It was close in two respects. Tamara Lunger only narrowly missed the first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat, then the 29-year-old South Tyrolean just escaped with her life. Just below the 8,125-meter-high summit, Tamara exhaustedly informed her Italian teammate Simone Moro that she would be able to climb up to the highest point but would not come down without help. Shortly afterwards, she turned around. Simone, the Spaniard Alex Txikon and the Pakistani Muhammad Ali (also known as “Ali Sadpara” – called after his home village) reached the summit without her. On the descent, Lunger lost her balance after jumping across a crevasse near the highest camp. She slid around 200 meters towards the abyss until she came to hold in loose snow with good luck. Meanwhile, the climber is back home in South Tyrol.

Tamara, first of all congratulations on your performance! Have you meanwhile recovered from the strains?

Thanks, Stefan. I must say that I have overcome the strains of the “near-summit” but not yet the consequences of my fall. My ankle is still swollen. I will get it checked up on Monday, but there is certainly something torn. 🙁

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Nanga Parbat will soon be able again to hibernate undisturbed. After the 8,125-meter-high mountain in Pakistan had increasingly become the object of desire of professional climbers from around the world in recent winters, calm should return to the eight-thousander in the cold season. Another of the “last great problems” of mountaineering is solved after the Italian Simone Moro, the Spaniard Alex Txikon and the Pakistani Muhammad Ali have made the first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat last Friday. Ali climbed through rocky terrain to the highest point, the other two through an icy couloir. The fourth team member, the South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger, turned around about 100 meters below the summit. She also chose a different path in the summit area than Simone and Alex. The 29-year-old was finally completely exhausted after she had vomited in the morning of the summit day.

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They did it! The Spaniard Alex Txikon, the Pakistani Ali Sadpara and the Italian Simone Moro have made history making the first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat. “3:37 p.m (in Pakistan). SUMMIT! We just got the confirmation by walkie: Alex Txikon, Ali Sadpara and Simone Moro have reached the top of Nanga Parbat for the first time in Winter. Tamara Lunger stopped some meters below. Will spend night in Camp 4 (7.200m) and tomorrow will be back in Base Camp”, Igune Mariezkurrena writes from Diamir Base Camp on Facebook. Congratulation to all climbers on this amazing performance – and a safe descent!

For Simone, it was already the fourth time that he first climbed an eighthousander in winter. Before doing it today on Nanga Parbat, he had succeeded on Shishapangma (in 2005), Makalu (in 2009) und Gasherbrum II (in 2011).
Now K 2 remains the only of the 14 eight-thousanders that has never been climbed in winter so far.

Update 16.45 MEZ: Alex, Ali, Simone and Tamara have safely arrived in Camp 4 at about 7,100 meters.

Update 27.2.: All climbers are safe and sound back in Base Camp. This completes the summit success on Nanga Parbat. “Tired but very happy! Ready to go to bed and recover a bit”, is said on Tamara’s Facebook account. Reportedly she had turned around at about 8,000 meters. Nevertheless, well done, Tamara! A part of the summit success is yours.

Showdown on Nanga Parbat! The international team on the Diamir side has reached Camp 4, around 7,100 meters high, in the Bazhin Basin. Tomorrow morning the Spaniard Alex Txikon, the Pakistani Ali Sadpara, the Italian Simone Moro and the South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger will set off for their summit push to complete the first winter ascent of the 8,125-meter-high mountain – although the wind will probably slow down only on Friday night. “Optimum wind conditions are expected  for 26th night and will remain throughout 27th, but waiting until then would suppose to spend one ‘extra’ night in Camp 4 at above 7,000 m”, Igone Mariezkurrena reports from Base Camp. “So, although tonight and even tomorrow morning wind will blow at 35km/h and from Northwest – therefore Nanga’s summit trapeze will not protect them –, the four members have debated and decided to set out for the summit at 5:30 to 6:00 (local time), avoiding exposure to extremely low temperatures.” Godspeed and good luck!

The Nanga train is rolling again. After they had been stuck in Camp 2 at 6,100 meters for a day due to strong winds, the Spaniard Alex Txikon, the Pakistani Ali Sadpara, the Italian Simone Moro and the South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger today ascended on the Kinshofer route – the normal route on the Diamir side of Nanga Parbat – to Camp 3 at 6,700 meters. “The summit looks really close from here”, Simone radioed to Base Camp. On Thursday, the quartet wants to reach the last scheduled high camp at 7,200 meters. If everything matches, the four climbers plan to set off for their summit attempt on Friday.

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The weather window on Nanga Parbat opens. “Looks like the window is here, the good one, the definitive one”, Igone Mariezkurrena writes from the Base Camp on the Diamir side of the 8,125-meter-high mountain in Pakistan. “The one that, if everything goes OK and bodies respond, can give Alex Txikon, Ali Sadpara, Simone Moro and Tamara Lunger the chance for pushing for this still unclimbed Nanga Parbat winter summit.” Early this morning the quartet set off from Base Camp and climbed on the Kinshofer route directly to Camp 2 at 6,100 meters.

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It’s snowing and snowing and snowing on Nanga Parbat. An ascent to higher altitudes is out of the question. 25 centimeters of snow has fallen within one day, the Spaniard Alex Txikon writes on Facebook. The risk of avalanches is accordingly high. Therefore Alex, the Pakistani Muhammad Ali – called Ali “Sadpara” (he comes from this village) –, the Italian Simone Moro and the South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger are still forced to twiddle their thumbs in Base Camp. Even with an improvement in the weather, the international team would have to acclimatize again due to the long compulsory break before they can seriously think about a summit attempt – not to mention the necessary work to break the trail again. Nevertheless it doesn’t get boring on Nanga Parbat because the dispute between Txikon and Italian Daniele Nardi, who has meanwhile departed, is turning into a kind of “divorce battle”.

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The adjourned game on Nanga Parbat continues. 15 centimeters of fresh snow cover the Base Camp on the Diamir side. Alex Txikon, Ali Sadpara, Simone Moro and Tamara Lunger may be forced to postpone their acclimatization climb they actually planned for Sunday. A reconciliation between the Spaniard Txikon and the Italians Daniele Nardi seems unlikely. “YES, cooperation is finished”, Alex writes to me from Base Camp. “Although tried to give more than one chance to this cooperation, it was finally impossible.” The dispute also stresses Tamara Lunger. The 29-year-old South Tyrolean has already climbed two eight-thousanders: In 2010, as the youngest woman ever, Lhotse (with supplementary oxygen) and in 2014 K 2 (without breathing mask). On Nanga Parbat, she once again forms a team with the Italian Simone Moro. Last year, both had to abandon their attempt on Manaslu due to heavy snowfall. I have contacted Tamara in Nanga Parbat Base Camp.

Tamara, the bad weather has forced you to stay in Base Camp for days. How do you spend your time and keep yourself fit?

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Harmony is different from what’s obviously going on in Diamir Base Camp on Nanga Parbat. “The collaboration between [the Spaniard] Alex Txikon and Italian Daniele Nardi has become impossible due to obvious and ongoing disagreements about how to proceed during the expedition”, it says on Txikon’s website. There were “different working patterns and priorities” as well as “conflicting interpretations of some events, and also differences regarding the behavior in Base Camp”. It remains to be seen whether the two wranglers are able to overcome their differences or it’s too late to mend their ties. It is striking in any case, that Nardi was absent from the latest trip of the team. On Monday, Txikon, Tamara Lunger, Simone Moro and Ali Sadpara had used a wind break to climb with snowshoes up to 5,100 meters.

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“Only five are left. We don’t give up now“, Tamara Lunger writes on Facebook. The 29-year-old South Tyrolean mountaineer and her Italian team partner Simone Moro hope for better weather on Nanga Pabat. Snowfall is predicted until the weekend, in addition a strong wind is blowing at the 8125-meter-high summit, which currently makes an ascent impossible. The other team still staying in Base Camp, the Spaniard Alex Txikon, the Italian Daniele Nardi and the Pakistani Ali Sadpara, are also waiting for an end of the bad weather.

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Reporting about what happened today on Nanga Parbat was a bitl like fishing in murky waters. I tried to make out from the wildly swirling information on the Internet where the climbers on the mountain currently were. The sun has long since set in Pakistan, so I’m assuming that the mountaineers have sought protection in their tents. It is still unclear how far the Pole Tomek Mackiewicz and the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol have climbed up during their first summit attempt. The Pakistani Arslan Ahmed, who had joined the team but had to leave because of health problems, had contact with Tomek for the last time at 10.30 local time.

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The first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat is in the air – say my gut instincts. Sunny days and clear nights are expected on the eighth highest mountain on earth until the weekend. The wind is to calm down, to a speed of just ten kilometers per hour on Friday. That sounds like ideal conditions for a summit attempt – if we can still speak of it in winter at all. After all, the temperature at the 8,125-meter-high summit is about minus 40 degrees Celsius. Maybe the reason for my optimistic gut feeling is simply that the teams on Nanga Parbat are currently rather stingy with information. Almost as if they are fully focused on climbing and don’t want to be distracted by „public relations“.

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Joining forces is a recipe for success – also in mountaineering. You only need to recall the legendary first ascent of the Eiger North Face in 1938, when the Germans Anderl Heckmair and Ludwig Voerg and the Austrians Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek started their climbs as two teams of two, banded together in the wall and were successful. Also now on Nanga Parbat, two of the five expedition teams on the mountain have joined their forces in order to have better chances for the first winter ascent on the ninth highest mountain on earth. “Plan A – quick alpine style push – failed due to weather. Plan B – regaining acclimatization and climbing “alpine style like” – failed too due to Jacek’s health issue. By the way he is himself again. It’s time for plan C”, the Polish climber Adam Bielecki writes on Facebook.

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There will hardly be record temperatures on Nanga Parbat this winter, and if, then only low ones. “Unfortunately January weather on Nanga is extremely bad in comparison to the previous two years”, writes the Polish climber Adam Bielecki, who, along with his compatriot Jacek Czech, wants to climb on the Diamir side of the mountain via the Kinshofer route to the 8,125-meter-high summit, doing it in Alpine style: without bottled oxygen and without fixed high camps. “So far there wasn’t a single day with weather good enough to attempt a summit attack.” In the last few days, the thermometer dropped below minus 40 degrees Celsius. In addition, strong winds blew and it was snowing. These days, Bielecki and Czech want to climb up to a minimum altitude of 7,000 meters, “in order to regain acclimatization which would allow us to wait for better weather”. That sounds as if the two Poles can imagine not descending to Base Camp once more before their first summit attempt. Before traveling to Pakistan, Adam and Jacek had already acclimatized at the 6,893-meter-high volcano Ojos del Salado in Chile.

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What are Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell actually doing this winter? Perhaps the two Hollywood stars are traveling to Pakistan to shoot a remake of their blockbuster “Groundhog Day” that is set in the world of high altitude climbers. After all, the same match on Nanga Parbat is repeated year after year: Several expeditions arrive at the different base camps to climb the “Naked Mountain” for the first time in winter. And again and again they return home exhausted and empty-handed two months later. 27 expeditions ended this way. This winter, another five teams will tackle the 8,125-meter-high mountain, which is – apart from K 2 – the only eight-thousander which has never been climbed in the cold season. Two of the current climbing teams have the Murray/MacDowell pattern – even if the name of one of these expeditions sounds more like a Disney movie.

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