Things haven’t been moving as per plan for Adam Bielecki and Jacek Czech since a while, and the duo have now announced the end of their expedition. Whereas, Tomek Mackiewicz and Elisabeth Revol may go for the summit.
Things haven’t been moving as per plan for Adam Bielecki and Jacek Czech since a while, and the duo have now announced the end of their expedition. Bad weather, lack of resources, health issues and a fall causing damage to Adam Bielecki’s fingers are apparent reasons for exit.
As Adam writes in his blog post, “During last two days we managed to bring down all our gear to base camp. Bad weather forecasts and my hurt hand equals the end of the expedition. Nanga taught us hard lesson of humility. We’ve been dreaming of pure alpine style ascent but weather gave us no chance. Our attempts at ascending the mountain ended at low altitude due to weather, health issues or torn rope. We fought hard but either we were too weak or the mountain was too strong.”
Nonetheless, every end marks a new beginning, “I have a feeling that we will come back here. I might’ve been bitten by Nanga bug.”
Potential Summit Push
Tomek Mackiewicz and Elisabeth Revol left Base Camp on January 16th. With multiple good weather days – Thursday & Friday being ideal – the two climbers may go for the summit. Third member of team, Arslan Ahmed returned to Chilas due to chest infection. Tomek and Elisa previously set up C3 at around 6600m on Messner-Messner-Eisendle-Tomaseth 2000 route.
Simone Moro and Tamara Lunger haven’t communicated in past few days and are apparently on the mountain.
Progress on Kinshofer Route
There have been significant development on Kinshofer route, as Alex Txikon and Ali Sadpara fixed ropes till 6500m – a couple of hundred meters below C3. On January 13th, the two climbers delivered some gear at the base of Kinshofer Wall (ca. 6000m) and retreated to Base Camp.
In next push, they went up the Kinshofer Wall using old ropes and set up C2 at 6100m. On January 17th, they fixed another 500m of rope and reached an altitude of 6500m. “The day was mostly spent on mixed terrain and under the sun (unlike previous days).” Alex said.
Although, weather is predicted to remain favorable for a few more days, Alex and Ali have fixed available ropes. They will now retreat to Base Camp, while fixing new ropes on Kinshofer Wall during descent.
Daniele Nardi’s Accident
Daniele Nardi, third member of International team, was on the way to C2 on January 16th, carrying gear for further climb. He was roughly 100m below C2 when old ropes broke causing a serious fall (See accident site images attached with this article).
“I don’t know, how I am still alive .. but I am”, the Italian climber exclaimed. “Fortunately I had set three-point safety harness to various fixed (old) ropes on the ground. One of these ropes got stuck in a peg of an old ladder and it has arrested the fall.”
Daniele retreat to Base Camp that evening and is currently recovering from back/shoulder pain due to fall.
Justice for All Team
The Poles went up on January 16th and reported fierce wind. They’re trying to establish C3 on Schell route.
