Alex Txikon on the Abruzzi route

What bad luck! Only with delay Waldemar Kowalewski from Poland – as reported – had joined the team of the Spaniard Alex Txikon. And now the K2 winter expedition has already ended for the 45-year-old. Kowalewski had been hit by a stone or a block of ice on his left collarbone on his descent from Camp 1 at about 6,100 meters to the Advanced Base Camp. “He had to go down at a slow pace but he feels calmer now at Base Camp,” Txikon’s team announced after the incident. Waldemar was flown out to Skardu today. Then the rescue helicopter picked up another Pole from Txikon’s team: Marek Klonowski had heart problems and could therefore no longer stay in the base camp at the foot of the second highest mountain in the world. He hopes to be able to return in about ten days.

Two tracks on one route?

Climber from the Pivtsov team

Alex Txikon has now finally decided to make no attempt via the still unclimbed K2 East Face. The ascent through the wall was “impossible” because it was too dangerous, the 37-year-old said. The team had equipped their route to Camp 2 at 6,700 meters via the Abruzzi Spur, Alex’ team said. It is not clear to me why this was necessary. After all, the team from Kazakhstan, Russia and Kyrgyzstan, led by Vassiliy Pivtsov, had already secured this route before. “Near us, Sherpas are fixing ropes parallel,” Pivtsov’s team informed on Sunday. Is Txikon’s team trying to signal that they are climbing  independently of the other team? On the same route? If the cap fits, wear it. According to Pivtsov and Co., they reached an altitude of 6,800 meters today. Tomorrow they want to climb further up.

Tent disappeared

Camp 2 after snowfall

On Nanga Parbat Italian Daniele Nardi, Briton Tom Ballard and their Pakistani companions Rahmat Ullah Baig and Karim Hayat do not have to worry about a possible competitive situation. They are alone on the mountain. The recent heavy snowfalls – a meter and a half of fresh snow in three days – have set the team back in their efforts to open a new route via the striking Mummery Rib in the Diamir Face. After Nardi and Ballard reached again Camp 3 at 5,700 meters yesterday, they searched in vain for the tent they had left there on their last ascent. Today, Tuesday, they wanted to be back at base camp to discuss how to proceed.

Moro and Pemba Sherpa give up on Manaslu

Shovel for all you’re worth

Meanwhile, Simone Moro and his Nepalese partner Pemba Gyalje Sherpa have abandoned their winter expedition on the eight-thousander Manaslu and let themselves be flown out of the base camp by helicopter. “Over the last few days the aim of reaching my fifth summit in winter was transformed into surviving this situation,” Simone writes today on Facebook. It would take at least two or three weeks of sunshine for the six meters of fresh snow to settle, says the Italian adding that the weather forecast is anything but good. For Moro, it was a deja vu: Also in winter 2015, Moro had fled from the snow masses on Manaslu, at that time in a team with the South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger.

Everest (l.) in the first daylight

In the coming winter there will be no commercial winter expedition to the highest mountain on earth after all. The Nepalese operator “Seven Summit Treks” (SST) postponed their Everest project by one year to winter 2019/2020. “We are personally busy this year”, board director Chhang Dawa Sherpa writes to me, adding that a strong SST team will accompany the Spaniard Alex Txikon on his upcoming winter expedition to K2 in Pakistan.

Clients opted out

Alex Txikon on Everest in winter 2017

The US mountaineer and blogger Alan Arnette had previously reported, citing SST Managing Director Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, that two of the original five interested clients had opted out of the winter expedition and that the project had therefore been postponed by one year. As reported, for the first time ever an Everest winter expedition had been advertised as a commercial one. Pointing that out, Alex Txikon had given up his original plan to set off for the third consecutive winter to the highest mountain on earth to tackle it without bottled oxygen. “Well, honestly, the perspective of having a commercial expedition on the mountain has put me off,” the 36-year-old had said.

Last success 25 years ago

The mountaineering chronicle “Himalayan Database” has so far recorded only 15 Everest summit successes in the meteorological winter. For weather researchers, the cold season begins on 1 December, while the calendar winter does not start until the winter solstice on 21 or 22 December. The first winter ascent was made on 17 February 1980 by Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy. The only one who scaled the highest mountain on earth in winter without bottled oxygen was Ang Rita Sherpa on 22 December 1987. The weather on that day was unusually good. The extreme cold in winter usually causes the air pressure in the summit region to drop even further. An ascent without a breathing mask is then at the absolute limit of what is possible.

Alex Txikon in Bilbao

After all. The Spaniard Alex Txikon will tackle K2 in the upcoming winter. The 35-year-old announced this at a press conference in Bilbao today. He will travel to Pakistan on 2 January with his compatriot Felix Criado, with the goal of scaling the second highest mountain on earth for the first time in the cold season. It had already become known that the Pakistani government had granted Txikon a climbing permit for K2. However, the Basque had left it open to this day whether he would actually use the permit.

Five Sherpas for possible summit push

A team of eight Sherpas will support the two Spaniards. According to Txikon, five of the Sherpas will probable take part in a possible summit attempt: Nuri Sherpa, Chhepal Sherpa, Geljen Sherpa, Hallung Sherpa and Pasang Sherpa. “I think it’s an accessible challenge. It’s possible that we’ll reach Camp 4 (at almost 8,000 m),” said Alex. “And from there we’ll see how the circumstances are to attack the summit.” In the past two winters Txikon had tried in vain to scale Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. He had ruled out a third attempt in 2019 after learning of a planned commercial winter expedition to Everest.

“Fear keeps you alert and active”

View to K2 from the base camp

In summer 2013, Txikon and Criado had already tried together in a team to climb K2, but had failed due to bad weather. At the end of February 2016, Txikon along with the Italian Simone Moro and the Pakistani Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” succeeded the prestigious first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat. This made K2 the only remaining of the 14 eight-thousanders the summit of which – 8,611 meters above sea level – nobody has reached in winter so far. Alex expressed respect for the task: “The fear is there, but it’s not bad. It keeps you alert and active.”

Igloos instead of tents

Like the Inuit in the Arctic, Txikon and Co. want to build igloos in base camp to protect themselves more effectively against the freezing cold and the expected winter storms than with tents. “We will try to find transparent ice in the seracs, so that light can penetrate (into the igloos),” Alex said. At base camp, the Spaniards will meet an expedition team from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan that had already announced their winter attempt on K2. The mountaineers led by Kazakh Vassiliy Pivtsov want to climb the classic route of the first ascenders, via the Abruzzi Spur. As things stand at present, the Spaniards will probably also choose this route – although Txikon in Bilbao admitted that he was still in doubt whether this would be really the most promising route in winter.

Abruzzi route or via the East Face?

K2 East Face

Alex brought the K2 East Face into conversation as a possible alternative. During the failed Polish winter expedition in 2018, Denis Urubko had suggested an ascent over the still unclimbed wall, saying that climbers would be protected there from the prevailing west winds on K2. “In summer there is a great risk from avalanches. However, in winter, minimal snow cover makes very good conditions for the climb,” Urubko argued. In summer 1987, a US expedition explored the East Face to climb it in Alpine style. “It became clear that our proposed route on the east face was suicidal,” wrote Greg Child at the time.

K2, the “king of the eight-thousanders”

One does not have to be a prophet to predict that K2 will be besieged regularly in winter until it is also scaled in the cold season. The second highest mountain in the world is the last remaining eight-thousander, the summit of which is still untouched in winter. After the failed Polish expedition from the beginning of this year, a team from three states of the former Soviet Union will attempt “Chogori”, as the local Balti call the mountain, next winter: Five Russians, four Kazakhs and two Kyrgyz. “We must be in Islamabad at the latest on 2 January,” writes me Artem Brown. The Russian, born in 1976, has been organizing the winter expedition.

Without bottled oxygen

Pivtsov and Zhumayev on the very last meters to K2 summit (in 2011)

Vassiliy Pivtsov will be the expedition leader. The 42-year-old Kazakh has scaled all 14 eight-thousanders. In August 2011, he completed his collection on K2: Along with his compatriot Maxut Zhumayev, the Polish Darek Zaluski and the Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, he reached the summit via the rarely climbed North Pillar route on the Chinese side of the mountain. Zhumayev and Kaltenbrunner also completed their eight-thousander collections at that time; they had forgone bottled oxygen on all their climbs. Pivtsov had only used a breathing mask on his descent from Mount Everest, because he had been not doing well. Pivtsov’s team wants to make the first winter ascent of K2 without bottled oxygen. Only for possible emergencies, oxygen is in the luggage.

Like a lighthouse near the ocean

View to K2 from the base camp

The mountaineers from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan want to climb via the classic Abruzzi Spur route opened by the first ascenders of K2. “It’s pretty safe,” says Artem Brown. “To change something in the course of the expedition, probably will be the complicating factor.” It’s complicated enough anyway. It is not for nothing that K2 is the last remaining eight-thousander to be scaled in winter. “It is the northernmost eight-thousander, in addition it is located just like a lighthouse near the ocean, it meets strong winds. The weather on it is unpredictable,” explains Artem. Nevertheless, he is confident that the climbers from three nations will be able to land the winter coup at the end. “We have a good team, several winter expeditions lie behind us, enough experience to try. K2 will check it.”

“Making mountaineering more popular”

Artem Brown

The decisions on the mountain will be made by expedition leader Pivtsov, Artem Brown points out, adding that there will be no democratic votes on tactics: “Democracy on a submarine? Democracy at war? It weakens the team.”

At the beginning of the year, people throughout Poland shared the excitement with the climbers of the K2 winter expedition. Artem does not expect a similar enthusiasm in Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. “There are people in our countries who admire us. But nationwide, the interest is low. Perhaps we will make mountaineering more popular.”

Is Alex Txikon coming, too?

Maybe Artem Brown meets an old acquaintance on K2. The Spaniard Alex Txikon was also granted a climbing permit for this winter by the Pakistani government for the 8,611 meters high mountain in the Karakoram. Txikon, who failed on Mount Everest in the past two winters, has not yet specified whether he will really use his K2 permit. Brown and Txikon, together with the Russians Denis Urubko and Dmitrii Sinev and the Polish Adam Bielecki, had opened a new route variant via the north face of the eight-thousander Kangchenjunga in spring 2014. Urubko had been the only one of the team to reach the summit at 8,586 meters.

P.S.: The members of the international K2 winter expedition communicate via Instagram:@winterk2exp2019.

Mount Everest

Winter climbing on the eight-thousanders was previously reserved for the best and toughest. In the 1980s, the heyday of winter expeditions to the world’s highest mountains, the Polish experts for the cold season were called “Ice Warriors”. In that decade they achieved seven winter first ascents of eight-thousanders. Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy kicked off on 17 February 1980 on the highest of all mountains, Mount Everest. It’s strange that a commercial winter expedition might pitch up their tents there for the first time.

Five clients by the end of May

Wielicki (l.) and Cichy after the first winter ascent of Everest in 1980

However, the whole thing’s a little mysterious. On 28 May, Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, chairman of “14 Peak Expedition” and managing director of “Seven Summit Treks”, announced for the first time on Facebook that there would be an Everest winter expedition between 1 December 2018 and 28 February 2019. Five clients had already decided to join the expedition, wrote Tashi, adding that there was now “an open platform for all interested parties”. In total, the team would consist of more than 30, Tashi said. Shortly afterwards, “Seven Summit Treks” and “Arnold Coster Expeditions” – the operator was then called “Co-Partner” – also tendered this winter project. It was interesting that the introductory passage was changed: “Welcome all, but (you) should be experienced!”, it was said at first, then “Welcome all if you would like to take an advantage of less crowded and more adventure on Everest”. Tashi Lakpa Sherpa quoted a prize of $38,000 per person on Facebook at the beginning of July. By the way, the permit for climbing Everest is much cheaper in winter than in spring: 2,750 instead of 11,000 dollars per foreign climber.

Txikon: “It has put me off”

Alex Txikon wants to experience loneliness on Everest

Then it became quiet about the planned commercial Everest winter expedition – until Alex Txikon gave an interview about his winter plans to “explorersweb.com” a week ago. This time he wouldn’t go to Everest, said the 36-year-old Spaniard, who was one of the first winter ascenders of Nanga Parbat in 2016 and had tried in vain in the past two winters to climb Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. “Well, honestly, the perspective of having a commercial expedition on the mountain has put me off,” said Alex. “It’s the absolute solitude which makes winter Everest so unique and its climb so challenging so, with all respects, I’d rather look somewhere else for my next winter expedition.”

No answer yet

Arnold Coster

Txikon obviously referred to the announcement at the end of May, as he also spoke of five clients so far who were determined to participate in the commercial expedition. I tried to find out more. On the websites of “Seven Summit Treks” and “14 Peak Expedition” I searched in vain for references to the winter expedition. On the site of “Arnold Coster Expeditions” I found what I was looking for. “Join me on Everest this winter to climb Everest away from the crowds … a true adventure!,”is written there. However, the further information to which a link leads seems to have been taken from the invitation to a quite “normal” Everest expedition and contains no reference to the special challenges in winter. My questions to Mingma Sherpa, the head of “Seven Summit Treks”, and to Arnold Coster about the current status of the project have so far remained unanswered.

Last success 25 years ago

While Mount Everest has been climbed more than 9000 times to date, the so far 15 summit successes in the meteorological winter are rather modest. For weather researchers, the cold season begins on 1 December, while the calendar winter does not start until the winter solstice on 21 or 22 December.

Everest Southwest Face

29 Everest winter expeditions have so far been recorded in the “Himalayan Database”, 21 of them before 1990. In the winter of 1985 alone, four expeditions attempted the highest mountain on earth: three South Korean expeditions on different routes (normal route via the South Col, via the West Ridge and through the Southwest Face) and a Japanese team (via the Hornbein-Couloir). In total, only five winter expeditions were successful on Everest – most recently in 1993, when six members of a Japanese team climbed the Southwest Face to reach the highest point at 8,850 meters on 18 December.

The only one who scaled the highest mountain on earth in winter without bottled oxygen was Ang Rita Sherpa on 22 December 1987. The weather on that day was unusually good. The extreme cold in winter usually causes the air pressure in the summit region to drop even further. An ascent without a breathing mask is then at the absolute limit of what is possible.

Txikon ends his Everest winter expedition

One and a half weeks in Africa including the ascent of the 5895-meter-high Kilimanjaro lie behind me. High time to look at the two winter expeditions on Mount Everest and K2. Because they provided plenty to talk about, especially the expedition on K2. First, however, to the highest of all mountains: As he had already done in 2017, the Spaniard Alex Txikon abandoned his attempt to scale Mount Everest in winter without bottled oxygen. A summit attempt last week ended at 7850 meters, just below the South Col, because the cold was much more severe and the wind significantly stronger than predicted.

No fast weather improvement in sight

Turning back in the Lhotse flank

“The truth is that these are not easy moments, my greatest hope was to go from Camp 4 to the top, but the mountain is the one that decides,” said Alex. “And it was impossible to advance under those conditions. After all, the most important thing for the entire team is to return safely to continue dreaming and enjoying the mountain.” Since the permit for Everest expired at the end of February and there was no weather improvement in sight until mid-March, the expedition team decided to go home.

Urubko turns around at 7600 meters

Denis Urubko on K2

Also for Denis Urubko his winter expedition is over – but for completely different reasons. The native Russian, who has also a Polish passport since 2015, today left in quarrel the Polish expedition on K 2, the second highest mountain in the world. At the end of last week, he set off for a solo summit attempt, without consultation with expedition leader Krzysztof Wielicki. Previously he had tried to convince his powerful team-mate Adam Bielecki to join him. But the Pole, with whom Urubko had rescued the Frenchwoman Elisabeth on Nanga Parbat at the end of January, refused. According to his own words, Denis reached an altitude of about 7,600 meters, just below the so-called “Shoulder”. Due to storm, the 44-year-old finally returned.

Dispute with Wielicki

Urubko (l.) and Wielicki (r.)

Urubko had already stated in an interview with alpinismonline.com before the expedition that a winter expedition was only successful if the summit had been reached before the end of February. Obviously he was dissatisfied with the slow progress of the expedition and tried it on his own. “It was my chance to do something, not just to sit in the base,” said Urubko. “I think I do not need to apologize. The others are not angels, either.” After returning to Base Camp, the team leader announced that Urubko would leave the expedition. “This decision was accepted by the participants of the expedition, who did not see any further possibility of cooperation with Denis after his independent attempt to get the top,” it said. Expedition leader Wielicki even forbade Urubko from using the expedition’s internet connection, “because Denis sent critical information about our expedition and its participants to the media and I did not see a reason for him to continue this.” Previously, Wielicki had considered Urubko’s attempt to be “selfish”: “Denis thinks it’s all about just him, but it’s not. He has put all of us in danger. If something goes wrong, of course we must try to rescue him.”

Urubko scaled all 14 eight-thousanders without bottled oxygen. Twice he succeeded first winter ascents of eight-thousander, both by the way in February: In 2009 with the Italian Simone Moro on Makalu in Nepal and in 2014 with Moro and the American Cory Richards on Gasherbrum II in Pakistan. The Polish winter expedition on K2 continues – without Urubko, probably the strongest climber in the team.

Ascent via the Abruzzi route on K 2

“The weather is not the best,” Krzysztof Wielicki, leader of the Polish K2 winter expedition, writes on Facebook. “Full of clouds and wind.” Denis Urubko ascended via the Abruzzi Spur to an altitude of 6,500 meters to check the condition of the route. Some old ropes are to be replaced, says Wielicki. The Polish climbers  had abandoned “for reasons of safety” their original plan to climb the Basque route (also known as the Cesen route). Previously Adam Bielecki and Rafal Fronia had been injured by rockfall. While Bielecki is able to continue, Fronia had to cancel the expedition because of a broken forearm.

Txikon and Co. waiting in EBC

Alex Txikon in the Lhotse flank at the end of January

On Mount Everest, the Spaniard Alex Txikon, the Pakistani Muhammad Ali “Sadpara””and their Sherpa team are waiting for an opportunity for a summit attempt. “it seems that the weather does not work in our favor,” writes Alex. The climbers are well acclimatized. At the end of January, Txikon and Ali had scaled the 7,161-meter-high Pumori. A few days later, Alex and Co. had climbed on Everest up to an altitude of 7,850 meters, then the weather had turned.

First winter ascent of Gora Pobeda reported

Gora Pobeda in eastern Siberia

Meanwhile, Italian Simone Moro and his South Tyrolean team partner Tamara Lunger announced the first winter ascent of the 3,003-meter-high Gora Pobeda (also called Pik Pobeda) in the icy eastern part of Siberia. “”It snowed all day long, but there was good visibility,” the two climbers informed on Facebook.” It was extremely cold! How cold we do not know yet, we’ll check and tell you.” Gora Pobeda is located only about 140 kilometers south of the Arctic Circle. Local reindeer herdsmen had accompanied Moro and Lunger from the last inhabited settlement to the base camp.

It worked out well in the end

“Eh, that was close,” Adam Bielecki writes on Facebook from K2 Base Camp. “Several dozens of meters below camp 1 [at 5,800 m]  I was hit by a big stone. The result is a broken nose and six stitches, which were professionally put by Piotr Tomala and Marek Chmielarski directed by phone instructions from Robert Szymczak. In a few days I should be back in a perfect condition.” Previously, Krzysztof Wielicki, the leader of the Polish winter expedition on the second highest mountain on earth, had reported that Bielecki had been injured on the forehead and nose, although he had worn a helmet. Wielecki emphasized that the 34-year-old had not lost consciousness and was still able to descend to the base camp: “We hope that he will soon be back to full strength.”

Urubko up to 6,550 m

The Polish team fights tough for every meter on the Cesen route in adverse conditions. Denis Urubko has climbed up furthest so far. He reached an altitude of about 6,550 meters above Camp 2 a few days ago. K2 is the last remaining of the 14 eight-thousanders that has never been scaled in winter. The Polish “Ice Warriors” want to change that.

Returned from Nanga Parbat rescue

Denis Urubko (l.) with Elisabeth Revol (r.) after the rescue of the Frenchwoman

Urubko and Bielecki returned from their rescue on Nanga Parbat on 2 February. As reported, they had managed to bring Elisabeth Revol safely from the mountain. The Frenchwoman and the Pole Tomek Mackiewicz had fallen into trouble after their summit success. Tomek – suffering from snowblindness and severe high altitude sickness – had stayed behind at 7,200 meters, unable to descend further. The search for him had been stopped because of the bad weather and the minimal chance of finding him alive.

Txikon and Co. are waiting for another chance

Meanwhile, in the base camp at the foot of Mount Everest, the Spaniard Alex Txikon, the Pakistani Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” and their Nepalese team are waiting for their next chance. At the end of January, they had reached an altitude of 7,850 meters before being forced back by a sudden change in the weather. Txikon and Ali want to scale the highest mountain in the world without bottled oxygen this winter.

Tomek Mackiewicz on Nanga Parbat

Do you already have aching muscles from keeping fingers crossed? Your pain could become even stronger. Because the summit bid of the Pole Tomek Mackiewicz and the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol that was expected already for Sunday is delayed. “We are in Camp 3, (it’s) windy (with speeds of)  about 100 km/h,” Tomek is quoted today on his Facebook page. “Tomorrow Camp 4, summit push (on) 25 January. Good weather (is expected for) that day.” In fact, the weather forecast for the summit at 8,125 meters predicts for Thursday the lowest wind speeds this week: between 15 and 25 km/h. Assuming this forecast is correct, it will be almost calm, however with minus 42 degrees Celsius quite cold, some clouds are expected. Mackiewicz and Revol climb without bottled oxygen.

Urubko first climber in Camp 2

K2

Meanwhile, the climbers of the Polish winter expedition are making progress on K2. According to the Facebook page “Polski Himalaim Zimowy 2016-2020” (Polish winter climbing in the Himalayas 2016-2020), Denis Urubko has reached Camp 2 on the Cesen route at 6,300 meters and will spend the night there. Artur Malek and Marek Chmielarski are in Camp 1 at 5,900 meters, it says. K2, with 8,611 m the second highest mountain on earth, is the only eight-thousander that has never been scaled in winter so far.

After Pumori now Everest

On Mount Everest the Spaniard Alex Txikon, the Pakistani Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” and the two Nepalese Nuri Sherpa and Temba Bhote returned from their ascent of the 7161-meter-high Pumori – in their backpacks this small, but nice video:

This winter, Txikon and Ali, two of the three first winter ascenders of Nanga Parbat in 2016, want to reach the summit of Everest at 8,850 meters without breathing masks.

Nanga Parbat

It’s time for the Pole Tomek Mackiewicz and the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol this Sunday. According to Polish media information, the two climbers wanted to start at 2 a.m. local time (Saturday 10 p.m. CET) from their last high camp at 7,200 meters towards the summit. It will be their first and last attempt, it said. For Sunday, clear weather with temperatures of minus 33 degrees Celsius and wind speeds of about 60 kilometers per hour is expected for the highest point of Nanga Parbat at 8,125 meters. Mackiewicz and Revol are climbing without bottled oxygen.

Summit of Pumori reached

Txikon and Co. on the summit of Pumori

Meanwhile, the Spaniard Alex Txikon and the Pakistani Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” have scaled the seven-thousander Pumori vis-à-vis Mount Everest on Saturday. According to Txikons’ team, they reached along with the Nepalese climbers Nuri and Temba Bothe around noon local time the 7,161-meter-high summit. “The wind was very strong, but we all are fine,” Alex said. “A very technical and in some moments dangerous mountain.” After returning to the base camp, Txikon and Co. want to focus again on their actual goal, a winter ascent of Everest without bottled oxygen.

Polish climbers on K 2 above 6000 meters

On K 2, the second highest mountain in the world, the Polish winter expedition is slowly working their way upwards. On Saturday, a team of some climbers was busy securing the Cesen route above 6,000 meters with fixed ropes.

Elisabeth Revol (l.) and Tomek Mackiewicz on Nanga Parbat

“We are acclimatized. We’ll try to reach the summit.” Tomek Mackiewicz is quoted on his Facebook page with these words. After about two weeks of strong winds, the weather on Nanga Parbat had improved, the conditions were good, it said. Tomek and his climbing partner Elisabeth Revol probably set off today towards their material depot at 6,700 meters.

Subsiding wind

Nanga Parbat

The 43-year-old Pole and the 37-year-old Frenchwoman want to complete the so-called Messner route – “the only possible Alpine style route in winter”, as Tomek wrote to me last November. In 2000, the South Tyroleans Reinhold and Hubert Messner, Hanspeter Eisendle and Wolfgang Tomaseth had opened the route through the Northeast Face up to an altitude of 7,500 meters. Meteorologists predict clear weather with decreasing wind for the coming days on Nanga Parbat. On Saturday, temperatures of minus 31 degrees Celsius and wind speeds of around 40 kilometers per hour are expected at the 8,125-meter-high summit. From next Tuesday, the wind is to continue to calm down, but then it should be a little colder again.

K2: Poles want to pitch up Camp 1

Entry of the Cesen route

The Polish team at K2 – the second highest mountain in the world, as well as Nanga Parbat located  in Pakistan – stayed in the base camp today. On Friday and Saturday, the climbers want to continue to fix ropes on the Cesen route and pitch up Camp 1 at 6,200 meters. The 8,611-meter-high K2 is the last remaining eight-thousander, which has never been climbed in winter. The Polish expedition led by old master Krzysztof Wielicki wants to change that.

Climbing Pumori in preparation for Everest

Alex Txikon on ascent on Pumori – in the background Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse (from l. to r.)

In Nepal, meanwhile, the Spaniard Alex Txikon has left his base camp at the foot of Mount Everest in the opposite direction. The 36-year-old Basque climbed today with the Pakistani Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” and the Nepalese Nuri and Temba Bhote on the 7,161-meter-high Pumori up to Camp 2 at 6,200 meters. According to Alex, the trio wants to climb the mountain “in a minimalist and fast style” in order to further acclimatize. Subsequently, Txikon and Co. will return to the actual goal of climbing Everest without bottled oxygen. Last Monday, the Spaniard had ascended with five Sherpas to Camp 2 at 6,500 meters on the highest mountain on earth.

Alex Txikon in Everest high camp (in the background on the right Pumori)

Alex Txikon is pleased with the progress made so far on his winter expedition on Mount Everest. On Sunday, the Spaniard and five Sherpas ascended from the base camp on the previously prepared route through the Khumbu Icefall, slept in Camp 1 at 6,050 meters and reached Camp 2 on Monday. “I am very happy, I did not think for a moment that we were going to reach Camp 2 at 6,500 meters in just one day and with a small team of only six people,” says the 36-year-old.

Foot off the accelerator

Alex (l.) and his comrades

“I think I have to take my foot off the accelerator and dose the speed. After all, this is not a 100-meter run but a long marathon. Six very hard days are behind us and we are very proud of them.” Txikon and the Pakistani climber Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” want to scale Everest without bottled oxygen. Together with the Italian Simone Moro, they had made the prestigious first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat in February 2016.

Waiting in K2 base camp

Wind vane on K 2

The jet stream is currently raging on Pakistan’s eight-thousander. For K2, wind speeds of up to 125 kilometers per hour were expected today on the summit at 8,611 meters, on the highest point of Nanga Parbat at 8,125 meters of up to 110 km/h. The storm is to calm down not before next weekend. That means for the winter expeditions on both eight-thousanders: Waiting in the base camp. On Sunday some climbers of the Polish team had ascended on the second highest mountain on earth up to 5,700 meters on the Cesen route. For today’s Tuesday it was actually planned to pitch up Camp 1 at 5,900 meters. However, there was no move shown on the GPS tracker of the expedition. K2 is the last remaining eight-thousander that has never been climbed in winter.

Nanga Parbat: Material depot at 6,700 meters

Elisabeth Revol (l.) and Tomek Mackiewicz on Nanga Parbat

From Nanga Parbat, the Pakistani expedition operator “Alpine Adventure” informed that the Pole Tomek Mackiewicz and the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol had returned to base camp because of the strong wind and extreme cold. Previously, they had deposited equipment at 6,700 meters. They would rise again as soon as the conditions permit, it said. That should be probably towards the end of the week.

Alex Txikon in the Khumbu Icefall

This went fast. In just four days, the Spaniard Alex Txikon and the Sherpas Tenzing Gyalzen, Gelje, Cheppal, Walung Dorji and Pasang Norbu have completed the route through the Khumbu Icefall and reached Camp 1 at 6,050 meters. “Great job, we are very happy,” says Alex, adding that it was really hard work, each of them had carried between 25 and 35 kilos. The 36-year-old Basque points out that it took the six climbers five days less for this first major task than his team during the failed winter attempt in 2017 – despite the fact that at that time eleven, i.e. five more expedition members had been involved in the work. “The route through the icefall is very complex and required our full concentration,” says Alex. According to his words, he had searched together with the “Icefall Doctor” Gelje Sherpa for the ice areas with the lowest risk of collapsing.

Sharing tasks, saving energy

Complete concentration

The Pakistani climber Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” was not involved in the work in the Khumbu Icefall. He had been en route  with the two Sherpas Nuri and Temba Bhote in a nearby area for further acclimatization, Alex reports – “with the idea of sharing tasks and saving energy”. At the end of February 2016, the Spaniard, together with Muhammad Ali and the Italian Simone Moro, had succeeded the prestigious first winter ascent of the eight-thousander Nanga Parbat in Pakistan. The South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger had had to turn back then about 70 meters below the summit because she had felt bad. This winter, Txikon and Ali want to climb Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. Meanwhile, Moro and Lunger will try to succeed the first winter ascent of the 3003-meter-high Pik Pobeda in the ice cold east of Siberia.

Polish K2 team at Concordia

Three winter expeditions to eight-thousanders, three different phases. In Pakistan, the Polish team led by Krzysztof Wielicki today reached Concordia after trekking over the Baltoro Glacier and is expected on Tuesday to pitch their tents in the base camp at the foot of K2, the last remaining unclimbed eight-thousander in winter. Already six days ago, the Spaniard Alex Txikon, the Pakistani Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” and their Nepalese Sherpa team had reached the base camp on the south side of Mount Everest. They are fixing a route through the Khumbu Icefall. Like last year, Alex participates in the work (as the video below shows).

How high were Revol and Mackiewicz?

The latest information on the winter expedition on Nanga Parbat is not yet confirmed. The website “russianclimb.com” tweeted yesterday, the Pole Tomek Mackiewicz and the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol had already reached Camp 3 at 7,300 meters on the so-called “Messner route”. According to russianclimb, the information comes from an employee of the Pakistani agency that organized the expedition for the two mountaineers from the west.

Strong winds

Nanga Parbat

Tomek’s wife could not confirm this information to me. She had learned on Friday that Mackiewicz and Revol had ascended to an altitude of 6,600 meters and then returned to the base camp. There they wanted to wait until the strong winds calm down in a few days. That would coincide with the current weather forecast for Nanga Parbat. It predicted for today on the 8125-meter-high summit wind speeds of 80 to 90 km/h, for the next three days even from 100 to 135 km/h. The Polish-French duo had reached the base camp on the Diamir side of the mountain already before Christmas.

Lunger, Moro, Ali, Txikon (from r. to l.) on Nanga Parbat in 2016

I was wrong with my guess. The dream team of Nanga Parbat 2016 will not be together on Mount Everest this winter, but will go their separate ways. Today, the Spanish climber Alex Txikon announced that he would try together with the 41-year-old Pakistani Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” to scale the highest mountain on earth without bottled oxygen. The other two members of the Nanga summit team, the Italian Simone Moro and the South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger, are drawn to freezing cold Siberia.

Save energy for the top

Alex Txikon in Everest Base Camp (in February 2017)

Alex Txikon will make a new try on Everest after his failed attempt last winter. At that time the Basque had ascended with a Sherpa team once to the South Col at 7,950 meters. There they had had to turn around because of stormy winds. “The problem is not the cold, but the wind,” the 36-year-old said today. “There will be wind speeds of up to 140 km/h and temperatures of minus 60 degrees Celsius. However, on the summit day, the wind must not blow at more than 40 km/h.” According to Alex, the “small team” will arrive at the base camp at about 5,300 meters between 1 and 3 January. Txikon wants to pace himself better this time. “We will try not to carry too heavy loads. The key will be not to work for nine days in a row like last year and to tire in the lower areas, but to save the energy for the top.”

In the limit of the possible

Mount Everest

So far there have been 15 summit successes on Mount Everest in the meteorological winter. For weather researchers, the cold season begins on 1 December, while the calendar winter begins with the winter solstice on 21 or 22 December. The Poles Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy reached the summit of Everest on 17 February 1980, succeeding the first winter ascent of an eight-thousander at all. Since the end of 1993 no more climbers have stood on the 8,850-meter-high summit. The only one who climbed the highest mountain on earth so far in winter without breathing mask was Ang Rita Sherpa on 22 December 1987. The weather on that day was unusually good. The great cold in winter normally causes the air pressure in the summit area to fall even further. An ascent without bottled oxygen is then in the absolute limit of the possible.

Freezing cold mountain

Pik Pobeda in eastern Siberia

The 31-year-old Tamara Lunger and the 50-year-old Simone Moro will have to go to the limits too. They have decided to climb the 3,003 meter-high Pik Pobeda in eastern Siberia. The mountain (not to be confused with the 7,439 meter high peak of the same name in Kyrgyzstan) is only about 140 kilometers south of the Arctic Circle. It seems guaranteed that it will get “freezing, freezing, freezing”, as Tamara had told me. Located 250 kilometers southwest of Pobeda, Oymyakon is considered the coldest city in the world. It is disputed whether there was really measured once minus 71.2 degrees Celsius, but it is undisputed that the average (!) temperature in the Russian city in winter is minus 50 degrees. “I can’t immagine how it could be on the mountain,” Simone Moro writes on Facebook. “Nobody has ever climbed that mountain in winter and I can easily imagine why.” They will set off on 22 January.