The winter climbing season in the Karakorum and Himalaya has only just begun, but we already have our first expedition called off. According to ExWeb, who posted this story earlier in the day, the Polish Team on Nanga Parbat have called it quits after facing excessive amounts of snow, bitterly cold temperatures, and dangerous ice on the mountain. Their most recent dispatch also hints at logistical issues, but it seems that the winter conditions on Nanga were just too much to over come, even this early into the season. The teams says that they'll clean up C1 tomorrow and return to BC before heading home.
The news is much better on Broad Peak, where Don Bowie, Artur Hajzer, and Robert Szymczak have already established C1 at 5500 meters, and are now making their way up to C2. If the weather holds out, they hope to have the ropes fixed to C2 over the next few days, and may be at that higher camp in time for New Years. Their latest dispatch reports little snow, but lots of ice and rock to contend with.
Meanwhile, Simone Moro reports that he and climbing partner Denis Urubko will arrive in Kathmandu just in time for the New Year's celebration there, before heading out to Makalu. They are hoping to become the first men to summit that peak in winter.
Finally, the only other winter climb ongoing is on Manaslu, where the Czech team has been working on fixing a route to Camp 2. There have been no updates to their website for the past ten days however, so it's impossible to know what their progress has been and where they are currently at on the mountain. Hopefully they have just been extremely busy and haven't had time to send dispatches, and we'll hear more from the soon.
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