Posted: Jul 20, 2007 08:19 am EDT
(K2Climb.net) "Chris Warner and Bruce Normand have summited," just reported Shared Summits. "Don Bowie followed shortly after at 4:42 pm. As of this writing, four Russians, the one Korean woman and two Sherpas, one Korean man, Iranian (Ed note: Kazem Faridian), Daniele Nardi from Italy, and Joao Garcia from Portugal have summited as well."

"Libor Uher of the Czech K2/BP expedition reached the summit about half an hour ago," reports Jana Matesova from the Czech Republic. "Now he has to get back to C4. (Source: Josef Lukas of the Czech expedition from BC.)"

"Three other members of the expedition summitted BP on July 12; of them two attempted K2 last night but were not part of the final summit push. Josef Lukas skied the slope of K2 from about 6200 to the BC earlier today," Jana added.

"With each new summit, applause, cheering and laughter irrupt from camps along The Strip. Perhaps one of the most amazing feats was the successful summit of one Czech by the Cesen Route," reports American Chris Everett from SharedSummits.

The four members of Russian Kuban K2&BP team who topped out at 3:30 p.m., local time are: Nikolay Kadoshnikov, Victor Afanasyev, Aleksander Eliseev, and Roman Gubanov.

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

Tired climbers

The Abruzzi climbers left Camp 4 (at about 1600/7900m) between 1 am and 3 am local time.

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.

News is still expected from other Czech climbers, Americans led by Fabrizio Zangrilli, and French Hugues d'Aubarede, who 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.

Remember the climbers are going down after several days of hard climbing in deep snow. Imagine how incredibly tired they must be. Add to that the icy slopes, the cold, wind and long hours ahead - and cross your fingers.

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. On the other hand, other four (Russian) climbers lost their lives in an avalanche.

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 Shared Summits | Donbowie.net | 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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