An American climber attempting Russia’s Mt. Elbrus, one of the 7 Summits, is missing.\u00a0Steven Beare, a\u00a0police officer, Army veteran and Colorado National Guardsman, lives in Colorado and left for the summit on\u00a0 June 14 alone. \u00a0He was due back June 16, but never checked in. Bad weather forced other teams to turn back that day and\u00a0reported seeing Beare alone climbing toward the summit in close to whiteout conditions.<\/p>\n
An exhaustive search has been underway the past few days including by aircraft with no success.\u00a0It is reported<\/a> today that the formal search has ended. Canadian\u00a0Don Bowie<\/a>, participated in the effort posted this image of GPS coordinates for one day of helicopter flight patterns over Mt. Elbrus plotted on Google Earth:<\/p>\n Nanga Parbat<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile on Nanga Parbat, the Spanish-Argentinian team of Alberto Zerain and Mariano Galvan have been missing since June 24th when their GPS tracker went silent. They were climbing the long and dangerous Mazeno Ridge in alpine style. Helicopters teams search the route with no success. Bad weather has stopped the efforts as of this post.<\/p>\n Desnivle<\/a> reports the details but also notes that in 2012 Rick Allen and Sandy Allan\u00a0who performed the first ascent of the Mazeno Ridge on Nanga Parbat spent 18 days on the route and experienced communication problems. They cover it in this article.<\/a><\/p>\n It looks like K2 Base Camp is full and there will be activity on both of the major routes totalling around 82 climbers.<\/p>\n Minga Gyalje Sherpa<\/a> thru his company Dreamers Destination<\/a>\u00a0reports there are 39 climbers on the\u00a0Abruzzi Route: 18 foreigners, 13 Nepalese, 8 Pakistani and 41 on the\u00a0Sechen Route: 20 foreigners, 3 Nepalese, 9 Pakistani.<\/span><\/p>\n The commercial team run by Russell Brice, Himex<\/a>, arrived at K2 Base Camp yesterday. Brice posted this update:<\/p>\n This morning we had a traditional Sherpa Puja for the 4 Sherpa who are with us with the local High Altitude Porters (HAP) who are the local equivalent also sitting in. One of the very interesting aspects of operating expeditions in these remote countries is the close contact that we have to various religions. It is also very interesting to see just how much respect and understanding there is between these people, a fine example to others. This was followed by a trip to Crampon Point (CP) where our Sherpa & HAP had established a route the day before. This point is marked by one solitary tent for storage of gear. Hopefully tomorrow we will start work on the hill in earnest by starting the rope fixing to C1. However the forecast is not that favorable so we will have to see what happens in the morning tomorrow.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He also noted that he could see their tents at Camp 2, approximately 22,000 feet, using a telescope from base camp. He is hoping that some of their gear can be retrieved.<\/p>\n Last year, an avalanche<\/a>\u00a0on 23 July destroyed tents, buried fixed ropes and swept way the cache of food and oxygen bottles at\u00a0Camp 3 on the Abruzzi. Most climbers were at Camps 1 and 2, several reports said\u00a025 Sherpas\u00a0were on their way to fix ropes to Camp 4 when they found the destruction.<\/p>\n K2 is well known for avalanches and Camp 2 on the Abruzzi is home to shredded tents from the hurricane winds as shown in my photo to the right.<\/p>\n Brice was a bit surprised to see tents still there. He is on the \u010cesen Route aka Basque Route, I \u00a0believe. He added to his update:<\/p>\n However we are very keen to get to C2 where much to my amazement I can still see 4 of our tents standing from 2015. With luck we just might find a considerable amount of equipment that we lost at that time, including oxygen, rope, and cooking equipment which will all save us a considerable number of loads that have to be carried from BC. Also various members have personal equipment and sleeping bags there, but we are dubious as to whether these will be useable or not. Time will tell. But at least members are excited that they might be reunited with some of their own gear.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Swedish climber,\u00a0Fredrik Str\u00e4ng<\/a>, is back on K2 this year. He was on K2 in 2008 when 11 people were killed in a variety of accidents and avalanches. He also played an instrumental role in the documentary film, The Summit<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Elbrus-search-640x356.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"The](\"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ArticleImageHandler.jpg\")
<\/a>K2<\/h3>\n
![\"K2](\"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/k2routes-300x199.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Camp](\"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/IMG_2293-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>