{"id":37967,"date":"2021-01-15T22:14:37","date_gmt":"2021-01-16T05:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=37967"},"modified":"2022-06-15T16:53:36","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T22:53:36","slug":"winter-k2-summit-update-2-tracking-the-historic-summit-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/15\/winter-k2-summit-update-2-tracking-the-historic-summit-push\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter K2 Summit Update #2: Tracking the Historic Summit Push"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winter K2 Summit Overview:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The historic winter summit of K2 is underway on Saturday, January 16, 2021, by an all Nepali team. K2 is the last of the fourteen 8,000-meter peaks not summited in winter.<\/p>\n

The plan was to leave high camp around 1:00 am Saturday morning and summit about 12 hours later. Of course, a lot depends on snow and wind conditions. It will be cold, with wind chills hovering around -55C\/-67F. They will be setting the fixed rope as they climb, so later teams will probably move faster. Remember that Migma G is climbing without supplemental oxygen. He could be the first to summit K2 in the winter with no Os.<\/p>\n

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Summit Push Update #2, 13:00<\/strong>: (all times local K2)<\/h3>\n

Dawa from SST notes: “Team crossing bottle neck in Mt. K2.” If they left at 1:00am, this is extremely slow but they are fixing rope and have a climber without Os.\u00a0Current wind on K2’s summit from windy.com. Amazing.<\/p>\n

There is always a time lag in these ascents. I assume they will cross the Traverse quickly and summit in the afternoon, which, unlike Everest, is not a problem.<\/p>\n

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\"K2<\/a>
K2 Traverse 2014 \u00a9 www.alanarnette.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Summit Push Update #1, 13:00<\/strong>: Climbers should have (seeking confirmation) left High Camp and are climbing towards the Bottleneck, which is notorious for rockfall. They are climbing in the dark under clear skies, temps around -40C with a windchill at -50C. It should take several hours to reach the traverse, which is the most time-consuming part of route fixing. It can take several hours.<\/p>\n

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\"Ice<\/a>
Ice Serac from K2 C4 2014 \u00a9 www.alanarnette.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"Approaching<\/a>
Approaching the Bottleneck Above K2 C4 2014 \u00a9 www.alanarnette.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Background<\/h3>\n

With the fixed ropes set to 7800-meters, the summit team left Camp 4 near 25,080’\/7600m for the summit at 1:00 am Saturday. \u00a0The team of ten includes:<\/p>\n