A lot of snow on Gasherbrum II

A short snowfall break in the Karakoram – or, as Felix Berg describes it from Gasherbrum II with a twinkle in his eye “a small good-weather disturbance”. Time for the climbers to stuck their noses into the wind and to reconsider their plans. Dominik Müller, head and expedition leader of the German operator Amical alpin has decided to strike the tents on the 8,051-meter-high Broad Peak and to return home. “All the equipment from Camp 1 was recovered,” Dominik writes on Facebook today. “Just now it’s snowing again, and during our ascent there were some avalanches!” The porters have been ordered for Sunday.

Stitzinger: “Too much snow in the flanks and couloirs”

The Amical team led by Luis Stitzinger, who wanted to first climb the 7,082-meter-high Urdok Kangri II, threw in the towel too. “It’s been snowing for days since we arrived at the base camp. There is now half a meter of fresh snow, and up to one and a half meters at 6,000 or 7,000 meteres,” Luis writes on Facebook. “The route looks elegant, but there’s too much snow in the flanks and couloirs.” For the next three days more than half a meter of fresh snow is expected, says Luis adding that they’ll finish the expedition early: “I’ve never experienced such a season with so constant bad weather in the Karakoram.”

Like Russian Roulette

Alex Gavan (l.) and Tunc Findik (r.)

Snowfall has also increased the risk of avalanches on the other eight-thousanders in Pakistan. Continuing the ascent would be like “Russian Roulette”, Romanian Alex Gavan wrote three days ago. Alex and his Turkish team partner Tunc Findik had interrupted their activities on Nanga Parbat. The two want to climb the 8125-meter-high mountain without bottled oxygen.

Bargiel and Golab move to the K2

On the eight-thousander Gasherbrum II, the Poles Andrzej Bargiel and Janusz Golab declared their acclimatization over – “due to heavy snowfall. Time to move on to K2 base camp and focus on our main goal,” writes Bargiel on Instagram. The 30-year-old is planning the first complete ski run from the 8611-meter-high summit of K2. Last year, Bargiel failed on the second highest mountain in the world – because of bad weather.

Göttler and Barmasse want to climb G IV Southwest Face

Gasherbrum IV

The German climber David Göttler and the Italian Hervé Barmasse are probably glad to have made their way to the Karakoram rather late in the season. Both are still on their trekking. They definitely haven’t missed anything so far. Göttler and Barmasse want to first climb the Southwest Face of the 7,925-meter-high Gasherbrum IV – in pure Alpine style, i.e. without bottled oxygen, high camps and high altitude porters.

Broad Peak Base Camp in deep snow

Summer in the Karakorum? At the moment it feels more like winter, at least in terms of precipitation. For days Mother Holle has been shaking out her mattress over Pakistan’s highest mountains. “Snowfall all day long”, writes Dominik Müller, head and expedition leader of the German operator Amical alpin at the foot of the eight-thousander Broad Peak. “Our base camp is slowly turning into a winter landscape. Avalanches barrel down from the slopes every hour!” The Austrian expedition leader Lukas Furtenbach, from Broad Peak too, takes the same lime: “Tough weather conditions this year”. The situation on the other eight-thousanders in Pakistan is not different. No matter if from the neighbouring K 2, Gasherbrum I and II or Nanga Parbat – the same messages everywhere: Lots of snow, high avalanche risk.

Mike Horn: “Very dangerous”

South African adventurer Mike Horn threw in the towel on Nanga Parbat last weekend.  “It has been snowing at Base Camp for 12 days now and above 7000m there is a lot of snow. This makes the mountain very dangerous,” the 51-year-old wrote on Instagram, adding that the situation was to worsen since the weather forecast was also bad for the next days: “The mountain will stay here so we can always come back to amazing Pakistan.” Mike had been one of the first climbers to arrive in Nanga Parbat Base Camp in early June.

Even more snow

Meteorologists expect snowfall to continue until Thursday inclusive, so the avalanche risk is likely to increase further. An overhasty start onto the mountain before the fresh snow has settled could be fatal. Climbers therefore need patience – and a good entertainment program in the base camp.

Nanga Parbat

The spring season on Nepal’s highest mountains has segued almost seamlessly into the summer season on Pakistan’s eight-thousanders. The first expedition teams have reached the base camps. The South African adventurer Mike Horn arrived on the Diamir side of Nanga Parbat a week ago. In the meantime, the 51-year-old and his teammates have already climbed up to 5,900 meters. Maya Sherpa is tackling the 8125-meter-high mountain too. In May, the 40-year-old Sherpani had had to turn back on Kangchenjunga at about 8,500 metres. Less than 100 meters of altitude difference had been missing to the summit. With the Romanian Alex Gavan and the Turkish Tunc Findik, two other well-known climbers have set off for Nanga Parbat. The 36-year-old Gavan, who failed on Dhaulagiri in spring, has so far scaled six eight-thousanders.  For the 46-year-old Findik, Turkey’s most successful high-altitude climber, Nanga Parbat would be his twelfth of the 14 eight-thousanders if successful.

Goal: Entering new territory on Gasherbrum

The Gasherbrum massif

The two Poles Adam Bielecki and Jacek Czech as well as the German Felix Berg will be on the road in the Gasherbrum massif. The trio will acclimatize on the 8,035 meter-high Gasherbrum II, afterwards the three climbers will try to open a new route via the East Face of the 7925-meter-high Gasherbrum IV.  Another possible destination is the still unclimbed 6,955-meter-high Gasherbrum VII. In May, Felix Berg had summited the eight-thousander Cho Oyu in Tibet without bottled oxygen. In spring 2017, Bielecki and Berg together with the Canadian Louis Rousseau and the British Rick Allen had tried to climb the Annapurna Northwest Face, but had had to give up because of bad weather.

Eight-thousander No. 8 for von Melle and Stitzinger?

Alix von Melle (r.) and Luis Stitzinger

The German mountaineering couple Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger – both have seven eight-thousander summit successes on their account – also head for the Gasherbrum massif. The 46-year-old and her three years older husband want to climb Gasherbrum I, also known as Hidden Peak, in Alpine style from the south. They have their skis with them. Before that, Alix and Luis try to first climb the 7082-meter-high Urdok Kangri II with a team of the German expedition operator Amical alpin.  Luis will lead the group.

Several expedition teams pitch their tents at K2 (8,611 meter) and neighbouring Broad Peak (8,051 meter). As in summer 2017, the Pole Andrzej Bargiel has planned the first complete ski descent from the summit of K2, the second highest mountain in the world.

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa

His secret of success? “Actually this is my job, because I run a company. So I need to lead my clients to the summit,” Mingma Gyalje Sherpa tells me as we sit opposite each other in a café in Kathmandu. In recent years, the 31-year-old has blossomed to the high-flyer among the Sherpas. In fall 2015, he succeeded the first ascent of the West Face of the 6685-meter-high Chobutse in Rolwaling, his home valley – and he did it alone. It was the first solo ascent of a Sherpa in Nepal. Even as an expedition leader, he made headlines. In 2017, no one climbed so often above the magical 8,000-meter-mark as Mingma. The head of the expedition operator “Imagine Trek and Expedition” entered the death zone six times: on Dhaulagiri, Makalu, K2, Broad Peak and twice on Nanga Parbat. Four times he reached the summit (Dhaulagiri, Makalu, K2, Nanga Parbat), the fifth ascent on Broad Peak is disputed. “I will return to this mountain this year,” Mingma announces. “Actually I am quite sure that we made the summit. But this time, I want to reach the highest point of Broad Peak without any doubt, on the one hand to end the debate, on the other for my own satisfaction.”

Better conditions in fall

On Nanga Parbat in summer 2017

Also on Nanga Parbat, Mingma had made a second ascent in last year’s fall because he had not been sure whether he had really found the highest point in bad weather during his first summit attempt in summer. More than three months later, he reached the summit beyond doubt with several clients. “Conditions were much better in September than in summer,” says Mingma. “Perhaps it is really the formula for success in the future to tackle this eight-thousander later in the year.”

First Lhotse, then Everest

Everest (l.) and Lhotse (in the middle)

At the beginning of April, Mingma will set off for a Lhotse-Everest expedition. First, he wants to lead two Chinese clients to the 8516-meter-high summit of Lhotse, then seven Chinese to the top of the 8850-meter-high Mount Everest. As in the previous year, the Sherpa is looking to be successful early in the season: “I am quite sure that we will be the first team on the summit of Lhotse. We are planning to reach it at the end of April or in the first week of May.” He then wants to turn to Everest that he has already scaled five times (with bottled oxygen). The prospect of a crowded normal route does not deter Mingma. “It’s okay for me,” says the expedition leader. “We take only very experienced Sherpas and make sure our teams are not too big.”

Good Climbing Sherpas cost money

Mingma on the summit of K2

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa does not like expedition operators who offer dumping prices. “Low budget means low safety. If you want to have experienced and well-trained Climbing Sherpas and thus more safety, you also have to pay them better,” says Mingma, who himself has a mountain guide certificate of the UIAGM (International Federation of Mountain Guide Associations). “The discounters should know that they are dealing with the people’s life. Actually, we need minimum standards for expedition operators, but I’m skeptical that we’ll ever get them.”

“Other rules are required”

Mingma puts little hope in the government. The new rule, which has meanwhile been overruled by the Nepalese Supreme Court, no longer to grant permits to double amputees and blind climbers, is discriminatory, says the Sherpa: “There are a lot of disabled climbers who are more capable than non-disabled.” Other rules are required to reduce the number of summit aspirants on Everest, finds Mingma: “So if someone wants to climb Everest, he must have scaled another eight-thousander before. Or he must have at least the qualification of climbing 7,000 meters.”

Goal: All 8000ers without breathing mask

Solo on Chobutse (in 2015)

For now Mingma Gyalje Sherpa puts his personal ambitions as a climber on the backburner. But that does not mean that he has given up his big dream. The 31-year-old wants to become the first Nepalese who has scaled all 14 eight-thousanders without bottled oxygen. “There are still three left in my collection,” says Mingma, meaning Mount Everest, Gasherbrum II and Shishapangma. If we add Broad Peak (see above), it would be four. “This year, I have to focus on leading my clients safely on Everest. That’s why I can not do it without breathing mask. But maybe I’ll try it in 2019.”

Broad Peak

Chroniclers of mountaineering in the Himalayas and Karakoram like the Germans Billi Bierling and Eberhard Jurgalski are in an unenviable position.  On the one hand, in the age of commercial climbing, they are facing a real flood of success reports which can hardly be overcome. On the other hand, summit successes are reported, which in fact are none because the climbers did not reach the highest point. “It’s getting harder and harder,” Billi Bierling told me some time ago. Following the retreat of the legendary chronicler Elizabeth Hawley (now 93 years old), Billi is now in charge of leading the Himalayan Database. “Actually, I’m inquiring closely. But sometimes I just want to have more time,” said Bierling. She assumed that most climbers were still honest, but sometimes the truth was “a bit distorted”, she complained.

It is disputed now whether the Nepalese expedition leader Mingma Gyalje Sherpa really led his group to the highest point of Broad Peak on 4 August, at the end of the summer season in Karakorum. Eberhard Jurgalski has compared Mingmas video, which was recorded in snow drifting, with other summit videos and photos from Broad Peak and concludes that the group has not reached the highest point of the eight-thousander but a different elevation on the summit ridge, at least 45 minutes away from the summit and about 25 meters lower than this.

In doubt, better once more

Really on top of Broad Peak?

The Swede Fredrik Sträng, who didn’t belong to Mingmas team, but reached along with them the turning point, has publicly stated that he was abandoning his claim of summiting Broad Peak. “I am not 100 % sure any more if we truly made it to the main summit or not,” Fredrik wrote on Facebook and announced that he would return next year to climb to the top of  Broad Peak without any doubt: “I don’t want to blame anything, but sometimes summiting in a snow-blizzard is perhaps not a recommended thing and blindly trusting someone who gets irritated when you ask him ‘Is this the summit?’ perhaps is not the best response.“ Sträng had asked a Pakistani companion three times whether they really were on top of Broad Peak. The Pakistani, who had scaled the mountain in good weather one week before, for the third time in his climbing career, had assured three times that this was the highest point.

In mid-June, Mingma Gyalje Sherpa had reached with some clients the summit ridge of Nanga Parbat – also in bad weather. Subsequently, the 31-year-old had publicly declared that he was not 100% sure whether they were really on the top. It’s not a new phenomenon that fore-summits are declared summits. So did some mountaineers on the eigth-thousander Makalu last spring. On Manaslu, it’s nearly common practice among commercial expeditions: After the fall season 2016, it turned out that most of the about 150 “summiters” had not entered the – admittedly not easily accessible – highest point but had made their “summit pictures”  nearby.

Broad Peak

“Mr. 8000” has done it again. “We all are on Broad peak summit,“  Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, expedition leader and head of the Nepalese operator Dreamers Destination wrote on Facebook today. All means according to Mingmas yesterday’s post: ten climbers. The summit success was confirmed by the data from the GPS tracker of John Snorri Sigurjónsson, one of Mingmas clients. For the 31-year-old Mingma, it was already his fourth success on eight-thousanders this year. Previously, the Sherpa had led clients to the summits of Dhaulagiri and Makalu in Nepal last spring and of K2 last Friday. In addition, he had reached with his team the summit ridge of Nanga Parbat not being sure if he had really found the highest point.

His dream: Everest without bottled oxygen

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa

Having added Broad Peak, Mingma has now eleven of the 14 eight-thousanders on his account. Since he forewent bottled oxygen during his ascent on the 8051-meter-high mountain in the Karakorum, he has climbed ten of the 14 highest mountains without breathing mask. “I want to scale Everest at least once without bottled oxygen,” Mingma told me in an interview earlier this year. He has already been on top of the highest mountain on earth five times with breathing mask, three times (in 2011, 2012, 2016) from the Nepalese south side, twice from the Tibetan north side (in 2007, 2010). This year, Mingma has been in total five times above 8000 meters – what a performance! Only a week ago at K2, he had used bottled oxygen, otherwise, according to Mingma, “it would not have been possible to reach the summit.”

Winning formula works

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa is one of more than 40 Nepalese with a certificate from the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations (UIAGM). “Our training taught us to focus on safety and security. You can only provide safety and security when you have well tested and technical equipment, well trained staffs, very accurate weather reports”, says Mingma. The winning formula seems to work. Mingma’s track record success story speaks for itself: within a week twelve climbers on the summit of K2 and now again ten on Broad Peak.

P.S.: I’ll leave now for three weeks in order to relax in the mountains – offline. Then I’m back for you. Promised!

Broad Peak (with the shadow of K2)

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa does not seem to get fed up with climbing eight-thousanders this summer. Five days after his summit success on K2, when under his guidance twelve climbers had reached the top of the 8,611-meter-high mountain in the Karakoram, the 31-year-old expedition leader of the Nepalese operator Dreamers Destination set off with a team for a late-in-season summit attempt on neighboring Broad Peak. According to the GPS tracker of his client John Snorri Sigurjónsson, the team today reached Camp 2 at about 6,200 meters. Last week, John had become the first Icelander on the summit of K 2, the second highest mountain on earth.

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa

The Untiring

“We rested well after our successful ascent on K2,” Mingma wrote on Facebook yesterday. “We are the only climbing team in (the) whole Baltoro Glacier (area) now.” It is not yet clear who else is ascending Broad Peak besides Mingma and Sigurjónsson. In case of success the expedition leader would have climbed five times to a height of more than 8000 meters this year. Before K 2, Mingma had scaled along with clients the eight-thousanders Dhaulagiri and Makalu in Nepal last spring. At the beginning of the summer, he had reached with a team in blowing snow the summit ridge of Nanga Parbat not being sure if he had really found the highest point.

Update 3 August: Mingma G. Sherpa and nine other climbers pitched up their Camp 3 on Broad Peak at an altitude of about 7,000 meters. Scheduled summit push on Friday. Keep fingers crossed!

Oscar Cadiach

The Beatles can not have meant Oscar Cadiach when they wrote the lyrics for their song “When I’m sixty-four”: “Yours sincerely, wasting away”. The Spanish climber is 64 years old but nothing could be further from wasting away. He is certainly fitter than most 32-year-olds. Today, Oscar completed his big project: The Catalan summited the 8051- meter-high Broad Peak in the Karakoram and has now stood on top of all 14 eight-thousanders without having used bottled oxygen. 33 years ago, Cadiach had scaled his first eight-thousander, also in Pakistan: Nanga Parbat.

“It was very hard”

Broad Peak

“We made the summit! I stand on the top,” Oscar told the Catalan broadcaster Tarragona Radio. “We had wind all the time, it was very hard. I am with Ali, Tunc, and Yosuf.” The 41-year-old Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” is one of the best climbers of Pakistan. Together with Simone Moro and Alex Txikon, he succeeded the first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat at the end of February 2016.  For the 45-year-old Tunc Findik, the most successful high-altitude climber in Turkey, Broad Peak was his eleventh eight-thousander. Pakistani high-altitude porter Yosuf was the fourth member of the successful team.

First Norwegian on Broad Peak

According to a Facebook post by Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, the head of the Nepalese expedition operator Dreamers Destination, Kari Dybsjord Røstad and Pakistani Amin Ullah also reached the summit of Broad Peak. Kari became the first Norwegian on top of this mountain, Amin Ullah the fourth Pakistani, who has summited all five eight-thousanders in his home country. Mingma also thanked the Pakistani Ali Reza. It remainded unclear at that point whether he reached the highest point too.

Summit day on K2?

K 2 Base Camp

On K2, the second highest mountain on earth, there could be on Friday the first summit successes since 2014 – if everything works. 14 climbers, including nine Sherpas, had reached Camp 4 at 7,650 meters on Wednesday. “Snow depth 50 up to 100cm cost all energy,” the Icelander John Snorri Sigurjónsson wrote on Facebook. “It took us twelve hours from Camp 3 to Camp 4.” According to John, the climbers set off for their summit push on Thursday night. So keep your fingers crossed!

P.S. John Snorri Sigurjónsson has a GPS tracker as well as the American-British climber Vanessa O’Brien. If you want to follow the climbers’ progress, here are the links to the devices: John’s and Vanessa’s.

K 2, the “King of the Eight-thousanders”

Will K2, after all, stretch out its hand for reconciliation? Despite the difficult weather and snow conditions on the second highest mountain on earth, today more than a dozen climbers have reached the highest camp on the K 2 Shoulder. “He just arrived at Camp 4,” Lina Moey, partner of the Icelander John Snorri Sigurjonsson, wrote on Facebook. “He is very tired, after almost twelve hours of climbing. This was a very long day and the snow reached up to his waist at some points. Fourteen people are planing to summit the peak, 9 of them are Sherpa. They had to dig 1.5 meter down to be able to put the tent down.” On 16 May, the 44-year-old Sigurjonsson had summited the 8516-meter-high Lhotse in Nepal. He was the first Icelander on the fourth highest mountain on earth. Also on the summit of K2, he would be the first climber of his country. John’s GPS tracker showed an altitude of 7,650 meters.

Furtenbach team returns home, Bargiel still in Base Camp

The British-American mountaineer Vanessa O’Brien also reached this height. “Camp 4”, the 52-year-old tweeted concisely, with a link to her GPS tracker. Like Sigurjonsson, O’Brien also belongs to the team of the Nepalese operator Dreamers Destination. Vanessa tries to climb K2 for the third year in a row. If she reaches the summit, it would be her fifth eight-thousander. Today the team of the Austrian expedition operator Furtenbach Adventures descended. “Sadly weather on K2 played it’s own game again,” the team said. “Avalanche danger became dramatically high very quick so team decided to stop and descend to Base Camp. We do not want to send our Sherpas up in that danger.” The team members arrived safe and sound at the foot of the mountain and want to go home tomorrow. “We are still sitting in the Base Camp waiting for weather to improve,” wrote Andrzej Bargiel today on Facebook. The 29-year-old Pole wants to ski down K2 for the first time from the summit without interruption to Base Camp. However, Andrzej and his team are running out of time.

Cardiach and Co. reached last high camp

Broad Peak

On the neighboring eight-thousander Broad Peak, the Spaniard Oscar Cardiach and his companions reached Camp 3 at 7,200 meters and are planning to climb up to the 8051-meter-high summit on Thursday, if the conditions allow an ascent. Cardiach’s team includes Tunc Findik, who has already summited ten eight-thousanders, making him the most successful high altitude climber of Turkey, Muhammad Ali “Sadpara”, who was among the winter first ascenders of Nanga Parbat in 2016, and Yosuf, a Balti HAP (High Altitude Porter). Broad Peak is the last of the 14 eight-thousanders which is still missing in the collection of the 64-year-old Catalan Cardiach. Oscar has climbed all 13 eight-thousanders so far without bottled oxygen.

Shadow of K2 falls on Broad Peak (there was better weather in 2004)

Damn hard or impossible? This question is likely to be answered in the next few days on the eight-thousanders K2 and Broad Peak. Summit bids are running on both mountains. “K2 is all about weather,” Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, expedition leader and head of the Nepalese operator Dreamers Destination, writes on Facebook today. “We had three days bad weather though weather report showed good (weather). Some teams on K2 are closed already and some in my team are going down too. But remaining, we still want to check 27 July.”

High risk of avalanches

Most teams had assumed next Thursday to be the most suitable summit day with favorable weather conditions. The British-American mountaineer Vanessa O’Brien also belongs to Mingma’s team on the Abruzzi route. The GPS tracker of the 52-year-old shows that she reached today an altitude of about 7,000 meters. Vanessa is trying to climb K2 for the third consecutive year. She has already summited four eight-thousander: Mount Everest (in 2010), Shishapangma, Cho Oyu (both in 2011) and Manaslu (in 2014).

The New Zealander Adam Parore and his companions have abandoned their summit attempt on K2 due to heavy overnight snowfall. “With 20cm falling from above Camp 3 our chances to advance we’re now non existent and the danger of avalanche suddenly very real, and life threatening,” the former cricket star writes on Instagram. The 46-year-old is a former member of the “Black Caps”, the New Zealand cricket national team. In 2011, Parore scaled Mount Everest.

Cadiach and Co. on hold in high camp

On Broad Peak, next to K2, mountaineers are also fighting against the adverse weather and the difficult conditions on the mountain. Continued snowfall and wind speeds of 50 km/h halted the ascent of the Spaniard Oscar Cadiach and his team. They wanted to wait in Camp 2 at 6,300 meters, whether the weather was turning better, it said. Broad Peak is the last of the 14 eight-thousanders which is still missing in the collection of the 64-year-old Catalan. Oscar has climbed all 13 eight-thousanders so far without bottled oxygen. He is accompanied by a strong team, which includes Tunc Findik, who has already summited ten eight-thousanders making him the most successful high altitude climber of Turkey, Muhammad Ali “Sadpara”, who was among the winter first ascenders of Nanga Parbat in 2016, and a Balti HAP (High Altitude Porter).

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.”

K 2 Base Camp

Trouble’s brewing in the base camps on K 2 and the neighboring eight-thousander Broad Peak. “I got surprised to see climbers here without ropes.”, writes Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, head of the Nepalese expedition operator Dreamers Destination from the base camp at the foot of K 2, the second highest mountain on earth. Only on the normal route via the Abruzzi spur, three teams are climbing without ropes, says the 31-year-old Nepalese: “If this is how climbers come on K 2, then we can expect (the events of the) year 2008 again on K 2.” At that time eleven climbers from seven nations had died in a true mass summit push on the 8,611-meter-high mountain.

Mingma has agreed with the Austrian expedition organizer Lukas Furtenbach that Dreamers Destination will fix the ropes on the Abruzzi route on K 2 while Furtenbach Adventures will do the same on the normal route on the 8,051-meter-high Broad Peak and later make mutual use of the ropes. Also Furtenbach is hopping mad that other teams neither participate in the work to secure the route nor in the costs.

“Unfair and fraud”

Broad Peak

“I think, it is, to say the least, absolutely unacceptable to arrive unprepared after the big commercial teams, to use their fixed ropes and to be not fair enough to contribute,” Lukas writes to me. “Most of these teams/climbers should have to leave without fixed ropes, because they are not able to climb the mountain in Alpine style. This is parasitism. It is unfair and fraud.” His Pakistani liaison officer spoke to the officers of the other teams about the problem, but without success, writes Lukas. The 39-year-old threatens to publicly name those teams if they refuse until last to make their contribution and nevertheless use the fixed ropes. Also the self-proclaimed “professional climbers” who want to distance themselves from the clients of the commercial expeditions are in Furtenbach’s bad books: “Two Americans say they will climb with their 40-meter rope in Alpine style and won’t pay anything. In the same breath they explain that they will use our ropes when necessary.”

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa

He deserves more and more the nickname “The early starter”. While most of the others are still busy setting up their base camps in the Karakoram, Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, head of the Nepalese expedition operator, Dreamers Destination, already last Sunday led a team to the 8125-meter-high summit of Nanga Parbat. The success on the ninth highest mountain on earth was the first of this summer season on the eight-thousanders in Pakistan. Also in the past spring season in Nepal and Tibet, Mingma had achieved the first 8000er summit success: On 30 April, the 31-year-old reached along with his team the summit of the 8167-meter-high Dhaulagiri. Not even two weeks later he stood with Tashi Sherpa and a client from China on the 8485-meter-high main summit of Makalu – also on this peak, Mingma was the first this spring.

Soon number twelve?

Summit of Nanga Parbat in evening light

Nanga Parbat was Mingma’s eleventh eight thousander. Except for Mount Everest – which he has summited five times so far – he has climbed them all without breathing mask. “I would also like to climb Everest without oxygen at least once,” the Sherpa told me recently. At first, however, he is ready to climb his eight-thousander number twelve. Coming from Nanga Parbat, Mingma set out with a team from Dreamers Destination to Broad Peak and K 2. His goal: He wants to climb also these two eight-thousanders this summer. The 8051-meter-high Broad Peak is still missing in Mingma’s collection. In 2014 he had already scaled the 8611-meter-high K 2, the second highest mountain on earth.

Making climbers from Nepal visible

Mingma on top of Makalu last May

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa belongs to a new generation of Sherpa entrepreneurs: young, well trained, reliable and successful. The 31-year-old has a mountain guide certificate of the world association UIAGM, his company Dreamers Destination enjoys a very good reputation in the climbing scene. In addition, Mingma is an excellent climber. In fall 2015 he made headlines by first climbing a difficult route via the West Face of the 6,685-meter-high Chobutse solo. Nepalese mountaineers are not appreciated as they actually deserve, says Mingma: “They are the reason for successful expeditions on 7000ers and 8000ers. But they remain invisible. I want to make them visible.” The Sherpa is still single: “I want to make my beautiful climbing memories first. Once I have family, I won’t be able to do that.”

Gasherbrum IV (Northwest Ridge on the left)

Great success for Luka Lindic and Ales Cesen in the Karakoram: According to the website “Altitude Pakistan”, the two Slovenian climbers reached on Tuesday the North Summit of Gasherbrum IV, which is about 20 meters lower than the 7932-meter-high Main Summit. It took Luka and Ales three days to ascend via the Northwest Ridge. It was only the fourth ascent of the route, which had been opened by the Australians Greg Child and Tim Macartney-Snape and the American Tom Hargis in 1986. “Altitude Pakistan” reports that heavy snowfall made the descent of the two Slovenians even harder. They arrived at Base Camp yesterday. “happy, exhausted and emaciated”.

Extremely challenging

Initially, 28-year-old Lindic and 34-year-old Cesen had wanted to climb through the G IV-West Face (also called “Shining Wall”), but gave up their plan due to the difficult conditions in the wall. The almost-eight-thousander Gasherbrum IV, the sixth highest mountain in Pakistan, is considered technically extremely demanding. In 1958, the Italian climbers Walter Bonatti and Carlo Mauri had made the first ascent via the Northeast Ridge.

For acclimatization on an eight-thousander

Lindic (r.), Cesen and Prezelj (l.) in Courmayeur in 2015

For acclimatization (!) for G IV, Lindic and Cesen had scaled the 8051-meter-high Broad Peak on 29 June. It had been the first summit success on an eight-thousander in the Karakoram this season. Both belong to the young generation of very strong Slovenian climbers. In 2015, they were awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of mountaineering”, along with their compatriot Marko Prezelj for their first ascent of the North Face of the 6,657-meter-high Hagshu in northern India.

Nanga Parbat

The Karakoram remains unpredictable. The climbing season in Pakistan is slowly but surely coming to an end – and the number of summit successes is manageable. On Nanga Parbat the Spaniard Ferran Latorre, the Frenchman Hélias Millerioux and the Bulgarian Bojan Petrov reached the highest point at 8,125 meters. “Seven intense days, but it was worth it,” tweeted Latorre (see also the video below). It was the 13th eight-thousander for him, he climbed all of them without bottled oxygen. Now only Mount Everest is still missing in the collection of the 45-year-old. Ferran wants to tackle it in spring 2017. Bojan Petrov has scaled so far eight of the 14 highest mountains in the world. Nanga Parbat was after Annapurna and Makalu his third eight-thousander this year.

Avalanche on K2

The season on K2, with a height of 8,611 meters the second highest mountain on earth, will probably remain without any summit success. After an avalanche had completely destroyed Camp 3 at 7,315 meters four days ago, the commercial expeditions began to strike their tents on the “King of the Eight-thousanders”. Thank goodness the climbers were still below Camp 3, when the avalanche swept down.

An 8000er for acclimatization

Gasherbrum IV

Eight summit successes were reported from the 8,034-meter-high Gasherbrum II. On Broad Peak, so far only the two Slovenians Luka Lindic and Ales Cesen have reached the highest point at 8,051 meters – very early in the season and as acclimatization (!) for an even more ambitious goal: climbing the West Face of the 7932-meter-high Gasherbrum IV. The “Shining Wall” has been climbed only twice: for the first time in 1985 in Alpine style by the Austrian Robert Schauer and the Pole Wojciech Kurtyka and in 1997 by a Korean team. Lindic and Cesen belong to the young generation of very strong Slovenian climbers. In 2015, they were awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of mountaineering”, along with their compatriot Marko Prezelj for their first ascent of the North Face of the 6,657-meter-high Hagshu in northern India.