The season is approaching its — hopefully grand — finale. The last teams are on the Gasherbrums. Among them, Denis Urubko and Pipi Cardell gear up for their new route.
Together with other climbers, Urubko and Cardell summited Gasherbrum I via the normal route on Friday, without oxygen or porters, as the final part of their acclimatization. This was Urubko’s 27th 8,000’er without O2, a record. They are now ready to attempt their planned new alpine-style route.
Topo Mena, leading an Alpenglow Expeditions team, is currently on his summit push. Others are following. Moeses Fiamoncini of Brazil is still recovering from a crampon wound on his leg and will wait until August to attempt G1. He will have the mountain virtually to himself. Adriana Brownlee and Gelje Sherpa are also in Base Camp.
Finally, Andrzej Bargiel is also on his way up, planning to summit on July 26 and ski down, as he did on Gasherbrum II last week.
Bad weather on K2
The only Pakistani 8,000’er without a summit so far this season is K2. Bad weather is making things difficult. Da Dendi Sherpa, leader of Glacier Himalaya’s team, reported that they have returned to Base Camp and called off their expedition due to bad weather. To illustrate his point, he just posted a video showing K2 in a whiteout:
The rope-fixing team is supposed to reach the summit today.
Whatever the weather and the state of the ropes, Kristin Harila and her sherpas will have to summit no later than Wednesday if she wants to complete all 14×8,000’ers within her planned three months. Her tracker was not active at the time of writing this story, but outfitter Seven Summit Treks reported that she and her team reached K2 Base Camp yesterday, just hours after summiting Broad Peak.
Tenjen Lama Sherpa and Kristin Harila on the summit of Broad Peak yesterday. Photo: Seven Summit Treks
