It was not the difficulty of the mountain but a painful tooth that ended Tomas Petrecek’s attempt on Masherbrum.
Petrecek almost immediately felt unwell as the Czech team began opening a new route on Masherbrum’s West Face in pure alpine style. As his toothache worsened, the team stopped for the night, hoping Petrecek would improve.
Unfortunately, the pain didn’t disappear. Petrecek had to turn around and carefully descend on his own. He is slowly returning to Base Camp and estimates that it may take him two days to cover the distance through tricky, heavily crevassed terrain.
His departure leaves Marek Holecek and Radoslav Groh alone. Fortunately, they’ve been in a similar position before, completing an epic climb on Baruntse last year as a duo.
Hidden Peak’s summit push
Meanwhile, on Gasherbrum I, Nepali and Pakistani climbers have fixed the route to Camp 3 and returned to carry gear up the mountain. Pakistani blogger Samson S. Sharaf reports that they are aiming for August 11 as summit day.
