Andrzej Bargiel after his return to base camp

The Pole Andrzej Bargiel has written K2 history. According to his own words, the 30-year-old succeeded yesterday the first complete ski descent from the second highest mountain in the world. In doing so, he snapped up the “Holy Grail”, which had previously caused the failure of some of the best ski mountaineers in the world – such as Hans Kammerlander from South Tyrol in 2001. After reaching the summit at 8,611 metres on Sunday, Andrzej skied down in one go to the base camp on a combination of several routes, his sponsor from Austria informed: “From the summit, he descended along the shoulder towards the Cesen route (also known as the Basque route), passing below huge seracs, then via the extremely difficult Messner traverse, and via the arête on the Kukuczka-Piotrowski route (which was opened by the two Poles in 1986). Next, he had to face some snow fields full of crevasses. He managed to overcome all the difficulties and achieved his dream, achieving the impossible in the process.”

“Just glad”

On the run

“I’m just glad I don’t have to come back,” said Andrzej in the base camp, visibly marked by the exertions, but with a big grin on his face. During the ascent he had been supported by his compatriot Janusz Golab and a team of Sherpas. “K2 is certainly the most demanding and also most dangerous eight-thousander that you can ski down,” Luis Stitzinger told me a year ago, when Slovenian Davo Karnicar and later Bargiel had given up their attempts of a complete ski descent. In 2011, the 49-year-old German mountaineer – who a few days ago scaled Gasherbrum I, his eighth eight-thousander – had skied down from 8,050 meters to the base camp.

Not any flat meter

Andrzej’s ski route

“On K2, you have to be a very good extreme skier, and you always have to give it your all because there is not any flat meter.” Another danger is caused by the increasing temperatures in the Karakoram as a result of climate change. “There you set off high up on the mountain on rock-hard snow and reach the lower parts on snow as soft as butter. Particularly in the lower area there is also a threat of wet avalanches thundering down through the couloirs.”

Record season and one death

Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” on the summit of K 2

On Saturday and Sunday, a total of 63 climbers reached the summit of the K2, more than ever before in one season. Among them was Pakistani Muhammad Ali “Sadpara”, who had been one of the first winter ascenders of Nanga Parbat in February 2016. Having climbed K2, the 42-year-old completed his collection of the five eight-thousanders in his home country Pakistan. Also sad news was reported from K2: The 41-year-old Japanese Kojiro Watanabe fell to his death on his descent from the summit at about 8,300 meters. R.I.P.

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 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.

Tamara Lunger (l.) and Simone Moro (r.) with Pope Francis

On Thursday, the (calendrical) winter begins – and thus the question rises again: Who will try to climb which mountain in the cold season? A top-class Polish expedition led by veteran Krzysztof Wielicki will attempt to climb K 2, the last remaining eight-thousander which has not been scaled in winter so far. The Pole Tomek Mackiewicz and the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol are said to have already arrived in Pakistan in order to return to Nanga Parbat.

And what’s about the South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger and the Italian Simone Moro? Both are considered as extremely “winterproof”. The 50-year-old Simone has four first winter ascents of eight-thousanders on his account (Shishapangma in 2005, Makalu in 2009, Gasherbrum II in 2011, Nanga Parbat in 2016). The 31-year-old Tamara and Moro tackled in vain Manaslu in winter 2015. A year later on Nanga Parbat, Lunger had to turn back only 70 meters below the summit, because she felt bad. In this Advent, Lunger and Moro already had a summit meeting: with the Pope. I contacted Tamara:

Tamara, two professional mountaineers (Simone and you) took a selfie with Pope Francis, how did that happen?

Don Marco Pozza, a prison chaplain from Padua, invited us to a television program called “Padre nostro”, which means “Our Father”. There were six episodes, each with different persons. Stories from their lives were told, fates, and for each episode there was a comment of the pope. This broadcast was a huge success, not only in Italy but also internationally. The Pope said: “All these people have given us their time, which present could we make in return?” Marco replied: “Maybe a mass in the Vatican, including shaking hands with the Pope.” The Pope then said: “We can not do that because not everyone believes in God. A private audience is better.” That’s how it happened. About 30 people – the whole production team and the participants – met the pope in the Vatican. That was really a nice hour. Personally, it means a lot to me because I’m very religious.

Did you have the opportunity to exchange a few words with the Pope?

Each of us had to introduce ourselves telling what we are doing in our lives. Then the pope talked about passion: “You have given me a lot today, because you – believer or not – are doing what you do with such a great passion. This is also divine.” He then gave us the blessing and gave everyone a book about the Lord’s Prayer, which he wrote with Marco Pozza, and a rosary.

Tamara Lunger

What does the meeting mean to you personally?

Of course it was very nice for me, because I am very religious. But I also saw that he is just a normal man. He is so normal that he actually almost does not stand out. His staff is trying to make everything work organizationally as perfect as possible, but he himself would probably do it very differently. I have looked into his eyes and he in mine, and I have felt something very beautiful. That’s why it would be even nicer to sit down with this man, drink a glass of wine and chat with him.

On Nanga Parbat in winter 2016, you had to turn around about 70 meters below the summit. That was bitter. On Kangchenjunga last spring, the planned traverse of the four summits of the massif fell through because Simone felt bad. Do you need a sense of achievement again for your motivation?

No, because I have seen that even without reaching the summit I always come home with a great lesson. On Nanga Parbat, my experience was much more valuable for me than “just” a summit success. The journey is the reward. Of course, the summit is the icing on the cake. But the experience and what you learn from it will be given to you during the journey. If it is not so easy to reach the summit and there are some difficulties, it may be a bit unpleasant at that time. But when you get home, you realize that it was the best thing that could happen to you.

There are already winter conditions in the European Alps with lots of snow, and the beginning of the calendrical winter is just around the corner. Will you go on expedition in the cold season? And if so, where to go?

Yes, I will go on an expedition again, it took me two months to decide. I will be traveling with Simone again. Unfortunately, I can not say more about it. But it will get freezing, freezing, freezing cold. I already started to prepare myself for it. Let’s see what it will be like.

How will you spend the Christmas holidays?

I will eat many good cookies from my mom. (laughs) I’m just happy to be with my family and maybe I’ll do something with them, ski-touring, ice climbing and so on.

Successful team: Txikon, Lunger, Moro and Ali (from l. to r.)

Simone Moro also told me at the end of October that the next expedition will “will be probably the coldest climb I ever attempted”. Without speculating – the temperatures on Mount Everest fall in January down to minus 60 degrees Celsius. And did not Alex Txikon after his failed Everest winter attempt this year invite Simone and Tamara to try it along with him in 2018? The Pakistani climber Muhammad Ali Sadpara has yesterday announced a “big project of mount Everest 2017/18”. If I’m correct in my assumption, the successful winter team of Nanga Parbat 2016 would be complete again. I think it would be great and exciting.

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).

Nanga Parbat

Nanga Parbat falls back into hibernation. After the 8125-meter-high mountain in Pakistan was bustling over the past years with expeditions who tried to climb it for the first time in winter, it now looks as if the “naked mountain” remains a lonely one in the coming months. This winter even the Polish climber Tomasz Mackiewicz will not change his living room – as he did in the last six years – with a cold tent on Nanga Parbat.

The main argument is gone

Successful team: Alex, Tamara, Simone and Ali (from l. to r.)

“The expedition to Nanga Parbat will be postponed to 2017/2018,” Tomek wrote on Facebook. In his words he has tried in vain to obtain financial support from the Polish government for another attempt. It shouldn’t have been easy for him to argue after the fall of the winter bastion Nanga Parbat: After numerous attempts the Italian Simone Moro, the Basque Alex Txikon and the Pakistani Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” finally succeeded the first winter ascent of the ninth highest mountain on earth at the end of last February. The fourth team member, the South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger, turned around just below the summit, because she was in poor health.

K 2 winter expedition not before 2017/2018

K 2

Not only on Nanga Parbat, but also on other eight-thousanders there is a winter low tide. An originally planned Polish expedition to K2, the only eight-thousander which is still unclimbed in winter, under the leadership of the winter old master Kryzsztof Wielicki, was also postponed for one year to 2017/2018. Also in this case, money was missing first. After all, financing by two state-owned companies seems to be now in the pipeline.

Pilot’s licence instead of winter climb

Tamara Lunger

Also maybe the winter after next, Tamara Lunger will try to climb Mount Everest. After her “almost Nanga summit in winter” it had been reported that the 30-year-old was now considering Mount Everest as a new winter goal. Already this year? “No,” Tamara writes to me. “I’m in America for taking my helicopter pilot’s licence.”

Secret about destination

And what else is going on? The Indian climber Arjun Vajpai has announced via Facebook a winter expedition to a seven-thousander in his home country. He still has not given notice which mountain he means. The 23-year-old has already climbed five eight thousanders: Mount Everest (as a still 16-year-old in 2010), Lhotse and Manaslu (both in 2011), Makalu in spring 2016 and Cho Oyu last October.

Broad Peak (with shades of K 2)

You have a visa for Pakistan, a climbing permit for an eight-thousander, you have organized everything. You travel to Islamabad and at the airport you learn that you are a persona non grata and have to leave the country. That’s exactly what happened to the Australian-New Zealand climber Chris Jensen Burke (she has both citizenships) and the Nepalese Sherpa Lakpa Sherpa. “The reasons why are stranger than fiction and I won’t put the detail here,” Chris wrote in her blog. Obviously she fears to risk alienating the Pakistani authorities if she is quite clear.

Never again to Pakistan?

Chris Jensen Burke

Lakpa Sherpa is looking at the black side too. “It seems I cannot go to Pakistan ever,” the 25-year-old told the Kathmandu based newspaper “The Himalayan Times”. “I spent several months preparing myself for the K2 expedition, but I now feel I have been betrayed for no reason.” Among others, Lakpa stood four times on top of Mount Everest, twice on the summit of K 2. This summer season, Lakpa wanted to become the first climber who scaled K 2 three times.

Chris Jensen Burke had planned to climb Nanga Parbat and was also registered for Broad Peak. The 47-year-old has scaled nine eight-thousanders so far, most recently Annapurna in early May.

Better reputation

Porters in the Karakoram

According to still unconfirmed information that I received from Pakistan, the authorities have not only refused Chris and Lakpa the entry, but at least three other climbers. There is speculation in the climbers’ scene that the country’s government wants to give a sign against the common practice of western expedition operator to employ rather Sherpas from Nepal than Pakistani staff. In recent decades, the Sherpas have gained a better reputation than their Pakistani counterparts, not just as high altitude porters, but as mountain guides too. “The costs for Nepalese porters are a bit higher but the advantages prevail,” says, for example, a bidding for a 2017 K 2 expedition of Swiss operator Kobler & Partner. “So as long the Pakistani Government allows expedition teams to hire sherpas from Nepal, we will gladly make use of this opportunity.”

“Alpine Club doesn’t care about their people”

Muhammad Ali (l.) and Simone Moro on top of Nanga Parbat

“In my opinion, the Pakistani Alpine Club is largely responsible for this situation,” said Muhammad Ali “Sadpara”: “They show no interest in their alpinists, neither in improving their skills and work conditions.” According to Ali, who last February belonged to the climbers who first climbed Nanga Parbat in winter, Sherpas now dominate 80 percent of the business, “and it will be 100 percent soon.” Actions such as those against Chris Jensen Burke and Lakpa Sherpa could be an indication that the government of Pakistan wants to take countermeasures.

Harassment because of cricket job?

Or is it simply pure arbitrariness? Last year, South African Mike Horn had complained that his team had been stuck in the town of Skardu for more than two weeks before they were allowed to travel to K 2. The team had been sent back at a military check point, despite valid visas and permits. Only when his friend, the former Pakistani cricket star Wasim Akram, stepped in, they finally could move on, said Horn. Mike’s suspicion: His team was delayed because he had coached an Indian cricket team before.

K 2, called “Chogori” by the locals

If I were a road planner, I would say: This smells like traffic jam. More than 100 climbers from eight expeditions have signed this summer for K 2, with a height of 8,611 meters the second highest mountain on earth. The Base Camp at the foot of the “King of the Eight-thousanders” could become crowded, as well as the normal route on the mountain. Even the team of the Nepalese expedition operator Seven Summit Treks consists of 44 (!) climbers.

Necessary arrangements

Serac above the “Bottleneck”

Similar to Mount Everest, the teams will have no choice but to “manage” the mountain, that is to coordinate their climbs to avoid jams on the dangerous key points on the route. The accident in 2008 should be warning enough. At that time, eleven climbers died in the summit area of K 2 within two days, six of them in ice avalanches. One of the reasons: Too many people were climbing simultaneously in the “Bottleneck”, a gully at 8,300 meters, extremely exposed to avalanches. In that season, “only” about 70 climbers tried to scale K 2, much less than this year. So far, around 350 climbers have reached the summit of K 2, which is considered one of the most beautiful but also most challenging and dangerous eight-thousanders. About 80 climbers have lost their lives on “Chogori”, as the local Balti call the mountain.

Record in 2004

In K 2 Base Camp

The summer of 2004 (when I visited K 2 Base Camp too) was so far the season with the most summit successes. In that year, the Golden Jubilee of the first ascent of K2 was celebrated. 51 climbers reached the highest point at that time. This record was only narrowly missed in 2014, with 48 summit successes. It was noteworthy then that 32 climbers reached the summit in a single day (26 July). 2015 was once again a year without any summit success on K 2.

More and more Sherpas from Nepal

Many of this summer’s expeditions will employ Climbing Sherpas from Nepal. Pakistani Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” – one of the climbers who first scaled Nanga Parbat in winter last February – complained that Nepalese Sherpas “already got 80 percent of business in Pakistan, and will be 100 percent soon. At the same time, many friends of mine spend all year at home, eating plain rice, waiting for a call that won’t arrive unless they don´t change their behaviour.”