As night has descended, concern is mounting for all the climbers left on K2 — both the SST members who turned back from Camp 3 and the four who continued their summit attempt and have not been heard from for hours.
On the positive front, Tamara Lunger and Bernard Lippert have arrived in Camp 1 and will spent the night there. Update, 12:40 Eastern time: Lunger is now in ABC.
Other news is not so good.
Antonios Sykaris is in Camp 1, frostbitten and too exhausted to go any further. His team at home in Greece has just reported that he will spend the night there and proceed to Base Camp tomorrow. Yesterday, he decided to turn back from Camp 3 with badly frostbitten toes, “possible 3rd degree,” he estimated — the worst kind.
In the high mountains, no news is often not good news. The only functioning tracker, belonging to Colin O’Brady, hit Base Camp hours ago, but the American has not yet updated with any news. Nor has his climbing partner, Jon Kedrowski, until now a source of regular updates. Nor has expedition leader Dawa Sherpa offered any consoling news about his clients’ and Sherpas’ whereabouts and condition.
The weather is still good, but gale-force winds are expected to begin tomorrow, making further progress even harder and nullifying any helicopter evacuations.
