Conditions on K2 have not been great this week, with a blizzard hitting the mountain, and causing many teams to retreat to BC to wait for their next weather window. But according to MountEverest.net, the Russians on the West Face of K2 have established Camp 5 and are still on track to make a summit bid. The team is currently waiting out the storm in C3 and hope they can continue the climb by this weekend.
The report also says that the Kazakh team of Maxut Zhumayev, Vassily Pivtsov and Serguey Bogomolov has been fixing ropes on the North West Ridge and is now up to 6400m, despite the poor conditions. They reported snow, wind, fog, and poor visibility at altitude, all of which has hampered their progress. Last year, this same team lost four Russian teammates to avalanche while attempting the Abruzzi Spur.
Polish climber Piotr Morawski and Slovaks Dodo Kopold and Peter Hamor continue the long trek to K2 Base Camp. They reported that they had reached Paiju, and hoped to be in BC by the weekend. Fresh from their acclimatization climb on Nanga Parbat, in which they summitted, these experienced climbers intend to go alpine style up a new route on the West Face. Another Kazakh climber, Denis Urubko, will attempt something similar. He, and his team, have just finished their acclimatization on Khan Tengri, and will now head to K2 to attempt a new route on the North Face.
Remaining the spirit of opening new routes, the word is that Russian team from Krasnoyarsk managed to open two new routes on the Trango Towers. Now they are moving on to their first 8000m mountain setting their sites on Broad Peak.
Even though the Karakorum season is rapidly slipping by, it seems we still have some bold summits yet to come.
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