kopeika continued, camping at 7,500m stormy weather, Mauduit and Kieser stayed at Camp 3, and Viesturs and Beidleman descended to Base Camp. On July 31, Balyberdin and Kopeika reached the base of the summit pyramid in chest-deep snow. Taking a risk, they camped at 8,000m, ready to push for the summit.

Meanwhile, Nikiforov reached Camp 3, where Kieser and Mauduit were camping.

On August 1 at 9:00 pm, Balyberdin and Kopeika finally topped out without bottled oxygen after an 18-hour nonstop climb. After summiting, Kopeika started the descent to Camp 4, but Balyberdin decided to bivouac below the summit. On August 3, Balyberdin and Kopeika made it down to Base Camp.

The second summit bid

On August 2, Kieser, Mauduit, Nikiforov, and Peter and Robert Green climbed to Camp 4. But the next day, the Green brothers descended to Base Camp. On August 3, Nikiforov, Kieser, and Mauduit started their summit push without bottled oxygen.

Kieser was the first to leave high camp, followed a few hours later by Nikiforov. According to writer Jennifer Jordan, Mauduit wanted to wait for the sun as her toes were cold.

After reaching 8,450m, Kieser was exhausted from the deep, icy snow. An inner voice told him to abort his summit push.

Nikiforov made careful progress. Mauduit, who started her push later, was climbing fast and passed the two men at the Bottleneck.

On August 3 at 5:00 pm, Mauduit summited K2. Nikiforov topped out two hours later. Kieser stayed at the top of the Bottleneck, where he secured a safety line by anchoring the rope Nikiforov had left behind.

Problems start

Mauduit started the descent a couple of hours before Nikiforov but was afraid to make the traverse alone. Instead, she decided to bivouac in a snowcave at 8,400m, the same cave Balyberdin and Kopeika had used two days earlier.

When Nikiforov arrived a few hours later, he had to convince Mauduit to follow him down. Both climbers were exhausted, and Mauduit’s eyes, legs, and arms started to fail. With great difficulty, Nikiforov inched her toward Camp 4.

While Nikiforov was leading Mauduit, his crampon came loose, causing him to fall several meters. Kieser’s security rope saved his life.

Nikiforov and Kieser started the descent from Camp 4 on August 4, supporting Mauduit between their shoulders. At Camp 4, the exhausted Nikiforov continued descending, and Kieser contacted Fischer and Viesturs on the radio. Fischer and Viesturs were in Camp 3 preparing for their summit push, but they said they would help.

Kieser moved Mauduit toward Camp 3 despite the bad weather. Mauduit was already snowblind, and Kieser knew there was no time to lose. They had to bivouac at the edge of the shoulder. Meanwhile, Fischer and Viesturs attempted to climb up.

Avalanche hits Fischer

On the morning of August 5, Viesturs and Fischer were trying to reach Kieser and Mauduit when, just below the Shoulder, a spindrift avalanche swept Fischer 60m. Thankfully, Viesturs self-arrested and secured Fischer.

Kieser and Mauduit continued descending, and after many terrible hours, they found the top of the fixed ropes near Camp 3. Here, they finally met Viesturs and Fischer.

The group then assisted Mauduit to Camp 1, where Dan Mazur and Charley Mace took her the rest of the way to Base Camp.

Aftermath

Mauduit never thanked her rescuers or publicly acknowledged the rescue.

The rescue was a team effort, all completed without bottled oxygen.

We recommend reading two books about the climb: No Shortcuts To The Top by Ed Viesturs and David Roberts, and Savage Summit by Jennifer Jordan.

K2 has often flashed its savage side. One of the most famous disasters happened in the summer of 1995, between August 13 and 15. We examine the tragedy in a two-part series. You can check out Part 1 here.

In Camp 4

Spaniards Lorenzo Ortas and Jose Garces stayed in Camp 4 (7,950m) during the summit push on August 13-14. Waiting for their companions to return from the summit, they were going through hell, with hurricane-force winds tearing the camp apart. The two men soon started to get frostbite on their toes and fingers.

During that terrible night, Peter Hillary had a dangerous descent in the storm.

Jeff Lakes was also descending, but an avalanche caught him in his tent at a higher camp. Lakes dug himself out of the avalanche debris but couldn’t find his ice axes, crampon harness, or food. With great difficulty, he finally reached Camp 2 on the Abruzzi route, where he died of exhaustion on August 15. Kim Logan and Hillary buried Lakes at the camp.

Clear sky, frostbite

On the morning of August 14, after a terrifying night, Garces and Ortas woke to a bright, clear sky over K2. The two climbers looked at the upper section of the mountain, hoping to see the six summit group climbers descending. But their eyes were affected by the storm, and they could not see clearly.

Garces already had frostbite on his feet and hands, Ortas on his hands. With only one pair of gloves, one piolet, and the crampons, the Spaniards had to start their descent via the Cesen route. Their health meant they could wait no longer.

There was still no news from Lorenzo Ortiz, Javier Olivar, Javier Escartin, Alison Hargreaves, Bruce Grant, and Rob Slater. The storm probably caught the summit group descending just below the summit, probably at about 8,500m.

Bloodstained gear

According to the Spanish team's report in the American Alpine Journal, on August 14 at about 4 pm, Garces and Ortas descended to around 7,400m. There, they spotted some clothing, well to the right of their line of descent. First, they saw an empty boot with a heating device attached. They recognized that the boot belonged to Hargreaves.

Some three meters below the boot, they found a dark violet anorak with a small flower motif, and inside the anorak, a black harness. They recognized that these also belonged to Hargreaves. The anorak and harness were stained with blood.

Looking up the partially rocky gully, Garces and Ortas saw three distinct bloodstained tracks running well separated and parallel to each other. They came down from about 8,500m, a long way before the Traverse that leads down to the Bottleneck. It meant that at least three of the summit climbers must have fallen from the summit ridge, possibly blown off by the hurricane wind.

Hargreaves’ body

At about 7,100m, and 270m from the route, Garces and Ortas spotted a body. The body was lying in a hollowed rather flat area, at the edge of a line of seracs that are a prominent feature of the South Face. The body, wearing red clothing, seemed to be Hargreaves.

Garces and Ortas wanted to descend to their Camp 3 and later try to recover the body and bury it. But in poor health, they desperately needed to reach Camp 2 as soon as possible and eventually descended there by 10 pm.

Looking for the other missing climbers

On August 16, members of the New Zealand team, including Hillary, went to the Broad Peak Base Camp. Scott Fischer was there with his expedition, and the group scoured the summit area of K2 with a telescope. But they didn't spot anything.

From the Broad Peak Base Camp, Hillary then relayed the tragic news to the outside world.

Garces and Ortas had to wait several days for evacuation by helicopter. Finally, on August 19, they made it to the hospital.

The six summit climbers disappeared forever.

Strong climbers

All the climbers attempting to reach the summit that August were strong climbers who didn’t need high-altitude porters or oxygen. They were experienced and well-acclimatized. When they started their final push from Camp 4, the weather was stable. They knew they were responsible for their own decisions.

The six summit climbers, members of three different expeditions, joined forces. There were no rivalries. They encouraged each other, and the summit seemed close. They thought there was enough time to top out and return before any potential bad weather.

However, maybe group-motivated decisions made them forget to make individual decisions. At 8,400m, doubts emerged among several climbers. If they continued toward the summit, were they risking suddenly entering bad weather?

Hillary’s thoughts

Hillary made the right decision when he aborted his summit push. He had spotted strange clouds and listened to the voice in his head telling him to go down.

"Dad [Edmund Hillary] told me the most important thing I know: how to be bravely independent when making a decision. Everyone’s looking at everyone else, thinking: They’re feeling all right, so it must be all right. It’s hard to go against that. That storm was coming in, and it was incredibly obvious that going on was not the right thing to do," Hillary told writer John Elder after the expedition.

"It’s a savage mountain that tries to kill you," American alpinist George Bell said of 8,611m K2. Bell was speaking in 1953, after he and his climbing partners nearly died while attempting the first ascent of the world's second highest peak. In the years since, K2 has often flashed its savage side. One of the most famous disasters came in the summer of 1995, between August 13 and 15.

We will examine the 1995 K2 disaster in a two-part series, with part two coming tomorrow.

A history of tragedy

K2 saw its first ascent in July 1954. But the first fatality came much earlier, on July 30, 1939 (Dudley Wolfe). From the first ascent until the end of 1994, 113 climbers summited K2, and 38 died.

In August 1986, 13 climbers died, five of them during a week-long storm.

In the summer of 1994, five more died, including three Ukrainians: Dmitry Iszagim-Zade, Alexandr Pazkhomenko, and Alexei Khazaldin. While the three mountaineers were on their summit push, the weather turned. They never returned. Several days later, their teammates found Pazkhomenko and Khazaldin's frozen bodies at 8,400m. A German team found Iszagim-Zade's leg stuck in the snow near the Bottleneck.

The 1995 teams

In the summer of 1995, seven expeditions targeted K2. Six of them headed to the Pakistani side of the mountain, and one party approached from China.

A German expedition led by Peter Kowalzik attempted the North Ridge of K2 from Tibet. During their summit attempt on July 25, a major storm hit when they were above 5,000m. Avalanche danger forced them to turn around.

After five days, the weather improved and they started to climb again. On August 5, Kowalzik’s team reached Camp 4 at 7,900m, but early the next morning, another storm hit. Again, they had to retreat. While descending, Jay Sieger fell nine meters but was not seriously injured. Kowalzik’s team then called off the expedition.

American attempt on the Northwest Ridge

An American party led by Larry Hall made their Base Camp on the Savoia Glacier. They had almost no contact with the teams using the usual K2 base camp site. Hall’s expedition wanted to climb the Northwest Ridge.

In 1991, Frenchmen Pierre Beghin and Christophe Profit followed the Northwest Ridge, diagonally traversed the Northwest Wall, and finally followed the Japanese North Ridge route of 1982. They reached the summit on August 15, 1991, without supplemental oxygen. Although they climbed minimal new terrain, they climbed the top section of the route in alpine style, without fixed routes or established camps.

By June 27, Hall's seven-member team had set up Camp 1 at 6,000m.

Moving up to Camp 2, Hall was hit by a falling rock and sustained two broken ribs. They reached Camp 3 on July 17, and a two-day storm started.

"We were hampered all summer by two-to-three-day storms and major wind," John Culberson wrote.

After the stormy weather, they made a summit attempt on August 2. The team reached 8,100m but turned around in deteriorating weather. More snow fell, and they descended, hampered by avalanches and deep snow. On August 5, they made it to Camp 1 before continuing to Base Camp and ending the expedition.

Teams on the Cesen Route

The Cesen/Basque Route is on K2’s south-southeast spur. This route leads to the Shoulder at 7,600m, and from there, it shares the same route to the summit as the Abruzzi Route (Southeast Ridge).

The Cesen route was first attempted by a French-German party in 1981 and then by a U.S. team in 1983. Both had to turn around before reaching the Shoulder. In 1986, Tomo Cesen reached the Shoulder and descended to Base Camp via the normal (Abruzzi) route.

Finally, the Cesen route was completed to the summit in 1994 by Basque climbers Juanito Oiarzabal, Juan Tomas, Kike de Pablo, and Felix and Alberto Inurrategui. The Cesen is now the second most frequently climbed route on K2.

In 1995, two Spanish teams tried the Cesen Route. The first, a seven-person team led by Pepe Aced, reached 8,300m on July 5. But while descending, Jordi Angles fell in the dark. He dropped 1,000m to the foot of the mountain. It was the first fatality of the season.

The second party from Spain was led by Jose Garces. They arrived in Base Camp at the beginning of July, when Aced's team were already at 7,000m.

Almost all of Garces' strong seven-man team had experience on 8,000m peaks. They progressed well before their summit attempt. On August 1, they pitched Camp 3 at 7,100m and continued to around 7,400m before turning around on August 3 in bad weather.

Successful Dutch ascent

Another of the 1995 teams, a Dutch party led by Ronald Naar, succeded on the Abruzzi route. On July 17, Naar and Hans Van Der Meulen (who climbed without supplemental oxygen) reached the summit accompanied by high-altitude porters Mehrban Shah and Rajab Shah. British climber Alan Hinkes also summited with them. Hinkes had planned to climb with Alison Hargreaves, but during the first weeks on K2, they went their separate ways.

Two more teams

Two other teams wanted to ascend the Abruzzi Route. One was an expedition from New Zealand led by Peter Hillary (son of Edmund Hillary), and the other was an American/British party led by Rob Slater that included Alison Hargreaves.

"Leaving Alison Hargreaves at K2 Base Camp with the American expedition, I returned home with an uneasy feeling, almost a premonition, that a disaster was going to happen," Hinkes wrote in the Alpine Journal.

A three-team summit push

After a prolonged period of bad weather, six climbers from Garces' Spanish team started from Base Camp at 9 pm on August 9 for a final summit attempt. They split into two groups, eventually reuniting in Camp 3 on August 11.

Not feeling strong enough for the final attempt, Manuel Anson descended to Base Camp. Garces, Javier Olivar, Javier Escartin, Lorenzo Ortas, and Lorenzo Ortiz continued.

The U.S.-British party led by Slater made several aborted summit attempts in the poor weather. On August 6, porters arrived to help several members of the team hike out. But Slater elected to stay and make another attempt, along with the team from New Zealand. Hargreaves, who almost gave up her attempt, decided at the last minute to stay and climb with Slater and the Kiwis.

Peter Hillary's five-member team included Kim Logan, Bruce Grant, Matt Comesky, and Canadian Jeff Lakes.

After climbing during the night, the five Spanish climbers mounted the Shoulder and, at dawn, set up Camp 4 at 7,950m. On August 12, at about 10 am, they were visited by Slater, Hargreaves, Hillary, Logan, and one more climber who arrived via the Abruzzi Route to scout the upper slopes.

With favorable weather conditions, they arranged for a joint attempt the next day at midnight. After their meeting, the visitors descended to their lower camp, and the Spaniards tried to get some sleep.

The final push

At midnight and in good weather, all the climbers started their final push.

From Base Camp, the summit looked clear.

One member of the Spanish team, Ortas, didn’t feel well. He decided to stay in Camp 4. The Spanish party headed up, assuming the other group would join them later.

One hour after the Spaniards left Camp 4, Slater, Hargreaves, and Grant went past Ortas’ tent, hoping to catch the Spaniards before the Bottleneck.

Later, but still before dawn, members of the New Zealand team also arrived at Ortas’s tent. Hillary asked Ortas's permission to get into his tent to warm up a little. Canadian Jeff Lakes was also pushing for the summit, but Logan and Comeskey stayed in their Camp 4.

Garces returned from the summit push long before the Bottleneck. On his way down, he met Slater, Hargreaves, and Grant. A little later, suffering from cold feet, Garces reached Camp 4. Hillary and Lakes were still there, using one of the Spanish tents. Soon after, Lakes and Hillary set off for the summit.

Hillary troubled

At noon on August 13, there were eight climbers between 8,200m and 8,300m ascending slowly up the Bottleneck and out across the exposed traverse.

But still at the foot of the Bottleneck, Hillary was worried.

"I was troubled by the weather. An ominous bank of cloud had blanketed western China and had drifted up against the northern boundary of the Karakoram Range. The northerly wind was driving towers of rising cloud up over K2, and as it drifted over the summit, periodically obliterating my view of the mountain, it would sweep the flanks with showers of falling snow," Hillary recalled.

Hillary decided to abort, but Lakes said he would continue for a short time to see if things improved.

Meanwhile, in Base Camp and the lower parts of the mountain, a harsh wind picked up. According to radio conversations between the Spanish team and Base Camp, Hargreaves saw that the weather was deteriorating but thought there would be enough time for everyone to reach the summit.

The three Spaniards climbing toward the summit reported that the weather was no different than the previous day, with the usual build-up of daily clouds temporarily enveloping parts of the mountain. They reported at noon from 8,400m that it was clear on the far Chinese horizon and perfectly windless.

On Sunday afternoon, Hillary descended to Camp 4. Later, Lakes also aborted his summit push and arrived at Camp 4. According to Ortas and Garces, Lakes looked tired. Ortas and Garces gave Lakes something to drink, and Lakes continued descending by the Abruzzi Ridge.

While the small group of international climbers were approaching the summit, wind increased in Camp 4.

The summit

On August 13, Ortiz contacted Base Camp by radio, asking what time it was. It was 6:23 pm. Asked where they were, Ortiz answered: "Too late, we are on the summit."

There was joy, although their colleagues in Camp 4 and Base Camp were starting to worry about the late time and the changing weather.

Ortiz and Grant were the first two to top out. Soon after, at 6:30 pm, Olivar called to say he and Hargreaves had also summited. He added that Slater and Escartin were very near the top, coming up slowly. Olivar said it was extremely cold but windless and that all four (Grant, Olivar, Hargreaves, and Ortiz) were about to start their descent. Because of the late hour, they would not wait for Escartin and Slater.

Hurricane winds

While the summiters started to descend, sometime between 8 and 9 pm, hurricane-force winds hit Camp 4, still occupied by Ortas and Garces. The situation began to get very complicated.

It was a dry wind blowing from the north, and Ortas and Garces were struggling. Garces’s tent was about to be blown away. With Ortas's help -- he held the tent with bare hands -- Garces jumped out at the last minute. The two climbers lost their gloves, and by 11 pm, they also had to abandon the other tent. They were forced to find shelter by lying against the bases of the blown-away tents, waiting for dawn.

Hilary and Lakes, moving at different speeds, had a nightmare descent. The summiteers, already descending but much higher on the mountain, were in real danger too.

We continue their story in Part II here.

Two years ago, we reported that royalty fees to climb K2 had increased for the first time in 20 years. At the time, it was good news. However, the whopping new increase announced for 2025 may have gone too far.

No more group fees

During 2023 and 2024, K2 climbing permits were granted collectively to groups of seven climbers at $12,000. Each additional climber cost an extra $3,000. For 2025, Gilgit-Baltistan authorities have got rid of the collective fee and established an individual royalty of $5,000 per climber. A group of seven climbers that paid $12,000 this year will therefore pay $35,000 in 2025. That's nearly a 200% increase.

Likewise, the fee required for the country's other 8,000'ers (Broad Peak, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II, and Nanga Parbat) will increase too. In 2025 it will change from a collective fee for seven at $9,500 to an individual fee of $4,000, meaning seven climbers going for any of these peaks will pay $28,000.

The document is confusing and includes some errors. The fee for trekkers is noted as $100 for 2024, when in fact it was just $50. Interestingly, the trekking fee is valid for climbers aiming for any peak below 6,500m, from unclimbed snowy mountains to rock spires such as the Trango Towers. Pakistan still offers a world of low-cost possibilities for mountaineers ready to turn their attention away from the highest peaks.

According to the document, the trekking fee will be $300 next year, six times the 2024 rate.

Might authorities reconsider?

Local operators are not happy with the price hikes and have requested that local authorities reconsider the increase.

"This is not good for promoting adventure tourism in Pakistan," Ali Porik of Jasmine Tours told ExplorersWeb.

"This year the number of climbers in Pakistan dropped...and it will definitely be less next year [if the new prices are confirmed]," Mingma G Sherpa, owner of Imagine Nepal posted on social media. "We have our reservations for next year but it could be our last season in Pakistan."

Other outfitters noted that the prices listed on Sept. 5 may not be final because of the strong reaction from operators.

More details have emerged about the paragliding flights of Jean Ives Fredriksen, Benjamin Vedrines, Liv Sansoz, and Zeb Roche from the summit of K2.

All four climbed without oxygen or support on July 28. Vedrines flew first, while Sansoz and Roche achieved the first tandem flight.

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Vedrines described his achievement as a "big dream." He climbed K2 in a record 11 hours without oxygen, then launched from the 8,611m summit in what he called exceptional conditions. He used a 17m wing specially designed for him.

Fredriksen, meanwhile, reached the summit two hours later in flat calm, so his takeoff was much harder. He had to wait 90 minutes for a wisp of wind to fly.

Impromptu rescue

On the following day, Vedrines and photographer Seb Montaz climbed up again to Camp 2 to retrieve the tent and gear. Here, they also helped Marco Majori of Italy, who had fallen below Camp 4 while skiing down in thick fog. Marco tumbled 10 meters into a crevasse and dislocated his shoulder.

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Majori reached Camp 3 with the help of climbing partner Federico Secchi, but apparently, they had no tents or supplies available.

"The French climbers were great," Secchi wrote on social media. "Without hesitation, they came to Camp 3 with food, tent, medicines, and an oxygen bottle...so that [Marco] could manage to descend the next day."

The tandem flight

Sansoz and Roche reached the summit just as Jean Yves Fredriksen was about to take off. They followed him shortly after, at around 5 pm. They glided for about 30 minutes amid the Karakoram giants.

"It was a magical flight...with so much height and beauty," Sansoz wrote. "Even today, just thinking about it gives us the chills!"

The couple's customized tandem glider weighed just 2.43kg, and Fredriksen's was even lighter: 1.1kg. Read more here.

Here is a video of Sansoz and Roche's  climb and the flight down:

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And here is Fredriksen's footage:

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Four French climbers summited K2 without oxygen on July 28, including Benjamin Vedrines in a record 11 hours. Since then, they've been surprisingly tight-lipped about how they went down. Finally, the four fliers have left Pakistan and have revealed that they all flew down from the summit, despite the apparent ban on paragliding after the death of a Brazilian cross-country pilot.

Jean Yves Fredriksen, known as Blutch among his friends, was one of the four. His K2 climb was extraordinary for reasons other than his descent. He followed a combination of routes, linking the Polish line (the central rib of the South Face), the tricky Messner Traverse, and the Cesen route (SSE spur) alone during a non-stop, 39-hour push. "I just hate crowds," he explained simply.

The 49-year-old climber is a paragliding celebrity, an extreme skier, an alpinist, and even a musician who plays his violin on every expedition. For years, he had dreamed of climbing K2, then cycling across the Tibetan plateau and repeating the climb+paraglide on Everest's North Side.

"But the situation in China is complex, so finally I decided to focus only on K2," he explained.

This spring, Fredriksen shared Base Camp with Vedrines and photographer Seb Montaz, and with Liv Sansoz and Seb Roche. All four had separate climbing plans.

A different acclimatization

Fredriksen, in particular, followed a different acclimatization method, going up and down to the one camp he pitched. It was at 6,600m, just before the Messner Traverse. This is the most dangerous section of the route because a big serac hangs above it.

"I  went up and down about seven times, hoping for a summit chance, but either conditions or bad weather pushed me back down," he explained, citing the unusually heavy snow this year.

Fredriksen didn't want to do the Messner Traverse more than once. He never intended to rotate to any higher altitude.

"I belong to the school of Jean Troillet of Switzerland [a regular climbing partner of Erhard Loretan], with whom I was lucky to climb in the Himalaya. They always acclimatized between 6,000m and 7,000m but never slept at that altitude. Once acclimatized, they went for fast summit pushes."

He discussed that approach in Base Camp with the other climbers. They advocated for sleeping at Camp 3 or Camp 4. "That is definitely not my way of climbing," Fredriksen said. "After all, the summit of K2 is just 2,000m higher than my high camp. I gain more altitude when I am in Chamonix and climb Mont Blanc.

Every time he went up, he carried his ultra-light paraglider on his back.

"The paraglider is my rope, my backup," said Fredriksen. "With it on my back, I am sure that, if anything happens, I can always escape and fly back down." Fredriksen's ultralight paraglider weighed just one kilo, not counting his 300gm harness.

He did not select a line ahead of time. Rather, he adapted to the conditions as he climbed. His only stipulation was not to follow the crowds.

The summit push

Eventually, a small weather window opened and put everyone in K2 Base Camp on the move.

"The snow was still very deep, but the weather forecast was excellent," he said. "On my summit day, there was zero wind, and the temperature was very nice."

Fredriksen set off from Base Camp on July 26 and slept in his one camp before the final push.

"On the 27th, I started with the daylight at around 5am,," he said. "I didn't want to do the Messner Traverse in the dark. It only took 10-15 minutes, but got me under that horrible icefall. Once safely on the other side, I climbed for two more hours in deep snow until I reached the Cesen route at some 6,900m."

On the Cesen, Fredriksen found some old fixed ropes from the 2019 expedition, the last to attempt this route. He followed them until 7,200m. "From that point, there was nothing," he noted.

Fredriksen followed a couloir for an hour, but it proved a dead end because of too much snow. He had to retreat and followed a rocky section to the right instead. It eventually led him to the normal Abruzzi Spur route at nearly Camp 4. By now, it was around midnight. He continued without sleeping. (He carried no sleeping bag or tent anyway.) By then, the Nepalese and Pakistanis, along with their clients, were ahead of him, so he didn't have to break the trail anymore.

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"I didn't sleep but I did stop three times to melt some snow and hydrate. This time, I took a stove with me," Fredriksen said. "For instance, I stopped before traversing the Great Serac. I saw climbers queuing there, so I opted for  a 30-minute break and drinking while they moved along."

Fredriken reached the summit at 3 pm. He stopped some meters away and dozed off, while Naoko Watanabe of Japan and her Sherpa guide took their own summit pictures and then left. It was time to fly down, but there was a problem: Zero wind is great for climbing at high altitude, but not for flying down.

Hoping for wind

"The take-off was very difficult due to the absolute lack of wind," Fredriksen said. "I spent some 90 minutes trying, but the paraglider didn't inflate enough to hold me. Finally, a gust of wind came and it was just enough to hold me."

Fredriksen flew one minute north into China, then turned right along the east face and then right in front of the Bottleneck.

At 6,800m, there was a thick layer of clouds, so Fredriksen had to look for a gap in order to keep descending with some visibility. "Luckily, I did a 360 and found a small hole in the mass of clouds right by the South Face," Fredriksen said. "It was amazing."

He said the fog was 100m thick and then suddenly disappeared. "Then I saw my camp and my footprints in the snow on the Cesen route," Fredriksen said.

He landed in soft snow, five meters away from his tent at 6,600m, after a 20-minute flight from the summit.

No way to hide

Frederiksen confirmed that Vedrines had launched some two hours before him, and that he met Sansoz and Roche on top. They got there shortly before Fredriksen left. An Italian climber on the summit that helped the other pair on their take-off.

How can you hide yourself when flying from the top of K2 with so many teams around? As far as everyone knew, paragliding was not permitted at the time. Moreover, Fredriksen confirmed they flew many times during the expedition, before and after authorities banned paragliding.

"We were very discreet, never showed off or told anyone, and we flew very early in the morning or at night," he said. Yet he admitted that some people in Base Camp told the liaison officer, who checked his gear for paragliders. "However, the LO didn't come to us after we descended from the summit," Fredriksen said.

The question remains, whether Pakistani authorities will react. The climbers risk being banned not only from paragliding but from climbing in the country. Officials took the matter seriously after the accident of Brazilian pilot Rodrigo Raineri, who had allegedly flown before his team's NOC (No Objection Certificate) came through. It ended in a major mess, including the arrest of the expedition outfitter, Ali Saltoro, of Alpine Adventure Guides for several days.

Last week, Pakistani climbers brought the body of Muhammad Hassan down from 8,400m on K2. They took him back to his family, thus closing a shameful episode in both the climbing industry and the history of K2. But there is, at least, hope that this might be a turning point for future 8,000m expeditions in Pakistan.

As Hassan agonized at 8,200m on July 27, 2023, climbers who had jumped over him on their way to the summit and back tried to shield themselves from criticism behind the supposed impossibility of rescuing someone from such a place. One year later, five men extricated the body from a coffin of solid ice and managed to bring him down in 48 hours, efficiently, safely, and affordably. It's proof that the most remarkable acts in the mountains may not involve a summit. The whole operation started with the will and logistical skills of a Pakistani woman, Naila Kiani.

'They were still crying'

Naila Kiani is pursuing her own 14x8,000m challenge, but she was on K2 this summer not to climb it -- she had already done so last year -- but to carry out a clean-up project, sponsored by Mashreq Bank.

Kiani coordinated a combined team of low-altitude porters and climbers to improve the poor state of higher camps.

"During this time, I learned that Hassan’s family had been seeking assistance for over a year to retrieve his body and, aware of my team's presence, were trying to contact us," Kiani told ExplorersWeb. "I met Hassan’s mother, Khadija Bibi, and his wife, Batool Hassan in Skardu before the mission. They were still crying...They wanted to bury the body in their village to have closure."

Muhammad Hassan was an inexperienced climber who joined the K2 summit push, hoping to increase his standing in the climbing community. He fell sick and suffered a slow death at the Bottleneck while around a hundred climbers passed him on their way to the summit.

As the line of climbers descended, they passed Hassan's corpse. He left a sick mother, a widow, and four sons behind. His youngest child was born months after he died on K2.

Hassan's family has fared better than many families who have lost their main provider in Pakistan's mountains. After ExplorersWeb broke the story, it quickly went viral, thanks to Philip Flaemig's revealing drone footage and the testimony of Austrian climber Wilhelm Steindl.

Steindl raised a remarkable amount of money to support Hassan's family. According to Kiani, Steindl saw that the family got a new house, land, and money in the children’s accounts until they turn 18.

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The retrieval

Kiani's team decided to try and retrieve the body. They received the necessary No Objection Certificate (NOC) from local authorities on July 18, just days before the summit window.

"Despite no initial funding and not enough [personnel or] time...I accepted this mission with my heart," Kiani said. "Then I used my brain to find the most efficient way to make it happen."

The team included three climbers just back from Nanga Parbat: Akbar Sadpara, Dilawar Sadpara, and Zakir Sadpara. It also featured one climber from the clean-up team, Murad Sadpara, and another, Ali Mohammed, who had just returned from the summit.

Minimizing costs

"My logistics partner, Imran Pakora, agreed not to make any profit [from the expedition] and kept costs low by using the existing clean-up team’s infrastructure at Base Camp," Kiani said.

On July 27, Kiani sent the team to Camp 2 with instructions to wait there while she asked the K2 rope fixers to see if the body was still under the Great Serac. On July 28, they confirmed the body's location.

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The retrieval operation took place immediately. The team recovered the body and brought it to Camp 4 on July 30. One day later, they all returned to Advance Base Camp.

Not for free but not for profit

"I had tentative support from potential donors, including the Gilgit-Baltistan government and Wilhelm Steindl, but I aimed to secure funding internally," Kiani noted.

This is important. The question of who foots a rescue bill is paramount since costs can be extraordinarily high. While it is usually kept quiet, those involved in rescues or body retrievals often turn a profit.

"This mission was humanitarian, but we aimed at covering the expedition costs, including the climbers' salaries," Kiani said. "The logistics company only charged for food, transport, and oxygen [at cost]. I also didn't take any money. All the funding we received went directly to the logistics company. Eventually, I couldn’t find an internal sponsor, so I asked Steindl, who had supported the family a lot last year and is working on a mountaineering school project in Pakistan. He generously paid the logistics company."

Confidence boost

The retrieval has brought comfort to a devastated family. It has also made a clear point: a rescue at 8,400m on K2 is possible. Often unfavorably compared to the Nepalese Sherpas, the Pakistani mountaineering community has demonstrated they are skilled, driven, and strong enough to perform something previously considered impossible.

"The recovery mission has given confidence to the climbers that they are capable of executing risky rescue missions," Kiani said. "It should also give foreign climbers confidence in the capabilities of Pakistani high-altitude workers. I also hope that with this success, the relevant government organizations can help us establish structured rescue teams."

Next steps: training, payment, certifications

What Pakistani climbers need now to take the next step forward are better conditions, complete training, and proper certifications.

"Many Pakistani high-altitude porters and climbers are highly skilled but lack international certification," Kiani explained. "While some have great potential, they often receive minimal training and poor compensation. Inadequate pay and poor treatment results in lower performance, leading to a loss of faith among Western climbers."

She notes that Pakistan doesn’t have any IFMGA-certified guides, while Nepal has over 90. "In Western countries, guides taking clients to high altitudes must be certified, but Pakistan doesn’t have that requirement yet," she says.

Some private initiatives, such as Steindl's, aim to provide mountaineering training. But Kiani is aiming for more. She has managed to get support from Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to create a state-of-the-art climbing school to certify climbers at an international level.

"We want to make sure that all high altitude workers and climbers get certified training, so they can also get appropriate salaries and provide a high quality of service to international clients."

According to Kiani, Nepali Sherpa guides earn an average of $10,000 for guiding a client, while Pakistani high-altitude workers average $2,000 for equivalent work.

A silver lining

The project started last month.

"We have sent a report to the Prime Minister and are waiting for budget approval," Kiani told us. She is also seeking support from the international climbing community.

"In the initial years, we'll need help to train instructors in Pakistan, develop a curriculum, and improve mountain tourism infrastructure," she said.

Hassan's death shocked many readers, embarrassed the climbing community, and prompted an investigation by Pakistani authorities. Yet the real turning point could be this recovery mission. It has shown that something can be done for climbers in trouble high on K2. More importantly, it looks set to spark a national project to improve the lives of local climbers so that tragedies such as Muhammad Hassan's won't happen again.

Pakistani climbers have retrieved the body of Muhammad Hassan from above the Bottleneck on K2. Hassan died on the upper slopes last year, as dozens of climbers stepped over the Pakistani high altitude worker on their way to the summit.

Naila Kiani coordinated the retrieval as a humanitarian project during her cleanup expedition to K2. According to Kiani, Hassan's family approached her for help in bringing down the man's body. They took advantage of the weather window of the last few days and managed to lower it to Camp 4. Yesterday, they brought it all the way down to Advanced Base Camp.

From here, Kiani says they need the Pakistan Army's support for a helicopter evacuation to prevent the body's decomposition in the high temperatures. This helicopter flight back to Hassan's village may already have occurred.

"Hassan's death highlighted the need for better training, equipment, and ethical standards in mountaineering," said Kiani. "This mission aims to give Hassan a respectful burial and showcase the skills and dedication of Pakistani high-altitude workers."

In addition to Kiani, those involved in the retrieval were Dilawar Sadpara, Akbar Hussein Sadpara, Zakir Hussein Sadpara, Mohammed Murad Sadpara, Ali Mohammed Sadpara, Imran Ali, and Wali Ullah Fallahi.

K2 season wrapping up

Several teams are packing up and leaving K2 Base Camp after their summits last weekend. Among them are Australian Allie Pepper and her sherpa guide Mikel. Pepper says that this time, she used supplemental oxygen to reach the top. She still aims, however, to summit all 14 8,000'ers without bottled oxygen.

"At 8,320m, I made the decision to use it and continue," she wrote. "Otherwise, I would have to turn back due to the time and how slow I was going. K2, we will see you again. What a beast of a mountain."

Although K2 summits are far more common than they were even a few years ago, doing so without bottled oxygen is still an impressive rarity. Federico Secchi of Italy and Liv Sansoz and Seb Roche, both of France, did so earlier this week. The French pair had acclimatized earlier by reaching 7,000m on Broad Peak.

Secchi, together with another no-O2 climber, Tommaso Lamantia, topped out on July 28. Two other Italians without supplemental oxygen, Matteo Sella and Marco Majori, had to turn back at 8,200m.

Yesterday, during the descent, Majori slipped and fell about 30m above Camp 3, injuring his shoulder. Secchi helped Majori to Camp 3. Here, worsening weather and darkness prompted the pair to overnight in Camp 3.

Because of Majori's injury, speed climber Benjamin Vedrines, who was at Camp 2, returned to Camp 3 to help Majori down.

Since then, Secchi and Majori have safely reached Camp 2 despite some tense moments. They are currently descending without problems and should arrive in Base Camp in another few hours.

Vedrines, Fredriksen, Sansoz, and Roche had wanted to paraglide down from K2, but we have no news at the moment about whether any of the four did so.

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.

Ischii Sports has announced on its website that it has called off any potential rescue of Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima.

The celebrated alpinists fell from 7,000m on the West Face of K2 on Saturday. A rescue helicopter spotted their two motionless bodies in the snow on Sunday but could not land. Yesterday, as their film crew moved down to Base Camp, they reported seeing the bodies, still motionless.

According to the Japan Times, a large crack (or serac?) above the figures threatened to give way and made any potential ground rescue too hazardous. With the permission of their families, the attempt was called off.

The Japanese pair had set out to do a new alpine-style line on K2’s formidable West Face. Kazuya Hiraide has won three Piolets d’Or, including two with Kenro Nakajima. ExplorersWeb highlighted their climbs on Karun Koh in 2022 and Tirich Mir in 2023 as among the best expeditions of the year. As we reported earlier this year, Hiraide said his previous climbs have served to prepare him for the greatest challenge of his career, the West Face of K2.

“I have climbed many mountains, and now I have become afraid of them," said Hiraide in a recent documentary about their ascent of the North Face of Tirich Mir. "They scare me because now I know the danger under my feet."

Ishii Sports, Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima's main sponsor, continues to try to organize a team to reach the two Japanese climbers. So far, there is nothing concrete. Although many climbers are currently descending K2's normal route after summiting, it is doubtful if any of them could take part in such a technically difficult rescue.

On Saturday, Hiraide and Nakajima fell an unknown distance from 7,000m on the West Face of K2. They had been trying to open a new alpine-style route up that formidable and dangerous face. Hiraide, in particular, is widely considered one of the outstanding climbers of this century, and this was to be his masterpiece.

On Saturday afternoon, a military helicopter spotted Hiraide and Nakajima from the air. They seemed to be motionless, but their condition is unknown.

According to Ishii Sports, the climbers' film crew, who were at Advanced Base Camp, have returned to Base Camp. Other BC staff include a filmmaker, a liaison officer, and two or three kitchen workers. The film crew left gear at ABC that may be needed by future rescuers.

Pavel Shabalin speaks

In the meantime, several knowledgeable climbers have weighed in on the possible line that Hiraide and Nakajima were attempting. They agree that it was likely along the couloir to the left of the 2007 Russian route.

Pavel Shabalin was one of the Russians who climbed the West Face of K2 during a massive expedition that lasted two and a half months in 2007. To date, this has been the only successful ascent of K2's West Face.

Shabalin told ExplorersWeb that he believes the Japanese pair has been trying to climb Voytek Kurtyka and Jean Troillet's attempted 1987 route up that couloir. Kurtyka and Troillet reached 6,400m before turning back because of heavy snowfall and avalanche danger in the couloir.

Shabalin thinks that it is impossible for a ground rescue team to reach them in a reasonable time. There are too many crevasses on the glacier at the foot of the couloir, he says, and the safety of the rescuers is impossible to guarantee.

After the Russians' successful ascent of the West Face, leader Viktor Kozlov told the Russian climbing magazine Verticalniy Mir in September 2007 that team members agreed that the West Face of K2 combines the North Faces of both Jannu and Everest. A frightening proposition.

Hope lives; reality intrudes

Although time is not on the side of Hiraide and Nakajima (even if the alpinists are somehow still alive), mountaineering history is rife with cases of survival against the odds. Most recently, consider miracle man Anurag Maloo, who was stuck in a crevasse for three days on Annapurna last year and given up for dead. Or Joe Simpson's 1985 self-rescue on Siula Grande. Or Doug Scott's remarkable ordeal on the Ogre and Gukov's difficult rescue on Latok I. Japanese alpinism also features riveting episodes, including Omiya and Okano's rescue on Latok IV and Matsuda's miraculous survival on Minya Konka.

French climber Benjamin Vedrines has set a new speed record on K2, more than halving the previous record. His mindblowing ascent without bottled oxygen took only 11 hours.

On July 28 at 11:10 am, Benjamin Vedrines topped out after climbing the normal route.

"I still find it hard to believe," Vedrines wrote today on social media. "When I was up there, I also had a hard time realizing where I was and how I got there."

Beating Chamoux's record

Setting off at 12:10 am from Advanced Base Camp (5,303m), the reference point for the late Benoit Chamoux's previous record of 23 hours in 1986, Vedrines managed the demanding ascent this time.

Two years ago, on his first attempt, Vedrines backed out at 8,300m and was later found unconscious by other climbers. "I must say, when I arrived at the place in question, it did something to me," he says.

Ever since that incident in 2022, Vedrines had wanted to return to K2 for another try. "On July 28, 2022, I was not ready," he now says. He admitted that he needed to grow as a climber first.

All the planets aligned

For Vedrines, Sunday was the day when "all the planets aligned." He says he felt good at over 8,000m this time, although he had to fight during the last 150m.

"I didn't really explode with joy up there," he said. "I felt a little sadness. At the same time, I went so far in the effort and commitment to this project in general that when I got up there...I shed tears, which never happens to me in the mountains."

Vedrines climbed Broad Peak in July 2022 in a record seven hours before his unsuccessful attempt on K2 that same summer.

Vedrines has not said whether he paraglided down from the summit, which was his initial plan.

Ishii Sports, the sponsor and home team of renowned Japanese alpinists Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima, says that Hiraide notified them yesterday that he and Nakajima planned to do "a one-day reconnaissance to the upper part of Camp 2."

Two hours later, the home team learned that Hiraide, 45, and Nakajima, 39, had fallen from around 7,000m. They did not elaborate on how they knew this. Ischii Sports also confirmed what everyone already knew, that the two unnamed Japanese climbers in trouble were Hiraide and Nakajima.

The two elite climbers were trying to open a new alpine-style route on the highly committing West Face of K2. Bad weather had delayed them for weeks, and they were anxious to make a last-minute try.

Yesterday, after news of the accident, Pakistan Army helicopters flew to K2 from Skardu and spotted the two motionless Japanese climbers. The helicopter could not land in that high, dangerous spot. It was clear that a ground rescue effort had to be organized. Ishii Sports, in cooperation with the Japanese embassy in Pakistan, is trying to organize a ground rescue team.

The condition of Hiraide and Nakajima remains unknown. If they are alive, time is of the essence, as Georgian alpinist Archil Badriashvili points out. Their tracker information and more helicopter flights over the downed figures might reveal something, he suggests. Currently, sherpas and many other climbers in the area are descending from the summit of K2 via the normal route and are not immediately available.

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.

Two weeks ago, Riccardo Selvatico, a photographer with an Italian-Pakistani expedition on K2, found the mummified remains of a climber during a glacier walk. Russian climber Yuri Kruglov took a sample from the body to run a DNA test that will identify the deceased climber. In the meantime, the long-dead avalanche victim was buried beside the Gilkey Memorial on the glacier.

A photograph of the remains shows clothing from the Russian brand BASK, founded in 1992. In a letter sent to Planet Mountain, BASK explained that the logo style on the clothing only began in 2002.

Could it be Arkady Kuvakin?

In time, the DNA test will identify the deceased climber. The current hypothesis is that the body belongs to Arkady Kuvakin.

Kuvakin disappeared along with three other Russian climbers in August 2006. A huge avalanche hit the climbers above the Bottleneck at 8,350m.

Elena Laletina of Russian Climb first suggested that the body could be one of the 2006 team. However, Laletina also told us that there is room for doubt. The body has long hair, which does not match any of the 2006 victims. According to Yousef Al-Nassar, who recently left K2 Base Camp, the body had nearly shoulder-length hair.

Laletina explained that BASK sells its gear in stores in Kathmandu too. Any climber from any country could have bought it.

Doctors who made a visual examination of the corpse thought that the body belonged to a male climber aged between 17 and 30. Kuvakin was 32 in 2006.

A survivor's opinion

Nevertheless, one of the survivors of the 2006 tragedy, Jacek Teler of Poland, told ExplorersWeb that the clothes were definitely from one of the four Russians on the 2006 expedition.

”It is a fleece sweatshirt, and during the summit push we were all in down jackets," Teler wrote. "There are many indicators that among the leading two [Piotr Kuznetsov and Arkady Kuvakin], one of them could have already taken off his outer down jacket, or gone with it unbuttoned. It was probably one of them. Both of them had items with the BASK logo."

The 2006 Kuzbass expedition

The four Siberians came to K2 in the summer of 2006 to climb the Abruzzi Route.

The so-called Kuzbass Expedition -- named after the expedition's mining sponsor -- featured a strong team led by Yuri Uteshev. It included Alexander Foigt, Piotr Kuznetsov, Viktor Kulbachenko, Arkady Kuvakin, Alexey Rusakov, Alexander Gaponov, Sergey Naumenko, and Sergey Bogomolov.

Several other teams were on the mountain at that time. Everyone was fighting against strong winds, cloudy days, and short, unstable weather windows. Progress was slow, and it was difficult to establish camps and fix ropes along the Abruzzi Spur.

Small groups, bad weather

The Siberian team divided into small groups. According to a report by Anna Piunova of Mountain.ru, the climbers saw the mountain clearly just once during the first week of the expedition.

Warm temperatures followed the initial spell of poor weather. The ice started to melt, provoking rock fall. Kuvakin reported that some missiles weighed more than 20kg. One of them wiped out their tents in Camp 1.

On July 13, Kuvakin said that it was snowing non-stop at Base Camp. He added that, according to the meteorologists, the wind reached 150kmph at 6,500m.

Tents from other expeditions were swept off the southeast spur. During the second half of July, almost all the camps were destroyed. Despite the ferocious weather, the Russian continued working on the route. They climbed up and down, rotating their small groups and retreating to Base Camp when required.

Some teams abandoned their climbs, while others continued. Three climbers even summited despite the conditions. Those descending commented on the strange sounds they heard when they stepped on the snow.

Meanwhile, at Camp 2 (6,700m), the Russians had to wait out a storm for six days.

More climbers join the group

Jacek Teler from Poland, Gia Tortladze from Georgia (who later left for Base Camp before the summit push), and Terence Bannon of Northern Ireland joined the Russians on a summit push.

The party agreed that if the weather did not improve, they would abandon their attempt on August 13.

But that day, the morning was bright and clear. Already on their summit push, the climbers decided to continue. Though some had left Base Camp two weeks earlier, the team remained strong.

Kulbachenko and Gaponov led the way, followed by a group composed of Voigt, Uteshev, Kuvakin, and Kuznetsov. A third small party of Bogomolov, Teler, and Bannon followed.

The silent monster

The groups kept some distance apart and reached the upper section of K2 on August 13 at about 1 pm. Suddenly, above the Bottleneck at 8,350m, a huge, silent avalanche hit them.

"We were very close to our goal," Bogomolov recalled in an interview for Sportexpress. "The summit was already clearly visible. Two more hours of climbing [remained]. There were only 200m left when the avalanche struck us.

Bogomolov explained that an enormous piece of frozen snow and ice, 120 by 80 meters in size, hit them at high speed.

"There were none of the usual sounds," Bogomolov said. "It all happened almost silently."

Kulbachenko and Gaponov managed to dig themselves out, but the avalanche swept away the second party (Kuznetsov, Kuvakin, Foigt, and Utsehev). The third group (Bogomolov, Teler, and Bannon) miraculously survived.

A fruitless search

The survivors started to search for the four missing men. They could see traces of the avalanche as low as 7,800m. Bogomolov went one hundred meters below the Cesen Route, using the fixed ropes from a Japanese expedition, but without any luck. Kuznetsov, Kuvakin, Foigt, and Uteshev had disappeared.

"We had a fantastic team. Maybe the strongest Russian team at that time," Bogomolov said.

Two days after the accident, the bad news arrived in Russia. That day, Alyona Kuznetsova, Piotr Kuznetsov’s wife, was driving home from work when the expedition doctor called and told her nervously there were problems.

Alyona Kuznetsova hadn't even known her husband planned to climb K2, thinking he was only scouting the mountain. Kuznetsov just told her about the plan by satellite phone the night before the tragedy.

Some months later, Alyona Kuznetsova learned that a group would go to K2 Base Camp that summer to pay homage to the missing climbers. Kuznetsova was no mountaineer but decided that she would train and go along. She needed answers. She asked Julia, a daughter from her husband's first marriage, to go with her.

In 2007, Alyona and Julia went to K2, with Alyona climbing to 6,200m. There, tears and anger took over. She shouted at K2: Why did it take her love away? But she finally found peace and could return to Russia, having faced the mountain.

Kazakhs find a camera

Four years after the accident, some Kazakhstan climbers found a jacket, a backpack, and a camera on the glacier between Base Camp and Advanced Base Camp. The belongings lay at the base of the couloir where the Cesen route starts.

They left the items on the glacier but took the flash card from the Sony camera. Later in Almaty, they reviewed the photos. The camera had belonged to Kuznetsov. There were many images, right up to the hour before the accident.

In 2021, Ukrainian climber Valentyn Sypavin found a jacket on the glacier, also sporting the BASK logo.

A rescue helicopter has spotted the figures of Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima on the West Face of K2 after they reportedly fell from 7,500m. The two Japanese are not moving, but their condition is unknown. The altitude is too high for a helicopter to land, the Pakistani news site Dawn.com confirms.

As we previously reported, Hiraide and Nakajima went missing on K2 earlier today. They had begun a summit push via a new alpine-style route on the West Face.

Journalist Jamil Nagri of Dawn.com wrote that news of the fall came from Waliullah Falahi, the Shigar Deputy Commissioner in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Several hours ago, two army helicopters flew directly from Skardu to K2 and began a search. Observers on board spotted the two motionless alpinists.

A ground rescue team will try to reach them as soon as possible, but it is already dark in Pakistan.

We will update this story when more information is available.

At the moment, there is no official confirmation from Japanese sources, but Benjamin Vedrines' drone pilot, Thibaut Marot, posted this morning that two Japanese are missing on the West Face of K2.

Marot is currently in K2 Base Camp with Vedrines, who is starting his summit push tonight.

The only climbers on the West Face are Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima. The Japanese pair set off from Base Camp three days ago to attempt a new line on K2's formidable West Face in alpine-style.

After patiently waiting for weeks for a weather window, the Japanese texted their home team on July 24: "It was raining at 4:30 am, but we are leaving anyway for Advanced Base Camp, hoping for a last chance."

A Pakistan military helicopter is flying over K2 looking for Hiraide and Nakajima, according to Marot.

Kazuya Hiraide has won three Piolets d’Or, including two with Kenro Nakajima. ExplorersWeb highlighted their climbs on Karun Koh in 2022 and Tirich Mir in 2023 as among the best expeditions of the year. As we reported earlier this year, Hiraide said his previous climbs have served to prepare him for the greatest challenge of his career, the West Face of K2.

This is developing news, and we will update once we have more information.

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.

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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

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"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.

Over a hundred climbers have been biting their nails in K2's Base Camp for weeks, wondering whether to continue to wait or to go home. Many started to think that the season would end without summits. But the patient ones have begun to see a little progress -- and the promise of a weekend summit window.

Benjamin Vedrines recently battled fierce winds and cold to complete his acclimatization. He is just back from his third solo visit to Camp 3. His photographer, Seb Montaz, waited in Camp 2. Vedrines has managed to keep his motivation after one month and 10 days of waiting.

He knows that his limited preparations might not be enough for his original plan of climbing K2 in a one-day push. But he is ready to adapt and try to summit in two days, if necessary.

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Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima have likewise waited patiently for weeks. Finally, this morning, they are on the go.

"It was raining at 4:30 am, but we are leaving anyway for Advanced Base Camp, hoping for a last chance," they texted their home team. The Japanese alpinists will try to open a new route, alpine style, on the West Face of K2.

Commercial climbers have also latched onto summit hopes. Chhang Dawa Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks announced yesterday that sherpas and western climbers had joined forces and managed to fix the ropes to Camp 3 at 7,350m.

"All necessary equipment for our team has been deposited," Chhang Dawa Sherpa wrote. "With improving weather expected in the next four to five days, the summit push will begin."

But will the weather really improve?

Forecast

Several climbers have complained that so far this season, forecasts throughout the Karakoram have failed dismally. Unexpected bad weather thwarted summit attempts on Gasherbrum II and Broad Peak and delayed progress elsewhere in the Karakoram.

We checked with American meteorologist Marc de Keyser of Weather4Expeditions. He is working with teams on K2, Broad Peak, and K7. He told ExplorersWeb that contrary to some forecasts, his have been quite accurate so far. But de Keyser agrees that 2024 has been a challenge.

"The subtropical jet stream has been meandering just north of Pakistan but close enough to maintain high winds at 7,500m+ for almost the last two weeks without any break," De Keyser explained.

He explained that teams must stay patient and wait for the high-pressure belt over the Arabian Sea and central India to expand northward, pushing the jet stream with the poor weather north into China and Kazakhstan.

And his is exactly what is going to happen within a few days. On July 26, the wind at the higher levels should decrease significantly, and the air mass [will] become drier and more stable. A nice weather window will then open for K2 and neighboring peaks. From July 26 till July 28-29, the weather should be favorable to summit.

A summit push has also begun on Broad Peak. Karakorum Expeditions promised that eight Pakistani rope fixers would set off from Base Camp today to open the route to the summit.

The mountains take lives, and eventually, they return the bodies. But identifying them is not always easy.

A week ago, Riccardo Selvatico, a photographer with an Italian-Pakistani expedition launched by the Italian Alpine Club to commemorate the 70th anniversary of K2's first ascent, found the mummified remains of a climber during a glacier walk.

At first, they thought it was a Spaniard from the Basque Country because he wore a jacket with the logo "Bask" on it. Indeed, Basque climber Atxo Apellaniz died on K2 in 1994. But he was on the north side, in Chinese territory. So it wasn't him.

A year later, in 1995, three Spaniards -- Javier Escartin, Javier Olivar, and Lorenzo Ortiz -- died in an avalanche on the South Side of K2. But they were from Aragon, not Basque Country. Besides, Basque is written "Vasco" in Spanish and "Euskera" or "Euskaldun" in the Basque language.

A clothing brand

It turns out that Bask is a Russian brand of mountain clothing that sponsored some of its country's expeditions in the 2000s and 2010s. When the Russian climbing community saw the pictures, they quickly came up with another, more plausible theory.

"Most probably, he is one of the four Siberian climbers who died in 2005," Elena Laletina of Russianclimb wrote. "Alexander Foight, Yuri Uteshev, Piotr Kuznetsov, and Arkady Kuvakin wore such jackets. They were swept [away] by an avalanche at the Bottleneck."

Yuri Kruglov, a Russian climber currently climbing K2, took a sample from the body to later run a DNA test that will identify the deceased climber. In the meantime, the long-dead avalanche victim was buried beside the Gilkey Memorial on the glacier.

The winds are too high on K2 for climbers and paragliders, but not for glider pilots Sebastian Kawa and Sebastian Lampart. The two Polish aviators took off from Skardu and soared over K2 and Masherbrum yesterday.

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The pair were on board a two-seater Schleicher ASH 25 glider, equipped with oxygen and a small emergency engine that they didn't need. A car pulled them with a rope until they were airborne, Wspinanie.pl reported. They then flew over the Karakoram and around K2, as Kawa's tracker shows:

The expedition had to face many obstacles besides the high altitude. It took time and much effort to get the necessary permits, since flights of all kinds are heavily restricted in Pakistan. The Polish gliders hope their feat will promote gliding in the country.

Kawa had to transport the glider in a trailer all the way from Poland to Pakistan, assisted by a friend. The post below shows the trailer crossing Iran.

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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.

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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 short answer is that it's not clear if climbers will have a chance to try for the summit of K2 before the season closes. The weather remains unstable and unpredictable, and teams have not even set up Camp 3.

However, the trend in the last few years is to wait till the last moment, if necessary, and then attempt a single, massive summit push. In recent years, such a strategy has resulted in high summit rates, but it involves serious risks.

Numbers and weather vs business

On 8,000m peaks, an outfitter's goal is simple: put the maximum number of climbers on the summit at the minimum possible cost and within their safety standards. These standards may vary, depending on the company. The number of K2 permits has increased significantly in the last 10 years. In 2024, it's around 200. Two Japanese alpinists are trying a unique route on the West Face, and some paragliders are likewise climbing on their own, but the rest are clients, sherpas, and guides.

Before staking their season on one massive summit wave, agencies must set up and supply Camp 4, or at least Camp 3, with plenty of oxygen. Then all they need is a short weather window to allow a strong team to lay ropes and break trail to the summit, with the clients right behind.

Summit pushes have now begun on Broad Peak and Gasherbrum II, but K2 has to wait until the complicated logistics are ready for this much higher peak.

Consequences for no-O2 climbers

As on Everest, the first casualties of this last-minute strategy are those attempting the peak without bottled oxygen. While they benefit from fixed ropes and a packed trail, they must avoid traffic jams, especially on the upper sections. Those on oxygen can afford to wait, but it's vital for those breathing entirely on their own to get up and down quickly before they become too cold or run into altitude problems. Oxygen not only staves off altitude sickness; it also makes climbers less vulnerable to cold.

One of those no-O2 climbers, Benjamin Vedrines of France, is now considering a change of tactics. His original plan was to speed up K2 in a day and paraglide down. He may now try to climb in two days rather than one. Vedrines also assumes that he will have to go ahead of the others, breaking his own trail and using only old ropes, if any at all.

This means he might be alone on the upper part of the route. Meanwhile, he badly needs one more acclimatization round and is running out of time. So he and photographer Seb Montaz are moving to neighboring Broad Peak for the weekend, where they will try to climb to 7,500m.

Unreliable forecasts

Several climbers currently in the Karakoram report that forecasts seem to be unreliable this year.

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Vedrines and three other French climbers/paragliders in Base Camp had hoped to go up and leave gear at Camp 3 this week. However, conditions kept everyone from advancing any further than Camp 2.

"Past that, it was too stormy," Vedrines said.

At least one of the paragliders, Jean-Ives Fredriksen, managed to fly  from Concordia and capture some amazing video:

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Meanwhile, being alone on K2 is part of the plan for alpinists Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima of Japan. They still hope to attempt the West Face in a single, alpine-style push. Yesterday, they reported that their only chance may come at the end of July, if at all.

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The risks of one massive push

The single-push strategy on K2 was borrowed from Everest, where it has been a success, assuming that crowds and several deaths a year are a fair price.  However, K2 differs from Everest in two ways. First, the weather is usually worse than, so teams can't afford to let the crowds have their summits first as they wait for another, quieter window of opportunity. Second, the objective risks are much higher on the upper part of K2. This is also where the biggest traffic jams occur.

Everest's most dangerous section is the Khumbu Icefall at the very start of the climb. Teams can spread out when they move to the comfortable Camp 2, minimizing their exposure in the unstable Icefall. Once in Camp 2, they sit and wait for the right summit day.

K2 has objective risks all along the Abruzzi Spur route, but the biggest hazard is the traverse under the Great Serac and the Bottleneck. Climbers must do this 8,000m+ passage twice on their summit day, both to and from the summit.

Russian roulette

There is no way to predict when a piece of the Great Serac might break off and fall on the climbers. In the last few years, increasing temperatures have made all mountains, including K2, more unstable.

Traditionally, K2 climbers assumed speed was their best option when traversing under the serac. Everyone hurried past that section quickly. But speed is impossible when there is a long line on the ropes as inexperienced clients cautiously negotiate steep, icy terrain with a void yawning beneath them. More than ever, the traverse is a Russian roulette, with the odds of survival affected by conditions, numbers, weather, and luck.

Disaster has struck in the past. On Aug. 1-2, 2008, there were crowds, delays, slow progress. Then a piece of the Great Serac broke off. The subsequent avalanche cut the ropes and stranded several climbers on the upper sections as night fell. They had to try to downclimb in the dark.

The following day, other avalanches struck. Some climbers lay injured, while others tried to help. The result was the worst tragedy in the history of K2: 11 dead and three seriously injured.

What to expect

In the next few days, several climbers may join the ongoing summit push on Broad Peak, either to add its summit to their resumés or to acclimatize for K2. If the weather permits, we will get summits.

The main uncertainty on K2 is whether climbers will try to reach Camp 3 (at 7,350m) before it is supplied and push forward from there. Or will they wait for staff to carry up food, fuel, and oxygen bottles, then fix the ropes above before beginning their final push? Multimodel forecasts show high winds on the mountain until next Friday, July 26.

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.

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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.

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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.

How Rodrigo Raineri of Brazil died in a paragliding accident in Pakistan last week remains unclear. But the aftermath has turned messy.

The local expedition outfitter has been arrested, prompting a campaign among Pakistan operators for his release. The outfitters point their fingers at expedition leader Antoine Girard of France, who denies responsibility.

There are several versions and no official report yet of how and why Raineri, 55,  suffered a fatal crash in a cross-country (XC) paragliding accident. However, 24 hours after the accident, local media reported that Raineri had no permit to fly. Shigar district Deputy Commissioner Waliullah Falahi told Dawn.com that the deceased had "started the adventure from a mountain in Askole [and that he] didn’t have the permit for the activity."

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On his social media, Raineri mentioned that he was teaming up with XC pilots Antoine Girard and Veso Ovcharov. Check the post below. However, Raineri specified: "Each of us has a satellite locator, each one decides what they want to do, but we are a cohesive team and ready for action if someone needs help/rescue."

Girard's role

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Antoine Girard is one of the most experienced cross-country pilots in Pakistan. He flew above Broad Peak in 2016 and 2021. This year, he planned to repeat the feat and also fly above K2. He was listed as expedition leader, but as he explains on his website, 8000Paragliding, his role is just to organize the logistics and to share his experience about high-altitude flights and Pakistan.

"Everyone must be autonomous in flight and on the ground and take their own responsibilities," he explains. "In no case are you guided or under my responsibility.”

Outfitter in jail

Two days later, Ali Porik, owner of Jasmine Tours and vice-president of the Pakistan Association of Tour Operators (PATO), revealed that Ali Muhammad Saltoro, owner of Alpine Adventure Guides (one of Pakistan's better-known outfitters), had been arrested after the accident. Porik forwarded this letter to ExplorersWeb, asking us to share it publicly.

Ali Porik provided some context to the situation. The team of paragliders led by Antoine Girard had planned to fly cross-country from Goro-II, a camp along the trek to K2. For this, they needed a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from local authorities.

Since Goro II is several days on foot from a road, Alpine Adventure Guides applied for the NOC and provided the team with a trekking permit -- needed to venture into the Baltoro -- trusting the NOC would be granted by the time the paragliders reached their take-off point at Goro II.

Launched early

However, for some reason, part of the group set off from near Askole village before the expected date. The accident thus took place not at Goro-II but further down the Baltoro.

We asked Girard for his side of the story. He claimed the note issued by PATO was "false at 80%" and complained about "much false information and rumors relayed in the media."

"The investigation is underway, and I am not allowed to speak," Girard added. However, he did text with Cross-Country magazine over WhatsApp from Concordia on July 9. Here is some of that communication:

The weather was good on 4 July. All the members decided to fly. I instructed Rodrigo, Walid, Colleen and Romano to fly not further than Paju, as the upper part of the Baltoro requires more experience…The Askole/Paju part does not present any particular danger. The plan was safe and conservative for all members. We learned about the accident on the morning of 5 July. We contacted Ali [Saltoro] immediately and he told us to stay at Concordia until he solved the problem.

Going down to Skardu requires five or six days without phone or internet and we do not want to be accused of disappearing. We wanted to clarify the situation first, and then start walking down if required by the authorities.

We are devastated to know about this and we want to clarify the situation.

We had numerous conversations with the agency about the permits. They said we had permission to fly where we did. Porters from the agency even came with us to the launch and helped some of the pilots take off.

No one is responsible for the accident. When we fly, it’s our own responsibility.

Waiting for clarity

Cross Country noted that after the accident, two of the paying pilots left the trip while others continued toward Concordia. They also state that Giraud and Ovcharov have been told by authorities to stay in Concordia, where there is a Wi-Fi connection, in order to be available to the authorities.

Ovcharov told Cross Country that he intended to start trekking back to Skardu on Wednesday and that he would help clear up the facts and get Ali Muhammad Saltoro released.

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):

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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:

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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.

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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.

The weather is bad in Pakistan's Karakoram, delaying early progress on K2 until next week for both alpine-style and commercial teams.

Alpine-style teams

Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima are back in Base Camp after scouting the West Face of K2.

Benjamin Vedrines of France is also in Base Camp after paragliding from just below Camp 3.

"It took five attempts but I finally managed to take off," he wrote.

Vedrines attached a video of the flight, showing the Baltoro Glacier at his feet.

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Another paraglider, Jean Ives Fredriksen, filmed a flight he made from Base Camp. Fredriksen is there with Bertrand Roche and Liv Sansoz. Reports are that they will attempt the first tandem flight from K2.

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In general, the weather has not made things easier for this season's several paragliders. Antonie Girard has been acclimatizing in the Hunza Valley for a month but only spent one night at 5,700m before moving on to the Baltoro. According to the French media, he may be planning to paraglide above K2.

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A questionable soloist

We also expect to hear news shortly about Yousef Al Nassar of Kuwait, who wanted to try K2 without oxygen or porters. On his social media, he mentioned he wanted to climb "alpine style, via the Cesen route or the South Face." He probably meant the Polish route up K2's South Rib.

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Last weekend, Al Nassar reported he was climbing a variation of the Cesen route. But according to his tracker, he didn't get to the mountain. From 5,200m (the altitude of Base Camp or slightly above), he went back down the glacier. His latest track today locates the climber at 4,760m.

Commercial groups

All the main commercial outfitters will again be on K2. 8K, working with Karakoram Expeditions, set up Camp 2 and returned to Base Camp before the weather worsened. Garrett Madison arrived in Base Camp today. He has teams for K2, Broad Peak, and an unclimbed lesser summit, which he has not named for now.  Seven Summit Treks, as usual, have teams on all of Pakistan's 8,000'ers.

Elite Exped has also confirmed its participation, despite the company's and founder Nirmal Purja's recent controversies.

"We have a team climbing and guiding, including Nims, and will be supporting a group of clients, as well as some 14 peaks projects," Elite Exped confirmed.

We asked about Elite Exped partner Mingma David Sherpa, who has climbed K2 a record six times.

"Mingma David still wants to go and attempt K2 for a record-breaking seventh time, but currently, he is preparing the teams for the autumn season in Nepal," explained an Elite Exped spokesperson. "As soon as he can...find some spare time, he will go to K2."

One prominent absence this year is Furtenbach Adventures. The Austrian outfitter has decided to skip Pakistan and focus on Cho Oyu and Ama Dablam in the fall. Lukas Furtenbach's team retreated on K2 because of high avalanche risk last year. Two of his team members were the ones who filmed a dying Muhammad Hassan beside the fixed ropes under the Great Serac. Meanwhile, other climbers, who had continued despite conditions, headed past him toward the summit.

Yesterday, we wrote that the alpinists on K2 are enjoying a little solitude before the arrival of commercial expeditions. The solitude will not last much longer. According to Pakistan's newspapers, hundreds of visitors are heading up the Baltoro.

So far, Pakistan authorities have registered 175 permits to climb K2, Dawn reported, and the number may increase. Still, it's only a fraction of the 1,700 total permits for peaks 6,500m or higher.

Figures on K2 rose gradually until the turn of the century and then skyrocketed in the 2020s. According to blogger Alan Arnette, 2018 was a record year with 62 summits. The final surge came in 2022, after the COVID hiatus. By then, Nepalese expedition outfitters had exported their business model, encouraging clients to bag the 14 8,000'ers as quickly as possible. In 2021, there were about 60 summits. In 2022, Pakistan issued 207 permits for K2. That year, on July 22 alone, about 150 climbers trudged up the fixed ropes to the top.

Last year featured a similar number of summits on a very busy summit day at the end of the season after a long period of bad weather. Unfortunately, we also saw local porter Muhammad Hassan slowly dying at the Bottleneck, while the line of climbers passed him by. Hassan was the only casualty on the mountain that year. Of the 112 total summits, most took place on July 27, with a handful more the following day.

Booming business

After several years with frozen royalty fees, the permit to climb K2 has increased to $12,000 for a team of seven and $3,000 more for each additional member since 2023. That's still cheap compared to Everest, which is $11,000 per person and will rise next year. But whether on K2 or Everest, the price increase has not stopped wealthy clients, who are willing to pay whatever the going rate is for a fully catered, guided experience.

After Hassan's death last year, and the subsequent investigation, there were talks about potential measures or restrictions. However, the new season has already begun, and no change can be seen. Money from expeditions is an essential source of income for the local tourism industry. For local porters and guides, it may be life-changing.

On the bright side, despite so many people and so many summits (largely thanks to fixed ropes, abundant oxygen, and sherpa support), the summit-to-death rate has decreased. According to recent statistics, the most dangerous 8,000m peak is now the less popular Nanga Parbat, also in Pakistan.

Most K2 teams should reach either K2 or Broad Peak Base Camp this week. Meanwhile, the mountain is quiet. Only one person so far has ventured beyond Camp 2. Benjamin Vedrines climbed alone, sometimes holding onto old ropes from last year, until 7,300m at the top of the Black Pyramid. He then paraglided back down to Base Camp.

This was his second acclimatization trip on K2, which he will try to climb without oxygen and in a single, one-day speed push.

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K2 has started differently this season. While the commercial teams that usually dominate the former Savage Mountain are still trekking in or acclimatizing on Broad Peak, a small group of alpinists have K2 to themselves. Briefly, Chogori seems like it once was.

Ambitious goals

Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima are engaged in one of the most ambitious goals of the last decade: a new alpine-style route on the West Face of K2. The Japanese pair are in their Camp 1, doing exploratory day trips. On Sunday, they reached 6,700m and then returned to Camp 1. Yesterday, they planned to go even higher, to check conditions and explore their potential route.

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Benjamin Vedrines of France has an equally ambitious, if more sporting goal. He aims for a FKT (fastest known time) on K2 without oxygen or Sherpa support. Furthermore, he wants to complete it in a single day, following the normal route. He then intends to paraglide down from the summit.

Vedrines and photographer (and IFMGA guide) Seb Montaz reached Base Camp well ahead of the commercial teams and are acclimatizing quickly. They have already completed a first rotation to Camp 2, from which Vedrines paraglided down.

On their second rotation, a blizzard stranded them in Camp 2 this past weekend, but yesterday Vedrines left for Camp 3. It is unlikely that rope-fixing teams have reached that far, so the climbers may be relying on old ropes and their own skills.

Livingstone and Cesen to mystery goal

Today, Ales Cesen of Slovenia and Tom Livingstone of the UK are trekking up the Baltoro. Local outfitters say they have permits for K2 and Broad Peak, but there is no word about their exact plans.

"Here in Karakoram, as everywhere else, the idea of mountaineering is changing a lot in terms of radical commercialization," Cesen wrote from Concordia. "However, we are not giving up just yet, and the spirit of alpinism is still alive."

The background in Cesen's photo, top, indicates that they could reach the base of either K2 or Broad Peak tomorrow.

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Which 8,000'er will see the first summits?

Meanwhile, progress for expeditions on normal routes varies, depending on the peak.

Climbers are ready to attempt the summit of Nanga Parbat, but the weather is not cooperating. On Broad Peak, Karakorum Expeditions says they have fixed the route until Camp 3, usually the highest camp they set up ahead of time.

Sajid Sadpara of Pakistan is also on Nanga Parbat, working with Seven Summit Treks. He is in Camp 1 today and heading for Camp 2 tomorrow. Others are already on their second rotation and aiming for Camp 3 for the night.

Sajid took advantage of Camp 1's Wi-Fi connection to post a short video showing a big avalanche near the normal route on K2.

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Gasherbrum II troubles

Delays continue on Gasherbrum II, a popular goal this season. Finding a way through the glacier and icefall continues to thwart all climbers, according to Horia Colibasanu of Romania, who has not attempted it yet.

"For 10 days, no one has been able to cross the icefall that covers half of the route to Camp 1," he wrote. "Nine Frenchmen and 2 Poles tried, on foot and with drones, along three variants, but the heat and the fragmentation of the glacier thwarted their efforts."

Nevertheless, Colibasanu and his partner Silviu Balan will try. "We plan to take a tent and two drones and push forward as far as possible, then set up a scouting point with the drone and try to find an acceptable route," Colibasanu wrote.

They will leave for Camp 1 early tomorrow. Colibasanu says he will carry a heavy pack for that altitude, about 17kg.

Uta Ibraimi of Kosovo is currently on her way to GII after her unsuccessful summit attempt on Kangchenjunga this spring.

Benjamin Vedrines has had time to acclimatize with a "run" to Camp 2 on a deserted K2. He then paraglided back down to Base Camp. Summits on Nanga Parbat might start soon from both sides of the mountain. And French alpinists Yanick Graziani and Helias Millerioux will attempt a 7,000m peak in the Shimshal but haven't yet revealed which one.

K2 before the crowds

Guided climbers are landing in Skardu this week. Meanwhile, local porters have been carrying supplies and oxygen and pitching tents, but K2 Base Camp remains almost empty. Note that helicopters are not an option in Pakistan; everyone still treks in.

Benjamin Vedrines and photographer Seb Montaz reached K2 Base Camp last week and immediately set off to Camp 1 for two days to acclimatize. Vedrines also made a quick run up to Camp 2 and paraglided down. He aims to do a one-day speed ascent of K2 without bottled oxygen, then paraglide back to Base Camp.

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Japanese Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima are on the first stage of their new route up the West Face. They say they have spotted a good line for their attempt.

French pair leave clues

Yanick Graziani and Helias Millerioux of France are not ready to reveal their goal, but they left some clues. A map, actually.

Their goal is one of the 7,000'ers in Pakistan's Shimshal -- possibly Distaghil Sar (also written Disteghil Sar), the nearest summit to their base camp. At 7,885m, it's the seventh-highest peak in Pakistan and has just a handful of ascents. The north face remains unclimbed.

Both Graziani and Millerioux have impressive climbing resumés. In 2008, Graziani bagged the first ascent of the southeast point of Pumari Chhish with Christian Trommsdorff, alpine style. The peak is not far from the climbers' current location. In 2021, the pair climbed the north ridge of Diran Peak and then Rakaposhi, both alpine style. In the fall of 2022, Millerioux attempted the west side of Manaslu.

Millerioux won a Piolet d'Or in 2017 after a new route, alpine style, on the South Face of Nuptse, with Frederic Degoulet and Nicois Benjamin Guigonnet.

Nanga Parbat

We are awaiting news from the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat, where David Goettler, Boris Langenstein, and Tiphaine Duperier were ready to push for the summit as soon as the weather permitted. The French pair intend to ski down from the summit; Goettler might paraglide down. Climbers on the normal route confirm the weather has improved.

On the Diamir side, Anna Tybor and Tom Lafaille spent the night in Camp 2 on their second acclimatization trip up Nanga Parbat. Tomorrow, the Polish-French couple will continue to Camp 3.

"Conditions are still quite difficult," Tybor wrote. "There is really a lot of snow after the recent snowfall, and breaking trail is very time-consuming. Fortunately, a lot of people are heading up from C2 tomorrow."

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Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima have reached the West Face of K2.

While K2's normal Base Camp is starting to fill, the Japanese climbers remain isolated at the foot of the West Face. They even need to level the ground for their tents.

"We have some civil engineering work ahead to make our tents as comfortable as possible," the climbers told Ishii Sports. "We are tackling a difficult challenge and expect to spend a long time here."

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Big plans on K2?

This weekend, Sajid Sadpara posted this photo on Instagram:

The picture shows Tom Livingstone of the UK and Ales Cesen of Slovenia. Livingstone and Cesen haven't revealed their plans, although Cesen recently posted that he was training for "a big one" in Pakistan. The younger Sadpara has let slip that they may be heading for Broad Peak and K2. We will have to await details.

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In 2018, Cesen and Livingstone, with Luka Strazar, climbed a new route on Latok I. It was just the second climb overall on that 7,145m peak.

Other well-known figures are heading to K2 as well, including Valery Babanov of Russia, who attempted Everest without O2 this spring. In the photo below, taken in Skardu, he stands beside Jorge Egocheaga of Spain.

Naila Kiani of Pakistan summited K2 last year and is now returning to the mountain to lead a cleaning expedition.

Gasherbrum II

Horia Colibasanu of Romania is heading to Gasherbrum II, as the next stage on his no-O2/no porters 14x8,000m project. In a previous conversation with ExplorersWeb, the Romanian climber said he had some big ideas for future Himalayan expeditions but struggled to find partners to carry them out. He reached Skardu two days ago with a fellow Romanian partner, who is still unnamed.

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"A game of life and death.”

“Something that will live in my soul forever.”

“I try to live my dreams.”

K2 and the Invisible Footmen wastes no time leaping into mountain-sport platitudes. But there’s a dark underbelly to this, and the film bares it almost right away.

A laden Pakistani porter on his way to base camp at Pakistan’s most famous peak cuts in.

“The people who don’t care,” he says, “make us carry 30-35 kilograms” (translated). He shakes his head slightly and glances aside. “The ones who do care make us carry up to 22-24kg.”

It’s important to remember that all realities exist at once. In one of them, men work themselves to the bone so others can stand on top of mountains.

Inequities between people who go on paid expeditions and people who make them possible run as deep as the industry. It’s a microcosm of a human arrangement that collars the planet and inflicts wounds that have nothing to do with mountaineering.

However, that’s not true if your economic world is contained within mountaineering. That’s the case for many Pakistani K2 porters, who generally earn a pittance compared to international guides but show up for work nonetheless.

Paltry wages

Earnings for a low-altitude porter (one who stays below the highest of the peak’s five camps) can be paltry: $55 has been reported as a three-week rate. To make things worse, there’s no reliable rate for porters — only pack weight and altitude limits. Nepali Sherpas and western guides also crowd the K2 market, and are reportedly well-compensated.

Without seismic change, there's no indication the Pakistanis' situation will improve. Developing new skills is a venture for either the bold or the reckless. Equipment is prohibitively expensive and training is inaccessible.

“We come here every year,” one aging Pakistani man says in the film. “We don’t have any other choice. Our helplessness brings us here.”

They filter in for the season from all over Pakistan, but some call the Karakoram home — like Muhammad Hassan of the Shigar District.

Last year on K2

Hassan became the icon of a movement to improve the lives of K2 porters, but not until he lost his own. Hassan died near the K2 summit on July 27, 2023 in an incident that quickly became a bone of contention. Climbers and guide staff variously reported Hassan sustained an injury that immobilized him, then died while summit-bound teams jumped over him on their way up.

Invisible Footmen constructs a world where such callous behavior seems feasible. Money rules everything in front of the lens, and men seem as desperate to capture it as they are jaded toward it.

The film is not void of joy, but don’t expect a romp. This is a world with caustic and deeply entrenched problems, and Invisible Footmen concerns itself with depicting it.

Hassan’s story shocked a faction of the mountaineering community awake. It prompted a government investigation, led to a two-year ban on the company Hassan worked for, and stimulated funding for his surviving family via crowdsourcing.

A year later, lasting change still seems diffuse. The K2 season is primed for takeoff — time will tell if wages for Pakistani porters continue to gutter.

Two of the most exciting expeditions of the season start today in Pakistan. Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima have just landed in the country, bound for one side of K2. Benjamin Vedrines of France will target the other side.

Piolet d'Or winners Hiraide and Nakajima will soon begin acclimatizing for Hiraide's dream project: a new route up the the West Face of K2.

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Vedrines' paragliding attempt

Benjamin Vedrines of France has been training intensely for his own K2 dream: a one-day ascent of the second-highest mountain in the world without supplementary oxygen or support. He will then paraglide down.

In addition to ski mountaineering training, Vedrines has followed some intense workouts with coach Leo Viret. He also has a new prototype paraglider designed by badass pro pilot Jean-Baptiste Chandelier. Vedrines' new ultralight weighs just 925gr for a 15-square-meter sail.

More paragliders

Vedrines may not be the only French climber with a paraglider on K2. Altitude News mentioned (but didn't confirm) that six other French climber-paragliders could be planning to fly near or from K2. These include Jean-Yves "Blutch" Fredriksen, Bertrand "Zebulon" Roche, and Liv Sansoz, who could attempt a first tandem flight from K2.

Antoine Girard, who already reached 8,400m in a record flight above Broad Peak, could also plan to fly above the summit of K2. Last year, Girard and his team flew above Spantik. This year, they have been in Pakistan since May 22. According to their last video, they are acclimatizing at 5,000m.

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Commercial teams

Meanwhile, the commercial expeditions start their approach trek in two to three weeks. Unlike in Nepal, the teams rarely acclimatize on other peaks. Rather, they get used to altitude by trekking up the Baltoro Glacier and then doing rotations up K2 itself.

Those who plan several 8,000'ers in the season usually start with lower peaks first, typically Nanga Parbat or Broad Peak. This way, they avoid rotations on the harder and riskier K2.

Last year, the weather only allowed a single summit push at the end of July, with tragic consequences. Pakistani porter Muhammad Hassan died while climbers stepped over him on their way to the top. It is yet to be seen if local workers' conditions will improve or if measures will reduce the alarming amounts of trash left on the approach trek and on K2 itself.

Alpine-style teams

While K2's commercialization resembles Everest more every year, alpine-style teams have plenty to choose from in Pakistan as long as they seek out slightly lower mountains.

David Klein of Hungary will begin his second attempt on 7,403m Istor-o-Nal, located in the Hindu Kush, on the country's northwest frontier. Klein will pair up with Nagy Marton. They will be completely alone, not just on the peak itself but in the entire region.

Istor-o-Nal has just one documented ascent route. The climbers will keep an open mind and decide their line depending on conditions.

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Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima will travel to Pakistan in two weeks to attempt one of the most ambitious goals in current alpinism: a new route on the West Face of K2, likely in alpine style.

Kazuya Hiraide has won three Piolets d'Or, the first with his late partner Kei Taniguchi and the others with Nakajima. ExplorersWeb highlighted their climbs on Karun Koh in 2022 and Tirich Mir in 2023 as among the best expeditions of the year. Yet for Hiraide, these climbs have been a process of learning and preparation for the West Face of K2.

A deep sense of humility fronted this ambitious project. After a superb new route on the Northwest Face of Sispare in 2017, Hiraide and Nakajima trekked to the West Face of K2. Studying it, they agreed that their skills and preparation were only enough to climb half that monster wall. Now they are ready, they say modestly, to find out how far they can get.

"By accumulating experience and taking small steps, I can turn the impossible into the possible," Hiraide said on their expedition website. "I've always tried to climb mountains like this, so even if it takes me 20 years to accomplish the impossible, it's still fun. That's what the Western Wall [West Face] is all about."

Historic project

Although they have not specified their climbing style, Hiraide and Nakajima have done all their previous climbs in pure alpine style. On K2, they will certainly be on unknown terrain, without oxygen, and on their own. Climbing in one push with no fixed ropes on the huge West Face would be a historic achievement.

"In my heart, I have expectations, hopes, worries, fears...I can't narrow it down to just one word," Hiraide reflected as he prepared for departure.

Although the usual climbing season on K2 unfolds in July, the pair are leaving for Pakistan at the end of May. They will stay in the Karakoram from June until August.

They have not yet shared details of their acclimatization plans or strategy. But they did share a cool teaser video:

Only one previous party, a big Russian team led by Viktor Kozlov in 2007, has climbed the West Face of K2. The Russians used classic expedition tactics, fixing ropes all the way. At the same time, they used no supplementary oxygen. Remarkably, most of the routes on K2, except for the normal Abruzzi Spur route, were first climbed without bottled oxygen. The Japanese will continue the tradition.

Unlike the other, more snowy sides of K2, the West Face mostly involves bare rock and ice couloirs. It is also scarily vertical.

Fresh from climbing three alpine North Faces in three days, French ace Benjamin Vedrines is turning to ski-mountaineering for the rest of the winter and spring. He wants to get as fit as possible to prepare for a major high-altitude challenge in July. Vedrines plans to climb K2 without oxygen, in a one-day speed ascent. He will then paraglide from near the summit.

"It's not the number of mountains I climb, it's more about the journey on each of them," Vedrines wrote some weeks ago. "With K2, I have a special relationship."

Lessons learned

"I want to climb K2 again because the mountain forced me to turn around in 2022 at 8,400m," Vedrines told ExplorersWeb. "I had just climbed Broad Peak twice, once in a whopping 7 hours, 19 minutes from Base Camp to summit. When I went up K2 immediately afterward, I suffered severe hypoxia because of fatigue."

Indeed, other climbers on the spot found him nearly unconscious and gave him oxygen. Vedrines recovered almost immediately thanks to the bottled gas and started descending on his own. At a certain point, he just paraglided back to Base Camp.

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"This time, I will learn from this previous expedition, and try to do things well while limiting risk as much as possible," said Vedrines. "The goal is to climb the mountain in a day. If conditions are good enough [they must be excellent, he noted], I will take off near the summit with my paraglider."

Growing experience

Vedrines told ExplorersWeb that he is looking forward to reaching above 8,600m for the first time. "It would be a big step for me to reach that symbolic altitude, and it will also be a big evolution in the way I train. This will be a good test for future high-altitude projects.

"I'll have to train a lot, It's going to be demanding but spreading my paraglider up there and taking off, my feet above all these 8,000m giants...would be amazing," he posted recently on social media.

As with the recent alpine trilogy, Vedrines understands his climbs as stages in an endless process of acquiring ever more experience.

"There's always more to explore beyond the act of climbing," Vedrines wrote. "Physical preparation is crucial, but so is mental preparation. Records are excuses to grow as a human. It's not just the summit that matters, but also the long-term quest. A quest is necessary to trigger motivation because it takes a lot to get up there."

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Broad Peak

Vedrines' Fastest Known Time on Broad Peak in 2022 was his first experience on an 8,000'er. His record overshadowed other speed ascents that season, including one by Denis Urubko. However, it was far from his first high-class Himalayan expedition. Vedrines had previously bagged the first ascent of the Northeast Face of Chamlang Middle (7,240m) with Nicolas Jean in 2019, and a new route on the North Face of Chamlang Main (7,319m) with Charles Dubouloz in 2021.

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In 2023, Vedrines and partner David Goettler launched a remarkable alpine-style attempt on Nanga Parbat's Schell route from the Rupal side. Although he felt strong and was just 600m from the summit, Vedrines turned around when Goettler decided to retreat.

Vedrines considered a solo attempt the following day but ultimately refused to leave his companion. “I can neither hide my pain nor blame David,” he admitted.

He prepared for Nanga Parbat by completing some mind-blowingly fast ascents and ski traverses in the Alps, such as the famous Chamonix-Zermatt route in 15 hours, a 138km-long, 12,000 vertical-meter ski tour in two days, and the Gousseault-Desmaison route up the north face of the Grandes Jorasses in nine hours.

An ambitious 2024

This year couldn't have started better for Vedrines. Paired with Leo Billon, he onsighted the three North Faces of the Dru, the Droites, and the Grandes Jorasses in winter in just three days, all free climbing in one push without bivouacs on the wall.

On K2, Vedrines may well target another record. Fellow French climber Benoit Chamoux completed the fastest ascent of K2 (without supplementary oxygen) in 23 hours in 1986, via the Abruzzi Spur (normal) route. Chamoux had also acclimatized by climbing Broad Peak two weeks earlier.

Feb. 6, 2021 dawned with a sense of anguish for international audiences intently following the events on K2. Three climbers were missing and another had fallen to his death just hours before. Others were still on the mountain, shocked by the unfolding drama and struggling under hellish conditions.

Two days earlier, it was clear that the next 48 hours would be crucial on K2. Almost everyone remaining in the mountain had gone up in a frenzied summit push despite less-than-ideal conditions.

While "less than ideal" seems understandable for the second-highest peak on Earth in the dead of winter, the forecast showed a short weather window on Feb. 5. However, those attempting the summit on that Friday would need to be extremely fast and run back down to lower altitudes before the winds increased on Saturday.

That was very different from the nearly perfect conditions that the Nepalese team enjoyed on Jan. 16 when they forged their way to the summit and into the history books. Animated -- and in some cases frustrated -- by that triumph, a variety of climbers with different levels of experience, support, and motivation embraced their last chance for a slice of winter glory.

Hours later, the climbers who reached the "higher" Camp 3 at 7,300m discovered that the weather was only one of many problems.

Dangerously behind schedule

Most of those who climbed to the higher Camp 3 were dangerously behind schedule. They intended to continue to the summit the following day and needed a few hours of rest. But they found out that C3 was too small and there were not enough tents for all of them.

Others had stopped at a lower camp right below the Black Pyramid. For various reasons, they all eventually turned around. Soon, they were glad they did.

Elia Saikaly, PK Sherpa, and Fazal Ali were among them. Their supplementary oxygen was not stocked as expected because of some miscommunication, and they had to abort.

"We listened in via radio to the chaos unfolding above at proper Camp 3," wrote Elia Saikaly. "People were trapped outside with no shelter higher up in -70˚C temperatures. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t grateful that our plan broke.

"The events that night led to the tragic death of our friends, whom we were supposed to be filming. Years of truth-chasing ensued."

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Indeed, four people died in the following hours. They left, in addition to the tragedy of their loss, many unanswered questions. The stubborn silence of expedition leaders, the contradictory testimonies of some climbers, the general atmosphere of competition and secrecy, and the impossibility of setting a clear course didn't help. The desperate search for the missing climbers and the national drama that ensued heated opinions even more and made the rumors fly higher. This was especially so in Pakistan, where Ali Muhammad Sadpara is still sorely missed.

What happened, as far as we know

The unquestionable fact is that John Snorri of Iceland, Ali Muhammad Sadpara of Pakistan, his son Sajid Sadpara, and Juan Pablo Mohr of Chile left Camp 3 at midnight on Feb. 4-5. Other climbers at Camp 3 tried, but no one else was able to find the way around a wide crevasse.

The Nepalese who summited (and fixed the ropes) weeks earlier had faced the same problem. They had been forced to retrace their steps and deviate until they found a suitable passage across the gap and toward the upper sections.

Why the second wave of climbers and their sherpas heading for the summit was incapable of picking the right route is unclear. Sajid Sadpara reported that his group also followed the ropes to the mouth of the crevasse and walked for a significant time until they found an exposed but climbable passage.

A lucky problem

The young Sadpara didn't follow the group much longer. His oxygen system wasn't working properly, and his father told him to go back to Camp 3. That was the last time Sajid saw his father and the others alive. John Snorri's tracker stopped sending a signal at the crevasse, but their cook in BC said he had spoken to him at around 4 pm. At this time, Snorri told him that they were at 8,300m.

As the sunny morning came, defeated climbers in Camp 3 began to head down. One of them, Atanas Skatov of Bulgaria, was walking down confidently, apparently not clipped to the ropes. Suddenly, his foot slipped and he fell into the void in front of his supporting sherpa, Lakpa Dendi.

Tamara Lunger of Italy was among the last to retreat from Camp 3. She waited for Juan Pablo Mohr until cold and the menacing forecast pushed her back down. At the end of the day, Sajid was the only living soul at 7,300m, stepping out of the tent from time to time, worried sick, and hoping in vain for a radio message or the light from headlamps.

The search

By Feb. 6, the alert sounded and the first helicopter explored the slopes of K2 for the missing climbers. Lunger reached Base Camp that day. Seven Summit Treks' expedition leader Chhang Dawa Sherpa needed hours to convince Sajid to retreat and save himself. The young Pakistani finally agreed and returned to Camp 1 that day.

The search efforts continued even after all hope to find the climbers alive had passed. Some brave Pakistani climbers tried to reach the climbers on foot, but in the storm, they didn't get very far. Helicopters flew repeatedly despite the conditions. There were also efforts to track John Snorri's satphone. In the end, there was only sadness.

Snorri, Ali, and Mohr remained on the mountain. Climbers, including Sajid Sadpara, found their bodies the following summer. It was Sajid who managed to move his father's remains from the ropes, perform the proper rituals, and bury him in the snow.

The untold story

The whole story of what happened on winter K2, from the preparations, the context, the Nepalese victory in an unspoken race, and the implications and consequences for the other summit contenders, is yet to be told.

At the time, the five deaths partly overshadowed the historic triumph of the Nepalese team. There was the accident that took the life of Spain's Sergi Mingote the same day that the Nepalese reached the top and the falling death of Atanas Skatov. The demise of Snorri, Ali, and Mohr, in particular, continues to have many unanswered questions, including whether these deaths could have been avoided.

We will probably never know the entire story, but hopefully, further details will surface as new footage appears and those still silent decide to speak out.

Elia Saikaly was on Winter K2 filming for John Snorri and returned the following summer with Sajid Sadpara. He may have gone further than others. "The truth no longer sought, it’s now being embodied and soon expressed," he promises.

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.

The tragic death of Muhammad Hassan on K2 as dozens of climbers stepped over him on their way to the summit shocked climbers and non-climbers alike.

ExplorersWeb's story, the first to be published on the subject, helped prompt the government of Gilgit-Baltistan to launch an inquiry. The inquiry attempted to get at the facts and make changes to prevent such incidents in the future. The results were published on September 8.

Though the 70-page report includes some details that contradict testimonies and photo evidence (such as the weather that night, which was not stormy, unlike the report's statement) and leaves several unanswered questions, the long set of recommendations and changes marks a turning point.

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A two-year ban

The government has banned Lela Peak Expeditions, the outfitter who hired Hassan, from managing teams in Gilgit-Baltistan for the next two years. The ban is for not providing a porter with adequate equipment, hiring an inexperienced porter to go up the mountain, and not insuring him.

This is a major blow for the Skardu-based company run by brothers Anwar and Akhbar Syed. All of Pakistan's 8,000'ers lie within Gilgit-Baltistan. It is also a warning to other outfitters, both local and foreign. Lela Peak was contracted for logistical support by foreign companies, and these need to be equally careful to fulfill those same government requirements. With ever-increasing numbers of climbers on Pakistan's highest peaks, the demand for support staff can be hard to find.

Video by Lakpa T. Sherpa:

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The porters' voice

"Perhaps it's time to give the voice to the porters," Yutta Vanessa Torkel of Norway wrote in a letter addressed to ExplorersWeb and other media. Torkel met Hassan and another porter (who was also on K2 this year but prefers to remain anonymous) during a trek to K2 Base Camp in 2017. He subsequently kept in touch with them.

"Neither of them had education or experience, it was learning by doing, or climbing, a predestined fatal approach," Torkel said. "Until recently, they were both just non-specialized, low-altitude porters, earning around $55 for a three-week trek."

During the 2017 trek, Torkel learned that porters rarely received gear. When they were, they sold it immediately. "This [sale] was worth so much that it made up for the miserable conditions without equipment," she said.

During the summit push on K2 this summer, Hassan's friend refused to go any further than Camp 3, but Hassan continued. After Hassan's accident, his friend shared his frustrations with Torkel. "He [the friend] cannot do anything except be a HAP again next year when the bosses tell him to. He hates it. He doesn't want to do it," Torkel explained.

Few porters can speak out

For that same reason, very few Pakistani porters are willing to speak out. Yousuf Meeri of Hushe village was a rare exception. He agreed to make some general remarks based on his wide experience.

"There are many problems with porters, starting with their poor equipment, which is essential for climbing," he said. "Even worse, Pakistani climbers have very little technical skill because we don’t have any training centers here. Finally, there is a problem with insurance. If a porter dies at work, the family only gets two lakh rupees ($650)."

Fortunately for Yousuf, he is an experienced high-altitude porter and has good equipment after so many expeditions.

Why was Hassan so high up?

That is the key question, according to Torkel. But the answer isn't clear. Hassan was apparently not following orders.

Luis Miguel Soriano climbed K2 the day after Hassan's death. He was a cameraman for climbers with Alex Abramov's Seven Summit Club. It was Abramov who asked Lela Peak to provide three porters as his group's contribution to the rope-fixing team.

"After carrying loads to Camp 3, our expedition leader [Abramov] ordered all Pakistani porters to return to Base Camp from Camp 3, without attempting the summit," Soriano said. "All did so, except Hassan. According to his partners, [Hassan] decided to push further, against the others' advice, saying that the summit was too close to let it go."

Soriano believes that the summit would have provided prestige and higher income for Hassan, who needed money to provide for his three children and sick mother.

Regarding the accident, Soriano said:

"I believe that if a person's life is in danger, everything necessary must be done to save them. But being realistic, the circumstances of the accident and the place where it happened caused Hassan's death. Yes, a rescue should have been attempted, but nearly everyone around him at that moment lacked the physical strength or technical ability for something like that, and the Sherpa guides had the lives of their clients in their hands."

Soriano agrees that it is essential to tackle the problem at the root, by improving conditions, equipment, and preparation of Pakistani staff on these high mountains.

A sherpa's voice

The situation in Pakistan is not so different from that in Nepal a few decades ago. The sherpa climbers and guides have improved their conditions and skills substantially over the years.

UIAGM guide, expedition leader, and K2 winter summiter Mingma G emphasized that the problem is not with the porters but with their conditions.

"Pakistani climbers are very strong and they work hard," Mingma G notes. "We see their hard work to Camp 1 and Camp 2. They go there with less equipment and they can’t bear the cold beyond that altitude, so they give up. This is because organizers charge less money from clients and pay less to their staff, so the staff can’t afford good equipment. They also depend on one season’s earnings for the whole year, so they try to save money and climb with limited equipment. All of this results in problems such as the failure of expeditions, frostbite, or even death."

The main issues

Mingma G lists some of the issues demanding urgent action:

1. Helicopter rescue is too costly. It costs over $20,000 for one trip. Some companies may not be willing to foot that bill. It is easier to declare the porter dead.

2. Insurance is too low or there is no insurance for porters at all. Policies coverage is very low, not only in the case of deaths, but also around evacuation, rescue, and medical expenses.

3. Most porters don't have climbing training. They only have one season, and the families depend on the earnings from it for a whole year. Whatever they learn during the season, they forget before the next season. So many climbers don’t progress.

4. There is no good equipment because companies in Pakistan are all selling expeditions based on price competition, and they don’t give enough money to their staff in the field.

"If porters get proper equipment, training, and a daily allowance, they'll become some of the best climbers and guides in the future. Physically, they are as strong as Nepalese sherpa," Mingma G said.

Mingma G mentioned Ali Sadpara (who perished while attempting winter K2) and the late Ali Reza Sadpara as examples of world-class Pakistani climbers.

Plus, the next generation is on the way: "Sirbaz Khan, Sohail Sakhi, and Abdul Joshi are taking bridge courses in Nepal so that they can take IFMGA guide training," Mingma G added.

Gabriel Tarso's statements

The Gilgit-Baltistan inquiry document attached a detailed report of events by Gabriel Tarso of Brazil. Tarso worked as a cameraman with Kristin Harila of Norway during her record-pursuing summit push on K2.

Tarso describes how he tried his best to help Hassan and mentions that Tenjen Sherpa also helped. Hassan had fallen upside down while clipped to the ropes, his jacket rolled up to his neck in freezing temperatures. He remained like that, groaning in pain, for some time until Harila's team approached.

While Tarso doesn't mention Harila as actively helping in the rescue (as she described in her own account published on her website two weeks after the incident), he confirms that Tenjen Sherpa tried to pull the porter up, without success.

Eventually, Tenjen and Harila proceeded up "as they heard that the rope-fixing team was in trouble," which is coherent with what Harila wrote in her report.

Tarso remained with Hassan until he noticed that he, Tarso, was running out of oxygen. He said that, despite the shock and lack of motivation, he had to go up because the sherpa who carrying an extra oxygen bottle for him was higher up, with Harila's team.

The turning point

Tarso will receive an "appreciation letter" from the local Governor. The inquiry does not mention the large number of climbers who were at or near the site of the accident and literally jumped over Hassan on their way to the summit.

The document does include a reminder of the mandatory fulfillment of a list of "mountaineering rules and regulations" published in 1999. Some are rather vague, such as the petition to set "emergency protocols" including "shelters and rendezvous points" and a non-specified "rescue mechanism."

But other elements from the inquiry could make a real impact: mandatory and better insurance policies for HAPs, a revision of regulations, a stronger role for Liaison Officers, and a system of fines and accountability for the expedition outfitters around planning and execution.

The impact of Hassan's death

How (and if) these recommendations are implemented remains to be seen, but the story about Hassan's tragic death has certainly impacted the climbing community.

We only found out the circumstances of Hassan's death because of the courage of Wilhelm Steindl and Philip Flaemig. Members of the Furtenbach Adventures team, they turned around from the Bottleneck but refused to ignore what had happened further up the mountain. Without them, Hassan's death may have only been a line at the end of some enthusiastic summit reports.

As a postscript, it is worth noting that the tragedy has led to some positive steps. The GoFundMe set up by Willi Steindl has raised over $170,000 so far. Other climbers, including Kristin Harila, have shared links to the fund.

Steindl told ExplorersWeb that he is overwhelmed by the response. He will return to Pakistan on September 15 to visit Hassan's family, help with the fund's management, and talk to authorities about building a climbing and training center for porters.

Ali Akbar Sakhi used to train in the mountains around his home in Kabul. "When I die, I want to be buried here," he told his hiking mates, half joking, about that part of the Hindu Kush range that he loved so much. Little did he know that he would end his days on a much higher mountain, K2. To bring Sakhi home, his widow persevered until she got the help she needed.

The operation to recover Sakhi's body from 7,200m sets a series of important precedents. It is the first time rescuers have recovered a body from such altitude on K2, a 100% local team completed the operation, and its leader, Abid Sadpara, is willing to devote his career to high mountain rescues in Pakistan.

The background

Ali Akbar Sakhi was 34 years old and determined to become the first climber from Afghanistan to summit K2. "Ali Akbar Sakhi wanted to see a free Afghanistan, he loved his country and was a great supporter of female empowerment. He helped female Afghan climbers to achieve their goals and prove they are capable of anything if given a chance," his widow Karima told ExplorersWeb.

Karima says that Sakhi's motivation only increased after the Taliban took power and banned women from work and education. "He wanted to get his voice heard by waving the Afghan flag from the summit of K2 and crying out to the world what Afghans could do if they regained freedom and peace."

On a tight budget, Sakhi paid $40,000 to climb on O2 and a porter supported him. Yet, during the summit push, something went terribly wrong as they climbed from Camp 2 to Camp 3.

Sakhi and the porter, progressing slowly, were caught in a storm. Eventually, Sakhi stopped the porter and tried to continue to Camp 3. The camp was only 200 vertical meters above and a big team from Sakhi's outfitter Karakoram Expeditions was there, waiting to continue higher the following day.

As we reported in a detailed feature story, no help came from Camp 3 and Sakhi spent the night in the open, alone. Members of Sakhi's own team who had given up on the summit found him next to the ropes. Reportedly, they gave Sakhi O2, but the Afghan climber died soon after. Pakistani climbers Naila Kiani, Sirbaz Khan, and Arshad were on their way up from Camp 2 when they saw Sakhi collapse. They reached him but there was nothing they could do except perform last rites, cover his face, and move him away from the ropes.

This year, climbers heading to K2's summit passed Sakhi's body below Camp 3. Thankfully, for the last time.

Karima Sakhi's plea

"I wrote a request letter to the Chief General of the Pakistan Army telling my story, asking for help to clear up the facts and bring my husband's remains back to Afghanistan," Karima Sakhi told ExplorersWeb.

It worked. The Pakistan Army decided to help with a retrieval operation. The Askari pilots would airlift the body from Base Camp, but someone had to bring it down from where it lay. They looked around and found the right man for the task near Skardu.

Abid Sadpara is the son of Hassan Sadpara, a well-known climber from the village that was also home to Ali Sadpara (who died on a winter K2 climb), and his son (current 14x8,000'er climber) Sajid Sadpara.

Abid Sadpara had started his own expedition outfitting company under the name of his father two years ago. But as he got involved in the K2 recovery operation, he registered a new branch of the company focused on rescues, he told ExplorersWeb. There is no rescue company in Pakistan.

We asked Abid Sadpara for details about the mission, with translation help from Naila Kiani, the Pakistani climber who found Sakhi last year and met the rescue team near Base Camp this year.

The recovery

The Pakistan Army contacted Abid Sadpara to bring Sakhi's body down.

"I drafted a recovery mission plan and with the Army's agreement picked the best climbers from around Skardu, all of them previous 8,000'ers summiters, to collaborate in the rescue," Abid Sadpara said. He built his team with Sadiq Sadpara, Ali Musa, Arif Sadpara, Murad Ali Shagri, and Abdin Shagri. Enough climbers to perform the rescue successfully and as safely as possible.

"Prior to heading for K2, the team members participated in meetings and specific training on how to bring the body down, based on the information we had," Sadpara added. It was a key factor in the success of the operation.

"The weather was very bad, it was very windy," Sadpara recalled. "The most difficult part was abseiling the body down House's Chimney, which is wide enough only for one person. The team really struggled to get past it, but they managed to get the remains to Camp 1," Sadpara said. "Then, on the following day, we all returned to Base Camp from there we called the Army helicopters."

The pilots took the body to a hospital in Skardu where staff prepared the remains for transfer to Kabul, where Sakhi was finally buried. Ironically, Karima didn't attend the funeral, and she won't be able to visit her husband's grave. Before climbing K2, Sakhi moved his family to the US, fleeing Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

After the mission concluded, Army personnel checked Sakhi's down suit. Inside the breast pocket, they found the Afghan flag. It is the same little flag that Naila caught as it flew from Sakhi's failing hands last year, in the last moments of his life. Sirbaz Khan put the flag in the deceased climber's pocket when he performed the last rites.

How about the other bodies on the mountain?

The recovery team completed the job in six days, slightly longer than the time agreed with the Army, but they refused to leave the job undone.

"As far as we know, this was the first rescuer/recovery mission of this kind in Pakistan," Sadpara told ExplorersWeb. "We have learned a lot from the experience; if we can count on the Army and get the support of Pakistan's government, we can definitely help with other bodies on K2, like John Snorri and Muhammad Hassan, if the family wishes."

Abid Sadpara has already sent a proposal to rescue Hassan’s body, located at 8,200m in the traverse under the Great Serac. As for Snorri's body, also right on the ascent route at the Bottleneck, that would depend on the family.

Teaming up with Ali Sadpara (who also died), Snorri died attempting winter K2 in 2021. His body was only found the following summer. Previously, Snorri's widow, Linda Snorri, made clear that she wouldn't put anyone's life at risk trying to move her husband down. As for Ali Sadpara's remains, his son Sajid climbed the mountain that summer and personally buried his father deep in the snow. "The mountain is now my father's burial place," Sajid told AFP.

For Abid Sadpara, rescues on K2 have become a purpose. "My father's dream was to have a rescue team in Pakistan, many people have died on K2 and we do not have a professional rescue patrol," he said.

K2 is a technically hard, steep mountain, even when climbed on the normal route. Climbers who perished on the mountain are left to rest where they fell or moved only a few meters away. Only some of those who passed on the lower sections (typically below House's Chimney) have been recovered.

The recent operation, performed above House's Chimney and the Black Pyramid, is a significant first step. Yet rescue management on Pakistan's 8,000'ers still has a long way to go. Recovery teams must be numerous and skilled, which requires official support and significant funding.

The final goal should be to have people on the mountain able and willing to rescue climbers in trouble, in time to save their lives.

No peace for the widow

Sakhi's widow is incredibly grateful to the rescuers and the Pakistani Army. "They helped me, they are heroes of Pakistan; my family and I will be always grateful," she said. Yet, she is far from finding peace. The good news of having her husband's remains properly buried has only re-ignited her rage against Sakhi's outfitter whom she claims left her husband to die.

"Mirza Ali [owner of Sakhi's outfitter Karakorum Expeditions] said it was impossible to get his body down. Now my question for him is: How impossible was it when a proper team only needed six days?" Karima Sakhi said.

Karima Sakhi fiercely criticized Karakorum Expeditions when the accident happened, remarking that there was a big team just 200m above her sick husband, and no one went down to help while he was alive all night.

Mirza Ali's sister, Samina Baig, was in that team at Camp 3, supported by the bulk of the company's staff as she raced to be the first Pakistani woman to summit K2 (a feat she achieved two days later). Sakhi's widow believes the team prioritized supporting Baig instead of risking her attempt's success to help a sick climber. Using her late husband's profile on social media, she has never stopped demanding Karakorum Expeditions be investigated. You can read Karima Sakhi's latest X (formerly Twitter) posts here.

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Three elements shaped Pakistan's 8,000m climbing season in 2023: relentless bad weather, a new business model based on linking peaks, and some sad episodes involving high-altitude workers.

The season showed the best and the worst of the climbing community. The generosity of some saved two men's lives, and another man lost his life while dozens passed by.

According to Gilgit-Baltistan authorities, 639 foreign climbers bought permits for Pakistan's 8,000'ers. All but one team went up the normal way. Sherpas from Nepal opened most of the routes, but the rush of climbers aiming to chain-summit several mountains left no time to fix the entire route in some cases.

This was the case on Gasherbrum I (where traditionally there are few fixed ropes anyway) and K2. On the latter, sherpas fixed the route on the go, with nearly a hundred climbers in tow.

Among the commercial teams, several climbers went without O2 and with varied levels of support. Some only had logistics at Base Camp and agreed to a fee to use the fixed ropes.

Some no-O2 climbers used personal support, from a high-altitude porter (HAP) carrying gear and helping with the tents, to a proper guide doing all the tasks and leading the clients up and down.

Drama on Nanga Parbat

As usual, the season's action started on Nanga Parbat. Here, a long spell of bad weather tested climbers' patience. There was no chance to set up Camp 4 or to fix ropes on the upper sections. It was no wonder that when a marginal summit window opened, climbers rushed up, and the drama started.

The summit push started from Camp 3 and featured lots of snow on the route. Even those with O2 returned from the summit exhausted. For those independent climbers who proceeded without O2 (with or without personal sherpa/HAP support), it was worse, though not impossible. But the problem was not just the conditions. It was making the right decision when other climbers needed help.

When Saulius Damulevicius of Lithuania, Volodymir Lanko of Ukraine, and Israfil Ashurli of Azerbaijan pitched the tents they had carried in Camp 4, they had no time to prepare for the summit before the SOS calls started. Other climbers arrived at their tents asking for fluids and rest. Those three helped and sacrificed their own climb.

Polish climber Pawel Kopec couldn't even make it to Camp 4. He collapsed 200m below the tents. Attempts to help Kopec proved useless, and he died that night. An Italian team in Camp 4, whose members did set off toward the summit as planned, drew criticism. The Italians, led by Mario Vielmo, later offered up their version of events and also explained why one of their porters had been left without a tent in Camp 3 the night before.

Yet there are some unanswered questions about Nanga Parbat and the death of Kopec. His team declined to share details, citing the wishes of Kopec's family, and we have not had a chance to speak to Asrufil Ashurli, who saved at least one life at risk to his own.

Ashurli took Pakistani Asif Bhatti into his tent. Bhatti had attempted a no-O2 push despite being weak, according to other climbers. When he reached Ashurli's tent, Bhatti had frostbite and snowblindness. He couldn't go down alone. Ashurli stayed with him, took care of Bhatti (whom he didn't know), and helped him down in bad weather.

By the time they reached Base Camp, nearly all the other climbers had gone home or to other mountains. Ashurli ended up in the hospital, recovering from the frostbite he himself had sustained during the rescue.

Tunc Findik and Sophie Lavaud finished their 14x8,000'ers quest with their summits on Nanga Parbat.

Karakoram

After Nanga Parbat, most climbers went on to other peaks. Karakoram 8,000m climbing typically begins in July. A few of those on the EliteExped and Seven Summit Treks teams who were in a hurry and wealthy enough to pay $22,000 bought a helicopter ride to the Gasherbrums Base Camp. Others trekked from Skardu to Concordia, then on to their chosen destinations.

Gasherbrums

Denis Urubko and Pipi Cardell were already at the Gasherbrum's Base Camp. They needed plenty of time for their ambitious goal: a new alpine-style route on Gasherbrum I. This season, they were the only team climbing an 8,000'er off the normal route. They broke trail to Camp 3 and acclimatized on the normal route so thoroughly that they eventually summited.

However, bad weather gave them no chance to summit again via their new route. They waited until the very last moment, already in August, to attempt a fast one-day ascent, but snowfall and slab avalanches pushed them down.

Otherwise, the Gasherbrums granted opportunities for normal-route climbers, despite unstable weather. You can read a full recap of the season on both Gasherbrum I and Gasherbrum II here.

Broad Peak

The season on Broad Peak was relatively quiet compared to previous seasons. Horia Colibasanu launched a summit push almost immediately after reaching Base Camp. Feeling strong, he didn't mind the lack of ropes on the long final ridge and used no O2 or personal sherpa support. He set off with Austrian Lukas Woerle, whom he had met in camp. Colibasanu climbed ahead and didn't notice that the story from Nanga Parbat was repeating itself. Woerle stopped to help a Pakistani porter, which cost him his summit attempt. American Dan Buonome also stopped to help.

Woerle attempted Broad Peak a second time but he told Explorersweb that he was still weak from the previous try and his rescue efforts. He decided to abandon his push on the ridge.

The Gilgit-Baltistan government thanked Woerle for his bravery with an official certificate of commendation. He was also nominated for a civil award, and given a free climbing permit should he ever decide to return to Broad Peak, Sajid Hussain, the Deputy Director of the Tourism Department Gilgit Baltistan, told ExplorersWeb.

There was another expedition worth mentioning on Broad Peak. Their goal was not to summit but to pay respect to Polish winter pioneer Tomasz Kowalski. Kowalski died 10 years ago while descending from the first-ever winter climb of Broad Peak. The team was led by Rafal Fronia, who had seen Kowalski's body when he summited Broad Peak the previous year. This year, with other Polish climbers helping him, he put the body in a special bag and buried it in a snow cave under the ridge, on the Chinese side of the mountain.

Viridiana Alvarez of Mexico, one of Seven Summit Treks' multi-peak climbers, completed her 14x8,000'ers quest on the summit of Broad Peak.

The bitter finale on K2

Finally, there was K2. This season, the weather on the second-highest mountain on earth was especially implacable. Teams were barely able to reach Camp 2 in difficult conditions.

The season neared its close without any summit chances. Eventually, the rope-fixing team made it to Camp 3 in whiteout conditions.

The only possible summit chance was on July 27. Everyone on the mountain set off for the summit on that day. Some of the pushes were extremely grueling. Even the better-positioned needed to go all the way from Camp 3 and climb behind the rope fixers. They had only laid the fixed ropes at the bottom of the bottleneck the night before.

Conditions were bad, yet most climbers followed their guides through the unstable snow and fog.

Summits and tragedy

Among those pushing hard on K2 was Kristin Harila of Norway. Harila had already summited 13 of the 8,000'ers. On K2, she would smash the existing 14x8,000m speed record set by Nirmal Purja. Harila missed summiting all 14 peaks within three months by just one day.

As usual, Tenzen Lama Sherpa accompanied and supported her. He climbed all 14 peaks with her and so shares the record. On K2, they were joined by another sherpa, at least one camera operator, and a larger team from Seven Summit Treks, including sherpa guides and clients. A rope-fixing team was right ahead of them, made up of several teams from Base Camp. It included three men from Seven Summit Treks. Reports speak of several rope-fixing teams, working in shifts to break trail and fix ropes.

One of the Seven Summit Treks rope-fixers was winter Manaslu summiter Pasang Nurbu Sherpa, who shot the video below and posted it on Facebook. In it, sherpas shovel their way up K2's final slopes, with a long line of climbers in tow. The end of the line disappears into the fog.

Summit news arrived at around 11 am that day. Some more climbers topped out on July 28. But soon after, word trickled back to Base Camp that things were not going well. Some spoke of an avalanche, a death, and maybe more.

Nearly half of those attempting the summit on July 27 turned around after experiencing small avalanches at the Bottleneck. Others, like Harila's team, summited and successfully hurried back to Base Camp, or stopped in higher camps for the night.

Harila was among the first to summit and celebrated her speed record for the 14x8,000'ers. Only a few climbers mentioned the corpse on the route when they descended. None mentioned that the person was still alive while some of them were on their way up earlier that day.

The information came instead from climbers who had turned around at the Bottleneck and later, from drone footage. Further investigation showed that Muhammad Hassan, a HAP working to support his family, had had an accident but was still alive hours later.

ExplorersWeb was the only media outlet to fully investigate the story. It made international news and horrified the climbing community. Here is the complete story.

Some sherpas have posted videos of the dead porter right on the ropes, with climbers jumping over him. Here is one by Lakpa T. Sherpa:

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The Gilgit-Baltistan government has opened an investigation that will run for 15 days.

At roughly 2:30 am on July 27, a long line of climbers moved slowly above 8,000m on K2, the second-highest mountain in the world and one of the most dangerous. It was dark as they navigated the Bottleneck and the hazardous traverse below the Great Serac. They were focused on their goals. Some were pursuing records. Most knew that they would have to summit that day or go home. Their expeditions wrapped up at the end of the month.

Expedition leaders, coordinating the summit push from Base Camp, started receiving reports of avalanches, and then an accident. Soon after, triumphant summit announcements drowned out the concern. Kristin Harila of Norway and Tenjen Sherpa Lama were among the first to reach the top. A large sherpa team, which helped fix ropes on the upper sections, supported them. Other climbers followed closely behind.

Later, members from other teams also summited: Imagine Nepal, Seven Summit Club, EliteExped, 8K Expeditions/Summit Karakoram, and possibly climbers outfitted by smaller companies.

It was eventually confirmed that a Pakistani porter, Muhammad Hassan, had died. Information about his death remained sketchy. When we started asking around, we received few answers, little concrete information, and several contradictory statements, especially around three issues: 1. How bad were conditions on the mountain, in particular, regarding avalanches? 2. When and why did the accident happen and how did Hassan die? 3. What did nearby climbers do to help?

What was Hassan doing during the summit push?

Hassan was an employee of Lela Peak Expedition. Alex Abramov's Seven Summit Club assigned him to assist the rope fixers during the summit push.

"Before the summit push, all companies provide [workers] to join the rope-fixing team," Abramov told ExplorersWeb. "We contributed with three Pakistani HAPs. Hassan was one of them.

"We don’t know what really happened because he was ahead of our members and sherpa group," Abramov added. "Members only saw that something happened at the ropes in the traverse."

Some climbers, including Lakpa Sherpa of 8K Expeditions and cameraman Philip Flaemig, noted that Hassan was not very experienced and that his equipment was inadequate for a summit push on K2. ExplorersWeb contacted Lela Peak Expeditions for a statement but we are yet to hear back.

Avalanches

Silvia Azdreeva of Bulgaria summited K2 that day as a member of the EliteExped team.

"During the summit push, there were five avalanches next to us below the Bottleneck," Azdreeva said. "One of them hit some of us on the way up. Luckily, we weren’t injured and we managed to dig out of the snow. We debated if we would continue or give up…

"[Then later,] a person died in front of my eyes. One moment he was alive and then on the way back we had to jump over his corpse on the ice edge that we were passing."

Azdreeva justified continuing their push, saying that on K2, "There is no one to save you so quickly, you have to wait for days."

EliteExped confirmed that Pasang Ngima Sherpa and Azdreeva summited at 12:53 pm local time.

American climber Lucy Westlake told ExplorersWeb that one of the avalanches fell right on her.

"At around 2:30 am, I was in an avalanche (luckily just thick powder) below the place where the Pakistani climber had fallen. The first avalanche triggered a second avalanche below us, but we were only hit by the first one," Westlake said.

Nobody in Westlake's group was hurt, but they knew things would have been different if the avalanche had been bigger, so they decided to turn back.

How did the accident happen?

On this point, reports remain wildly contradictory. "Hassan fell down and broke his O2 mask," Lakpa Sherpa, who was in Base Camp, told ExplorersWeb. "Hassan fell and hit a rock," Mingma G said, also from Base Camp. "He fell in a crevasse," Lucy Westlake said.

Wilhem Steindl, climbing with Furtenbach Adventures, heard that the porter had died in an avalanche.

Eventually, the pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place.

"A Pakistani climber fell and was hanging upside down for over an hour," climber Allie Pepper said. "They managed to pull him back up. At first, he was alive, but he couldn’t be saved. Then everyone had to step over him to head toward the summit."

Luis Soriano was in the second Seven Summit Club team, which reached the summit one day later.

"I talked to the sherpa who saw him fall and who helped Hassan back to the traverse," he told ExplorersWeb. "Apparently, Hassan slipped and fell, and eventually stopped, face down, crying, until someone managed to drag him back to the traverse."

The sherpa who helped Hassan was Halung Dorchi Sherpa of 8K Expeditions. He later reported back to his expedition leader, Lakpa Sherpa, who confirmed the facts to ExplorersWeb. "Hassan's O2 mask broke in the fall," he said. "Halung Dorchi Sherpa and one of Kristin Harila's camera operators helped Hassan back to the trail."

The camera operator declined to comment. We have asked Kristin Harila for comment but are yet to hear back.

Lakpa Sherpa also said that, after Hassan was eventually helped back to the trail [but unable to move under his own power], "he suddenly passed away."

Drone footage suggests otherwise

"Not so suddenly," said Philip Flaemig, a cameraman working on the mountain for Servus TV. "The porter was still moving three hours after the accident."

Flaemig was not there, but his drone was. Flaemig was with Wilhem Steindl and team sirdar Mingma Sherpa near the bottom of the Bottleneck at 2:30 am. They were waiting for the rest of their team and for the crowds at the Bottleneck to disperse.

Flaemig recounts what happened:

There was some 30 people at the beginning of the Bottleneck and another big group at the traverse. Then there was a big avalanche crack and suddenly the headlamps were gone in the dust that covered the mountain.

Mingma Sherpa ran away and we all lay flat on the ground. Luckily, nothing else came down, but we were concerned something serious had happened at the Bottleneck. It was scary.

A number of headlamps at the Bottleneck turned and started down. About ten people passed us and said the ropes had been cut.

I suggested, let's wait, let's wait. A whole group of headlamps at the traverse stopped and it remained blocked for 90 minutes to two hours. At the time, we didn't know what was happening. Later, we would find out it was the accident.

 

My team eventually decided to go down. I remained where I was, with my camera assistant sherpa, and guide Fernando from Argentina, because I wanted to take a drone shot and I needed to wait until sunrise for it. I waited for two more hours and started to film the group going up and the other group at the traverse. I was cold and my fingers were numb, so when I used my last battery at around 5:30 am, I went all the way down to Base Camp.

The following day, I was copying the material to the computer and someone said, 'Hey, what's that?' Someone was rubbing a man in the snow. There was a man lying right on the trail at the traverse, with some 20 people in front of him and at least 10 more behind. In the video, you could clearly see that the man was moving his leg, so he was clearly alive.

ExplorersWeb has seen the images, shot in daylight, and can confirm that Hassan moves his leg. Because of copyright issues, we can't share the video, but Flaemig and Servus TV kindly shared some still images.

Flaemig talked extensively with Harila's camera operator. He confirmed that Hassan's accident took place at 2:20 am, shortly before the main avalanche that fell at 2:35 am. Flaemig started filming with his drone at 4:30 am when it was still dark and continued until 5:30 am, 20 minutes after sunrise.

Flaemig and Wilhem Steindl collected money for Hassan's family from their expedition teammates (although none of them were close to the accident or the traverse). After trekking out, they visited Hassan's widow.

"[She] said it was his first time on the upper slopes of K2," Flaemig said. "Previously, he had only worked as a porter to Base Camp, but this time he needed to make more money to pay for treatment for his sick mother, who was also at home when I visited." Hassan also left three small children.

Why was there no rescue attempt?

"I do not know how there was no attempt to rescue him, although he was in a very complex place, right on the trail in the middle of the traverse under the Great Serac," Luis Soriano said. "People literally had to jump over him on their way to the summit. I passed by that place on the following day and the body was there. A tragedy."

"There is no rescue team on K2 and the Liaison Officer can do nothing," Lakpa Sherpa said. "Before his accident, some sherpas [in the rope-fixing team] told him to go back many times, because his climbing equipment and clothes were very poor, but he didn’t listen and followed the other climbers. The weather was very bad and most of the climbers were approaching the summit of K2. I guess, once he got injured, he may not have been able to move...so from the Bottleneck, it’s very difficult to bring him down."

Asked what could be done for a climber in trouble at K2's traverse, Lakpa said: "They must give him oxygen first and then mobilize the team to bring him down."

"If I had known [about] the problems I would have helped," Lakpa said. "It doesn’t matter which team you are in, but I only got the news once he passed away. However, my team and sherpas still helped him."

Said Lukas Furtenbach, owner of Furtenbach Adventures: "We would have stopped our summit push and helped, no matter what it takes. Even if it means we have to give up our oxygen supplies and even if it means no summit for all our clients. This is a fundamental part of the pre-summit push briefing I do with all clients. I always prepare them so that if we come across a situation like that, we help. Period."

This year's K2 season is unfolding with lots of uncertainty and a bitter aftertaste.

More climbers summited yesterday. According to those in Base Camp, the weather held in the morning, then deteriorated in the afternoon. Meanwhile, the exhausted summiters from July 27 returned to Base Camp and provided some details about the climb and the death of Muhammad Hassan, the Pakistani porter who was assisting one of the rope-fixing teams.

However, the information remains sketchy and each testimony leaves more unanswered questions.

Avalanches and traffic jams

Austrian climber Wilhelm Steindl was a member of the Furtenbach Adventures team that turned around near the Bottleneck yesterday.

"We arrived in Camp 3 on Wednesday afternoon," Steindl told ExplorersWeb. "There, we met a guide who was working with the rope-fixing team but had abandoned them because of poor safety conditions. He told us that the conditions are really tough and he quit because he was afraid of avalanches, but he also told us that the sherpas would continue to fix the rope till the summit."

Like many others, Steindl and Gelu Sherpa (supporting him) decided to give the mountain a try but avoided joining the frontline climbers. "Most people started around 7 pm but we waited until 11 pm to set off," Steindl said.

Here is Steindl's account of events:

At two in the morning, we passed the location of Camp 4 [which was not set up this year] and walked on until the beginning of the Bottleneck. We stopped to wait for the rest of the team. While we waited, I saw one of the two avalanches that took place that night. It nearly hit all the people in the Bottleneck but luckily missed them by some meters.

We decided to wait and look at what the people in the Bottleneck would do. Some turned around and went back, but most stayed in line and waited. There was a traffic jam at the traverse below the serac. They didn‘t walk a meter for at least two hours. In front of them, the rope-fixing team was struggling and didn‘t move forward. We didn‘t want to stay in line in the Bottleneck for hours so we decided to turn back.

After, we were told that an avalanche killed a Pakistani porter in the traverse, so I guess this must have been the reason for the traffic jam. For me, it is unbelievable that people just step over a dead guy hanging there.

Different points of view

Mingma G, leader of Imagine Nepal, confirmed today's summits to ExplorersWeb and the sad loss of Muhammad Hassan.

"The weather was actually better than on July 27, at least until noon, then it worsened quickly,"  Mingma G said. "There were summits among the Russian team members, together with six or seven sherpas, around 10 people from the Elite Exped team, and one member plus two sherpas from my team."

Despite bad weather, all the climbers are back in Camp 2. The Elite Exped team was led by Mingma David Sherpa, who stood on the summit of K2 for the sixth time.

Mingma G also mentioned that according to climbers who returned to Base Camp yesterday, Muhammad Hassan of Pakistan didn't die in an avalanche as previously thought, but from a fall. Hassan fell and hit a rock, some witnesses said.

"When the incident happened, there was a very long queue in the traverse and below," Mingma G said.

Some local media reports mention that people tried to help Hassan but there was nothing they could do. However, the reports give no concrete details. As far as we know, there were no further rescue attempts or efforts to retrieve the body.

Mingma G also shared his thoughts about the reports of avalanches on the route. "There were no avalanches," Mingma G insisted. "What the climbers saw and thought were avalanches was actually fresh snow drifting down small couloirs carried by the wind and falling like water. If there had been avalanches, the sherpas wouldn’t have continued."

Lakpa Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, also coordinating his team's summit push from Base Camp, contradicted this. Lakpa Sherpa spoke of avalanches, apparently reported by the rope-fixing team.

Summits and defeats

The Russian team outfitted by 7 Summit Club confirmed the summits and the return of yesterday's summiters to Camp 2. They are expected back in Base Camp today.

More casualties?

Jon Lawrie of Australia reported on Instagram that he summited K2 without oxygen. "It was a hell of a night/morning with multiple avalanches and sad ends to some people's lives," he said, perhaps suggesting there were more casualties.

Lawrie returned with a serious cough and 25% of his sight lost in his left eye (temporarily, he hopes). "However, I believe I had the day of my life, which was what was needed to pull off a no-O2 ascent of this beast."

Mohammad Hassan of Tissar, a Pakistani high-altitude porter with Lela Peak Expedition, died when a piece of serac fell at the Bottleneck (8,200m) early today. The accident took place before many climbers reached that spot. Some retreated after they saw the accident. Others just went on.

A climber who was pushing for the summit of K2 at the same time told his home team that a chunk of serac fell at around 2:30 am and somehow killed Hassan. It is unclear whether the ice struck him or whether it triggered a small avalanche that swept him fatally down, as some reports suggest.

A supporting sherpa was below the climber, at the beginning of the Bottleneck, when the accident occurred. Some climbers just went on, scrambling over the debris. Others present said that a huge, seven-hour-long traffic jam took place after the accident.

8K posted a video on Instagram showing the crowds on the upper slopes:

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See this post on Instagram

It is difficult to tell who was where when the accident occurred. Yesterday's summit push involved nearly 200 climbers. They left Camp 3 at different times, stretched out between 6 pm and midnight. Lucy Westlake of the U.S., who was attempting to become the youngest woman to summit K2 (she's 19), turned around at 2:45 am from 8,050m, shortly before the Bottleneck.

Some teams have reported a large number of summits, while others noted that some of their members retreated because of bad weather or conditions. It was only later in the day that word of a casualty began to circulate. It took several hours before sources confirmed the name of the victim and the team he worked for.

Climbers going down

Meanwhile, the climbers who summited K2 are slowly going down. There is little information about how they are doing. Lakpa Sherpa of 8K Expeditions confirmed that 26 clients, porters, and sherpas summited today. Sakhawat Hussain of Summit Karakoram (associated with 8K in Pakistan) noted that their team intends to spend the night in Camp 2, although the guides may proceed all the way down to Base Camp. There may not be enough tents for them in Camp 2.

Mingma G of Imagine Nepal confirmed that there are no tents in Camp 4. Some teams, including his, have instead set up a higher-than-usual Camp 3. Imagine Nepal's is 300 meters above the usual location, sheltered under an ice block.

According to her tracker, Kristin Harila is now below Camp 1. She should reach Base Camp soon.

The long, hazardous journey for the rope-fixing team on K2 is far from over. They have worked through the night and dealt with lots of heavy snow and its natural consequence: slab avalanches. The avalanches hit around midnight, Lakpa Sherpa of 8K Expeditions reported from Base Camp, but there were no injuries.

Progress was slow, and the sherpa rope fixers only reached the top at around 10:30 am Pakistan time. Kristin Harila and Tenjen Lama Sherpa, supported by the biggest team of their entire project, topped out soon after. Harila missed her self-imposed deadline to speed-climb the 14x8,000'ers within three months by just one day.

Regardless of style, the physical and logistical feat is remarkable. Counting this year and her previous attempt in 2022, Harila has summited 26 8,000'ers in less than two years.

Harila's outfitter, Seven Summit Treks, has posted a summiter's list that also includes 17-year-old record-seeker Nima Rinji Sherpa, Chhiring Namgel Sherpa, Mingma Tenjen Sherpa, Ang Dawa Sherpa, Muktu Lakpa Sherpa, Lakpa Thendu Serpa, and Phurba Sherpa.

The clients listed were Sarah Adbovais of Iran, Josette Valloton of Switzerland, and Fedor Kuprichenkov of Russia. In addition, Pasang Nurbu Sherpa, Mingtemba Sherpa, and Ngima Dorchi Sherpa joined the rope-fixing team.

Another outfitter, 8K Expeditions, working with Summit Karakoram, has put over 40 climbers on top.

But not all teams that started the summit push have continued. Furtenbach Adventures eventually aborted its summit push because of "extremely dangerous avalanche conditions above the shoulder," owner Lukas Furtenbach told ExplorersWeb. A Madison Mountaineering team also aborted.

Meanwhile, Mingma G of Imagine Nepal confirmed that they put a nine-person team on the summit (four clients, four sherpas, and one Pakistani climber). Two other clients and their two sherpas gave up below the Bottleneck because of the avalanche risk.

Traffic jams and heavy snow ahead

While expedition companies are hurrying to announce their teams' achievements, the summit day is far from over, and conditions should not be taken lightly. Nearly 200 climbers are queuing up on the fixed ropes.

Alexander Abramov, a leader at 7 Summits Club, confirmed that the rope fixers were not able to pitch Camp 4 because of too much snow. Climbers heading down will need to go all the way to Camp 3 (around 7,300m) to find a tent and supplies.

"One single summit window and over 180 climbers in the same night; I hope everything goes well," Mingma G of Imagine Nepal posted from Base Camp yesterday. Mingma G noted that climbers started leaving Camp 3 at 6 pm. His own team set off at 11:30 pm.

Lakpa Sherpa of 8K Expeditions reported a foggy morning but very little wind.

K2 climbers are jamming Camps 2 and 3 and the rope-fixing team continues to struggle above Camp 4. They will need to summit tomorrow, before their clients ran out of patience, stamina, and especially oxygen.

Summit chances narrowing

"Today more than 50 climbers reached Camp 3 for their final summit push," Pioneer Adventure reported.

Camp 2 is apparently crowded as well. All hopes rest on a forecast improvement in the weather tomorrow, but the pressure is increasing because of crowding, limited (although huge) oxygen supplies, relentless bad weather, and in some cases, climbers in a hurry.

The rope fixers have reached Camp 4 and they may be trying to continue further, but at present, there is no summit news. Each delay creates a logistical issue for oxygen-dependent clients. Most probably, the sherpas will fix as they go, with a large number of climbers in tow.

Teams push from Camp 3 to summit

Silvia Azdreeva, a client with EliteExped, wrote on Instagram that her team has been at Camp 3 for two days, "waiting for better weather." And, presumably, for the rope fixers to complete their job.  They will set off on their summit push tonight.

Kristin Harila and her team left Camp 2 (at a remarkably fast pace, according to her tracker) and reached Camp 3 this afternoon. The rest of Seven Summit Treks peak baggers are doing their best to keep pace. They include 17-year-old Nima Rinji Sherpa, Uta Ibrahini of Albania-Kosovo, and Allie Pepper of Australia.

Climbing with Lakpa Sherpa, Pepper's group is at Camp 3 (7,400m). They will leave for the summit tonight. Pepper summited Broad Peak without supplementary oxygen some days ago. According to one of her previous posts, she aims to summit all 14 8,000'ers in the same way. It is unclear, however, if she will manage to do this on K2.

Unpredictable weather

Several climbers have noted that weather forecasts have been inaccurate. Skies were supposed to clear today, for example, but that has not happened.

Paraglider Richard Barber has just returned from the Baltoro area with some interesting comments about weather predictions. "I found out that the soaring forecasts were an excellent way to understand what was going on and how inclement the weather was," he told ExplorersWeb.

He referred to the weather models used to predict thermal conditions, an essential tool for paragliders and hang gliders.

If you open this link, you'll see the Baltoro area divided into color blocks. If you click on any of the blocks, you'll get an option for a Meteogram showing the temperature, freezing altitude, and cloud type.

"We found that if there were any vertical lines at all, that basically meant it was going to be stormy and there'd be rain/snow," Barber noted.

Here is K2's Meteogram for the next few days:

According to Barber's experience, every time they saw a prediction for rain, it really rained -- a lot. The current chart, above, shows precipitation every day until at least next Wednesday, with a heavy storm on Friday and Saturday.

The ordinary multimodel charts show an equally pessimistic panorama:

Why this is such a dangerous summit push

Teams out of time. This year, bad weather has delayed the rope fixing, and with it, the option for teams to distribute their summit attempts over several days. With August just around the corner, it's "tomorrow or never" for most. Yet conditions are poor -- lots of heavy snow in the last few days, the rope-fixing team said -- and the weather remains uncertain.

Low start -- longer summit day. Starting a summit push from Camp 3 forces the climbers to endure a longer journey -- 1,200 vertical meters over steep terrain. They will have to deal with the Bottleneck and the traverse below the Great Serac (the most dangerous part of K2's Abruzzi Spur route) later in the day. This is when conditions become more hazardous. Moreover, all teams seem to be aiming to summit tomorrow. This will increase traffic jams at those upper (and most exposed) sections.

The recent experience on Nanga Parbat has shown that climbers starting from Camp 3 -- even those on oxygen -- need every last gram of strength to return safely from the summit. K2 is 600m higher than Nanga Parbat, and nearly all the climbers currently heading up must have suffered from the long stay in Base Camp or from previous climbs on Pakistan's 8,000'ers.

The long descent. Finally, it is unclear whether they will find space in a tent on their way down, assuming they intend to stop at all. In recent years, many oxygen-supported clients downclimb all the way back to Base Camp after summiting, a grueling effort lasting well over 24 hours.

The rope-fixing team on K2 has spent all day slowly advancing toward C4. They might try to reach the summit tomorrow. But that's two days behind schedule, and the weather is not improving.

"It is being a very hard task this year due to heavy snow and unpredictable weather," Lakpa Sherpa of 8K Expeditions told Explorersweb.

They have the biggest team on K2 and lead the rope fixing. Sakhawat Hussain of Summit Karakoram, 8K's Pakistan partners, say that it has been raining in Base Camp and snowing in higher camps.

Many climbers in Camps 2 and 3

Meanwhile, climbers crowd the mountain's lower camps. 8K climbers have moved to Camp 3, hoping to head up as soon as the ropes are ready. Pioneer Adventure's leader, Mingma Dorchi, is on his way to Camp 3.

Kristin Harila and her sherpa guides are in a lower Camp 2. Tomorrow is the last day of her self-imposed deadline to summit every 8,000m peak within three months. K2 is her last.

Summit pushes on other peaks

On Gasherbrum I, Andrzej Bargiel is in Camp 2 and will leave for the summit tonight, in order to ski down. Other climbers are also moving up the mountain, including Hugo Ayaviri of Bolivia and the Alpenglow team led by Topo Mena.

The last remaining climbers on Broad Peak are also heading for the summit, including Lucas Woerle of Austria. He is climbing without porters or oxygen and plans to paraglide from the summit. In a previous attempt two weeks ago, Woerle sacrificed his summit bid to help a sick porter from another team.

The season is approaching its -- hopefully grand -- finale. The last teams are on the Gasherbrums. Among them, Denis Urubko and Pipi Cardell gear up for their new route.

Together with other climbers, Urubko and Cardell summited Gasherbrum I via the normal route on Friday, without oxygen or porters, as the final part of their acclimatization. This was Urubko's 27th 8,000'er without O2, a record. They are now ready to attempt their planned new alpine-style route.

Topo Mena, leading an Alpenglow Expeditions team, is currently on his summit push. Others are following. Moeses Fiamoncini of Brazil is still recovering from a crampon wound on his leg and will wait until August to attempt G1. He will have the mountain virtually to himself. Adriana Brownlee and Gelje Sherpa are also in Base Camp.

Finally, Andrzej Bargiel is also on his way up, planning to summit on July 26 and ski down, as he did on Gasherbrum II last week.

Bad weather on K2

The only Pakistani 8,000'er without a summit so far this season is K2. Bad weather is making things difficult. Da Dendi Sherpa, leader of Glacier Himalaya's team, reported that they have returned to Base Camp and called off their expedition due to bad weather. To illustrate his point, he just posted a video showing K2 in a whiteout:

The rope-fixing team is supposed to reach the summit today.

Whatever the weather and the state of the ropes, Kristin Harila and her sherpas will have to summit no later than Wednesday if she wants to complete all 14x8,000'ers within her planned three months. Her tracker was not active at the time of writing this story, but outfitter Seven Summit Treks reported that she and her team reached K2 Base Camp yesterday, just hours after summiting Broad Peak.

The weather on K2 is not ideal, but the rope fixers are on their way to the summit. Some big teams have waited for several weeks, and now everyone is on the move.

However, there is only one route and many people, so staggered pushes will be key to avoid crowding and long stays at altitude.

"The summit-fixing team is heading to Camp 2 tomorrow, aiming to fix to the summit on July 24," Ryan Waters of Mountain Professionals told ExplorersWeb from Base Camp.

Uncertain weather and plans

The teams are considering July 25 to 28 as possible summit days, Waters said. He is also pondering when to head for crowded Camps 1 and 2.

"We believe lots will go to C1 tomorrow, but no one knows exactly," Waters said.

Do the teams get along?

The American guide is on K2 for the first time in 17 years. He has noticed what has changed and what has remained the same. Waters notices some secrecy about summit plans.

"I suspect it has to do with the competition between commercial operators now that didn't exist years ago," he said.

However, the atmosphere remains friendly, especially up on the mountain, where different teams often share tents and coffee.

"All the headline-grabbing stuff is focused on speed or tagging multiple peaks...but at Base Camp, it is pretty casual, with no drama, really," he said.

Big Base Camp meetings still take place among expedition leaders, although sherpas now do all the fixing. This is "different from the old days when a mixed bag of foreign climbers pieced together a plan to work on the hill," Waters said.

The quiet man of K2

Luis Soriano of Spain, a regular climbing partner of Carlos Soria, is also in Base Camp, filming and photographing the climb of Alexander Abramov's Seven Summits Club. The team includes a quiet legend from Soviet mountaineering, Sergey Bogomolov. Few of the younger climbers on the mountain will have heard of him.

Now 70, Bogomolov has returned to complete his last undone 8,000'er, K2. Bogomolov attempted K2 in 2006, but his expedition ended tragically when an avalanche killed four teammates.

He has been climbing mountains for over 50 years. Among many other accomplishments, he summited all the Snow Leopard peaks four times, was nominated for a Piolet d'Or, and helped open new routes on Kangchenjunga, Cho Oyu, Dhaulagiri, and Ama Dablam. He also summited 10 other 8,000'ers, all before 2004, according to Mountain.ru 

In 2008, Bogomolov was part of the international team of climbers that tried to rescue Inaki Ochoa de Olza. He received a Spirit of Mountaineering award for his attempt.

"Bogomolov is doing well and progressing slowly but steadily," Soriano said. "He looks motivated, and you can tell what the guy is really made of."

Seven Summits Club confirmed that Bogomolov, guide Moskalev, a Pakistani, and three sherpas set off yesterday, aiming to reach the summit on July 25.

Soriano also told ExplorersWeb that a Czech team is climbing light on the Cesen route. Otherwise, everyone is keeping to the normal Abruzzi Spur route. The Cesen route actually joins the Abruzzi at Camp 3.

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:

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See this post on Instagram

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.

The good weather settling in today or tomorrow coincides with the arrival of dozens or hundreds of climbers to the Baltoro area Base Camps.

However, after a long, stormy spell, it will take time for the mountains to shed their excess snow. Yet acceptable conditions may depend on how much in a hurry the individual climbers are. Some are willing to spare no expense to speed up their expeditions.

New regulations

A set of new regulations in Pakistan may lower the number of serial summiters. This season, international climbers cannot apply ahead of time for permits to several peaks. Instead, once they finish with one, they need to apply for the next and repeat the process for every mountain they want to climb.

Mingma G of Imagine Nepal also told ExplorersWeb that he is having some trouble with visas. Apparently, some members of his team entered Pakistan with a tourist visa but they apparently need a "mountaineering categorized visa" to climb in Pakistan. They have applied for new visas, but the process is taking long.

Why trek when you can fly?

Once again, the peak collectors will lead the way, and at least some of them will be well-rested, after flying to Base Camp. While helicopter taxis are normal in Nepal, they are rare in Pakistan. Here, the Pakistan army operates all the helicopters, which fly in pairs for safety reasons.

The Karakoram lies near the Chinese-Indian border and has a history of military tension. Helicopters were traditionally deployed only in case of emergency -- mainly for rescues or to evacuate sick or injured climbers.

But very recently, some wealthy clients have agreed to pay $20,000 for a comfortable 40-minute trip to or from Base Camp. Viridiana Alvarez pointed out yesterday that helicopters also give a great view of the Baltoro Glacier from above:

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See this post on Instagram

Alvarez is part of a Seven Summit Treks group that also includes Kristin Harila and her sherpa team. Both Harila and Alvarez summited Nanga Parbat on June 26. They had plenty of time to return to Skardu and trek to the Gasherbrums, so saving time was no reason to fly. Nor was, apparently, saving money or reducing one's carbon footprint. However, the Baltoro trek is demanding, the weather was bad, and the women had already acclimatized.

With the weather now expected to improve, they are rested and ready to move to Camp 1, where many climbers have already settled in. Like Base Camp, C1 is common to both Gasherbrums. It is not on the mountain itself but at 6,000m on the Gasherbrum Glacier.

Above-average teams

This season features some of the highest numbers of commercial clients ever seen on the Gasherbrums (no figures available yet). But the Gasherbrums will also host the two most interesting 8,000m climbs of the summer: Denis Urubko and Pipi Cardell's attempted new alpine-style route on GII and Andrzej Bargiel's ski expedition on both peaks.

Urubko and Cardell have been waiting at the foot of the mountain for some time, while Bargiel reached Pakistan last week. After a first acclimatization trip up 6,400m Koshar Gang near Skardu, he and his team set off toward the Baltoro.

The Gasherbrums are also the next destination for the recent Nanga Parbat climbers. At least, for those who didn't sustain frostbite during the exhausting summit push without a Camp 4.

None of them, as far as we know, are paying for an airlift. Some reported delays on their way to Skardu because of landslides on the Karakoram Highway. A big group including Saulius Damulevicius of Lithuania and others from Lela Peak Expedition reached Urdukas today, according to Damulevicius' tracker.

Recently, the monsoon is becoming more active and affects larger areas of the country, sometimes precipitating catastrophic floods. This year, the Punjab is the most affected region.

Patience needed on K2

The more vigorous monsoon also seems to be responsible for the bad weather that has shut down the Karakoram lately. K2 teams started arriving in Base Camp two weeks ago but have been on hold since then. The relentless bad weather has barely allowed a first acclimatization round to Camp 1. Ropes have not been fixed beyond Camp 2.

EliteExped used the time to do some cleanup on the lower parts of the Abruzzi Spur route. The operation, led by Mingma David Sherpa, retrieved 200kg of trash, mainly old ropes, they reported.

Sajid Sadpara of Pakistan also announced a cleanup campaign of his own on K2. It will start soon, in cooperation with Seven Summit Treks. Sadpara's team noted that Pakistan is one of the 10 countries most affected by climate change.

Broad Peak

On Broad Peak, Furtenbach Adventures has started working well ahead of everyone else and launched a summit push last week. But the forecast on which they were relying proved wrong. Unexpected 100kph winds stopped them as soon as they reached the ridge. Out of time for further attempts, lead guide Ulises Corvalan called off the expedition.

The expedition sherpas and one guide then went to K2 to meet the K2 Flash team. This group has already acclimatized at home using the hypoxic tents provided by Furtenbach. Weather permitting, they are able to go to K2, climb it, and return home in three or four weeks total.

Other teams are trying to get some altitude despite the conditions. Horia Colibasanu of Romania has managed at least one rotation in snowy weather. Today, he took advantage of better weather to climb 1,400 vertical meters and pitch his small tent at Camp 2 (6,200m).

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.

Instead of going to Makalu with Seven Summit Treks as planned, Sajid Sadpara of Pakistan has decided to climb Everest without oxygen or personal Sherpa support with Nirmal Purja.

Sadpara didn't mention when he will set off, but weather forecasts suggest that conditions should improve later this week.

In addition, the younger Sadpara's Facebook page includes statements about winter K2. He is confident that his father did reach the summit in 2021 before perishing on his way down.

Winter K2

There is no evidence that Ali Sadpara or his two companions, John Snorri and Juan Pablo Mohr, summited K2 after they set off together from Camp 3 on Feb. 5, 2021. The three never made it back alive, and climbers -- including Sajid -- found their remains high on K2 the following summer.

Sajid managed to summit K2 and also bury his father on the way down, with the help of Hugo Ayaviri of Bolivia. Sajid Sadpara and Ayaviri believed that the position of the bodies and the way their gear was placed suggests that the threesome had summited.

Indeed, the equipment on the ropes suggests that they were descending, but there is no way to be certain whether they summited or simply turned around short of the top.

Sajid explains that Nirmal Purja invited him to Everest. "With him, my father has had many expeditions including Nanga Parbat and Winter K2," said Sadpara.

In fact, Purja and both Sadparas were on K2 during the fateful winter of 2020-21, but not on the same expedition. Ali and Sajid Sadpara were working with John Snorri of Iceland, and their team followed a completely separate strategy from the two Nepali teams. The Nepalis eventually decided to join forces for a surprise summit push on January 15-16, in which Sadpara had no part.

However, as Sajid noted to Samsom S. Sharaf in Pakistan, the two expeditions shared the rope fixing. The Sadparas fixed until Camp 2, while Purja's group took over from there.

Jet stream delays summit pushes

Himalayan skies have finally cleared after the relentless snowfall of the past two weeks. But jet-stream winds have kept climbers below the highest sections on 8,000m peaks. They continue to wait impatiently for a calm, clear window.

"At Camps 3 and 4, the wind is too strong, almost 80kph, and no tents are set up there," Asmita Dorjee wrote from Base Camp. The Indian climber is planning a no-O2 ascent.

Stefi Troguet's home team says that the Andorran will go to at least Camp 2 on May 11, when the wind is expected to decrease. At that time, she will have to deal with a large number of climbers on the ropes. Many clients flew back to Kathmandu for a rest during the bad weather. They are now more than ready to start their summit push. Troguet has not left the mountain but has been dealing with a cold.

Respiratory illnesses are no joke at altitude. Prateek Gupta of the ASC360 Insurance Company said this year that a high number of climbers and trekkers have ended up in the hospital with pulmonary infections. Among them is Russian skier Vitali Lazo. He tried to recover in Pangboche but eventually flew to the hospital in Kathmandu, where he is currently recovering. Lazo and partner Anton Pugovnik intend to climb and ski down Everest without oxygen.

Pumori not ready

On slightly lower mountains, action has resumed but conditions remain far from easy. In addition to the avalanche on Ama Dablam earlier today, snow slides and tough conditions also pushed Pumori climbers back from their summit push this past weekend.

"There was an avalanche at Camp 2 before we got there, and it buried all our stored equipment," Asian Trekking leader Dawa Steven Sherpa told ExplorersWeb. "We could only dig out 200m of our 600m of rope and some snow stakes, so we had no option other than to retreat.

"Naga Dorjee Sherpa, who fixed most of the ropes and coordinated the team of Sherpas between three different companies, was devastated when we lost the rope."

On the other hand, everyone got back down safely. "We had the whole mountain to ourselves," Dawa Steven said. "Conditions were tough...but we had fantastic views the entire way up. Pumori didn’t want us up there this season, so we have to respect that."

Says Swedish climber Magnus Wiberg, "We did all we could to summit Pumori, but weather and avalanches forced us back 300m below the top." He posted some photos and videos of the climb:

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Nuptse summits

Climbers on Nuptse, the impressive peak opposite Everest, were luckier. At least nine members of the Himalayan Guides team (outfitting Garrett Madison's expedition) summited today at around 1:30 pm, The Himalayan Times reported.

The team included Madison, clients Krisli Melesk of Estonia and Richard Powell Draves Jr. from the U.S., and six Sherpas who fixed ropes all the way to the top: Aang Phurba Sherpa, Mingdorchi Sherpa, Chheder Sherpa, Lakpa Sherpa, Dawa Tenji Sherpa, and Chheten Dorjee Sherpa.

Makalu climbers in Camp 3

"Makalu team members just reached Camp 3 and will launch their summit push [from there] as soon as the weather gets better," Seven Summit Treks reported.

On Dhaulagiri, the loads of new snow will have to settle down before the climbers dare to set foot on its avalanche-prone slopes.

This time last year, conditions were better and many summits had already occurred -- on Annapurna, Everest North, Everest South, Kangchenjunga (in several waves), and Dhaulagiri. Makalu had summits on May 10.

On Everest, the early summits allowed for several summit waves that spread out the traffic and avoided crowding at the technical bits. This year may not be so accommodating for the record number of climbers. It is not clear whether the coming summit window will be the only one before the monsoon.

Sura Peak alpine style

Marek Holecek and Matej Bernat reached the village of Thame yesterday, on their way to 6,764m Sura Peak. Once there, they'll decide their line, says Holecek.

"Will we climb from the right side of the central ridge, or from the other side? We'll have to wait a few more days [to see]," he wrote.

"We have discovered our own iced-up El Dorado: untouched massifs and walls, all covered in a winter coat," Marcin Tomaszewski wrote today from Greenland.

The Polish climber and partner Pawel Haldas are enjoying the wildness of Greenland and basking in "finally, real winter", namely -36ºC.

The pair flew to the town of Ummaannaq, then snowmobiled to their targeted range with their climbing gear and supplies. They have chosen a line up an ice-covered rock face that they describe as "Greenland's El Cap." They'll start the climb tomorrow and may not report again until they return to the base.

Denali: Jost Kobusch retreating?

Meanwhile, in Alaska, Jost Kobusch's track shows something unusual. Yesterday, he checked in from Camp 1 near the base of Denali's West Buttress. He had been progressing for three days "through difficult terrain, large crevasses, and zero visibility with a 67kg sled, which is not the easiest to pull," he said.

The German, who intends to solo Denali in winter via the West Buttress and the Messner Couloir, also mentioned some health problems to his home team.

Kobusch's track showed steady progress today from 11 am until 3:15 pm, but then a (very fast!) retreat back to where he had started skiing at the beginning of the day.

We are waiting to find out if there is something wrong with his tracking device or if he really turned around. If the second, he is two days from his original landing point, where a plane can pick him up.

K2's retrieval mission: Txikon in

A trekking team led by Louis Rousseau left Askole for K2 Base Camp on February 6, according to Jasmine Tours. They plan to retrieve the body of Australian Matthew Eakin, who perished on the mountain last summer.

Eakin's remains lie slightly above Advanced Base Camp. His family hoped that they could recover him, thanks to the drier conditions in winter. However, the body is currently buried under snow after an avalanche. There are nine people on the retrieval team, including some with winter climbing experience.

This may include Alex Txikon. The Basque climber flew to Pakistan today and planned to drive immediately to Askole to catch up with "a group of people" heading toward K2's Base Camp. It is unconfirmed whether it is the retrieval team he is joining.

Some mountain features will win beauty contests, and some won’t.

There’s Scarface at Indian Creek, which is very possibly the most-photographed rock climb of all time. There’s the east face of Longs Peak, also called The Diamond for obvious reasons. There’s Ama Dablam, one of the most picturesque peaks on the planet.

And then there’s House’s Chimney.

House’s Chimney on K2, 100 feet crack in the rock wall. I actually really enjoyed climbing this..#k2pakistan #k2mountain pic.twitter.com/a8eEpgdATO

— Naila Kiani (@nailakiani) January 30, 2023

The popular conduit to the summit of K2 does not exactly beg to be climbed, based on a visual inspection. No BS: I’ve seen gravel driveways in rural Texas with less loose rock than this decaying pile.

But it’s well understood that to get up K2, sacrifices must be made, and the path of least resistance has nothing to do with aesthetics.