In a brief report today, Urubko cited “very hard conditions” on Broad Peak. Coming from him, this surely means it’s hell. Indeed, Urubko, Don Bowie and Lotta Hintsa have endured a lot of wind and snow on the plateau.
They have currently camped for the night. Bowie and Hintsa stopped at 6,600m, while Urubko pushed further up and set up his tent inside a sheltering crevasse.
There had been no previous mention of Lotta Hintsa, so it was uncertain whether the Finnish climber would join the summit push, as she now seems to have.
Previously, they were expected to top out tomorrow, but with another 1,000 vertical metres and a long way to go horizontally, coupled with uncooperative weather, it is unclear whether they will be able to keep that timetable. We’ll continue to monitor and update over the weekend.
Other Winter Peaks
Alex Txikon has just reached Everest Base Camp with a small team and climbing mates Jonatan García and Oscar Cardo. They’ll now start work on the South Col route. Solo climber Jost Kobusch is also back in Base Camp after a troubled ascent to the lower sections of West Ridge earlier this week.
Meanwhile, in the Pamirs, the Russian-Kyrgyz team has summited Ismoil Somoni (formerly Peak Communism) via a partially new route. Details are expected once they return to Base Camp. This team is preparing to attempt K2 next winter.
