{"id":45334,"date":"2024-07-19T16:45:10","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T22:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=45334"},"modified":"2024-07-19T16:58:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T22:58:58","slug":"k2-2024-coverage-weather-delays-increased-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/19\/k2-2024-coverage-weather-delays-increased-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"K2 2024 Coverage: Weather Delays, Increased Risks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bad weather is damping activity in Pakistan, but for some, it’s the worst case with limited access to the Internet! Climbing team updates are sparse. Most are doing the time-honored Base Camp Wait, while others demonstrate the classic “summit fever” mistake by going on their summit push in marginal weather.<\/p>\n

As each day passes, teams get more anxious that K2 will reject any climbers trying to summit. As usual, the weather is the culprit. This is not unusual, as experienced K2 aspirants know. If they make it, count their fortunes.<\/p>\n

K2 has always been tough, which is one reason so few have traditionally attempted it. From 1986 to 2020, there were 13 years with no summits. 2012, 2014, 2018, 2019, and 2021 each saw about 30 \u2013 62 people summiting before 2022, came in with over 200 summits smashing all the records. Last year was a bit calmer, with around 112 summits.<\/p>\n

The key to the growth in recent years is Nepali guide companies are using the same formula they have used to commercialize all the 8000-meter mountains: overpowering Sherpa support to fix the routes, generous levels of supplemental oxygen, massive Sherpa support for each climber\u2013sometimes as much as three to one\u2013and luxurious base camps for well-heeled clients. No, this is not your father’s K2.<\/p>\n

K2<\/h3>\n

Garrett Madison<\/a> is running several climbs this summer\u2013an unclimbed peak, Broad Peak, and K2\u2014and tells me, “Greetings from K2 base camp! We\u2019re getting ready to begin our summit rotation soon. There is not much WiFi this season, even with Thuraya modems.” Note that this has been an issue all season and is unrelated to the July 19 CloudStrike outage.<\/p>\n

\"Downclimbing
Downclimbing below the K2 infamous ice serac<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

French alpinist, Benjamin Ve\u0301drines<\/a>, \u00a0gave a nice update on his K2 plans:<\/p>\n

Doubts are in my head, I feel I have less and less chances to at least try a record on the K2. Weather in Karakoram is really bad this summer, locals said it\u2019s been a while the weather hasn\u2019t been so unstable with snowfalls and a lot of wind in altitude. Time is flying\u2026more than one month we left from France. Everyday we postpone departures to go up in the mountain to finish this acclimatization. Yesterday again, we had to turn back at the camp 2 because of bad weather. That\u2019s the game of 8000m peaks\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to accept doubt and accept maybe I\u2019ll never try this record. I can anticipate the failure but I can also be optimistic and have some hope. It\u2019s a way to be aware with what is happening, to be patient in a better way. All those reflexions make me think differently. Now, more options are possible. Record is more and more complicated to setup. In my head, the idea to climb K2 in 2 days came up. Why in 2 days? Snow conditions are bad, tracks won\u2019t probably not be made by commercials agencies and I\u2019ll have to do by myself. I won\u2019t be able to do in one day for sure\u2026It can be also a record in 2 days with conditions more delicates!<\/p>\n

Anyway, I will adapt to conditions. I don\u2019t want to have regrets and I will try something if K2 mountain makes it possible. That\u2019s the key word of alpinism: adaptability. This is what I like; this last minute improvisation. It\u2019s quite magical, we don\u2019t know what is going to happen. Adventure is happening on the last moment and this is something so strong for me. You have to rebuild continuously basis of something you don\u2019t even imagine at the begining of the adventure. This is always moments full of adrenaline and suspens.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of the teams noted an avalanche near K2 Base Camp that ended harmlessly.<\/p>\n

And the Other 8000ers<\/h2>\n

While K2 gets disproportionate attention, the other four deserve equal coverage. The Nepali outfit Seven Summits Treks, aka SST, has commercialized all fourteen of the 8000ers and usually does the route finding and rope fixing.<\/p>\n

Gasherbrum I\/II<\/h3>\n

A small Summit Karakorum<\/a> team is planning a July 20th GII summit. \u0141ukasz Supergan<\/a> gave this update:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
What’s the worst thing about an expedition to the high mountains? For me, it\u2019s usually the waiting. Six days ago we were at Camp 1 at almost 6000 metres. Since then, clouds and snow have covered the entire Baltoro region. The weather forecasts kept telling us that the bad weather would pass in a while, but none of them came true. All the teams are waiting in base camp for a chance to go out. Every night we plan our exit and the snowfall always prevents us from going. We spent the whole week waiting \u2013 I didn’t feel such frustration even when looking for a way through the icefall. Tonight again several teams are planning to go to C1. Whether this will work out \u2013 we will find out again at the last minute.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
If the weather cooperates, we would like to reach Camp 3 at 7000 metres this week. Keep your fingers crossed!<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Broad Peak<\/h3>\n

Word has it that a large group of nearly thirty climbers will try to get to BP’s summit on July 20th.<\/p>\n

Nanga Parbat<\/h3>\n

Nanga saw four summits with a 1:1 ratio of support for their two Pakistani clients climbing via Nanga Parbat\u2019s Diamir Face.<\/p>\n

Climb On!
\nAlan
\nMemories are Everything<\/p>\n

\n

The Podcast on alanarnette.com<\/h2>\n

You can listen to #everest2022 podcasts on Spotify<\/a>, Apple Podcast<\/a>, Google Podcasts<\/a>, Pocket Casts<\/a>, RadioPublic<\/a>, Anchor<\/a>, and more. Just search for “alan arnette” on your favorite podcast platform.<\/p>\n

\n

Summit Coach<\/h2>\n

Schedule a Free Call<\/a><\/p>\n

\"summit<\/a> If you dream of climbing mountains but are unsure how to start or reach your next level, from a Colorado 14er to Rainier, Everest, or even K2, we can help. Summit Coach<\/a> is a consulting service that helps aspiring climbers throughout the world achieve their goals through a personalized set of consulting services based on Alan Arnette\u2019s 25 years of high-altitude mountain experience, including summits of Everest, K2, and Manaslu, and 30 years as a business executive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bad weather is damping activity in Pakistan, but for some, it’s the worst case with access to limited Internet! Climbing team updates are sparse. Most are doing the time-honored Base Camp Wait, while others demonstrate the classic “summit fever” mistake by going on their summit push in marginal weather. #k2024<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[7,422,747],"tags":[432,42,746],"class_list":["post-45334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climbing-news","category-k2","category-k2-2024-coverage","tag-climbing-news","tag-k2","tag-k2-2024-coverage"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/IMG_2446.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45334","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=45334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}