Six Hungarian climbers summited GI last Sunday. Image courtesy of Nemzeti Sport (click to enlarge).
Hungarian climbers at a traverse at 7,700m, toward GI's summit. Image courtesy of Nemzeti Sport (click to enlarge).
Australian Mick Parker also summited GI last Sunday. Image by Peter of Mick on the summit, courtesy of JamieMcGuinness/Project-Himalaya (click to enlarge).
Teams have reported on avalanche risk still high on GII. Image of GII's C2 in the morning frost, courtesy of JamieMcGuinness/Project-Himalaya (click to enlarge).
Climbers on a summit push from both the Abruzzi Spur and the Cesen route turned back yesterday. Image of David Gottler in the wind-swept C4 courtesy of Ralf Dujmovits/Amical (click to enlarge).
Image of Gerlinde progressing on difficult mixed terrain between C3 and C4 courtesy of Ralf Dujmovits/Amical (click to enlarge).
Blanca Ardanaz summited Broad Peak yesterday. File image of the Spanish female climber climbing in the Everest region last year, courtesy of her home team (click to enlarge).
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Pakistan wrap-up: Summits, retreats, and hopes for a new chance
Posted: Aug 01, 2007 09:09 am EDT
(K2Climb.net) Several climbers summited GI Sunday and Monday. Yesterday, five climbers topped out on Broad Peak. Many teams have left, but some still hope for a new shot - as soon as the winds recede. Only trouble - some forecasts show high winds for up to two weeks.
K2
Summit push aborted on 53rd anniversary
Climbers on a summit push from both the Abruzzi Spur and the Cesen route turned back due to whiteout yesterday (see previous stories). Exactly 53 years earlier, on July 31, 1954, Italians Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli had become the first humans to step on K2’s summit.
Broad Peak
Austrian OeAV Broad Peak Golden Jubilee and K2 Expedition: Two more on top
Günther Unterberger and Louis Rousseau topped-out Broad Peak yesterday, in spite of worsening weather and the late hour; the climbers topped-out at 5.00 pm, local time.
Meanwhile expedition leader Gerfried Goeschl waits in K2’s BC for conditions to improve, in order to launch a second summit bid.
Catalan BP team: Blanca on top!
Blanca Ardanaz, the only female climber of the Catalan (Spanish) BP expedition toped-out together with Günther and Louis. Blanca had departed C3 with two fellow Catalan mates, who eventually turned round.
After summit, Blanca, Günther and Louis returned to C3 at midnight - they were about to reach BC at the moment of publishing this story.
Korean K2 & BP team: Two more on top!
Two Korean climbers, members of the K2-BP team, also reached Broad Peak’s main summit yesterday, according to Wind Horse trekking's Ang Karma.
GI
July 29 summits
Four Hungarians and Australian Mick Parker, summited GI on July 29. Troillet’s four member team topped-out on Monday. Read more on separate stories published on K2Climb.net.
Mario Merelli: Winds up, climbers down
“Since the wind was increasing, we descended back to BC late yesterday along the Japanese route – it's steep, but also well fixed and certainly beautiful,” Mari Merelli reported.
The team, having all camps set up and supplied, is ready to try again as soon as conditions permit.
GII
Project-Himalaya: Another failed push
Jamie’s team left on a summit push in the early morning of July 25th. On July 28th they reached C3. “We headed up to Camp 3 up the Japanese Couloir route, which is rather steep (very real 60 degrees in parts),” Jamie wrote that day. “The first section of the rock route was covered by some snow, making extremely difficult climbing conditions. I doubt any of us could have led this, at least in these conditions; luckily there were fixed ropes all the way up. The snow sections of the couloir were also very steep.”
“On July 29 we rested in C3, planning perhaps to climb on the following day. Late morning, we climbed up over the first ridge as a test and realized (at least I realized) that the team was not fast enough to summit. There also appeared to be significant avalanche danger, perhaps not in the morning, but when returning late in the day.”
On July 30, Jamie and his team packed up and descended down to C2 and C1, while members Søren and Tia continued down to BC that night.
“Gasherbrum II now looks in a lot better condition than previously, perhaps a few more days of hot sun, and the avalanche danger above Camp 2 would be acceptable,” McGuinness reckons. “The only issue is the summit winds, which are forecast to be high for the next two weeks!”
Mountain Madness: Route not safe enough
“After 7 days of continuous snowfall, the morning of the 28th brought clear skies,” leader Phil Crampton reported. “We took the opportunity to climb to C1. The following day we woke to more clear skies, and our high altitude porters insisted on continuing up to C2.”
“They departed C1 at 4:00am and shortly thereafter reached C2 - but the snow fall from the previous days had completely buried our tents. Looking through the scope at our route from Camp I up to C3, and talking with our high altitude porters, it was obvious that the conditions would not be safe in time for a summit push due to the heavy snow accumulation."
"Our latest forecast predicts more snow on the 31st and 1st, so we collectively made the decision to pull C2 and re-group at C1. Many groups have abandoned climbing equipment and tents at C3 and within a few days, C2 will be unreachable as well.”
“We hear the conditions are much better on Gasherbrum I, our second objective, but with more bad weather coming in, we may run out of time.”
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) | Pompili's blog (Italian) | K2 Freedom 2007's news (Italian) | Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner(German) | Ralf's Amical (German)| Mexicans Badia & Mauricio (Spanish) | Jorge Salazar's Veracruz al Himalaya (Spanish) | Nicholas Rice's BP dispatches | Georg Kronthaler (German) | Piotr Morawski (Polish) | Peter Hamor (Slovak) | Dodo Kopold
Gasherbrums:
Project-Himalaya's Gasherbrum II dispatches | Alex Gavan's GI & GII expedition website | Mario Merelli GI's news(Italian) | Jean Troillet (news in French) | Mike Horn's website| Mountain Madness
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