Year: 2021

Scattered reports are coming in of serious trouble and death from Sunday’s summits on Broad Peak as the peaks are now being hit by bad weather.

There were summits on Broad Peak and Gasherbrum II on Sunday, July 19, 2021. Meanwhile, a big weather event is forecasted to being on Monday, July 19 which should force everyone to stay in their base camp for a while.

Karakorum Big Picture – Tennanicity

Huge props to the summiters on Broad Peak and GII in what has been described as difficult conditions with deep snow. They made one attempt and turned back with chest-deep snow but returned and bagged the top. Well done by all. This is especially meaningful with a big storm moving in on Monday. It’s reported all are back at lower or even base camp now.

Don Bowie paints an unsettling picture on Broad Peak where the summit push was abandoned. It’s unclear on their next step. With weather moving in, most teams will retreat to the safety of their base camps.

Climbing continues on both K2, Broad Peak, and Gasherbrum II. Teams hope to catch this narrow weather window for Broad Peak and GII but later in the month for K2. Heavy snow has been reported across the Karakorum. I remain concerned for avalanche danger on all peaks, all routes. Summits are anticipated this weekend.

Garrett Madison, founder of Madison Mountaineering is one of the few people on the planet to have summited K2 twice. He’s hoping to get his third this 2021 summer. This is his sixth expedition to K2 making him the most experienced western operator to run regular trips to the Northern Terrorities of Pakistan.

With the new 4G Cell tower in Concordia, Garret took the hour walk from K2 Base Camp to Broad Peak Base Camp to talk with me over Zoom about his expedition. We discussed their rotations to Camp 1 and 2, the snow conditions on the mountain, what happens when he finds bodies on the mountain, and more. I think you’ll enjoy getting this first-hand information directly from Northern Pakistan.

A big snowstorm has stalled climbing on K2 and Broad Peak. Meanwhile, the Nanga effort has ended. Some climbers are biding their time at C2 on K2 in difficult conditions. A quick look at today’s news.

We had the first 8000er summit over the weekend plus the K2 West Ridge duo are making excellent progress. The route is fixed to C3 on K2’s Abruzzi route. I anticipateK2  summits starting soon. Very early so the weather may still play a few tricks.

The poor weather in the Karakorum that slowed climbing has eased a bit and teams are now working on their acclimatization rotations in earnest. The new 4G cell tower recently installed in Concordia is down preventing a lot of information from K2, Broad Peak, and the Gashbrums.

K2 is crowded but not as bad in the past few years. Garrett Madison of Madison Mountaineering texted me that “Not very crowded yet. I counted about 80 climbers total for K2, including all Pakistani as well.”

Poor weather in the Karakorum has slowed climbing as the base camps continue to fill up with new teams. However, progress continues with the fixed ropes reaching low camps on several of the 8000ers and some climbers have spent multiple nights there already. That said, not a lot of new news this past week.

Manzoor Ahmad of Adventure Tours Pakistan who has a team on K2 and BP this season tells me of the exact numbers of permits issued in the Karakorum this summer with 75 support climbers for 128 foreigners. Note that many of the BP climbers are also on K2 so there are duplicates thus the total is less than 203, probably around 185.

Teams have arrived at K2 Base Camp and climbing has already begun with the fixed ropes to C1 on K2’s Abruzzi route and climbers at C1 on GI and reached C2 on Broad Peak.

Manzoor Ahmad of Adventure Tours Pakistan who has a team on K2 and BP this season tells me of the exact numbers of permits issued in the Karakorum this summer with 75 support climbers for 128 foreigners. Note that many of the BP climbers are also on K2 so there are duplicates thus the total is less than 203, probably around 185.