Chest-deep fresh snow and high avalanche risk have forced back climbers heading for the summit of Gasherbrum II.
“Last night, I left the last Camp 3 at 7,000m toward the summit of Gasherbrum II,” Horia Colibasanu of Romania reported. “After a section of climbing on a rock face, I entered an area where the snow was up to my chest. It was very hot, and the layers deposited during the last snowfall had not had time to stabilize. The risk of avalanches was too high.”
Colibasanu chose to turn around. Imagine Nepal’s Sherpa team also retreated without reaching the summit.
Horia Colibasanu is back in Camp 1. Photo: Horia Colisasanu
Colibasanu is currently back in Camp 1, waiting to see how conditions evolve. He is not in a hurry and might make a new summit attempt if the snow settles and the skies remain clear. However, he admits that the season could be compromised if snow starts falling again in the next few days.
K2
Progress on K2 has accelerated since the Nepalese commercial teams took over rope fixing.
Until Thursday, the rope fixing on K2 reached only slightly above Camp 2. Then the skies cleared, and forecasts showed a good weather window expected to last several days. That was the opportunity Sherpa climbers were waiting for. They left their clients in Base Camp and rushed up the Abruzzi Spur route to break trail as far as possible.
Dipan Gurung and Mingdorchi Sherpa of Imagine Nepal, together with Lakpa Sherpa and Siddhi Ghising, fixed the ice sections on the so-called Black Pyramid to Camp 3, at around 7,000m on the section known as The Shoulder. Shortly, they might continue up to Camp 4 below the Bottleneck and then proceed to the summit.
Broad Peak
News is expected soon from Karakorum Expedition’s Pakistani team, whose members reached Camp 3 yesterday. Tomorrow, they will investigate options for a new route to the summit.
