2019/20 Winter Himalaya Climbs: Fighting the Weather

Jost was blown back to EBC after a tough night on the Lho La.  Urbuko wants to get Broad Peak in February to meet his definition of winter and now is targeting February 20/21. Porters have been pushed back to February 22.

Everest

Txikon on Southeast Ridge – Headed Higher

With an improved forecast Alex Txikon and team are headed back up to the mid camps in the Western Cwm after big winds destroyed some of their tents at base camp. I assume they will see similar damage at the previously established high camps. High winds have stopped Txikon on his previous winter attempts. Txikon’s posted this update on Facebook and Twitter

Up we go – in two stages. First we’ll check conditions on the Icefall on the way to C1 and back tomorrow. All going well, we’ll then climb all the way to Camp 2 on Saturday.

His team includes Spaniard Oscar Cardo, and Nepalese Sherpas Chhiji Nurbu Sherpa, Pechhumbe Sherpa, and Tenjen Sherpa. You can follow him on his tracker.

Alex Txikon on Everest Winter 2019:20

Jost on West Ridge – Blown Back to EBC C1

German alpinist Jost Kobusch, returned to his Camp 1 at 5933 m | 19465 ft but the big winds made for a tough night and now he is back at base camp. His ambitious plans may be running out of time and energy.  In review, he plans on a winter, solo Everest climb without supplemental oxygen and no Sherpa support. This exact style has never been attempted or accomplished. You can track his location on this excellent map from 3D Reality Maps. He has this update Tuesday, February 11, 2020, on Facebook:

Actually, I wanted to start from camp one and head towards camp two. It’s already much warmer than a month ago, but still quite windy – it already cracked my tent again 😂, Yesterday morning the wind was so strong that it bent the tent down to 30cm and I had a liter of water in my sleeping bag 😅 . Then, nevertheless, have packed and have gone. But I didn’t get very far – I had to bow to the wind and turning around was the only sensible thing to do – I almost flew away while walking! Just as the base camp came into my field of vision, a lot of clouds came up and a lot of sand was swirling in the air – let’s see how it develops. Maybe I’ll go as high as I can without a lot of luggage and check the route again 🤔 . PS: In camp one the tent could not be repaired – too cold for the glue

Jost on Everest Winter 2019/20

Broad Peak – Targeting February 20-21

Denis Urubko is working the scheule around the weather. Txikon’s home team including Pintér László gave this update:

Our friend from the Hungarian Weather Service Tamás Allaga is constantly monitoring the weather situation for Broad Peak. We pass the latest forecasts to Denis via Pipi Cardell. It looks like an even better summit window is developing between 20-22nd Feb which made Denis to change his plans. While 17th still has winds up to 50/60 km/h, in the later window winds could drop down to 20-40 km/h at 8000 metres, with low chance of precipitation, but bitter cold (-35 Celsius). He rearranged his porters to come later, on 22nd, so that he can make a summit push on 20th or 21st, whichever looks better as we get closer.

Of course we continue analyzing weather data day by day as we get closer to give the best possible forecast for Denis to be able to make a wise decision.

Although it is still a bit far out in time to tell for sure, but this might just be the summit window he was hoping for… let’s keep our fingers crossed it holds!

 


Winter 2019/20

Everest

K2

Broad Peak

  • Denis Urubko – Base Camp

Batura Sar 

Ama Dablam

  • Zoltán Szlankó, Alex Goldfarb – Summitted

Gasherbrum I/II – Over

  • Simone Moro and Tamara Lunger – Over

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything

 

 

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One thought on “2019/20 Winter Himalaya Climbs: Fighting the Weather

  1. I think something may have been lost in translation Alan. From his spot tracker it would appear Jost has been pinned at camp one since last night after his foray up the ice cliffs to the flank of the west ridge….and has yet to descend from Lho La.

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