The adventure and mainstream press are all over this winter K2 attempt with sensational headlines, for example, the trivial rockfall yesterday. Yes, a rock or two hit climbers, but nothing serious as the climbers themselves confirmed, but it did generate press coverage. That said, it won’t surprise me if we see a serious rockfall incident before the season is over.<\/p>\n
So be a bit careful what you read (or take away from the headlines). Progress is being made, it looks good. I put the summit odds at 9 in 10 or 90%. I think it’ll be done, including at least one without supplemental oxygen. The climbers are strong, motivated, and determined.<\/p>\n
The computer forecasts have Saturday a perfect day for a summit, winds 5 to 10mph and wind chills “only” -50F!!! Big winds return next week, so the time may be right for the ten people at Camp 3. Working together, the ten consisted of\u00a0Nim: five (including Nim’s),\u00a0<\/span>Mingma G: three (including Mingma G), a<\/span>nd <\/span>Seven Summit Treks: two<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n I’m starting to see some of the non-Nepalis say they are rethinking their commitment, especially after the rockfall yesterday … and that rockfall was perfectly normal for K2, summer, or winter.<\/p>\n These are the teams on K2 this winter:<\/p>\n Nirmal Purja’s<\/a>\u00a0plus four teammates are at C3:<\/p>\n The last 48hrs + have been a gruelling one, as we had to repeat the heavy load carry in preparation to progress further. Each team member\u2019s [load] weighed more than 35kg. Really pleased with the team\u2019s progress so far and super proud. Today our camp site is at 7400m. We managed to fix the lines upto 7900m. [ed:later revised to 7600]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It’s still unknown if Nirmal Purja is climbing with or without supplemental oxygen. Nirmal Purja teams consist of Mingma David, Dawa Temba Sherpa, Pemchhiri Sherpa, Gelje Sherpa, Mingma Tenzi Sherpa, and Sandro Gromen-Hayes.<\/p>\n Mingma Gyalje Sherpa<\/a>\u00a0and his two teammates are also at Camp 3.<\/p>\n John Snorri Sigurjonsson<\/a> with Muhammad Ali Sadpara<\/a> and his son Sajid Ali are at Camp 2. John posted these updatee:<\/p>\n We just arrived to C2. Lot of rocks collapsing down towards us on 100 km speed, dangerous moments we had there. We are tired and will stay here overnight. The plan is to stay 2 nights here then go to C3 on the 15th. The weather will be bad here in C2 tomorrow so hopefully we can get through that day. All our gear is fine, the only thing that is missing is 1 oxygen bottle, we will recover that in BC. The other teams that are here is Mingma in C2 and Nirmal Purja on his way to C3.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So the team is climbing in mixed conditions experiencing high winds and random rockfall. Sounds like K2! You can follow on their tracker<\/a>.<\/p>\n Seven Summits Trek’s<\/a> commercial team of 22 clients and 21 Sherpas in support has climbers from Base Camp to Camp 2 with their rope team at Camp 3. Dawa gave this update:<\/p>\n This afternoon the SST Sherpas, along with the team of Nirmal Purja Purji, set up a third high-altitude camp.\u00a0Today we will stay overnight in this camp and tomorrow we will go to the fourth camp.\u00a0Other members of the SST expedition ascend to the second camp.\u00a0Today Mingma Sherpa’s team will join us in the third camp.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Others are fighting the winds and destroyed camps as Atanas Georgiev Skatov<\/a>\u00a0tells us:<\/p>\n I arrived at Camp 2. Despite the cold and fatigue, I am fine. Unfortunately, the tent that was left in Japanese Camp 1 was destroyed by the strong wind, but the situation was brought under control. Thank you for the good wishes and the support you give me,<\/span>\u00a0means a lot to me!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sergi Mingote,\u00a0<\/span>Juan Pablo Mohr, Tamara Lunger, and Alex Gavan are all reported at traditional Camp 2 above House’s Chimney.<\/span><\/p>\n Zolt\u00e1n Szlank\u00f3<\/a> and Alex Goldfarb<\/a> are now at base camp but there are no recent updates.<\/p>\n Simone Moro<\/a>, Alex Txikon<\/a>, and I\u00f1aki Alvarez arrived at Manaslu Base Camp:<\/p>\n We are already at BC! We’re ok, acclimating to the altitude and gradually building what will be “our home” for the next few weeks. Very good feelings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Tenji Sherpa<\/a> and Vinayak Jaya Malla<\/a>, both Nepali internationally certified mountain guides (IFMGA) are at Manaslu Base Camp ready to move higher.<\/p>\n Climb On! Resources<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Climbers are all over K2 pushing to get rotations in, but Saturday looks to be a perfect summit day! Teams have now established Camp 3, and the ropes are to 725,080’\/7600m, a serious sign of progress. Saturday’s weather is perfect for a summit!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":28642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Climbers are all over K2 pushing to get rotations in, but Saturday looks to be a perfect summit day! Teams have now established Camp 3, and the ropes are at 7900m.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[7,422,562,597],"tags":[42,598,487,602],"class_list":["post-37906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climbing-news","category-k2","category-k2-2020-coverage","category-k2-winter","tag-k2","tag-k2-winter","tag-mingma-gyalje-sherpa","tag-Nimral-purja"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/K2-from-Concordia-2014-by-Alan-Arnette.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\nNim’s – At C3 with Mingma G and SST Rope Team<\/h3>\n
Mingma G – At C3 with Nirmal Purja and Rope Team<\/h3>\n
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Snorri – C2<\/h3>\n
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Seven Summits Treks – Ropes and Winds High<\/h3>\n
Broad Peak – At Base Camp – Quiet<\/h2>\n
Manaslu – At Base Camp<\/h2>\n
\nAlan
\nMemories are Everything<\/p>\n\n
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