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.

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.

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).