I mentioned a few days back that teams were in the midst of a summit push on both the Gasherbrums and K2, and according to ExWeb those bids are still in progress, although the weather is not cooperating as expected, and progress has been slowed somewhat. But, teams are still positoining themselves to top out this weekend, with Gasherbrum summits set for tomorrow and K2 on Sunday.
On Gasherbrum I, Veikka Gustafsson and climbing partner Kazuya Hiraide, spent yesterday stuck in Camp 2 due to a massive snowstorm, but they've begun climbing the mountain again, and are eyeing Sunday for their potential summit day. They report that winds have dropped some, but are still quite high.
There haven't been any updates from the Altitude Junkies in a few days, and we can only assume that they remain in BC. Their forecasts told them there would be high winds on the Gasherbrums, so they were waiting it out, and hoping for the best. At this point, that seems like a really great decision. Their next update will probably be to announce the start of their summit bid.
On K2 a similar story is being told, with worse than expected weather. Despite that, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, David Göttler and Fabrizio Zangrilli are all into Camp 3 on the Cesen Route, where the Field Touring Alpine Team has climbed up to C2 themselves, and will go up to C3 tomorrow. While Gerlinde and the boys will continue up however, the FTA team is working on finishing up their acclimatization process, and will be heading back to BC over the weekend. They hope to begin their summit bid in the next 10-14 days.
Meanwhile, over on the Abruzzi Spur, teams are into C2 with reports of high winds, cold temps, and overcast skies. The weather reports say that conditions should be improving there as well however, and they're on track for Sunday Summits as well.
Seems like it should be a very busy weekend in the Karakorum. Teams are on track provided the weather holds.
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