As Gasherbrum II summiters return to Base Camp, they are sharing some details of their difficult climb — long hours in fog, high winds, and breaking trail on both summit days.
On Broad Peak, many frustrated climbers have abandoned the mountain, while a few still hope for a last-minute push, despite uncertain weather and questions about the fixed ropes.
No FKT for Druelle
Vadim Druelle returned to Base Camp yesterday after his fast, single-push ascent of Gasherbrum II in tough conditions. Druelle left Base Camp at 4:55 pm and reached the summit 17 hours, 17 minutes later. He told his home team that he started on his own from Base Camp.
At around 7,000m, he caught up with a team going for the summit. From that point, Druelle broke trail through fresh snow until he reached the highest point on July 22 at 10:12 am local time.
As usual on the 8,000’ers, it is hard to establish an official FKT since previous fast climbs typically didn’t record their exact starting point. Conditions on the route also vary widely. But however fast Druelle was — and he was fast — he can’t claim an FKT. In 1997, Anatoli Boukreev of Kazakhstan went alone from Advanced Base Camp (5,800m) to the summit in 9 hours 30 min.
Base Camp on Gasherbrum II is located on the moraine and varies in altitude. Uta Ibrahimi’s tracker shows the altitude of this year’s Base Camp is 5,100m.
Summit marathon
Ibrahimi and Sanu Sherpa needed 30 hours from Camp 2 (at around 6,400m) to the top and back. Thanks to their marathon effort, they reached the summit at 7 am Pakistan time on July 21. Theirs were the first summits of the year on Gasherbrum II. Ibrahimi of Albania-Kosovo has now completed all the 8,000m peaks in Pakistan.
“I summited at 10 am [on July 21], after almost 23 hours of summit push from 6,500m,” Dorota Rasinska-Samocko, climbing with Seven Summit Treks, wrote on social media. “We were opening the trail, there were a lot of crevasses and strong wind on the ridge. We set off looking for a route from Camp 3 because there were no fixed lines, and traverses were really dangerous.”
According to SST, more climbers topped out today.
So far, no one has attempted Gasherbrum I, also known as Hidden Peak, this season. But SST said today it still hopes to lead a team to its summit in the next few days.
Unhappy clients on Broad Peak
On Broad Peak, the situation remains confusing. Climbers in Base Camp confirm that the rope fixers retreated from the mountain with no apparent intention of climbing again. As a result, several have decided to call their expedition off, including Andres Vilalta and Cristobal Cuello of Spain.
Some climbers — who wished to remain anonymous — told ExplorersWeb that the rope-fixing team retrieved gear and supplies as they went down to Base Camp. Previous posts on social media denouncing the ropes situation have been deleted, hinting at a tense situation.
Expedition leaders met in Base Camp yesterday evening and decided to try one last time if the weather improves in the next few days. However, the fixed ropes end below the Col, and there are no ropes on the long summit ridge. So even if the weather cooperates, we will have to see how this plays out.
