K2 2018 Summer Coverage: Broad Peak, Gasherbrum Summits, K2 Push Begins

Not to be denied, the second summit push on Broad Peak was successful for most as was a clean summit of Gasherbrum II. And there are still climbers hoping to get Nanga Parbat. A large group of climbers have left K2 Base Camp hoping to summit later this week.

Big Picture

With good weather continuing, the routes are set and teams are pushing quickly to summit before conditions change. Its is reported to be quite warm, which can worry some leaders but thus far, the conditions seem to be about as good as they get in the Karakoram.

Broad Peak – Summits!!

Furtenbach Adventures reported they summited on their second attempt. They tried last week but were stopped by avalanche danger above Camp 3. Good on them for giving it another go and not just moving on to K2. They posted, “SUMMIT!! Congratulations to all our members, sherpas and guide Roli to top out Broad Peak this morning after fixing the route.  All back in C3 now. More information will follow. Safe descent!” The summit team reportedly included:

Leader: Roli Striemitzer (Austria)
Members:
David Roeske (USA)
Fredrik Strang (Sweden)
Mark Mueller (Switzerland)
Afi Gigani (Georgia)
Support
Mingma Sherpa
Ram Nurbu Sherpa
Nima Sherpa
Hassan
Dilawar hussain adil

No direct word on the summit status of Mingma G. Sherpa, but if everyone else summited, I’m sure he did.

Gasherbrum – Summits!!!

Adam Bielecki and German Felix Berg summited GII. Jacek Czech and Kazach Boris Dedeszko turned back. All were not using supplemental oxygen or any kind of external support staff during the climb.

After nearly 18 hours of climbing together with Felix we came back to C3. We managed to traverse the summit – we reached it by fragile and surprisingly difficult west face and went down the regular route. Unfortunately, Jacek turned back on 7500m and Borys used the regular route and turned back on 7800m. Best regards from C3. Tomorrow the base camp

Hungarian climbers Dávid Klein and Szilárd Suhajda are on their summit bid today, hoping to reach the top tomorrow.  Laszlo Pinter tells me that Masha Gordon and Helias Millerioux, Yannick Graziani have ended their effort along with the Ukraine team:

Bielecki was interviewed by a Polish magazine. He told that during their last rotation last weekend the French and the Ukrainians continued straight for a summit bid with no success. The French trio (2 French: Millerioux and Graziani +Masha Gordon) broke the trail to camp 2. Then Adam, Berg, Czech and Dedeshko took over and moved a bit further up to build their camp 2 a little higher up. Next day they established camp 3, followed by the French and the Ukrainians. The next morning Adam and company reconned the way up to 7200 metres and turned back to descend to BC (July 11th). That was the time when the French and the Ukrainians launched a summit bid. The French did not get much further than the high point of Adam &CO. The Ukrainians were stopped at the end of the traverse under the summit pyramid. The snow was too deep and their acclimatization was not ready.. They all returned back to BC.

K2 – Summit on Thursday?

Noting a team of 10 members and 13 Sherpas and 3 Pakistan High altitude guides Dawa Sherpa of Seven Summits Treks (SST) says they have begun their summit push looking to top out on Thursday, 19th July, 2018. He noted the Sherpas and HAPs fixing the ropes as leader Mingma David Sherpa and Muhammad Ali Sadpara, Mingma Thindu Sherpa and 2 Pakistan High Altitude guide and from Madison Mingma Tenjing Sherpa and 2 High altitude guide. They plan to fix the Bottle Neck before going for the summit suggesting they feel they have a lot of good weather ahead so no need to rush. SST posted their member and support team as :

Leader: Chhang Dawa sherpa Nepal

Members
Ms. Sophie Switzerland
Mr. Yoshiharu Nakamura japan
Mis. Viridiana Alvarez Chavez Mexico
Mr. Noel Richmond Hanna Ireland
Mr. Paul Hegge Belgium
Mis. Naoko watanabe japan
Mr. Marek Novotony Czech Republic
Mr. Gheorghe Dijmarescu USA
Ms. Gangaamaa Badamgarav Mongolia

Support
Mr. Krishna Thapa Magar Nepal
Mr. Mingma Gyabu sherpa Nepal
Mr. Chhiji Nirbu sherpa Nepal
Mr. Pemba Thunduk sherpa Nepal
Mr. Mingma Tenjen Sherpa Nepal
Mr. Ngima Thenduk Sherpa Nepal
Mr. Dawa Gyaljen Sherpa Nepal
Mr. Ngima Dorchi Sherpa Nepal
Mr. Lakpa Temba Sherpa Nepal
Mr. Furba Temba Sherpa Nepal
Mr. Dawa Sangay Sherpa Nepal
Mr. Mingma Thindu Sherpa Nepal

Apparently Maddison Mountaineering’s team is along for this summit bid but may lag a day to draft off SST’s work. Also the Japanese team is expected to join in. All the teams have done a nice job of working together this season to fix the route.

Reader Dominik Kasprzak tells me that Andrzej Bargiel will ski Abruzzi -> Cesen -> Messner variant -> Kukuczka/Piotrowski routes. Andrzej’s bother, Bartek Bargiel, posted a drone video from the acclimatization rotations and plans on capturing his entire ski from the summit of K2:

Nanga Parbat – Still Climbing

The Czech team had a bit of a setback with rockfall hurting one of their climbers:

After two days of acclimatisation Kořen descended to C2 camp to gain power. In the meantime, the whole expedition was climbing uphill. Unfortunately, Jirka Janák was hit by a piece of stone in his arm and so he decided to get back to the base camp to recover. In the meantime, Drobek and Jura Domanský managed to reach C3 camp and the rest of the team even somewhere higher between C3 and C4 camp, where they will spend tonight. The weather forecast says that tomorrow night there will be a snow storm, so I suppose they should all get to C4 by then and wait there until the weather gets better.

Mike Horn,  Alex Gavan, Tunc Findik and Maya Sherpa all exceptional strong climber choose not to risk the dangerous conditions on NB this year. However, two climbers, both supported to some extent by Karakorum Expeditions said they summited:  Niels Jespers from Belgium and Korean Kim Migon.

Gasherbrum IV – Team leaves

To no-one’s surprise, the Italian Army has left GIV after the death of their teammate, Maurizio Giordano, last week. Also it appears that Adam Bielecki will not attempt GIV either due to conditions. That leaves Hervé Barmasse and David Gottler who posted “Tomorrow we will move from base camp upwards to complete our acclimatization. The idea is to sleep two nights between 6000 and 7100 meters. Then we will rest and if the weather permits, we will try to climb the Gasherbrum IV.” Also, Oriol Baró with Marc Toralles, Roger Cararach and Iker Madoz attempting the South Pillar on GIV.

Finally, no word on the rescue/recovery for eight-time Everest Summiter Pemba Sherpa who reportedly fell into a crevasse on Northern India’s Saser Khangri peak.

Best of luck to all

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything

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3 thoughts on “K2 2018 Summer Coverage: Broad Peak, Gasherbrum Summits, K2 Push Begins

  1. Awesome news! Thank you. Can you clarify this info, please?
    “Andrzej Bargiel will ski Abruzzi -> Cesen -> Messner variant -> Kukuczka/Piotrowski routes.” What this exactly means? Will he try to cross the routes in the descent?

    Thanks in advance.

      1. Thank you for the swiftness of your reply Alan! If he manages to ski down the polish line on the descent it would be incredible, but (I think) also impossible and suicidal. Even on the Abruzzi (bottleneck > camp 3) would be impressive. Oh well… hope he will not risk too much and wish the best for him.

        (sorry for the mispellings, my mobile/autocorrect is a mess)

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