Posted: Jul 20, 2007 03:42 am EDT
(K2Climb.net/Madrid) "Chris is with Bruce in the lead group with several Russians," Shared Summits reported. "They have just turned the corner on the traverse, taking on the task of fixing a series of three ropes on behalf of all the climbers. Fortunately, one of the Russians found an old, existing fixed line and this has helped to speed things up a bit." And a while later, "Two of the three Americans (Chris Warner and Bruce Normand) are at 8350m. Don Bowie is not far behind on the Traverse."

Go to SharedSummits.com for all details and continuous updates through the push!

Czechs arrive from Cesen route

Lena from RussianClimb.com reported to ExWeb: "I'm following Sharedsummits reports. Russian climber's name (who works with Chris) is Roman Gubanov. He's a very strong climber, last fall he took the second place in our Elbrus race."

"Don is about 60 meters behind, ascending another rope at the beginning of the traverse. He is with some Italian climbers and a Czech climber arriving from the Cesen Route. The Czech climber has with him an additional 40 meters of rope for fixing. Chris estimates that if all goes well with the rest of the fixing, the summit would attained in about 4 hours," Chris Everett from SharedSummits also reported.

One hour ago, the Shared Summits team also reported on the leading climbers (Chris Warner and some Russians) having just overcome the Bottleneck. American Don, Portuguese Joao, some Italians and Koreans followed.

Five Czech climbers, four Americans led by Fabrizio Zangrilli, and French Hugues d'Aubarede planned to set off from 7,700m on the Cesen route earlier today. The Cesen and the Abruzzi Spur routes eventually merge on K2's upper slopes.

Tired climbers

The Abruzzi climbers left Camp 4 between 1 am and 3 am local time for the summit. C4, at anywhere from 7600 to 7900 meters on the Shoulder, is still a solid 16-22 hours from the summit. That means climbers should begin to arrive the top late afternoon local time today.

5 teams - Russians, Korean men and ladies, Portuguese, one Iranian climber, Americans and Italians were sharing the few tents they have still standing on the ravaged higher camps, and moving according to a common strategy. Weather reports look good, clear and little wind. K2 however suffers a bit more wind coming from China to be added to the forecasted speeds, and the peak is also infamous for sudden local weather patterns.

Remember the climbers are pushing following several days of hard climbing in deep snow to upper camps. Imagine how incredibly tired they must be. Add to that the icy slope, the cold, wind and long hours ahead - and cross your fingers tonight.

Few summits on K2

Statistically, triumphs on K2 are few. Only since the start of the new Millenium, the peak has been left entirely without summits in 2002, 2003 and 2005 . And last year, only four people topped out - and only two of those without oxygen; Italian Nives Meroi and Romano Bennet on exactly the Abruzzi route the current teams are facing.

Check out K2 stats here

This is how Nives described the climb to ExplorersWeb:

"Well, it is a tough mountain - any route you climb. After attempting the north side, I thought the Abruzzi spur would be easier, but it is not. It includes difficult sections, it's very high, and the mountain is dangerous in itself: Avalanches and rock falls are a constant hazard. It took us 12 years and three attempts to reach the summit!"

"No guide can make things easier for their clients at the technically difficult sections – with perhaps the exception of 2004, when crowds of Sherpas and porters fixed the entire route."

"Danger always lay ahead on K2. We sadly had that confirmed to us, when four climbers died soon after we summited. I would ask the climbers to never, ever let their guard down when on K2. Not even on the easier sections, not even in good weather and in good conditions."

"Secondly, they must be completely sure about their skills, they need to have clear in their minds what are they doing and where they are going. Focusing on each step is not enough, they need to look up to the route above them. And of course, they must know when to turn around."

"Summit is not the most important goal on any mountain, but least of all on K2. Never forget the mountain will be there next year, but you may not - if you push too far beyond your limits."

Expedition links:

K2/Broad Peak:

Warner & Bowie�fs Shared Summits | Gerfried Goeschl (German) | Czech BP/K2 (Czech) | Russian K2 Direct West Face updates on RussianClimb | Russian K2 Direct West Face site (Russian) | Broadpeak.at | Hungarian K2/GI expedition's news (Hungarian) | Joao Garcia K2 expedition's blog (Portuguese) | Zdenek Hruby's report on Radek's website(Czech) | Kuban BP & K2 expedition (Russian)| Pompili's blog (Italian) | K2 Freedom 2007's news (Italian) | Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner(German) | Ralf's Amical (German)| Silvio Mondinelli's BP news (Italian) Marco Confortola (Italian) | Ivan Vallejo (Spanish) | Edurne Pasaban's BP news (Spanish) | Mexicans Badia & Mauricio (Spanish) | Jorge Salazar's Veracruz al Himalaya (Spanish) | Santiago Quintero (Spanish) | Nicholas Rice's BP dispatches | Fernando Gonzalez (Spanish) | Georg Kronthaler (German) | News on Iranian climbers on Damavand Club's blog (Farsi) | Piotr Morawski (Polish) | Peter Hamor (Slovak) | Dodo Kopold

Gasherbrums:

FTA's Gasherbrum dispatches | Project-Himalaya's Gasherbrum II dispatches | Alex Gavan's GI & GII expedition website | Hiro Takeuchi's blog (Japanese) | Slovak GI/GII expedition website (Slovak) | Valles al GII (Catalan) | Mario Merelli GI's news(Italian) | Jean Troillet (news in French) | Mike Horn's website| Mountain Madness | Kari Kobler (German) | Carlos Pauner's reports (Spanish)

Nanga Parbat:

Chilean Nanga Parbat 2007 website (Spanish) | Chilean Nanga Parbat 2007 blog (Spanish) | Chilean USACH team | Jean-Noel Urban (French)

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