“This morning I got up at 6:00 am hoping to have blue sky and good conditions, but it was still cloudy and very windy above 6000 meters[...] It was really impossible to climb safely with such a strong wind," Simone reported today. Image courtesy of Simone Moro (click to enlarge).
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Simone Moro: No weather window on Broad Peak – It’s over
Posted: Feb 22, 2007 10:15 am EST
(K2Climb.net) “I hope the forecasts are right,” said Simone earlier this week. A brief weather window expected yesterday had the Italian climber launching a last-chance summit push. However, by Wednesday morning the still raging storm kept Shaheen and him from reaching C2.
Still, Simone didn't surrender. He decided to wait for conditions to improve by Thursday, in which case the men would climb straight up to C3, rest a few hours, and attempt to reach the summit on Friday.
Wind too strong – C3 out of reach
Simone has just checked in with no good news to report: “This morning I got up at 6:00 am hoping to have blue sky and good conditions, but it was still cloudy and very windy above 6000 meters. Our forecast man told us yesterday night that the good weather window would be shorter than previously expected, that it would only last for Friday. But today it was really impossible to climb safely with such a strong wind.”
“We have returned to our sleeping bags. Later we will start packing up. Tomorrow (Friday) we will go up and dismantle the higher camps.”
Nature wins
“We have tried our best for the last 2 months but Nature, as usual, has won. Today is my daughter Martina’s eighth birthday…and I’m taking it as a signal.”
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.
For the last two months, Simone has been attempting the first winter climb on Broad Peak. Originally he planned to climb solo, but teamed up with local climber Shaheen Baig, 28. Shaheen summited K2 in 2004 and GII in 2001. He has also scaled eight 7000ers.
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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