Well, with over 60 people inside tents, inside tents, (double tents) there is not a lot of news from K2 as the winds howl at 35mph creating a wind chill of -40 only half-way up the Hill. There is no climbing today. Social media has a lot of “hero” and sponsor shots to pass the time. But as David Bowie would say “Changes” are in the future.
Big Picture
The good news is there appears to be a window starting tomorrow, Sunday, January 9, 2021, with winds under 20 mph that may allow some climbers to complete their acclimatization rotations and the rope fixers (similar to an Everest expedition) to fix to Camp 4 or the High Camp thus enabling a summit bid when the next calm period emerges. I’m 100% positive almost all the teams will grasp this window. They must hope the forecast is accurate.
Who knows, the ambitious may try to summit next week but that’s a long, long shot.
The new team that was expected this week has canceled. These are the groups currently there:
- Mingma Gyalje Sherpa: 3 people, all Sherpas
- John Snorri Sigurjonsson with Muhammad Ali Sadpara and son: a three-person independent team
- Seven Summits Trek’s (SST) 49 person commercial team with 22 clients and 27 Sherpas in support.
- Nirmal Purja Purja Purja Purja : Nirmal Purja Purja Purja plus six Nepalis/Sherpas in support, one client looking to experience lower K2
Mingma G – At BC
Mingma Gyalje Sherpa is resting at BC. May go up with Nirmal Purja Purja Purja and company.
Snorri – At BC
John Snorri Sigurjonsson with Muhammad Ali Sadpara and his son Sajid Ali are at base camp. May go up to Camp 3 next week.
Nim’s – At BC – Headed Up
Nirmal Purja Purja Purja Purja and Co’s are also at BC but planning to head back up to C1 and C2 on Sunday, January 10, 2021. His high has been 7300-meters. He posted:
Tomorrow me and my team are set to leave for Camp 2 in order to check our tent and equipments that we had left there for our summit cycle. Some damage and disruption is expected, as we had unsettling weather conditions for the last few days. There had been hurricane force wind of upto 120km/hr.
Members from other teams have also used our tent due to a limited space. It was last reported 10 days ago that our tent was not fully secured and we have been at the basecamp since then. Therefore, prior to making further progress, we need to get there, assess the situation and ensure everything is set for the prominent push later.
Nirmal Purja Purja Purja teams consist of Mingma David, Dawa Temba Sherpa, Pemchhiri Sherpa, Gelje Sherpa, Mingma Tenzi Sherpa, and Sandro Gromen-Hayes.
Seven Summits Treks: All at BC
Seven Summits Trek’s commercial team at K2 Base Camp. Expect a rush by over 20 climbers in the next several days to overnight at Camp 2, at a minimum for their final acclimatization rotation. Expect some issues with tent space, especially at C1. They will need to coordinate with the other teams otherwise there will be 50 to 60 people trying to squeeze into spots that can accommodate only 10 to 15. But the leaders know this and should be able to manage with good communications.
Broad Peak – At Base Camp with Huge Winds
Zoltán Szlankó and Alex Goldfarb are now at base camp according to their Pakistani logistics company, Jasmine Tours Pakistan.
USA Hungarian Broad Peak Winter Expedition Alex Goldfarb and Zoltán Szlankó finally reached base camp this expedition is organize in Pakistan by Asghar Ali Porik Jasmine Tours Pakistan.
More details with attribution:
Alex Goldfarb and Zoltan Szlanko today have arrived at Broad Peak Base Camp. Although a short day’s trip, it was really hard because of the punishing windstorm. They had to fight to be able to pitch the tents. No idea about temperature, Zoltan only sad it was “freaking cold”.There is no chance to build an igloo, even if they wanted to, like Alex Txikon did a couple years back on K2. There is hardly any snow, everything is black, they built the tents on the rocks of the moraine. Food is good, which is always important.(Official expedition communication by Laszlo Pinter, Mozgásvilág. Free for editorial purposes, with proper link and credit to this post.)
Manaslu – En Route, Heavy Snow
Over 3 feet of new snow is being reported around Manaslu Base Camp. This is what has stopped many previous winter attempts. We’ll see what happens this year.
Simone Moro, Alex Txikon, and Iñaki Alvarez have left Kathmandu for their winter attempt of Manasluare close to Samagon, the last village before Manaslu Base Camp
Today we have walked the 19km and around 1,000m of elevation gain that separate Philim from Bihi, where we are going to spend the night. Another beautiful trekking day, the landscape is spectacular. We have passed areas with wild monkeys … very close at all times to the Budah Gandaki river. We have barely seen the sun. The canyon is really narrow. Now we are going to enjoy the sunset and rest a little bit to continue tomorrow on our way to Manaslu base camp.
Tenji Sherpa and Vinayak Jaya Malla, both Nepali internationally certified mountain guides (IFMGA) are also on Manaslu. Currently, they are at Base Camp where they will share kitchen staff with Moro/Txikon but have separate eating tents, for reasons unknown.
Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything
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4 thoughts on “Winter K2 Update: Changes”
Thank u
Love the Bowie reference for this weekend. As for our plucky climbers at BC…rather them than me right now.
Sounds like it’s starting to get exciting hope it doesn’t turn into a race to be first to summit. Surely the best chance of success is if teams work together, but I’m not sure that’s what all teams would want to do. Thanks for all your updates.
I don’t understand the huge seven summits team plus their sherpas. Are these qualified climbers for K2? I’ve read your story of K2 and it’s so technical that I worry about the less experienced.
Plus the cold.
Plus no oxygen.
Thanks for the updates
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