More climbers are signing on to winter K2, beyond the 30 clients and Sherpas already listed last Friday. These include Arnold Coster (born in the Netherlands but now living in Nepal), who has recently served as a climbing guide for Seven Summit Treks. He helped lead Bahrain’s Royal Guard on Manaslu last month.
Also on board is Italy’s Mattia Conte, one of Sergi Mingote’s regular climbing partners. Conte, who usually climbs without O2, summited Manaslu and GII with Mingote and attempted Dhaulagiri in fall 2019.
Seven Summit Treks’ preparations are well underway, since porters must carry the gear and supplies to Base Camp before winter hits. They are currently near Askoli and will continue toward K2 Base Camp tomorrow.
Ama Dablam Base Camp 2020. Photo: Seven Summit Treks
At the same time, this commercial expedition to winter K2 remains controversial, because of its heavy reliance on O2 and rope-fixing and the different skill levels of its participants. However, when Gazzeta Dello Sport recently asked the usually forthright Denis Urubko for his opinion, he demurred. “There are several ways to climb 8,000’ers,” he said. “If [SST] manages to summit winter K2, that’s perfectly all right with me.”
