Winter K2 Update: Medical Evacuation, Climbers Start Summit Push

K2 Climbers 2014. © www.alanarnette.com

The few climbers who have made it high on K2 have started their summit push, late Thursday night K2 time. Another medical evacuation from K2 Base Camp, this makes three this season. Climbers are nearing the summit as the winds return on Saturday. 20+ people still on the summit push, more than a usual summer season – the power of commercialization.


Latest Status: 23:00 pm K2 Time

Reports from the mountain have trouble at Camp 3 – too many people, too few tents. C3 is a small spot, similar to Camp 1. But reports have Bernhard Lippert and Tomasz Rotar with their Sherpas (sorry, names not known), leaving C3 for their summit bid. Tamara Lunger was reported to have abandoned her climb but the latest is she is back with Juan Pablo Mohr Prieto at C3, status unclear.

Camp 3 on K2 in 2014. ©www.alanarnette.com
Camp 3 on K2 in 2014. ©www.alanarnette.com

The GPS trackers show a lot of random movement above C3. The section between C3 and traditional C4 had a large crevasse that caused the K2-Ten to search for a bypass, so maybe this is what is happening with the summit teams now.  I expect only a handful of summits, if any during this effort. Here’s the K2 summit schedule for the SST team: (all dates and times K2 time)

  • Tuesday, 2 Feb: BC – C1 (winds over 20 mph)
  • Wednesday, 3 Feb: C1 – C3 (winds drop under 20 mph morning)
  • Thursday, 4 Feb: C3 – Begin Summit Push before midnight (winds under 20 mph)
  • Friday, 5 Feb: Summit – C2 (winds under 20 mph)
  • Saturday, 6 Feb: C2 – BC (wind increase over 20 mph by noon)

This is the latest wind forecast from windy.com (red is bad, green is good):

Weather through this weekend. Courtesy of Windy.com
Weather through this weekend. Courtesy of Windy.com

Remember, while impressive to reach Camp 3, it is still a huge effort to reach the summit, and the window is closing. Climbers need to push very hard to summit at this point. There is no C4 this winter season.

K2 Abruzzi Route Map
K2 Abruzzi Route Map

We have solid reports of these people on the summit push. All should be at C3 as of late Thursday night, K2 time.

No O’s

  1. Juan Pablo Mohr Prieto
  2. Tamara Lunger

With O’s

  1. Noel Hanna
  2. Bernhard Lippert
  3. Tomasz Rotar
  4. Colin O’Brady
  5. Atanas Georgiev Skatov
  6. Antonios Sykaris
  7. Bernhard Lippert
  8. Tomasz Rota

Iceland/Pakistan Team: (oxygen use unclear)

  1. John Snorri Sigurjonsson
  2. Muhammad Ali Sadpara
  3. Sajid Ali Sadpara

Sherpas

  1. Lhakpa Temba Sherpa
  2. Mingma Temba Sherpa
  3. Lakpa Dendi Sherpa
  4. Phurbu Kusang Sherpa
  5. Lakpa Nurb Sherpa
  6. Pasang Dukpa Sherpa
  7. Pastemba Sherpa
  8. Temba Bhote Sherpa

Snorri & Team – At C2, Targeting Friday, February 5th for Summit, Hit by Rock

John Snorri Sigurjonsson with Muhammad Ali Sadpara and Muhammad’s 20-year-old son Sajid Ali at at C3 at 6500m aiming for a Friday summit. His tracker shows him at 7,400 meters which is between C3 and C4 as of Thursday night.

Seven Summits Treks – At C1, 18 or more from SST on the Mountain. Lunger Ends

Seven Summits Trek’s summit push is in full bloom. However, not everyone is doing well. Several members have returned to Base Camp and one, Polish female climber, Magdalena Gorzkowska suffered stomach pain and began vomiting at C1 and was helicoptered to Skardu. She was climbing with no supplemental oxygen and limited previous acclimatization. Also, the extremely experienced climber, Tamara Lunger ended her bid after reaching C3. She was suffering from GI issues at Base Camp before her summit bid. It seems that stomach issues are rampat with the ST team

By my count, there are 18 people from SST on this summit push, leaving six or so members hoping for another window or not trying at all. Juan Pablo Mohr’s tracker show him at 7300-meters which is just above C3.


Manaslu: One Team Quits, Other Looks to the Summit

Simone Moro, Alex Txikon, and Iñaki Alvarez have found a route around the giant crevasse and are making good progress fixing the route and have begun thinking about the summit. Tenji Sherpa and Vinayak Jaya Malla have abandoned their effort:

“…the team is walking off the mountain safely ascertaining that alpine style, no fixed ropes, fast and light on Manaslu is not possible this season.”

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything

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2 thoughts on “Winter K2 Update: Medical Evacuation, Climbers Start Summit Push

  1. Hi Alan,
    I think that the GPS trackers random movement above C3 are from wrong readings, not from real climbers movements, at the moment all trackers still without significant movements up, looks like the Summit push is deleted from some reason.

    Magdalena was the 4th person evacuated from BC after Waldemar, Unnamed Sharpa and Carlos.
    As well Sergi body was airlifted to Skardu what makes 5 flights for emergency reasons.
    Just wondering if that will have big impact on insurance costs for K2/Broad Peak in the future.

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