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K2 2018 Summer Coverage: Season Summary

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Jul 292018
 
K2 2018 Summer Coverage: Season Summary

The K2 2018 summer season has come to an end when the Austrian operator Furtenbach Adventures declared the weather window had closed and they spent too much time on Broad Peak thus missing their K2 opportunity. Overall, K2 saw over 60 summits –  a record – by several different teams. As always with K2, there were deaths, two this year. Big Picture K2 continues to play hard with climbers in all seasons. Early in 2018, a well respected Polish team gave their best effort to make the first winter summit but were denied. Blame the weather, or botched logistics or poor continue reading

K2 2018 Summer Coverage: K2 Ski Video, Attempts Come To An End

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Jul 232018
 
K2 2018 Summer Coverage: K2 Ski Video, Attempts Come To An End

Monday, July 23, 2018 saw the few remaining climbers give up as poor weather once again took over K2. Perhaps some will try to stay for another try but it is looking more and more unlikely.  David Roeske, who was climbing with Fredrik Sträng, posted on Instagram from Camp 3 on K2: This morning we woke to high winds and snow, which had been forecast for mid-week, but we were expecting another day or two of good weather in order to squeeze in a summit. With the bad weather arriving and another week of it predicted we turned back. We had rushed continue reading

K2 2018 Summer Coverage: Record Weekend on K2 and a Death

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Jul 232018
 
K2 2018 Summer Coverage: Record Weekend on K2 and a Death

It was a record weekend on K2 with over 60 summits breaking the record of 51 set in 2004. Another record set was by Polish climber and skier Andrzej Bargiel who put together an amazing route to ski directly from the summit of K2 to base camp. Death But the celebrations were quieted on news that 41 year-old Japanese climber, Mr. Kojiro Watanabe died on K2. He had summited along with his five Japanese teammates. It appears he fell during the descent in the Bottleneck, a well-known challenging area. He fell around 8,300-meters about 6:00 pm local time. They had summited continue reading

K2 2018 Summer Coverage: Japanese Death on K2

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Jul 222018
 
K2 2018 Summer Coverage: Japanese Death on K2

Sad news just now from K2 that Mr. Kojiro Watanabe, 41, died on K2. He had summited along with his four Japanese teammates. It appears he fell during the descent in the Bottleneck, a well-known challenging area. He fell around 8,300-meters about 6:00 pm local time. They had summited between noon and 1:00 pm on Sunday, July 22, 2018. The Bottleneck is a narrow couloir, just 400m/1,300-feet below the summit and directly underneath the giant hanging serac. It is estimated at 50 to 60 degree steepness.  Today, many teams bypass the couloir altogether by climbing a rock buttress to the climber’s right continue reading

K2 2018 Summer Coverage: First K2 Ski Descent!

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Jul 222018
 
K2 2018 Summer Coverage: First K2 Ski Descent!

Sunday 22 July 2018 saw another 32 summits on K2 taking the total for 2018 to 63, what I believe is the biggest year ever for the world’s second highest peak. Also, Andrzej Bargiel skied the entire descent taking a quite curious routing down to avoid the highly technical sections like the Black Pyramid and House Chimney on the Abruzzi Spur. Ski descent Andrzej Bargiel is reported to have connected four routes on the descent: Abruzzi Rib, the Česen the Messner variant and the Kukuczka-Piotrowski routes. He skied from the summit to the High Camp at 25,800’/7800m before being forced to wait out continue reading

K2 2018 Summer Coverage: More K2 Summits – Weather moving In

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Jul 212018
 
K2 2018 Summer Coverage: More K2 Summits - Weather moving In

Following a near record day of K2 summits, more teams stood on top of K2 on Sunday July 22nd, 2018. Big weather is forecasted to move in on Tuesday thru Thursday so now is the time to push for the summit of K2. I’ll update this post as new information becomes available over the next 12 hours. Masherbrum Expedition providing some support for Madison noted: “11 members, 9 Sherpas and 2 Pakistani highporters summit K2 on 22 July.” Before leaving, Garrett told me he had,  “… a team of 10 clients, 2 guides plus myself (Geoff Schellens and Robert Smith), 11 continue reading

K2 2018 Summer Coverage: Good Day for K2 Summits, More to Come

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Jul 212018
 
K2 2018 Summer Coverage: Good Day for K2 Summits, More to Come

July 21st 2018 was a good day for K2 climbers. 31 people summited – all from the Nepali company Seven Summits Treks (SST). With 100% success, they had 13 Sherpas, 2 Pakistani High Altitude Porters and 7 clients on the top. The members were from Mongolia, China, Japan, Belgium, Switzerland, Mexico and Ireland. Also three clients and two Sherpas from Summit Climb and two Sherpas from Madison Mountaineering, who were helping with the rope fixing, completed the total of 31. See this post from SST for the names of their summiteers. Of note there were five women climbers who summited including Gangaamaa continue reading

K2 2018 Summer Coverage: K2 Summits Expected over Weekend

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Jul 202018
 
K2 2018 Summer Coverage: K2 Summits Expected over Weekend

As usual, tracking progress on the Pakistani 8000-meter mountains is like herding cats. I think I have an understanding of whats going on, but I can easily be missing something. There is summit activity on K2, Broad Peak, the Gasherbrum I/II/IV and VII plus Nanga Parbat 150 miles to the South. The Big Picture Heavy snow over the past few days have complicated the summit push plans at least on K2. Low clouds, and snow have caused some teams to hold in place at Camps 2 or 3. Meanwhile Sherpas supporting the large commercial teams have been ensconced at Camp continue reading

K2 2018 Summer Coverage: K2 Summit Push Delayed

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Jul 192018
 
K2 2018 Summer Coverage: K2 Summit Push Delayed

Well, it looks like the heavy snow a couple days ago did delay some K2 teams on their summit push with most of the K2 teams have delayed their ascent schedule by one day. It looks like Friday and Saturday will be the big days followed by another push in about a week – if the weather holds. The heavy snow on Wednesday came as a bit of a surprise. K2 – Summits Not on Thursday, but Maybe Friday and Probably Saturday? Dawa Sherpa of Seven Summits Treks (SST) says their plans have changed due to weather: SST team changed the continue reading

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