Summit pushes are underway for K2 based on hope than science. The weather has been fairly unstable this season. Meanwhile, the nearby 8000ers have already seen a few summits.
This summer has been Karakorum’s most variable weather season, with mostly high winds delaying or stopping many summit efforts and, in some cases, even acclimatization rotations. However, as become the custom these days, teams will band together at the last possible moment to follow the rope team, hoping to summit and descend before the winds return. It’s always a gamble.
K2
Garrett Maddison is running several climbs this summer–an unclimbed peak, Broad Peak, and K2- and posted this optimistic update.
The Madison Mountaineering K2 expedition team has crawled into their sleeping bags after another great day of climbing in the Karakoram. The route from Camp 1 to Camp 2 involves climbing mixed-terrain and the famous House’s Chimney, one of the cruxes of the route! Spirits are high and the views from 6700m / 21,980ft can’t be beaten.
The team from Imagine Nepal showed their team of eight Sherpas and noted a concern with the crowds:
All our K2, Broad Peak and G1 team are in camp2 on each mountain. They will be pushing tomorrow night to reach the summit on 27th July Morning. K2 team will be making summit on 28th in a good weather but we are afraid with the traffic.
And the Other 8000ers
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.
Gasherbrum I/II
A two-person Summit Karakorum team summited the GII summit. Imagine Nepal noted two clients with three Sherpas, and French alpinist Vadim Druelle got his second 8000er with Nanga, followed by GII. Seven Summits Treks put a Shepra and a client on GII’s summit.
Broad Peak
Shehroze Kashif gave this update but obviously will kiss the 26th as a summit date.
The Broadboy Adventure team left the #Broadpeak Base Camp early today for their summit push. This looks like the last chance for climbers in this challenging Karakoram season. All climbers and their HAPs from different teams are following the rope-fixing team. If everything goes well, the summit day will be on the 26th or 27th.
They updated it with
Broadboy Adventures team has reached camp3 today on Broad Peak. They are leaving tonight for the summit push. If the weather permits we will be hearing some good news by tomorrow
Nanga Parbat
Nanga saw four summits with a 1:1 ratio of support for their two Pakistani clients climbing via Nanga Parbat’s Diamir Face.
Climb On!
Alan
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One thought on “K2 2024 Coverage: Summit Pushes Underway”
Rolling the dice in the Kharakoram !!