Nanga Parbat (seen from Diamir basecamp)

Does Nanga Parbat show its teeth again? More than 20 winter expeditions already failed on the 8125-meter-high mountain in Pakistan. Beside K 2, Nanga Parbat is the only eight-thousander which has still not been scaled in winter. That’s why the “Naked Mountain” has been an attractive destination for professional mountaineers over the past years. The Polish climber Tomasz called Tomek Mackiewicz is trying to climb the  ninth highest mountain on earth for the fifth consecutive year. After having reached an altitude of about 7200 meters with the German mountaineer David Goettler on the south side of the mountain (Rupal side) last year, Tomek is now climbing on the northwest side (Diamir side). Today he and the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol returned safely from a summit attempt to base camp.

Tomasz Mackiewicz

Fall into a crevasse

They had climbed on the still unfinished route on the northern flank, which the South Tyroleans Reinhold Messner and Hanspeter Eisendle had opened up to an altitude of 7500 meters in 2000. Mackiewicz and Revol reached 7800 meters, not too far below the summit. For days there had been no contact with them. Now the Italian Daniele Nardi, who shares the base camp with Tomek and Elisabeth gave the all-clear via Facebook: “They’re fine. Tomek has a small problem in the leg because he fell into a crevasse. Nothing to worry about.“

One more aspirant: Alex Txikon

Alex Txikon

Two other expedition teams are on their way to the Diamir side. The Iranians Mahmood Hashemi, Reza Bahadorani and Iraj Maani are expected in base camp this weekend. There, Alex Txikon will pitch his tent too. After Chinese authorities refused to give a permit for his planned K 2 winter expedition with the Russian Denis Urubko and Adam Bielecki from Poland, the Basque decided to tackle Nanga Parbat. He will be joined by the Pakistani climbers Muhammad Ali and Muhammad Khan. Both come from villages in Baltistan: Ali from Sadpara, Khan from Machulu. “They’ve climbed many high mountains in the Himalayas, they are experienced and strong men, and I’m sure they will be very good partners”, Alex writes on his website.
On the Rupal side, a team from St. Petersburg in Russia is currently working up the mountain. Last news came five days ago saying that Nickolay Totmjanin, Valery Shamalo, Serguey Kondrashkin and Victor Koval had left base camp to push ahead the route.