{"id":21883,"date":"2016-01-29T15:27:55","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T22:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=21883"},"modified":"2016-03-29T06:02:55","modified_gmt":"2016-03-29T12:02:55","slug":"nanga-parbat-plays-hard-with-winter-attempts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/29\/nanga-parbat-plays-hard-with-winter-attempts\/","title":{"rendered":"Nanga Parbat Plays Hard with winter Attempts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nanga<\/a>As expected this winter, \u00a0Nanga Parbat the world’s ninth highest at 8, 126 meters or 26,660 feet, has stopped some of the climbers in the world. \u00a0In spite of plans to climb in “alpine style” and acclimatizing on other mountains as far away as South America, the “Naked Mountain’s” brutal winter conditions have\u00a0played havoc with the five teams who braved the odds.<\/p>\n

Currently, there are only a few climbers at base camp waiting for the next weather window that is estimated to begin around February 4th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Only two of the fourteen 8000 meter mountains have not seen climbers top out in the winter: K2 and\u00a0Nanga Parbat, both in Northern Pakistan. But this winter of 2015\/2016 there are\u00a0six\u00a0attempts on Nanga Parbat.\u00a0K2 had no takers this winter season after thwarting all attempts during the normal summer season last year.<\/p>\n

Nanga Parbat<\/h3>\n

Five\u00a0teams have attempted a winter ascent with plans from\u00a0the\u00a0Diamir side and one\u00a0from the Rupal\u00a0side. And to many people’s surprise,\u00a0a late arriving team has just made an appearance hoping to leverage the hard work put in by others.\u00a0This is the big picture:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nStatus<\/strong><\/td>\nHigh Point<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nanga\u00a0Revolution<\/td>\nover<\/td>\n5800m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
International Team<\/td>\nBC<\/td>\n6700m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
North Face<\/td>\nBC<\/td>\n\u00a05800m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Rubber Duck<\/td>\nover<\/td>\n7500m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nanga Dream<\/td>\nover?<\/td>\n\u00a07300m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cleo Weidlick<\/td>\nBC<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nanga Revolution\u00a0–\u00a0Kinshofer Route\/Diamer Face\/Alpine Style<\/b><\/p>\n

Their plan was to climb in alpine\u00a0style, but after a huge effort and a hand\u00a0injury to Adam Bielecki, he and Jacek Czech ended their attempt and have left base camp. \u00a0They had\u00a0reached 5800\u00a0meters. Bielecki had\u00a0an 80 foot fall where he had the injury. They first\u00a0acclimatized on Ojos del Salado, 6893m, in the Andes.<\/p>\n

International\u00a0Team – Kinshofer Route\/Diamer Face\/Seige Style<\/strong><\/p>\n

Janusz Golab, Alex Txikon, Ali Sadpara and Daniel Nardi have made great progress fixing the route to around 6700 meters to establish their Camp 3. \u00a0They are climbing traditional seige\u00a0style using\u00a0fixed ropes but not using supplemental\u00a0oxygen. They are climbing what is considered the normal route on Nanga.<\/p>\n

Alex Txikon has been posting spectacular pictures and updates on his Facebook<\/a> account and blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Nanga<\/a>
Nanga Parbat (courtesy of Alex Txikon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The latest update had them waiting for better weather:<\/p>\n

Twelve days of hard work in mountain, three nights in C1 (4.800m), other four nights on the small and unconfortable platform in C2 (6.100m) and more than 2.500 meters of rope (almos 200 kilos) carried up and fixed along the route, up to its C3 (6.700m).<\/p>\n

Twenty five days are gone since we arrived in this Base Camp; it was 31th December, and during this time the team leaded by Alex Txikon has been able to equip the hardest and most technical parts of this Kinshofer Route in winter Nanga Parbat (8.126m) up to its C3 (6.700m): the 900 icy meters of the stip couloir that goes from 5.100m to the base of the Kinshofer Wall; this rocky bastion that seems to be a kind of door for C2 (6.100m); and the seven pitches on blue ice (about 25\u201330 meters) that go from 6.500m to 6.700m between C2 (6.100m) and C3 (6.700m).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The North Face team – Messner Route\/Diamer Face\/Alpine Style<\/strong><\/p>\n

Italian\u00a0Simone Moro with\u00a015 winter expeditions under his belt was attempting the Messner Route with teammate Tamara Lunger. They had planned on\u00a0acclimatizing on Spantik, 7027m, in\u00a0Pakistan\u00a0before\u00a0heading to NB.<\/p>\n

Moro had previously said he would\u00a0not post any updates during his expedition\u00a0so as to keep his plans and location\u00a0from the other teams as there\u00a0is global publicity\u00a0for the first person, and their\u00a0sponsor, to claim the first winter ascent. However, he recently announced they were abandoning\u00a0their original\u00a0plans due to dangerous serac and crevasse conditions on the Messner Route and will join forces the International team. They had reached 5800 meters on the Messner Route.<\/p>\n

Lunger posted\u00a0on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

For us I think this day was very important, because Simone and I have agreed with the team of Alex Txicon to switch now into the Kinshofer route. For me Messner\/Eisendle was a real adventure, but thanks to the information from Tomek and Elisabeth about the state of the seracs, which is at any moment ready to collapse and in addition the bigger and bigger crag, we decided to unite the forces in the Kinshofer route. I feel sorry, because the team of Txicon has already done almost all the fixing work and we had not the possibility to participate in it, but what I notice here, is that it never exist a competition here, but that our two teams are grown together in this period and share friendship. Igone, Alex, Daniele and Ali are creating every day a smile in my face. I think it’s good and I’m really proud that we 5 “survivors” understand us and match so well. I think together we can help and motivate better and maybe we are able to do a big thing!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Moro posted on Facebook<\/a> “Competition is in the mind of those who are not here. Ambition and competiton are not the same things. :-)\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b”<\/p>\n

Rubber Duck Team – Messner Route\/Diamer Face\/Alpine Style<\/strong><\/p>\n

After reaching 7500 meters, Elisabeth Revol (France), Tomek Mackiewicz (Poland) and Arslan Ahmed Ansari (Pakistan)\u00a0have ended their attempt. They had established their high camp and had the summit route scouted. The evening of their summit attempt, the temperature dropped to -50C and the winds were forecasted to pick up over the day or so. In the end,\u00a0Mackiewicz is quoted<\/a> as saying “there was no chance.” They had spent\u00a010 days above base camp at that point.\u00a0Mackiewicz has a long relationship with Nanga with attempts each winter over the past six years.<\/p>\n

Nanga Dream, Justice for All – Schell\u00a0Route\/Rupal Side\/Seige Style<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0largest\u00a0team on the\u00a0mountain\u00a0this\u00a0season is said to have\u00a0ended their attempt after reaching 7300 meters but there has been no\u00a0communication from them in the past week. They had nine members (seven from Poland, two\u00a0Pakistani) in a traditional style\u00a0with\u00a0fixed\u00a0ropes\u00a0and camps. \u00a0The Schell Route is one of the longest on Nanga and climbers\u00a0usually plan on at least\u00a0one bivy during\u00a0their summit push. They were\u00a0to have\u00a0\u00a0acclimatized on\u00a0Rakaposhi, 7788m, in Pakistan.<\/p>\n

This is a video from last post on their site<\/a>:<\/p>\n