K2 Summer 2022: Climbing Continues

After the drama this week, climbing will slow down a bit due to weather, but we have summits on Broad Peak and teams progressing on K2. First-hand details on the Broad Peak death are now available. Also, I break down who is climbing on K2.

Big Picture – Weather Incoming

First, the weather forecast looks poor for the big four of K2, BP, GI & GII, so it may be quiet for the next few days or up to a week. As we leave the first week of July, progress continues as expected. Teams, actually Sherpas, are fixing the lines on the 8000ers and establishing the high camps. Thus far, the most progress has been on Broad Peak with three summits and Nanga Parbat with at least 26.

There are teams on both Gasherbrum I & II, with Denis Urubko said to be going for the GII summit any day now, weather permitting. He has permits for all five of the 8000ers but is taking it peak by peak. On K2, Sherpas continue to fix the line with reports saying they have it to Camp 3 above the Black Pyramid. Most K2 summits occur between July 25 and August 1, but Seven Summits Treks suggest they will summit the second week of July. Probably a bit optimistic given the weather.

Concerning so many climbers across all the Karakorum peaks this summer, teams are sharing tents. In other words, one team may take their tents, establish a high camp, and let other teams use that spot and gear. This is probably the only way to manage this season, but we’ll see what happens when a window opens and everyone wants to jump onto it.

Nanga Parbat

With over 26 summits thus far and a happy outcome for two delayed climbers, look for more summits as the weather allows, including Tunc Findick and Argentinian climber Juan Pablo Toro. Tunic says he’s looking to summit on July 9th or 10th. I like how he describes his no O’s attempt. This is his last of the 8000ers.

Nanga is a hard and steep mountain. Climbing from C1 to C2 at Nanga Parbat’s Diamir face is certainly the crux of Kinshofer route: first the “Low ice gully” an icy face of max 55 degrees ice and snow, from 4900m to 5900m, and finally the rock face of “Kinshofer wall”, a granite wall of max grade V+ UIAA, 150m long, from 5900m to 6050m. Surely provides interesting and exposed climbing, what with tons of derelict ropes and hardware.

K2

Over on K2, Garrett Maddison had their puja and appeared to be settling down to wait for the weather window. Lukas Furtenbach’s Broad Peak team has moved to K2 Base Camp and is also waiting for the weather window.

Mingma G’s Imagine Nepal says the 4G cell service is back up:

Got our WiFi service. Had a great puja and worshipped Mother K2 and Broad Peak for great weather and safe climb.

Since we arrived late at K2 base, we still have lots of work to finish. Our Sherpa team have been to camp2 once each and members now started acclimatizing. Today we had ice climbing refreshments with some of our climbers. Our team now need to work on setting our higher camps on K2 and Broad Peak. Depending on weather, we are planning to set up our camp2 and camp3 in these weeks.

And Karakorum Expeditions is on K2 but very quiet.

A Record K2 Year

Here are a few more stats for the 356 issued permits as of late June for K2 this 2022 summer. By nationality, the Nepali, mostly Sherpas, are dominating:

• Nepal – 146
• Germany – 22
• Spanish – 18
• America – 17
• Australia – 12
• Mexico – 10
• Italy – 10
• Canada – 9
• Poland – 11
• Pakistan – 9
• Chile – 7
• UK – 7
• China – 8
• Japan – 5
• Iran – 5
• Czech Republic- 5
• Romania – 4
• Russia -4
• France – 7
• Norway – 3
• South Africa – 3
• Netherlands – 2
• Andorra – 2
• Peru – 2
• Argentina – 2
• Macodia – 2
• Denmark – 3
• Hungry – 2
• Brazil – 2
• Qatar – 2
• Sweeden – 1
• Malaysia – 1
• Bangladesh – 1
• Ecuador – 1
• Portugual – 1
• Azerbaijan – 1
• New Zealand  – 1
• Estonia – 1
• Mongola – 1
• Switzerland – 2
• Lithuania – 1
• Oman -1
• Afgan – 1
• Morroco – 1

Some of the teams with K2 permits this summer:

• 8K Expeditions (Nepal): 37
• Elite Expeditions (Nepal): 53
• Furtenbach Adventures (Austria): 30
• Madison Mountaineering (US): 24
• Mingma G’s Imagina Nepal (Nepal): 57
• Pioneer Adventure (Nepal): 42
• Seven Summits Treks (Nepal): 64
• Adventure Tours Pakistan (Pakistan): 6
• Alpine Adventure Guide (Pakistan): 21
• Lela Peak Expedition (Pakistan): 39
• Summit Karakoram (Pakistan): 19

Broad Peak – Summit and Death Update

Summits have been reported on Broad Peak, the season’s first after the tragedy earlier this week. Italians Giuseppe Vidoni (no O’s,) Nico Jean, plus French climber Benjamin Védrines (no O’s,) summited on July 4 without fixed ropes. Tiziano Moia was with them but turned back. They were ahead of the Furtenbach and Karakorum Expeditions teams.

Giuseppe posted this update for the media:

In three days the weather is getting worse, we have a day off “only the second after these 10 days of beautiful weather where we pushed to acclimatize to the best”. The day after tomorrow we’re leaving to try the top.. We agree with the team of the two French Nicloas and Benjamin to go up together and give us a hand in opening the way, since on c3 no one has climbed and we need to track. On the day of departure it’s me Tiziano and Nico, Benjamin came back because of a stomach ache he’s been accusing for a few days. We start at about 4:30 from C3, we take alternate tracks, up to the hill technically it’s not difficult, you just need to find your way through some nice cracks. Nico turns out to be much better in shape than us and he puts himself in front to make a mark, truly amazing. Arriving at the hill, Tiziano decides to go back because he was not sure if he would be able to go down given the fatigue and difficulty that was increasing from there on the ridge. Nico and I set off and immediately we came across a climb on Rock of III degree which at 7800m with heavy shoes and rampons is not really trivial. From there, except for a few steps, the ridge seems easier. Nico, as before, is in charge, the ridge with its ups and downs is longer than I imagined and it makes us very tired… finally we both reach the top and we are so happy.. now it was about 16:15 and we had to go down immediately with the little preserved energy trying to stay clear, no mistakes were admitted. (Broad Peak taught me a lot about the importance of still having energy for the downhill). We manage to go down the hill still with light, from there now it’s just a matter of dragging down to the curtains in C3, a beautiful sunset with us

The Italians are having a great Karakorum season. Earlier this week, six Italians summited Nanga, including The team leader, Franz Cazzanelli, who summited from Base Camp in a swift 20 hours without Os and these two more on Broad. Congratulations to all.

Pakistani climber Sharif Sadpara died early this week after falling through a soft cornice. Apparently, there was no fixed rope in this section. He had summited K2 last year. A brief effort was made to find him to no avail. He was escorting two British climbers on the summit ridge. They were part of Impact Ascents out of the UK. Note that there are discrepancies between their write-up and others. Not unusual.

Furtenbach Adventures guide, Ulises Corvalan, reports on the death:

 “I will try to make a brief summary of what happened. On Monday, July 4, our first summit group begins the ascent from field 3 (7,100 meters) at 6:00 pm with Chris as a guide, at 19.45 pm I leave guiding the second summit group (with O2).

Our Sherpas have fixed more than 1300 meters of rope up to the hill (7,900 meters), the conditions are good and after a few hours the two groups arrived at the hill, some members of the first group return before that (this group goes without O2 and the effort is very important..

The two groups walk all night, it is already Tuesday, July 5 and the summit is near, it is very difficult for us to overcome a stretch of climbing even with the rope fixed, the snow at our feet is not solid, everything falls and the effort is enormous, anyway we managed to reach the summit edge.

It is very cold, and it has snowed for a few hours, the visibility on the edge is almost zero, the humidity is very high, however we move forward with great caution thanks to the guide of the fixed rope.

After about 120 meters the rope ends, we know that there is still more than an hour left to the summit, we travel a little more without rope, the snow that does not stop falling to cover the rocks and with our crampons we skate from time to time..

Only one other group shares this summit day, two British and one Pakistani. Visibility is almost zero, we stop to think about options, Mignma Sherpa (7 summits at Broad Peak) puts her face of “I like this.” I’m waiting for the rest of the group to reach our position, Chris and Mike are already ahead. In a second, the place where the Pakistani was sitting collapses and disappears.

The altimeter marks 8,019 meters, you can’t see anything, it’s more than an hour before the summit (8,047) the weather forecast didn’t hit this time, I see very tired faces, the group without O2 has made an incredible effort, it has been more than 12 hours and we still have to return. After what happened to the Pakistani guide, the spirits are on the floor… “Not possible” are Mignma’s words, she looks at me with her eyes as a child and I understand everything. It’s 6:15 am and we start the return, there is no summit this time.

Gasherbrum I

Only two teams are currently attempting GI & G II. In addition to Jagged Globe, a joint effort by Kari Kobler and 360 Expeditions has around 12 members, 6 Sherpas, 5 High Altitude Porters, and 120 cylinders of oxygen, per JG. Jagged Globe is doing a nice job of keeping us updated. This is from July 7:

All the team are back in base camp. They descended from Camp 2 this morning, leaving at 0200hrs and arriving at 0830hrs. Very mild temperatures making travel difficult on the lower mountain with much of the icefall covered in wet, rotten snow.

Denali

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything

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