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The summer of 2015 will go down as one of the more difficult seasons in the Northern Pakistan Karakoram climbing season. There have been deaths, illness courageous summit attempts, questionable summit claims and impressive summits. However, casting a huge cloud over everything was disturbing weather that made climbing virtually impossible for many. Broad Peak: At Your Own Risk The entire season started on an ominous note when Pakistani High Altitude Porter (HAP),Qamber Ali Jangjupa, was killed from an avalanche on the low slopes of Broad Peak, just below Camp 1. Yesterday, a determined team from Himalayan Experience gave it their on Broad Peak trying not once, but continue reading

Finally we have more summits in this difficult summer 2015 season. Teams topped out on the Gasherbrums. A large number of climbers are currently going for the summit of Broad Peak. The strong K2 attempt was ended by deep snow and strong winds. Meanwhile K2 has injured one of the Sherpas with Madison Mountaineering. The weather is playing a strong hand this year in Northern Pakistan. It has been the small, look experienced independent teams willing to take big risks during small breaks in the weather who have summited. The large commercial teams have worked hard to fix routes on continue reading

Looking at an extremely short weather window, climbers on all four the Northern Pakistan 8000m peaks are climbing today. Heavy weather is predicted to begin around July 26 and some speculate it will take over a week for conditions to be suitable for another summit push. This delay has caused multiple teams to abandon their expeditions due to commitments back home. K2 Let’s start off with an excellent post by Irish climber Jason Black who, in spite of the poor weather forecast will start up K2’s Abruzzi route July 24th: 23rd July 2015 and bad weather halts progress on the continue reading

Attributed to heavy overnight snow and warmer than normal temperatures, an avalanche below Camp 1 on Broad Peak has injured several climbers and taken one Pakistani High Altitude Porter (HAP) life. Progress on K2 and the other Karakorum peaks has been stopped for now waiting for the snow to settle and the weather to calm. Chris Burke has posted a complete update as she is climbing Broad Peak and was at Broad Peak Base Camp when the avalanche occurred. She noted that other climbers rushed to aid the victims and pulled one person out from the debris. While the rescues continue reading

In spite of a bit of conflict on the mountain, everything appears to be in good order in the Karakorum. Summits are expected any day now on the Gasherbrums, a bit later on Broad Peak and next week on K2. Vanessa O’brien, climbing with Madison Mountaineering, reports she and the team are at Camp 2, suggesting they have successfully climbed Houses Chimney at 20,000 feet. For some this could be their high point because the climbing gets significantly harder from here on up. Garrett’s team will take a short hike above C2 then return to K2 Base Camp over the continue reading