Last year, Italian Francois Cazzanelli led a team up on Kongde Ri and Tengkampoche.in Nepal. He then ran up Ama Dablam in 5 hrs 32 min 6 sec from BC to summit. In 2019, the speed climber also raced up Manaslu and made it from Base Camp to foresummit in 13 hours.
Recently, we asked Cazzanelli about his future plans, but he said that he never speaks publicly about his climbing projects until he actually does them.
Well, now he’s doing them. He and his team have just landed in Islamabad, bound for Nanga Parbat, perhaps via a new route. They will then make a speed ascent of K2 and maybe Broad Peak, all without O2 or Sherpa support.
The Italians atop Kongde Ri. Photo: Francois Cazzanelli
The Nanga Parbat team includes two of Cazzanelli’s Tengkampoche partners, Jerome Perruquet and Emrik Favre. Marco Camandona, Pietro Picco, and Roger Bovard have also joined the K2 adventure. All are young but highly skilled alpinists and rescue specialists from the Aosta Valley, on the Italian side of Mont Blanc. None intend to use supplementary O2.
First, the team will travel together to Nanga Parbat. They don’t have much time before they have to head to the Karakoram. If weather and conditions permit, they will attempt a new route swiftly. Otherwise, they’ll turn to the normal Kinshoffer route.
The team then heads for K2, except for Bovard, who wil guide some trekkers up the Baltoro, and Marco Camandona, who has already summited K2 and will head instead to Broad Peak, Upclimbing reported.
Cazzanelli intends to launch a fast, non-stop push on K2. Afterward, if he feels strong enough, he will head for Broad Peak.
