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K2 and Karakorum Daily Wrap Up
Jul 5, 2004 11: 56 EST
The good weather from late last week has turned sour again, perhaps fitting to the tragedy on Nanga Parbat. Word has spread about Gunter's dissappearance and several teams held informal ceremonies. Many climbers have been cautious with the weather changing so rapidy from warm to windy and snowy. It looks like skies will clear again on Wednesday, perhaps in time for second summit attempts on Broad Peak.
Weather:
AdventureWeather reports that there is a passing weak westerly jet over Uzbekistan-Kashmir just north of K2. On Friday a weak southwesterly jet may pass over K2. Winds are between 20-25 m/s near the summit, Friday as high as 25-30 m/s then dropping to 15-20 m/s.
A low over Kashmir is causing frequent precip over K2. It is followed on Wednesday by a weak ridge and mainly dry conditions. A couple of troughs will pass with some more precipitaion later in the week.
K2:
The 'Magic Line' team are hoping to have Camp 1 at the Negrotto Col by now.
Italian K2 North More snow prevented the team from making any progress up the mountain.
Italian K2 South The team had to give up attempts to set camp 3 on Friday. Today climbers hoping to spend a night in Camp 2 had to retreat due to more snow.
Italian Scoiattoli Weather conditions aren't great, but despite this Mario Lacedelli, Luciano Zardini, Renato Sottsass and Marco Sala left BC early this morning to reach the other expedition members who spent the night as Camp 1. During their ascent the weather worsened and a storm began: 40 cm of fresh snow fell in just a few minutes.
The four were forced to retreat to Camp 1, but were able to confirm that, despite the storm, the other members are attempting to reach Camp 2. given the poor conditions Davide Alberti and Stefano Dibona decided to descend to BC, while Marco Anghileri and Renzo Benedetti prefer to remain at altitude, and spend the night at Camp 2 (6600m).
Edurne Pasaban and the 'Al Filo' team; spent the night at CII and went back to BC on Sunday morning due to worsening weather. According to Juan Oiarzabal, ropes have been fixed by the Koreans up to the Black Pyramid.
International K2/ Broad Peak Iñaki Ochoa and Alex Txicon have delayed their climbing plans and will wait at BC for the weather to improve.
Broad Peak:
Austrian Broad/K2 double They made it up to Camp 2 which had already been set, they expect to be well above 7,000m by tomorrow.
Chad Kellogg and Alfred Schreilechner: Chad and Rory are back in BC after coming very close to the summit. Alfred and Fred returned to BC several days ago to rest, they will all make the attempt in a couple days.
Adventure Peaks as of June 25th in Base Camp.
Field Touring Alpine Jamie McGuiness reports; “The biggest news is sad. Amir "Chilli, the general" Cuturic is sick with some undefined illness that includes balance problems. He left this morning.
On the mountain we are making progress, yesterday Jamie finished fixing 600m of rope, the alternative route to Camp Half that avoids the bowling alley couloir. We have Camp Half (5350m) set up with two tents and everyone except Chilli has slept at least a night there. Camp 1 is completely full, no space for more tents so we have a "French Camp 1" set about 100 vertical meters above in a safe, if small place, only one tent.
We also have Camp 2 (6150m) in place with three tents up there ready for Malte and Taqui to stay at tomorrow. Everyone except Mike and Jamie have already slept a night up there."
Dutch The team reached Camp 1, just below 6000m and were back in BC as of last week.
Nanga Parbat:
German Brothers from the AlpinClub of Saxony Last Wednesday the five climbers Christian, Günter, Jens, Joerg and Max (Markus Walter) as well as the three Austrians summited. Günter Jung was the oldest person to summit Nanga Parbat when he fell and went missing on descent. No new information on Günter, he is considered MIA.
Gasherbrums:
Solo 8000 Italian Diego Giovannini reports that the snow has prevented any climber from going higher than Camp 1 on G1.
Field Touring Alpine Steve Hay reports “We have established camp 1. The route thru the icefall to get to the base of the spur hasn't been properly fixed by any team, so we spent a good deal of time setting that up yesterday and making it as safe as possible. Even though with the new found sunlight and quick melting of snow bridges it changed its appearance quite radically by late this afternoon. We now have 3 tents and some food and fuel at C1.
We will likely rest tomorrow and then head up with another load for c1 on Monday and sleep there. We expect to head for C2 on Tuesday. Snow and conditions in general are great.
The camps here have heard the sad news of the death of Günter on Nanga Parbat - he was apparently well known to many of the veterans here and there has been a solemn wake going on most of the afternoon. It drives home the seriousness of what we are doing here - and the need to check and double check everything before you do it.”
Carlos Pauner Set camp 2 at 6500 meters. They attempted to make it to Camp 3 on Saturday but avalanche danger caused them to turn around after burying some gear at the foot of the Japanese Couloir, technically the most difficult section before Camp 3.
Alberto Iñurrategi, Jon Beloki and José Carlos Tamayo It is reported that the team has climbed up to Camp 2 on GIV.
Adventure Tours Pakistan | Italian K2 | Alfred Schreilechner | German Shisha Pangma | Dutch Broad Peak | Carlos Pauner | Chad Kellogg | Adventure Peaks | Edurne Pasaban | Slovenian Gasherbrum | Solo 8000 project | Iñaki Ochoa | K2 Magic Line | Andalucía K2 | Austrian Broad Peak | Italian Scoiattoli
Image of Stefano Dibona followed by Marco Da Pozzo, in a storm close to Camp 2 (6600m) on K2. Photo by Davide Alberti courtesy of Planetmountain.com.
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