August 7th, 2009 by admin

More updates from the Karakorum today, where the season is rapidly coming to an end, and teams are either topping out or packing up to come home it seems.

We’ll start on K2, where Kazakhs Maxut Zhumayev and Vassiliy Pivtsov were hoping to make another summit bid today, but high winds near the top have forced them down, along with a Japanese team they were hoping to work with. The weather forecast calls for “hurricane force” winds on the summit over the next few days, which prompted the hasty retreat back to Base Camp. The question now is, will they hang around for another go?

It seems that most of the teams are preparing to give up on K2 this seaons, and Everest News has already declared “No Summits this Year”. The latest update from the Field Touring Alpine Team says that they’ve elected to go home. Their porters have arrived in BC and packing has already begun. They hope to exit Base Camp on Friday to begin the trek back to civilization. The team is healthy but tired, and although there were no summits from FTA this year, they still consider it a successful outing.

We’ll probably have to wait a few days to find out if any teams plan to stay behind and make one final attempt on the summit, but it seems that BC is going to be very empty by the weekend. If I were to venture a guess, I’d say Max and Vasso are the most likely pair to try again, but with high winds and very deep snow up near the summit, it seems that the chances of topping out are very slim. If the Karakorum season does end with no summits on K2, it just underscores how difficult it truly is to climb this mountain.

Meanwhile, the Altitude Junkies have updated their blog with the confirmation that Spanish and Korean climbers made successful summits on the 3rd. This includes Oh Eun-sun, the Korean woman who now has 13 8000m peaks to her name. The AJ team is completely off the mountain now, and their porters have also arrived on the scene, so they are packing up and preparing to head back to Skardu as well. It seems that the season is over on the Gasherbrums as well.

Finally, ExWeb is reporting that a team still remains on Broad Peak, and they are attempting a new route on that mountain. They’re into C1 right now and will be proceeding upwards to C2 and 3 tomorrow. By the end of the weekend, they may be the final team in the Karakorum.

August 5th, 2009 by admin

Summit bids continue in the Karakorum as the new week begins, and another strong Korean climber emerges as a threat to be the first woman to nab all 14 8000 meter peaks.

Over the weekend, Korean climber Oh Eun-sun reached the summit on Gasherbrum I, claiming her 4th 8-thousander of the year, and 13th overall, as she moves into a position to become the first woman to summit all of the big peaks. She now has just Annapurna left to conquer. Gerlinde Kaletenbrunner may join her soon however, as she is in the middle of her summit bid on K2, which would put her at 13 as well. Miss Oh has also successfully topped out on Kangchenjunga, Dhaulagiri and Nanga Parbat this year.

Things weren’t completely rosy on GI this weekend however, as the Altitude Junkies are reporting that their team went as high as 7300 meters before turning back due to high winds. The entire team is safe and healthy and expected back in BC tomorrow, where they’ll regroup and consider another go at the summit.

On K2, the outlook is a bit better, with teams continuing to make their push today, and the Field Touring Alpine Team is checking in from Camp 4, which puts them on schedule for this attempt. The FTA climbers are planning on going to the top this evening (local time) and are probably already moving up as I write this. According to the update, there are a number of teams in C3 as well, and it appears they’ll move up tomorrow and be in place to make their summit bid tomorrow night.

Expect good news from K2 soon, and keep your fingers crossed that everyone gets up and down in one piece!

August 1st, 2009 by admin

More news from the Karakorum today, where persistent teams are still hoping to reach the summit of K2, but the mountain isn’t going to give up her prize easily. Meanwhile, another summit push is underway on Gasherbrum I as well.

ExWeb has the latest news from K2, where we learn that the remaining teams all came together for a meeting where they decided it was best if they all joined forces to try to tackle the mountain together. There are still a number of strong climbers who are hoping to summit on the mountain, including Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, who is seeking her 13th 8000m peak, as well as Maxut Zhumayev and Vassiliy Pivtsov, the two amazing Kazakh climbers who have made some of the more daring climbs over the past few years. According to the story, the combined teams will begin their summit push tomorrow, climbing one camp per day until they make their summit bid. That would put them on top around Monday or Tuesday of next week.

The Field Touring Alpine Team returned from their summit bid a few days back, and posted some thoughts on the climb, which didn’t result in any successful summits. The noted that there were high winds up top, and that there are no fixed ropes above Camp 3 as of yet, which made it very dangerous and challenging for everyone. Their current plan is to rest up for a few days and reevaluate their chances, before deciding if and when they’ll make their next bid. Chances are, they may be heading up tomorrow with the rest of the teams.

The weather looks good into early next week, and it seems like it is now or never, but the mood is a bit somber on K2 as we approach the one year anniversary of the tragedy that claimed 13 lives. You know that more than one of the climbers will be thinking about that as they head up this weekend.

Jumping over to the Gasherbrums, another round of summit attempts are underway as well. There are currently teams at various points on both GI and GII, with an eye on reaching the top in the next few days as well. One of the teams still on the mountain is the Altitude Junkies, but their latest dispatch indicates that they won’t be there much longer. Team leader Phil Crampton says that it has snowed for three days straight on GII and that conditions are just too dangerous higher up for them to take any chances. They’ve elected to pack it in and come home rather than take any more risks. They also say that the weather forecast doesn’t look good in the days ahead, so hopefully the other climbers on both GI and GII are keeping an eye on the weather as well.

That’s about it for these two mountains. Activity is underway on both, with the hopes of summits soon, but weather is always dicey in the Karakorum. It’s possible that we won’t see any more summits this year, as the time is beginning to run short. Good luck to everyone in the next few days!

July 28th, 2009 by admin

The weekend was suppose to be Summit Day on both the Gasherbrums and K2, and while conditions improved on one of those peaks, the other sent teams scrambling back down the hill.

The big news for the weekend is that Veikka Gustafsson has completed the 14 8000 meter peaks, topping out on Gasherbrum I on Sunday. Veikka becomes the 17th person to bag all of the world’s tallest peaks, and he completed the task without supplemental oxygen as well. He and climbing partner Kazuya Hiraide set out from high camp just after midnight and arrived at the summit around 8 AM local time, where they were greeted with no winds and beautiful weather, and according to the latest dispatch from the mountain, both men are now safe and sound back in Base Camp.

Veikka and Kazuya’s summits weren’t the only ones on GI this weekend either, as several other teams topped out as well. ExWeb is reporting that the Bulgarian team of Nikolay Petkov, Doychin Boyanov, Boyan Petrov, and Nikolay Valkov all reached the summit on Sunday morning as well.

Meanwhile, over on K2, the weekend update isn’t so cheery. A number of teams attempted summit bids along both the Cesen Route and the Abruzzi Spur, but reports indicate that the conditions were too treacherous to proceed upward. The likelihood of avalanches were extremely high, and the climbers decided that discretion was the better part of valor and turned back well before the summit on both routes. All the teams are headed back to BC, where they’ll regroup and reassess their chances of making the summit this season.

July 26th, 2009 by admin

I mentioned a few days back that teams were in the midst of a summit push on both the Gasherbrums and K2, and according to ExWeb those bids are still in progress, although the weather is not cooperating as expected, and progress has been slowed somewhat. But, teams are still positoining themselves to top out this weekend, with Gasherbrum summits set for tomorrow and K2 on Sunday.

On Gasherbrum I, Veikka Gustafsson and climbing partner Kazuya Hiraide, spent yesterday stuck in Camp 2 due to a massive snowstorm, but they’ve begun climbing the mountain again, and are eyeing Sunday for their potential summit day. They report that winds have dropped some, but are still quite high.

There haven’t been any updates from the Altitude Junkies in a few days, and we can only assume that they remain in BC. Their forecasts told them there would be high winds on the Gasherbrums, so they were waiting it out, and hoping for the best. At this point, that seems like a really great decision. Their next update will probably be to announce the start of their summit bid.

On K2 a similar story is being told, with worse than expected weather. Despite that, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, David Göttler and Fabrizio Zangrilli are all into Camp 3 on the Cesen Route, where the Field Touring Alpine Team has climbed up to C2 themselves, and will go up to C3 tomorrow. While Gerlinde and the boys will continue up however, the FTA team is working on finishing up their acclimatization process, and will be heading back to BC over the weekend. They hope to begin their summit bid in the next 10-14 days.

Meanwhile, over on the Abruzzi Spur, teams are into C2 with reports of high winds, cold temps, and overcast skies. The weather reports say that conditions should be improving there as well however, and they’re on track for Sunday Summits as well.

Seems like it should be a very busy weekend in the Karakorum. Teams are on track provided the weather holds.

July 24th, 2009 by admin

It has been a rough season, as usual, in the Karakorum with weather woes, tragedy on several mountains, and avalanches, and conditions that are amongst the most harsh on Earth. But it can all be forgotten if the teams can just finish what they’ve started, and stand on top of those big peaks. A number of teams have begun to take the first steps to do just that today, with summit pushes currently underway on both K2 and the Gasherbrums.

On K2, the most dangerous mountain on the planet, we get word from Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner that today is the day that she and her climbing partners will begin their ascent, and Martin Ramos is projecting the same schedule. If the weather holds, and everything goes as expected, they should be standing on the summit on Saturday. The Field Touring Alpine Team is still in BC according to their latest update yesterday, but everyone is acclimatized, feeling good, and ready to go as well, so they will likely be following along this weekend too.

This comes on the heals of a report earlier in the week from ExWeb that Jorge Egocheaga claimed the first summit of the mountain last Sunday, following a solo climb in deep snow. Well done Jorge and congrats on the summit!

Similar stores are coming in from the Gasherbrums too, where ExWeb is also reporting that five climbers topped out on Gasherbrum II on Monday, just before a storm moved in an blanketed the area. But the weather window is expected to open again in time for the weekend, as apparently teams are spread out across the mountain, from C2 to C3 on both G1 and G2, including Veika Gustafsson and Kazuya Hiraide who hope to top out on G1 this weekend. They set off for C1 this morning with their eyes on the Gasherbrum 1 summit.

The teams on both of these mountains have been very patient and it looks like it is finally going to pay off. The weather seems to be improving and conditions high on the mountains are stabilizing, although there were reports a few days back about avalanches on K2. Hopefully the worst of those conditions are over, and the teams can climb high and safe. Especially on K2, where we are approaching the anniversary of the tragedy from last year.

July 21st, 2009 by admin

Sad news once again today from the Karkorum, as we begin another week with a tragedy in the mountains. ExWeb is reporting that Italian climber Cristina Castagna has perished on Broad Peak, after falling on her descent from Camp 4 following a summit bid. It is unclear if she had successfully topped out before her fall, and as of right now, there is no word on any successful summits on the mountain.

The news of Christina’s death comes just one week after the news that Kroean climber Go Mi-Sun was lost on Nanga Parbat. Christina’s climbing partner, Giampaolo Casarotto, says that she was walking about ten meters in front of him when she slipped and fell into a crevasse. By the time he could scramble to her assistance, she was already gone, and there was nothing more he could for her. The 31-year old Italian woman, nicknamed “El Grio” or the Cricket, already had Shisha Pangma, GII, Dhaulagiri, and Makalu on her resume, with plans to knock off Broad Peak and then make a run at Gasherbrum I this year.

While there have been no confirmed summits as of yet on BP, and the rumors are most teams turned back due to high winds, the Field Touring Alpine Team released an audio dispatch on Saturday that confirms they had no summits and were returning to BC. One of their climbers, Paul Rowntree, did reach the point known as Rocky Summit however, which sits at 8013m (26,289 feet).

On Gasherbrum I, the Altitude Junkies are sitting in BC, looking up at a cloudless sky and what appears to be great weather, but all the reports indicate that there are high winds on the summit, and will be for the next few days. After that a weather window is expected to open that should allow access to the top of the mountain, something that Veikka and Kazuya are counting on as well.

Finally, Don Bowie has posted the second and third parts of his report on the team’s summit bid on G3. Not only did the climb get a bit hairy, and then stall out due to extremely poor weather, the descent back to base camp became quite an ordeal as well. Very good read with a glimpse of what it’s like on the mountain at the moment.

July 17th, 2009 by admin

The Karakorum climbing season is evolving quickly in no small part because of the weather conditions there. While many of the teams are remaining patient and hoping for the best, others are electing to call it a day and head home for the year. Take for example the Jagged Globe team, who were hoping to summit Gasherbrum II, but have now decided it is time to go home. They blame the shifting jet stream that has brought a ton of snow to the mountain and are now preparing to leave base camp on the weekend. Apparently they won’t be the only ones fleeing the Gasherbrums, as ExWeb is reporting that other teams are planning on packing it in for the season too.

Don Bowie and the rest of his crew having been struggling away on G3 for the past few weeks, and he posted the first of his summit bid dispatches today.

Over on Broad Peak, the summit bids are underway for the Field Touring Alpine team, who are on their way to Camp 2 today and hope to top out on Saturday. From the sounds of things, there is a mass summit push underway, with nearly every climber on BP giving it ago. Winds are expected to die down tomorrow, opening a weather window through the weekend.

Snow continues to fly on K2, but the weather is also said to be quite warm in base camp. The climbers are still finishing up their acclimatization process for the most part, while Kazakh climbers Maxut Zhumayev and Vassiliy Pivtsov have just arrived in camp and well be climbing under the same permit with Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, who is going for her 13th 8000m peak.

Finally, ExWeb posted a story a few days back that shed more light on the death of Korean climber Go Mi-Sun. In a dispatch sent out from Joao Garcia, we learn a lot more about the conditions on Nanga Parbat and what led to the tragic fall that took the life of Miss Go. Joao doesn’t pull any punches when he explains how the process for fixing the lines worked this year, and how a certain Austrian team didn’t really pull their weight. It was because of them that the lines were removed between Camp 2 and Camp 3, which led to Miss Go not being roped in when she slipped and fell. Joao stops short of accusing the other team of being responsible for her death, but he makes it clear how he feels about the whole incident.

There is another report today on the state of climbing in Korea, where a culture of competitiveness has built up. ExWeb received word from someone in Korea that talked about the rivalries between the mountaineers, in this case Miss Go and another female climber named Miss Oh. It’s a rather revealing look at the drive to be “first” in some capacity in the mountains.

July 15th, 2009 by admin

More news from the Karakorum today, where we’re learning that the weather remains bad and conditions on some of the big peaks are not improving as the teams would like.

We’ll start on the Gasherbrums, where ExWeb is reporting that a large snow storm has struck the mountain, sending teams down from C2 where they had been hoping to launch their summit bids on both G1 and G2. News on the Jagged Globe website confirms that their team was amongst those that retreated off the mountain as it was blasted with snow. It seems that Viekka Gustaffson was amongst those forced down from an attempt on Gasherbrum I.

Meanwhile, there have been no updates to Don Bowie’s site since July 8th, when we were told that Don and the crew were climbing up to 7000m and hoping for a weather window on G3. We can only assume that conditions are bad on that mountain as well, and that perhaps they were forced down too.

Jumping over to K2, the reports are that the mountain is loaded with snow, especially on the tricky upper slopes. There is enough there to send Giuseppe Pompili packing from the mountain altogether, saying that it isn’t worth the risks to continue climbing the mountain this year. He’s not the only one calling quits, as both Sean Wisedale and Tunc Findik have left base camp as well. Both men indicated that they were listening to their gut instincts while giving up their climbs as things don’t feel right on the mountain at the moment. Wisedale went so far as to say “The presence of death here is overwhelming”. Tunc will now head over to G2 with a hope for better luck.

Finally, back on Nanga Parbat, the teams are still dealing with the two deaths there over the weekend. Yesterday I mentioned that Korean climber Go Mi-Sun had fallen to her death, and I incorrectly stated that her body had been found and removed from the mountain. It turns out that that isn’t true, and while the team knows where her remains are, they haven’t gone up to find them, nor has a recovery operation been mounted at this time. As you can imagine, the mood is described as somber in BC.

July 11th, 2009 by admin

Great news from the Karakorum today as word on successful summits have begun to trickle in, starting on Gasherbrum II where Ueli Steck has topped out yesterday and returned to BC today according to the Hardwear Sessions blog. Not many details are known yet on the climb, but it is being reported that Ueli was using this as a training climb for Makalu in this fall.

Meanwhile, ExWeb is reporting that Joao Garcia has summitted Nanga Parbat, claiming his 13th 8000 meter peak and leaving just Annapurna on his list. Joao’s climbing partner Amin Ulal also topped out as well.

Korean climber Go Mi-Sun also reached the summit of Nanga Parbat earlier today, but had to use supplemental oxygen to do so. Miss Go has generally climbed without the O’s, but perhaps her ambitious climbing schedule is getting the best of her. After resting, she’ll move on to the Gasherbrums to have a go at both G1 and G2 in her bid for a second 8000m Triple Header this year.

The summits aren’t quite done yet on NP however, as Gerfried Göschl’s team is moving up along a new route, and if everything stays on schedule, they should be topping out tomorrow. They’re climbing alpine style and established a fourth camp today where they are waiting for the winds to die down before proceeding up.

Moving over to Broad Peak, the Field Touring Alpine team is now in place and ready to begin their summit bid as well. All of their camps are established, and the climbers are finished with their acclimatization process, and now they are watching for a three day weather window that will give them access to the summit. Reportedly conditions are very good on the mountain, and it is only a matter of time before they move up.

The Gasherbrums are abuzz with activity besides just Ueli’s successful summit. The Jagged Globe Team set off on their summit bid a few days back, while the Altitude Junkies are in BC and keeping an eye on the jet stream, hoping for a window. Don Bowie and his team have their sights set on G3, and their latest update has them all at 7000 meters and waiting for the winds to die down as well.

Jumping over to K2, it seems that weather has cleared up enough for teams to begin establishing the route to C2. Most of the teams have spent a night at C2 at this point, and are anxious to get higher on the mountain, but conditions have been really dicey so far.

Finally, Kazak climbing legends Maxut Zhumayev and Vassiliy Pivtsov have arrived in Pakistan are reportedly in Skardu. They’ll begin the trek to K2 soon and are expected in base camp around the 22nd of the month. I’m not sure what their plans are, but they will no doubt be making some spectacular attempt, alpine style, on the mountain. Stay tuned!