Nanga Parbat Summit-bid from Rupal Side: Russians Waiting in C4
Posted: Feb 02, 2015 07:58 am EST
(By Raheel Adnan) “Wind 100 km/hour, snow blizzard, no visibility, the real February frost; Waiting weather improvement”, was the SMS from Russian winter Nanga Parbat team from 7150m on Schell route, yesterday evening. They had reached there a day before.
The Road to Summit Push
Russian climbers Nickolay Totmjanin, Serguey Kondrashkin, Valery Shamalo and Victor Koval reached Rupal BC at the end of December. By the third week of January, they had established three camps at 5100m, 6000m and 6700m, and made a deposit at around 7150m (which has now been converted to C4) on Schell route. It has been reported that there is hard ice everywhere above 6000m. The team has fixed approximately 700m of rope on the route.
After setting up C3 and making deposit at 7150m, the climbers retreated to BC on Jan 20th. For a week, harsh conditions held back the team inside their tents. On 27th, they messaged, “Breathed the fresh air, BTW reopened the way from 3600-4600m”.
Towards the Top
Summit push started on January 28th, from BC. Weather forecast showed a break in snow, but the winds were predicted to remain strong. Winds at summit level was forecasted to reach 100kph.
Nonetheless, the ascent continued and on January 31st the team was in C4 (at 7150m). Their plan was to proceed towards Diamir side on following day, but the harsh conditions didn’t let them go any further. The team is still in C4 waiting for improvement in weather.
What's Next?
Mountain-Forecast predicts that hurricane wind will start dropping by Tuesday evening, but the wind speed will remain above 50kph for next 9 days.
Last year, when Tomek Mackiewicz and David Gottler were approximately at this point on Schell route, we analysed the time required for summit push (full story here). The quickest round-trip time from here to the summit is two days (in summer conditions, obviously!).
Before the start of expedition, the team told Russianclimb that they will carry a small bivouac tent for the summit attempt. The website wrote “climbing plan is: C1, C2, C3 (about 7000m); rest and then summit push with a small tent, which they'll set on the route between C3/7000m and the top.”
Based in Pakistan, mountaineering enthusiast Raheel Adnan is a reporter for Explorersweb's mountaineering sections. He shares regular updates on Twitter and runs his own blog at Altitude Pakistan posting initiated climbing news from Himalaya and Karakoram.
Previous/Related:
Nanga Parbat: A Mountain to be Climbed by First Week of February
Report: 2014 Mountaineering Expeditions in Pakistan
Waiting: The Usual Winter Nanga Parbat Business
Nanga Parbat: Elisabeth Revol's Account of Summit Push
Nanga Parbat: Summit Push Details and Update on Other Teams
Nanga Parbat: End of Tomek Mackiewicz’ Fifth Winter Attempt
Nanga Parbat: Tomek & Elisabeth are Back in BC and the New Entrants
Winter Nanga Parbat | Tomek and Elisabeth at 7000m, Going Up Slowly
Nanga Parbat current, interview with Ian Overton
Living Out Loud: An Artist on Nanga Parbat
Nanga Parbat: Acclimatization and Progressing towards C2
Nanga Parbat Basecamps Established, Climbing Begins
Nanga Parbat Teams in Pakistan, K2 Climbers Hopeful
Russian team off to Nanga Parbat, route decided
Winter 2015: Tomek Mackiewicz Begins Acclimatization
History of Winter Climbing Nanga Parbat
Winter 2014/15: Preparations Underway for Exciting Ventures
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