Simone and crew aren't ready to pack it in just yet. The Winter has been long and very cold on Broad Peak, but the men have suffered for far too long to come home now without making another attempt on the mountain. Today we have word from K2Climb.net that they are in the midst of another summit push at this very moment.
The weather forecasts are predicting that the lowest wind speeds of the season will occur this Sunday. In order to get themselves into position for the summit push, Simone, Shaheen Baig, and Qudrat Ali have set off for their high camps today, likely pushing on to C2 tonight, and then proceeding up to C3, the last camp before summit tomorrow. If the weather window opens as promised, they'll make their summit attempt on Sunday. With the lower wind speeds, clouds are expected to move in, and with the clouds comes snow.
In his latest report on the expedition website, Simone notes that this could possibly be their last crack at the summit. They have enough supplies for about ten more days, but energy levels are running low, and this attempt will likely take a lot out of them. They'll reassess in four days if they don't top out.
Lets keep our fingers crossed for these guys. They've worked long and hard for one chance at the summit, but once again, weather hasn't not been kind. I would like to see them at least have decent conditions to give it a go, but at this point we'll just have to wait and see how things unfold.
No comments:
Post a Comment