In a quiet season, with poor weather stalling progress, there is climbing across the Karakorum. While the first summits of this 2026 summer season on Nanga Parbat feel like a long time ago, a few teams have reached several of Pakistan’s five 8,000-meter peaks and are on their summit bids.
What’s different about this season is the lack of huge (50+ clients with 50+ Sherpas) commercial expeditions. Instead, there are a handful of small, even solo professional climbers, many climbing without oxygen or Sherpa support – in other words, low-cost base–camp only services from budget Pakistani and a few Nepali operators. Kind of feels like the good old days, ten to fifteen years ago.
The tourism department said that 31 mountaineering permits and 39 trekking permits have been issued to foreign visitors so far this summer season. Permit issuance will continue until Aug 1, 2026.
Compared to 2025, these are astonishingly low numbers thus far. Pakistani media, including International News, reports that in 2025, the Gilgit-Baltistan Tourism Department processed 469 mountaineering and trekking visa applications in a single day, marking the highest number of such permits processed in 24 hours. According to officials, the department received 555 applications for mountaineering expeditions in 2025, surpassing the previous year’s total of 423.
I could be mistaken, but I’m not aware of any guide companies other than Nepali and Pakistani running commercial expeditions in the Karakorum this summer. For example, Madison Mountaineering, a mainstay since 2014, is on Peak Lenin this summer, not in Pakistan.
K2
As I reported last week, the Karakourm is unusually quiet.This confirmation from the reliable folks at Alpymon
#K2: There are only about 6 expedition teams with about 50 climbers (more guides). The RFT has set above C2 but has not yet reached C3. Most of have rotated to C2 (in K2 or Broad Peak). Without oxygen, that we know Ricardo Segreste and Mattia Conte, autonomous (No O2 no Porter of altitude) Gian Luca Cavalli (who has summited in Nanga Parbat), Donatella Barbera and Sergey Kondrashkin -all with Karakoram Tours Pakistan-, and Juan Pablo Toro They have fixed strings from the ABC to Camp 1 and part of Camp 2 Seven Summit T&T, but most of the part between C1-2 has been done by Glacier Himalaya (with METT).
A few teams have arrived at K2 Base Camp, but some are still on the trek. Nepali operators Seven Summits Treks (SST), 14 Peaks, and 8K Expeditions are climbing K2 again this year. There are multiple Pakistani guides, including Summit Karakorum. Most K2 summits occur at the end of July.
SST notes the fixed line is to C2; while it may feel late, on K2, the final ropes to the summit are fixed on the first summit push in late July, so still two weeks away.
Our fixing team has successfully established Fixed Camp II, and the team is expected to reach Camp III by tomorrow. Another important milestone on the world’s second-highest mountain.
Some teams are just arriving after climbing on Nanga Parbat. From Imagine Nepal on July 16, 2026:
Arrived safely yesterday, and today our Sherpa team ascended to Camps 1 and 2 to fix ropes en route to Camp 3. Tomorrow, the final section of the route to Camp 3 is scheduled for completion, after which we will be fully prepared to launch our summit push during the upcoming weather window.
Remember that communication in Pakistan is drastically different from that in Nepal. Cell phone signals are unreliable, so many teams bring expensive satellite connection devices, even though they can sometimes be wonky. Also, since the Northern Territories are adjacent to the disputed area of Kashmir between India and Pakistan, the military will sometimes limit communications. The bottom line is that we cannot expect the same type of coverage we can for the Nepal mountains.
And the Other 8000ers
While K2 gets disproportionate attention, the other four deserve equal coverage. The Nepali outfit Seven Summits Treks, aka SST, has commercialized all fourteen of the 8000ers and usually handles the route-finding and rope-fixing.
Gasherbrum I/II – Climbing
SST has set up base camp. It’s an international environment with climbers from Spain, Austria, France and Italy. SST reports:
The teams are taking advantage of the current stable weather window expected until the 21st. They are preparing to push for G2 first, followed by G1. In collaboration with the 14 Peaks Expedition team, our route-fixing team has successfully established Camp II on Gasherbrum I and is progressing toward Camp III. On Gasherbrum II, Camp III has already been fixed, excellent progress on both peaks.
On GII Romanian, Horia Colibasanu of Romania, aiming for July 18 to summit. Other climbers there include Uxue Murolas and Ignacio Barrio, who are a blout a day behind. Also climbing on GI is Brazilian Roman Romancini.
Broad Peak – Ready for Summit Push
Karakorum Expeditions provided this update on July 14:
After a long wait, it’s time to move on the mountain, our team on Broad peak is planning to start summit push from tomorrow, 15th July, the team aims to attempt summit on the 18th of July, If all goes well, the team aims a direct variation to rocky summit, skipping V and the ridge!
Klein Dávid and his American climbing partner, Ian Overton, after a joint breakfast and participation in the entire camp’s puja ceremony at dawn, set off from the Broad Peak camp at 03:20. Since then, they have successfully reached the second camp, where they spend the night. According to the current plan, they will head to the three camps tomorrow, from which they can start their summit climb. If everything goes well, they will reach the 8051-meter summit of Broad Peak on July 18.
Nanga Parbat -Season Over
Nanga is more western and southern than Pakistan’s four other 8000ers. It’s in the Himalaya Range, whereas the other Pakistani giants lie in the Karakoram Range. NP usually sees the first summit each year.
Making mountaineering history after climbing Everest alone and descending on skis, then Lhotse in May, Polish skier Andrzej Bargiel made history again on June 30, 2026, by skiing from the summit of Pakistan’s Nanga Parbat to base camp without supplemental oxygen.
He was a fast follower of the rope-fixing team that opened the peak for commercial climbing. The rope-fixing team from Seven Summits Treks included Mingtemba Sherpa (“Mote”), Pasang Dukpa Sherpa, Dawa Rinji Sherpa, Pasang Nurbu Sherpa (“Makpa”), and Pasang Nurbu Sherpa.
The publication Dawn, reports summits on Nanga Parbat:
The Seven Summit Treks expedition team comprised Tao Hu (China), Antonina Samoilova (Ukraine), Mindaugas Satkauskas (Lithuania), Dawa Sherpa, Dendi Sherpa, Lakpa Temba Sherpa (Nepal), and Abbas Ali Mehdi (Pakistan).
Also summiting and finishing his quest for all 14 of the 8000ers was Imagine Nepal’s Kili Pemba Sherpa, who summited on July 3, 2026, along with Lakpa Chhiri Sherpa and Chinese climber Wang Zhong.
8K Expeditions got six on the summit – 3 Japanese with 3 Sherpas: Naoko Watanabe, Keizo Konishi, Saori Eragaki, Pechhumbe Sherpa, Pasdawa Sherpa and Mingma Dorchee Sherpa. Of note, Naoko Watanabe is the first Japanese woman to complete all fourteen 8,000-meter peaks and the first woman in history to summit K2 three times.
Peak Lenin
Lenin is becoming more popular as an alternative to Aconcagua for climbers seeking experience at 7,000 meters (5,642 meters, 18,510 ft). Mount Elbrus, 7,134 meters/23,405 feet. Located in the Pamir Mountains near Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Adventure Consultants and Madison Mountaineering are both running commercial trips this season.
Deaths
There have been two new deaths on Switzerland’s side of the Matterhorn. As reported;
The rope team was killed while descending via the Hörnligrat on Sunday for reasons that remained unknown. The accident occurred at around 11 am at an altitude of approximately 4,030 meters, as the Valais Cantonal Public Prosecutor’s Office announced on Monday. The two mountaineers were on their way down at the time. A third person alerted the emergency services. An Air Zermatt helicopter flew to the scene of the accident, but on arrival, the emergency services could only confirm the deaths of the two victims.
There have been two other mountaineering deaths this summer. On the 7,282-meter/23,891-feet Pakistan K6, French ski mountaineer Guillaume Pierrel died in an avalanche. And on Russia’s 5,642-meter (18,510 ft) Mount Elbrus, a 34-year-old climber from St. Petersburg died suddenly on July 6 while ascending.
Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything
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A surge of debilitating fatigue overtook me. My shoulders drooped. I stared at my yellow boots, crushed by disappointment. I had trained hard for K2 and tried to anticipate every scenario, but now I was failing, and there was nothing I could do.
Closing my eyes, I was powerless, hopeless, and ready to surrender to the mountain. Everything I wanted—the summit, a safe return, my vow to my mother—was slipping away.
My ice axe fell onto the snow.
Staring at the small yellowish spot illuminated by my headlamp on the snow, it was over, and, oddly, I didn’t care.
It was 12:30 a.m. on July 27, 2014—my fifty-eighth birthday.
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