Results this weekend, pending weather
(Press release) Ferran Latorre, Hélias Millerioux and Yannick Graziani, have initiated the attack on the summit of Nanga Parbat on Diamir north side.
The route has had several attempts, by climbers like Reinhold Messner and Simone Moro, but no one has ever managed to complete it successfully.
The team left base camp at 5 am this morning heading to C1.
Once installed in C1 the strategy will come down to weather, so far forecast good with some wind for the following 3 days. The initial plan is to move C1 the next day some two hundred meters higher, thus placing the new Camp 1 at 6,700 meters. At this point, depending on the weather, the expedition will wait a day or two to move on.
How to attack the summit, the great unknown
Camp 3 is planned at about 7,200 or 7,300 meters. This would be the starting point of the attack on the summit. The route from there is unknown to the expedition and in fact differs from previous attempts from the 7,200 meters. Hélias Millerioux, Yannick Graziani and Ferran Latorre will have to decide the itinerary in situ.
To attack the final pyramid, there are two alternatives. Climb an indefinite corridor leading to the summit of Nanga Parbat North or go for the northern hill to climb the north ridge to the summit itself. From this, a flat, easy beginning edge take the issue to the main summit.
Summit and descent on skis to 7,000 meters
After the summit the trio plan to ski down from about 7800 or 7900 meters to 5,000 meters. The three had a beautiful run down already during the acclimatization process.
The forecast is that Ferran and his expedition will attack the summit taking advantage of the good weather window scheduled for later this week.
You can follow the expedition in real time here.
If all goes well, the 9th highest mountain in the world, will be the 13th eight thousand achieved without artificial oxygen by Ferran Latorre. The last eight thousander of Ferran’s 14×8000 project is Everest in the spring of 2017.
