Update on Nanga Parbat Boyan Petrov and Ivan Tomov.
Nanga Parbat Update July 15, 2016: No Summit
Boyan Petrov and Ivan Tomov descended to 5500m yesterday (July 14th) and are expected to reach BC today, reports Italian newspaper Gazzetta. The two climbers faced some complications on descent. It appears that Ivan Tomov developed altitude related problem, however, a quick descent helped him ‘recover quickly’.
On summit push, Base Camp observed that they had gone too much towards right. Now, it’s reported that amidst fog and poor visibility, the climbers were unable to identify the gully that led them from Bazhin Basin to summit.
Boyan Petrov and Ivan Tomov have planned to attempt Gasherbrum II after Nanga Parbat.
Previous:
K2
Change in weather forecast over past two days have forced K2 climbers to abandon first summit-bid of the season. The climbers retreated from C3 (7300m) this morning. They had to wait in queues while descending. A second weather window is predicted to appear in last 10 days of July. It’s yet to be seen, if this second window is good enough for summit push.
There were too many question marks about current summit-bid right at the start, when teams left BC on July 10th. It was hoped that conditions doesn’t deteriorate on July 14th – the potential summit day. However, the situation didn’t look good as weather forecast refined over past couple of days. As a final testimony, meteorologist reiterated today that wind speed at summit will exceed 40km/hr on July 14th.
Having slept a night in C3, the group of 70+ climbers should feel better prepared for second summit attempt. Route is ready and camps are well supplied.
Nanga Parbat
As per information received from Taiwanese climbers (Migon Kim’s team), two Bulgarians were on the way to summit today. It’s reported that Boyan Petrov and Ivan Tomov left C4 on Kinshofer route this morning and were battling their way towards summit trapezoid. The Bazhin Basin traverse seemingly offered substantial difficulties to the climbers. No further details are available as of now.
Kinshofer route is said to be in extremely difficult and dangerous condition, not just below C2 as we mentioned earlier, but in upper portions as well.
Other climbers – Spaniards, Koreans, Chinese, Taiwanese, French and Hungarian – are back in Base Camp for rest and recovery. It appears that they have finally succeeded in rope-fixing till C2 (6100m). They are, however, worried by increasing temperatures, rockfall danger and unstable ice conditions on the route. A week-long snowstorm is predicted to hit the mountain from tomorrow.
