Broad Peak

From Pakistan, this summer season’s first ascents on the 8051-meter-high Broad Peak are reported. Seven members of the team of the Austrian expedition operator Furtenbach Adventures and four climbers of the team of the Swiss operator Kobler@Partner reached the summit of the twelfth highest mountain on earth, it said. According to Furtenbach Adventures, expedition Rupert Hauer succeeded, along with three Sherpas and three clients, the first summit success on Broad Peak this season – even though there was a meter of fresh snow above the last high camp: “The sherpas made an unbelievable job and worked really really hard.”

Cadiach turned around

According to Kobler@Partner, their expedition leader Herbert Rainer also reached the highest point, together with two clients and a Pakistani climber. Last weekend, the Spaniard Oscar Cadiach and his group had abandoned their first summit attempt because of too much snow in the upper part of the mountain and had returned to the Base Camp. Broad Peak is the last of the 14 eight-thousanders, which is still missing in the collection of the 64-year-old Catalan Cadiach.

Without fingers on Nanga Parbat

Kim Hong Bin

Already last Saturday, according to the Alpine Club of Pakistan, eight climbers reached the 8,125 meter-high summit of Nanga Parbat – among them the Korean Kim Hong Bin and his Nepalese Climbing Sherpa Lakpa. In 1991, Kim had suffered so severe frostbite on Denali, the highest mountain in North America, that all ten fingers had had to be amputated. For the 53-year-old, Nanga Parbat was his eleventh eight-thousander. Last May in Nepal, he had scaled Lhotse, the fourth-highest mountain on earth. In addition to Kim and Lakpa Sherpa, according to ACP, four other climbers from Nepal, a Chinese and a Japanese reached the summit of Nanga Parbat last Saturday.

Track ends at the fracture line

Tragic certainty

Meanwhile, the Romanian climber Alex Gavan, according to the website “Altitude Pakistan”, gave details of the search for the Spaniard Alberto Zerain and the Argentinian Mariano Galvan. As reported before, the two climbers almost certainly had been killed by an avalanche accident on the Mazeno Ridge. Gavan had coordinated the search for the two missing from Nanga Parbat Base Camp and had later flown in one of the two Pakistani rescue helicopters. “We extensively searched this area, looked up the open crevasses, searched the nearby valleys,” Alex writes, “we searched the Mazeno (Ridge) up to almost 7400m, much farther than they could have realistically climb.” Without success. Gavan presented pictures, on which a track in the snow can be seen. It ends at the fracture line of an avalanche. The last GPS point, sent by the GPS tracker of Zerain and Galvan, lies in the avalanche cone. “The evidence was much too heavy, much too hard to digest,” says Alex. “But now everything was clear.”

Karakoram Highway

It has gotten dark. For hours we have been racing with our minibus down the Karakoram Highway to the north. Time to stretch our legs. Near the town of Chilas we stop at a tea room. Some long-bearded men are sitting in front. We start talking. Smalltalk: “How are you?” “Where are you from, where are you going?” Suddenly my mountain guide is gesticulating wildly. I shall get back into our bus quickly. Inside I ask him why he was so excited. “Bad men, dangerous!”, answers my Pakistani companion. Until now I think that he overreacted then, in the summer of 2004. But I remembered this episode again when I was informed about the murder attack on eleven climbers on Nanga Parbat last weekend.

Allegedly 14 attackers identified

Meanwhile the police authorities of Gilgit-Baltistan are trying to signal that they have the situation under control again. 16 terrorists had been identified, police chief Usman Zakaria said. The perpetrators were still hiding somewhere in the Diamir valley. After the bloody attack of last weekend all expeditions had to leave the west side of Nanga Parbat and returned to Islamabad. I asked the Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) whether the whole Nanga Parbat area will stay closed all summer long.

Only Romanians are still there

“Only five groups comprising various nationalities had applied for Nanga Parbat and were climbing during the summer season, out of which four were attempting Diamir side and one (Romanians) was attempting Rupal side”, ACP President Manzoor Hussain answered. The expeditions on the Diamir side had been evacuated due to the attack and would not be going back. The group on the Rupal side was still climbing the mountain. “Certainly as there are no more applications for climbing Nanga Parbat during summer hence the season is over”, Manzoor Hussain concluded. And what about the Romanians?

For security or to bring bad news?

The climbers on the Rupal face are obviously unsure whether they have to leave the mountain too. “We worked so hard. I do not want to finish like this”, Torok Zsolt complained, after he had reached a height of 7200 metres together with his teammate Aurel Salasan. Both climbers went down to Camp 2 on 6000 metres to consult with the other expedition members about how to proceed. Allegedly, two police officers are waiting at base camp. It’s still unclear whether they were sent for security reasons or simply to end the expedition. I’m still waiting for a reply to the request I sent to the Pakistani agency which has organized the expedition for the Romanians.

Update 10:00 p.m.: Mohammad Ali of the agency Karakurum Magic Mountains has informed me that the final decision will be made on Friday (28th June).

Update 28th June: The Romanians decided to continue their expedition on Nanga Parbat. “Evacuation would have been the easiest choice for us, but we also didn’t chose the easiest route on the mountain. We go forword! We thank you for the good thoughts and don’t worry for us, because is a negative energy”, Zsolt said.

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