Annapurna and Broad Peak are Piotr Pustelnik 's only 8000ers to go to achieve all 8000+m 14 summits. Image of Piotr courtesy of Piotr Pustelnik.
Piotr Morawski achieved the first winter summit of Shisha Pangma with Simone Moro, and teamed up with Pustelnik for an attempt on Annapurna's Bonington route last year. Image courtesy of Pustelnik's Annapurna 2005 expedition.
American Don Bowie attempted Broad Peak last year. Image of Don courtesy of Don Bowie (click to enlarge).
A plan of Piotr Pustelnik's new route on Broad Peak and Piotr himself (insert), courtesy of Artur Hajzer. The route was attempted already in 1984 by the Jerzy Kukuczka-Voytek Kurtyka super team; unfortunately without success.
A few days after this story was published, Artur Hajzer sent over this map of the expedition's new plans on Annapurna: The team is not attempting Loretan's route (in red) as originally planned, instead they'll try the even longer Polish Kukuczka/Hajzer route, following the South Ridge (in blue). Topo courtesy of Artur Hajzer (click to enlarge).
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Cho Oyu, Annapurna, Broad Peak: American/Polish Star team for Himalayan Trilogy
Posted: Feb 27, 2006 10:40 am EST
(MountEverest.net/K2Climb.net) "You will hear from me soon, I am not going to retire yet," said Polish ace Piotr Pustelnik before returning home from Broad Peak last summer. Well, the word just arrived: An attempt on Annapurna's highly difficult East ridge, and a new route on the still unclimbed South ridge of Broad Peak are up, in a spectacular Himalayan trilogy.
Forced to retreat at the foresummit of BP last year, Piotr had led the way, breaking trail and fixing ropes in very bad conditions. But on the descent something happened. Piotr and his team were diverted and got involved in a three day-long rescue to help down an injured climber.
The American rescuer
American Don Bowie was there too. He went straight to the rescue, which cost him his own attempt on Broad Peak. He would launch a second bid when there was no one else left on the mountain. But on the way down Don discovered his gear had been stolen and the fixed ropes had disappeared.
Months later, Don volunteered to help villagers in quake-affected areas in Kashmir - but didn’t forget to make some climbing plans for 2006.
Piotr's Annapurna fight - round three
As for Piotr Pustelnik, BP was not the only failed summit for him in 2005. In spring of the same year, he had attempted (for the second time) Annapurna from its highly difficult South side.
The younger Piotr Morawski was with him, fresh from achieving the first winter climb on Shisha Pangma (awarded by ExWeb among the Best of 2005). According to the stats, Annapurna is the most dangerous of all the 8000ers. "It was such a great climb," both Piotrs said after reaching 7300m on the Bonington route in pretty scary conditions.
Cho Oyu, Annapurna, Broad Peak
The trio is now joining forces for a first class Himalayan trilogy this spring-summer: First they will acclimatize by climbing Cho Oyu. Secondly, they'll move to Annapurna; and finally the team will head for Broad Peak. The expedition will also include 1998 Everest summiteer Peter Hamor, who was with Piotr in 2004 on Annapurna.
Story edited 12:18 pm EST Mar 01, 2006: Route images added courtesy of Artur Hajzer.
Piotr has 12 of the 14, 8000ers completed. Only Annapurna and Broad Peak remain on his quest to summit the world's tallest mountains. He has climbed Gasherbrum II twice (1990 and 1997), Nanga Parbat in 1992, Cho Oyu and Shisha Pangma Main in 1993, Dhaulagiri in 1994, Everest in 1995, K2 from the North in 1996, Gasherbrum I in 1997, Lhotse in 2000, Kangchenjunga in 2001, Makalu in 2002 and Manaslu in 2003.
Piotr Morawski achieved the first winter climb on Shisha Pangma on January,14 2005. Also on the summit was Italian Simone Moro, who describes Morawski as one of the best Polish climbers nowadays.
American Don Bowie attempted Broad Peak in 2005. He also volunteered to help people living in isolated mountain areas of Indian Kashmir who were severely affected after the October 8 earthquake.
Annapurna's SE ridge was first climbed by Loretan and Joos in 1984, who traversed all points of the Peak and descended towards the North side. In 2002, Alberto Iñurrategi and Jean-Christophe Lafaille achieved the second climb via the SE ridge, and descended the same route back to BC.
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