Karakoram Diaries – 18th July
A round-up of today’s events on the mountains of the Karakoram.
- Rope fixing team plus several clients summit Broad Peak! (inc. Kim Hong-bin, Niels Jespers, Oswaldo Pereira, Hugo Ayaviri, Sofie Lenaerts, Stef Maginelle)
- Multiple summits of Gasherbrum 2 confirmed with trackers showing others having topped out. (inc. Sirbaz Khan, Naila Kiani, Beskid Team, Altitude Team, Fars Team, Czech/Slovak Team)
- The Lupghar Sar and Muchu Chhish adventures appear to be over.
(Updated throughout the day)
“Breaking! Rope Fixing Team summit Broad Peak at 3pm PST
Superstar fixing team Jalal Uddin, Eid Muhammad and Faryad Karim
“These three boys worked for nearly 24hours breaking the trail fixing rope very proud moment!
“More client’s on the way to the summit! Will update the names soon! Please do pray for the safe return!”
“Congratulations to Blue Sky Treks and Tours and to all climbers for your successful ascent of Broad Peak (8051m) this afternoon.
Summiteers:
1) Mr.Hongbin Kim
2) Ms. Sofie Lenaerts
3) Mr. Stef Maginelle
4) Mr.Yousuf
5) Mr.Imtiyaz
6) Mr. Mehdi “
Beskid Expedition Team (Gasherbrum II)
– The Polish Duo of Piotr Krzyżowski and Radoslaw Woźniak have reaced the top of Broad Peak according to their trackers! –
The Altitude Team (Gasherbrum II)
“Last night the team did the Summit Push! It started at 9pm and this morning at 9am local Lluis Cortadellas and Gonzalo Fernandez reached the GII summit, a dream come true. At the same moment, Ignasi and Ferran decided to return to C3, since they were not quite well. The most difficult decision but at the same time the most successful. Albert yesterday returned to BC, as he saw that it was not the time to continue. The mountains and Himalayas have this double reality, great projects that can be dreams come true. and at the same time difficult and even unattainable projects. Now the 4 of us rest at C3 and tomorrow we will go down to C1. Thanks for all the support”
Arman Shahpari and Milad Keshavarzi were on the top of “Gasherbrum 2” a few minutes ago and according to a phone call made stood and raised the proud flag of Iran.
“The team started the final attempt to climb the peak on the morning of Thursday, July 15, from the Gasherbrum base camp, and after passing camps 1 and 2 and spending the night in each of them, finally entered Camp 3 on Saturday, July 17, and after a few hours of rest, At 22:00, they started their ascent to the summit and today, Sunday, July 18, they proudly stood on top of the 8035-meter peak of Gasherbrum 2”.
Karakoram Tours Pakistan (Gasherbrum II)
“Congratulation to Summit KTP International Gasherbrum II 8035-m Expedition 2021 team has successfully climb and stood on the top on dated 18th July at 11:30am.
Summit member names given below.
1-Mr, Luis Cortadellas – Spain
2-Ms, Elyse Dalton – USA
3 Mr, Muhammad – Pakistani”
– Tracker shows Sirbaz Khan at Gasherbrum 2 summit. –
Czech / Slovak Team (Gasherbrum II)
“It’s there!!! The boys looked at the world with an eight thousand look!
“We did it, after 8.5 hours of hard work we composed Martin Ksandr, Pavel Burda, Jozef Zajac to the top of Gashe 2-8035m
“Unfortunately, the rest didn’t climb, but they are cool. Filip Vítek, CoVit Dubec, Lukas Beranek turned around at 7800 m. Unfortunately, the weather was spoiled this afternoon and it started to blow a lot.
“Everyone is safe on the way to C3-7000m where we will sleep. Tomorrow we will meet to BC and then we will see what else.
“The peak pyramid was tricky, there was no marker and it was relatively technical at 8000m. Otherwise, of course without oxygen.”
“It was really windy on the top, so we were there for a while, but I have a photo with the flag. The flag of Expedition club.cz thus rolled on eight thousand!”
“Yesterday we left at midnight with half the manpower we were supposed to have, as people who had committed to helping decided to sit back. Come on people, where did you disappear? Mirza Ali’s fixing team takes the lead and me, Hugo and Nils help how we can, navigating deep snow and a sea of crevasses. Some hours later two more climbers show up to help too. Eventually we arrive at a point around 7750m (Inreach) where a huge crevasse has collapsed and cut off the route. Porters decide to go down, four of us try to proceed. We find a sketchy alternative route and try to climb higher. It took us 45min to climb just 20-30m. The snow just collapsed underneath… so we turn around. Feeling good and only 300m to go to the summit… it sucks.
“I get to C3, full of new climbers waiting to go up the next day. Don Bowie radioes me and tells that there’s a high altitude porter below C3 who needs help desperately. Because I was dehydrated, hungry, and hadn’t slept in ages I knew I wasn’t the best option. I was trying to ask help but everyone pretended they didn’t hear. So I packed my huge pack (no one was willing to lend their tent for a deposit either) and started going down. Belgian Jeff came after me and took over the rescue. Enormous respect!! I tried my best to help, offering medicine and just being available.”
“Today, I’m down in BC, masses on their way to summit…”
“Asif Bhatti is back at basecamp after completing second rotation Alhamdulillah!!
– Camp 1 ( 5600 m)
– Camp 2 ( 6200 m)
– Deposit made for Camp 3 at 6700 m.
“In next rotation ( after Eid) Asif will In Sha Allah establish Camp 3 and will proceed further.
“He is fit, energetic and doing great Ma Sha Allah on his No Porter No O2 attempt.”
“Selena Khawaja reached C2 (6200m) on Broad Peak as her rotation continues.
After spending a night here Selena will descend to BC tmrw morning.
As updated by her father, “Korean team shared spicy Korean soup with Selena which she enjoyed a lot at C2”
“Had our first hiccup, sitting in basecamp under bluebird skies.
“We got lost in the dark and descended so missed out on this perfect weather window. Good thing we are here for a long time; we will go up again after a few days rest.”
“Actually today is Broad Peak news. Yesterday, 17.07, most of the climbers went to the assault yesterday. But according to the scattered data that we get from scraps of different radio sessions, the climbers faced deep snow and a huge crack. Everyone returned to Camp 3. And yesterday at 22:00 Pakistani time they went out for a second assault. For now (10:00 Pakistan time, 8:00 Moscow time and Kiev) we see a group of climbers on Broad Peak from the Base. They work. Almost everything is without oxygen. In the photo, in a red circle, the advance group. Israfil Ashurli, Nastya Runova and other guys are on the ascent now. We keep fingers crossed for the guys! Let them do it safely!”
“Dear family and friends, Alhamdulillah I completed my final acclimatisation on K2, I, Arshad bhai and Ahmed Baig spent a night at camp1, then climbed up to camp2 and descended back to be camp, this was a long day but everything was great, earlier I did my acclimatization up to camp2 on the broad peak, please enjoy the video! Now I am ready for the summit push!”
“Shehroze has safely reached back to K2 Basecamp after spending night at Camp 1 6036m ASL.
“Weather will be heavy from tomorrow so next rotation to be done once weather is favourable.”
“The Madison Mountaineering team has been enjoying some nice weather the last few days here in K2 base camp. The route is in to camp 4, our equipment is in place and we are ready to go for our summit attempt, but first we must ride out a storm beginning tomorrow.
“A significant amount of precipitation should fall the next few days and then some very high winds, followed by calm weather beginning ~July 25th. We are waiting and enjoying expedition life here in Pakistan !!”
“We sit at Basecamp waiting patiently for the right opportunity, then and only then do we hope that she allows us safe passage.
“Will we get to stand on her hallowed summit!…..only time will tell.”
“Hushe Pakistani K2 team touch Camp 4 today and descending towards Camp 2 due to expected bad weather report.
Today they spend night at Camp 2, tomorrow they will be at BC.”
Marco Confortola (Gasherbrum I)
“Finally in the base camp, tired but satisfied to have positioned with Mario all the fixed ropes that from C2 climbing the Japanese coluoir to C3. Yesterday, positioning the ropes, I put into practice all the teachings of the National Instructors “AGAI and CNSAS” and especially when we faced the snow slabs from the wind, I imagined having Maurizio Lutzenberger, AGAI / CNSAS Instructor dear friend excellent connoisseur of the world of snow. I assure you that it is not at all easy to place more than 600 meters of fixed ropes, but last night, returning to the C2 tents, we were extremely satisfied with the great work done. Now we just have to be lucky that the weather is friendly to us to give us the opportunity to make the attempt to summit. It goes without saying that we return to the essential, simple food and warmth after accumulating so much cold on the face. With @mario_vielmo there is mutual respect and a great desire to do well together and collaborating together with the rest of the team certainly makes the difference. Now I dedicate myself to myself and my little house, I will take a pseudo shower, I will do the laundry and finally I will sleep on a thicker mattress that is comfortable. Good day to all of you from Gasherbrum Base Camp.”
Phillipe Genin (Gasherbrum II)
“On the slopes of G2!
“Fixed cords were installed up to camp 2 m on July 6 and 7, then a bad period followed.
“The shape is right here!
“The rise to the summit is scheduled for July 16th to 24th…. with the piano to bring real musical notes at 8035m!”
Hiroshi Kawasaki (Lupghar Sar)
“Entering C1 on Friday. Saturday The highest point of last week arrived at 6 o’clock and the route construction started immediately. Due to the recent high temperature, the snow melts at once and the ice under the snow begins to appear and the climbing speed drops sharply. Since the fulcrum is also an ice screw, it took a lot of time to start, and at the 7th pitch of 4 hours, I got over the big slope and came out to the ridge of the Korean route. Altitude 5700m. The bad weather has continued for 6 days since the beginning of the day, so this year we ended here. Since the core has been exceeded, it will be a summit attack next year. Although I was eliminated at about half of the total points, it was a satisfying Himalayan climbing that I drew a new route using 45 fixed rope pitches, 25 rock harkens, 10 ice screws and 15 snow bars..”
“Back in BC, eating ibex, rice a apricots and having great rest. Finally I have enjoyed food. Climbing today stayed quite according a plan. We are totally sunburned, tired and 10kg lighter but happy to be back. And also finally without my backpack, it has 24 kilograms.
No summit but still happy, conditions were crazy so it was far to big adventure.
I wish to everyone who likes mountains to visit this breathtaking valley. Just here in BC climbing from here is just little different story…”
Summer Season in the Karakoram – 2021
Photo: Saad Mohamed
