Winter K2 Update: Windy

It’s windy out there! Winds at K2 Base Camp are gusting to over 60 mph, but should calm soon and next week looks amazingly good!

Big Picture

Not a lot to report given the winds on Friday were unbelievably strong. It appears lots of people are taking the time to evaluate their next steps. Most of the best and most experienced climbers are announcing they will stay and give the summit a go when the weather allows, perhaps in a week or so. Would be nice to see more summits in February to ward off any winter definition controversy.

Snorri – Helping with Recovery

John Snorri Sigurjonsson with Muhammad Ali Sadpara and his son Sajid Ali have signaled they will stay as long as it takes. A film crew arrived to document their attempt. John sent me these photos from K2 Base Camp today:

Seven Summits Treks – Climbing will continue with good weather

Seven Summits Trek’s has their team at base camp. By my count there are 18 members and about 20 Sherpas still left. With the death of Sergi Mingote, one of his climbing partners, Tamara Lunger (probably the most experienced member for winter 8000ers), is working through her emotions and will stay:

Desnivel has a good interview with the late Sergi Mingote’s teammate Chilean climber Juan Pablo Mohr where he describe Sergi’s fall (he was in front of him and just saw him go by. He was not clipped into the fixed rope) and his plan with Tamara Lunger:

Now the plans is to go to make a summit attempt in the next window. We will team up with Tamara Lunger. We want to do this summit for Sergi. We are motivated, we sleep at 7,000 meters with Sergi and we are well acclimatized. We go with everything and we are going to try it for him. We are now lucky to have this angel accompanying us on the ascent.

Both Tamara and JP will climb without supplemental oxygen.

Manaslu – Back to Base Camp

Simone Moro, Alex Txikon, and Iñaki Alvarez are back to Manaslu Base Camp after going down to the nearest village to wait out high winds. Tenji Sherpa and Vinayak Jaya Malla are at Manaslu Base Camp ready to move higher. Alex Txikon posted:

Another day at BC. Working with great enthusiasm, preparing everything in order to go up as soon as conditions allow (let’s see if the wind drops …)

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything

Resources:

• Share your opinion on the reader polls
• A 30-minute documentary of Alan’s 2014 K2 Summit
• Known GPS Trackers:
  • Atanas Skatov
  • John Snorri Sigurjonsson
  • Juan Pablo Mohr Prieto
  • Magdalena Gorzkowska
• The traditional K2 Camp locations are:
  • • Base Camp: 17,500ft/5334m
    • Advanced Base Camp: 18,650ft/5650m
    • Camp 1: 19,965’/6050m
    • Camp 2: 22,110’/6700m
    • Camp 3: 23,760’/7200m
    • Camp 4: 25,080’/7600m
    • Summit: 28,251”/8611