Bad Weather on Nanga Parbat, More Teams to Karakoram

Posted: Jun 17, 2013 06:44 pm EDT

(By Raheel Adnan) After enjoying clear skies and warm weather on their arrival at Base Camp, progress of Nanga Parbat teams was affected by snowy and windy weather, last week. Broad Peak BC is alive now with more than two dozen climbers, whereas teams are currently trekking to K2 and Gasherbrums.

K2

Last week, South-African born Swiss adventurer, Mike Horn, flew to Islamabad with fellow climbers, Fred Roux and Kobi Reichen. Their plan is to climb K2 via South-southeast spur (Cesen Route) without bottled oxygen or high altitude porters (in a style close to alpine climbing). Depending upon conditions, Mike and Fred may also try to paraglide down from the mountain.

Spanish trio, Alex Txikon, Ferran Latorre and Felix Criado, will soon fly to Pakistan. Alex will be aiming to bag his 11th eight-thousander. Mexican Benjamin Salazar also left his home country on the 15th and is expected to have reached Pakistan today. All four climbers are part of Lela’s K2 Expedition.

The Japanese team, who has been in Pakistan since a while, is currently trekking to BC. After a memorable trip on the Karakoram Highway, they spent a few days in Skardu. They were scheduled to leave for Askole on the 14th and are expected to reach BC by June 23rd.

Nanga Parbat

Despite cloudy weather and rain, the Romanian team has established C1 on Rupal side of Nanga Parbat. They arrived in BC (3800m) a week ago. After establishing ABC and shifting equipment to it, all five climbers reached C1 on June 14th. Improvement in the weather is expected this week, which shall allow them to climb further up.

Heavy snow is reported from Diamir side, as well. Apparently no one could reach C2, until yesterday. Pakistani and International Expedition members made several attempts to fix the route to C2 but had to turn back without success. Previously, the Ukrainian team also participated in route establishment and fixed 250m of rope above C1 on Friday. Pakistanis Naseer and Sher are back to BC now, whereas Karim is still in C1.

Broad Peak

Polish Broad Peak team flew to Islamabad, yesterday. The team’s aim is not to summit the peak but find the bodies of Maciej Berbeka and Tomasz Kowalski, who disappeared above C4 after making the first Winter ascent of the peak in March this year. The team will try to bring the bodies down to BC. If not successful in doing so, they will bury them on the mountain and the last option will be to place them away from the 'normal' route. The expedition consists of Jacek Berbeka (54), Jacek Jawien (37), Krzysztof Tarasiewicz (52) and a 56-year-old reporter and journalist Jacek Hugo-Bader. As per news reports, Tomasz Kowalski's family will also be with them till BC.

A German team with around two dozen members reached Broad Peak BC on June 12th. Austrian members of the team, Michael Haselsteiner and Reinhard Auzinger, climbed to C1 on June 14th and spent the night there. Currently, they are back in BC and resting for a few days before ascending to C2.

Gasherbrums

German GI & GII team led by Thomas Lammle left Skardu on June 14th and is currently trekking on Baltoro Glacier. Their satellite positioning system shows that they were at Paiju Campsite (3400m), this morning.

Polish Artur Hajzer and Marcin Kaczkan arrived in Islamabad last week and were expected to have left for Skardu by now. Artur and Marcin will be attempting GI and GII.

Mexican couple, Badia and Mauricio, left for Skardu on June 15th. The Taiwanese GII Expedition team reached Islamabad today, whereas Lela’s GI & GII Expedition team, with the majority of members from Spain, will be arriving in Pakistan on June 20th.

Based in Lahore, Pakistan telecom engineer and mountaineering enthusiast Raheel Adnan is contributing reporter for ExplorersWeb's mountaineering sections. He shares regular updates on Twitter and runs his own blog at AltitudePakistan posting initiated climbing news from Himalaya and Karakoram.

Previous:

Pakistan: Teams Arrive at Base Camps

K2, Nanga Parbat, Broad Peak and Gasherbrums Teams Arrive in Pakistan

Summer 2013: Climbing Season Kicks Off in Pakistan

Pakistan Expedition list on Altitude Pakistan

Preliminary list of expeditions to Pakistan

ExplorersWeb Expedition List

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