Broad Peak today: Rather dry and covered in clouds. Image courtesy of Simone Moro (click to enlarge).
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Broad Peak: Fast climb to C1 today
Posted: Jan 17, 2007 12:04 pm EST
(MountEverest.net/K2Climb.net) Deep cold and high winds have kept Simone Moro and local climber Shaheen stuck in Broad Peak’s base camp, but the climbers will make a run for camp one today. “The weather is still bad and we can’t see the sun," reports Simone. "Temperature is extremely cold also during the day: -30° C this morning at 8:30. The wind is still very strong on the upper slopes of the mountain; we can hear the howling here in BC.”
C1 checking trip today
“Tomorrow (today) Shaheen and I will set off for a fast climb to C1, in order to check the conditions on the mountain and also to test our physical fitness. We will return to BC for the night as we are not yet fully acclimatized; the helicopter flight took us from Skardu’s 2000m to 5000m in just one hour.”
North Face athlete Simone Moro, 38, has summited Mount Everest (three times), Broad Peak, Cho Oyu, Shisha Pangma (winter), Lhotse (twice) and 5 peaks over 7000 meters. He has the first winter climb of Marble Wall 6400m (Tien Shan), a 24-hour climb on Fitz Roy’s West Face (Patagonia), and many other climbs around the world. Simone and Piotr Morawski summited Shisha Pangma Friday January 14, 2005 at 1:15 pm (local) after a fast 5 hour climb in very strong winds. It was the first (real) winter ascent on a 8000er since 1988, and the first winter climb on Shisha Pangma.
The Shisha winter summit was in fact Simone’s fifth winter climb: To the tragic December attempt on Annapurna in 1997 when Boukreev died, Simone had successful climbs on Aconcagua and Cerro Mirador (new route in alpine style in 1993), and on Marble Wall - the northernmost and coldest 6000er in Central Asia - with Denis Urubko in 2001.
Simone is currently attempting the first winter climb on Broad Peak. Originally he planned to climb solo, but finally he is teaming up with local climber Shaheen Baig, 28. Shaheen summited K2 in 2004 and GII in 2001. He has also scaled eight 7,000ers
None of the Pakistan’s 8000ers (K2, Nanga Parbat, Broad Peak, GI, and GII) have been summited in winter. In Nepal, only Makalu still remains unclimbed in winter. This year, Pakistan’s government has reduced the winter climbing fee to a nominal 5%.
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