While the mountaineering world is still reeling over the death of Italian skier Michele Fait, teams continue their preparation for their upcoming climbs. Base camp on all the major Pakistani peaks now have teams in place, and the long, challenging work of fixing the lines and setting the camps has begun.
On K2, as you can imagine, the mood is a bit subdued with the passing of Michele. But the teams no that the best way to keep their minds off things is to stay busy, and with plenty of work to do, that's just what they are doing. The word is that teams are shuttling supplies up to C2 today, beginning their acclimatization process at the same time.
Meanwhile, on the Gasherbrums, Don Bowie reports that the team has been resting in BC, and watching a long line of porters bringing supplies up the valley. He says that the scuttlebut around BC is that as many as 13 teams could be climbing on multiple Gasherbrum peaks this summer, which could make for a crowded camp to say the least. Jagged Edge has a team looking to summit G2, and their latest update says that they've moved into the icefall, and their porters have already begun stocking C1 and will proceed to C2 within a few days time. Likewise, the Altitude Junkies are in BC, and held their Puja Ceremony a few days back. They're now ready to start their climb as well. They hope to top out on both G1 and G2.
Things are heating up on Nanga Parbat as well, where Gunther Unterberger and Gerfried Göschl are in the final stages of their acclimatization process. The duo will spend the night at Camp 1 today and if everything goes according to plan, they'll begin their summit bid in about 10 days time.
Finally, on Broad Peak, rope fixing is underway as well, although, as ExWeb reports, there are two teams already high on the mountain. Neither of those teams are using fixed lines however, so it has been left up to the commercial teams to place them. We do know that the team of Elisabeth Revol , Antoine Girard, and Ludovic Giambasi are in the midst of their summit bid at the moment, and are out of radio range, so hopefully everything is going well for them. We will likely not hear any news on the team until the weekend, summit or not. Good luck team!
More news from the range as it comes in.
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