On the Rupal side (© David Goettler/The North Face)

Over an out. The Russian winter expedition on Nanga Parbat is finished. Nickolay Totmjanin, Valery Shamalo, Serguey Kondrashkin and Victor Koval decided to go home. “Today is exactly the 45th day since we left St. Petersburg, and, unfortunately, the time for our expedition runs to the end. The mountain is clear at last, for the first time in two weeks, but there’re still snow flags on the top due to the strong wind“, the four climbers told Russianclimb via SMS. “We pack Base Camp and are going down.“ A few days ago, they had reached Camp 4 at 7,150 meters on the Rupal (south) side of the mountain, but had been forced back by storm and cold. Thus, only the climbers on the Diamir (north) side are staying on Nanga Parbat. Meanwhile, Italian climber Daniele Nardi reached above Camp 3 an altitude of 6,100 meters on the Mummery Rib. The team of Basque climber Alex Txikon and the three Iranian climbers have to do a lot of tracking work on the Kinshofer route. “Just managed to fix until 5,800 more or less. Snow was too deep“, Alex wrote in his blog.

Simone’s secret

Simone Moro auf der ISPO

“I’m surprised“, Italian climber Simone Moro said when we met at the trade fair ISPO in Munich today and talked about the end of the Russian expedition. “I really thought they could make it.“ If Nanga Parbat remains unclimbed once more this winter, it would be an option for him to try again, Simone told me. Moro has already failed twice on Nanga Parbat in winter: with Russian Denis Urubko in 2012 and with German David Goettler in 2014. Simone will travel to the Himalayas next week. Only then he wants to disclose the secret about his upcoming winter climb. At the ISPO, I failed prising the secret out of him. We still have to wait a few days more.

The Rupal face of Nanga Parbat

If mountains really have a soul, Nanga Parbat obviously suffers from a full-blown winter depression. Year after year the eight-thousander in Pakistan rebuffs climbers who try to climb it first in the cold season. Almost as if to say: “Get off my back! If you bother me, see where that will get you! “ Now, this winter’s second summit attempt also failed. On the Rupal side, the south side of the mountain, Russians Nickolay Totmjanin, Valery Shamalo, Serguey Kondrashkin and Victor Koval had to turn around from Camp 4 at 7150 meters. The four climbers from St. Petersburg had tried to sit a snow storm out, with wind speeds of 100 km/h. No chance.
“We managed to return to BC in bad weather. All safe and sound”, they tweeted on Russian Climb. “Nothing real in such wind. You can fly to K 2 at once.” This is obviously an exaggeration, but gives an idea of how much the Russians must have been shaken up in their tent in high camp. K 2 is about 190 kilometers away as the crow flies. The second highest mountain in the world and Nanga Parbat are the only of the 14 eight-thousanders, which have never been climbed in winter so far.

Together is better

A lot of tracking work on the Diamir side (© www.alextxikon.com)

In mid-January, the Polish climber Tomek Mackiewicz and the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol – as reported – had reached a considerable height of 7800 meters on the Diamir side, the north side of Nanga Parbat, before they were forced back by cold and storm. Afterwards the two climbers departed. The Italian Daniele Nardi stayed. Two weeks ago during his first attempt, Daniele made it up to 5950 meters on the Mummery Rib – named after the British mountaineer Albert Frederick Mummery, who disappeared on Nanga Parbat in 1895. The Iranians Mahmood Hashemi, Reza Bahadorani and Iraj Maani said that they would work together with the team of the Basque climber Alex Txikon to fix ropes on the Kinshofer route up to Camp 3 at about 6800 meters in the next few days. “Everything depends on the weather,” Reza Bahadorani said. And on the mood of Nanga Parbat, which is usually bad in winter.