Climbers are currently approaching the end of the packed trail on Nanga Parbat. The ropes are not yet fixed to the summit.
Horia Colibasau of Romania is resting today at “his” Camp 3, which is at just 6,650m. That’s still far from the summit in both in altitude and distance, as seen in our Featured Image above.
“I’m thinking of taking my tent and climbing a little higher, to make it easier for me to go down and come back,” he said.
This way, Colibasanu will launch his final summit push at night between Thursday and Friday.
Exhaustion vs shortage of supplies
In recent years, climbers have faced exhaustion and frostbite on Nanga Parbat due to the extremely long summit day from Camp 3. The 2023 season was particularly dramatic. Pawel Kopec of Poland died of exhaustion barely 200m from the tents. Azif Bhatti of Pakistan had to be helped down by Israfil Ashurli of Azerbaijan, who sacrificed his own summit bid.
On the other hand, spending one more day at altitude might leave Colibasanu short of supplies.
“I’m preparing some soup and a hot tea, then I’ll start calculating gas and food, to decide whether to stay a day in Camp 4 (7,100m) or go straight to the summit,” he told his home team.
Pepper in Camp 2
Allie Pepper of Australia and partner Mikel Sherpa are in Camp 2, according to Pepper’s tracker. Their plan is to summit on Friday.
Allie Pepper’s tracker on the evening on July 1.
