Kristin Harila, Pasdawa Sherpa, and Dawa Ongchu have summited Gasherbrum II. It is their 10th 8,000m peak in 102 days, in the race to climb all 14 in six months. Next, they move on to neighboring Hidden Peak (Gasherbrum I) before heading back to Nepal — and Tibet? — for the final leg of the challenge.
Shehroze Kashif, Sajid Sadpara, his cousin Imtiaz Sadpara, and the 8K team also topped out. Gasherbrum II is the 9th peak on Kashif’s own 14×8,000’ers list. The 20-year-old is trying to become the youngest to complete them all. Pema Chhiring Sherpa and Liliya Ianovskaia, also with 8K, summited as well.
Sajid Sadpara atop Gasherbrum II. Photo: Sajid Sadpara
Grace Tseng, led by Nima Gyalzen Sherpa and Ningma Tamang, also summited at 10:00 am. The Taiwanese woman did not use O2 during her ascent. Tseng’s Sherpa guides do usually climb with O2.
Tseng aspires to be the youngest woman to complete all 14 of the 8000’ers. She is currently 29. Gasherbrum II is her 11th peak.
Tseng’s home team shared this heavily filtered summit picture.
Gasherbrum I shares its normal climbing route with GII up to Camp 1 on the Gasherbrum glacier. It then heads for the Gasherbrum La. Sirbaz Khan of Pakistan and at least two more climbers are currently on their way to the summit of Gasherbrum I. They are reportedly breaking trail and carrying all their gear and ropes. GI will be Khan’s 12th peak.
At last word, Khan had reached Camp 2, while some of the team had stopped slightly below because of the heavy loads that they are carrying.
Pioneer Adventure’s Sanu Sherpa should be also there, guiding Naoko Watanabe.
Gasherbrum I. Photo: Sirbaz Khan
As we have noted previously, improved logistics and increasing commercialization of 8,000m climbing have resulted in a spate of records. At the same time, the relevance of these records is decreasing at the same pace.
