Teams are still on the go on K2, although the wind has not died down. The leading guides and rope fixers are heading to Camp 3 today. Others are waiting in Camp 2.
Progress might be slower than expected because forecasts show the long-hoped-for weather window might not open until early next week. It is unclear whether adequate supplies and supplementary oxygen are available for a further wait.
Wind even in Camp 2
“Israfil just wrote me that he is in Camp 2 in a strong wind,” climber Saulius Damulevicius told ExplorersWeb. “Today, the route is being fixed to Camp 3. If everything is OK, he will continue to C3 tomorrow. ”
File image of Israfil Ashurli shot during a climb on Broad Peak, with K2 in the background. Photo: Instagram
The Czech team of Lenka Polackova and Jan Polacek is also in Camp 2, where they climbed directly from Base Camp. They report wind and snow. “Nothing you wouldn’t expect here,” Polacek wrote.
The Slovak climbers are part of a larger group supported by five Sherpas and led by IFMGA guide Prakash Sherpa. Polacek noted that their team’s Sherpas are fixing the ropes today to Camp 3 in a joint effort with Mingma G’s Imagine Nepal staff.
Seven Summit Treks, which was quietly waiting in Base Camp with a team of five to six clients, mainly Chinese, just posted that they are also going up.
Instagram story by Seven Summit Treks’ leader Chhang Dawa Sherpa.
Janice Rot of Chile and Ricardo Segreste of Mexico have finally called off their attempt, mainly due to the high risk of rockfall. Segreste was injured in the rock-snow avalanche that killed Pakistani climber Iftikhar Hussain three weeks ago. Madison Mountaineering still has a client on the mountain, 19-year-old Ryan Mitchell. His tracker located him at Advanced Base Camp today, according to the Alpymon blog.
Possible summit delay
Weather forecasts are far from reliable this season, but the multimodel charts show a potential weather window at summit altitude not for the weekend, as Mingma G expected, but for Monday to Wednesday of next week:
Forecast for K2 at summit altitude, for the next seven days. Photo: Meteoexploration.com
