In my post earlier this morning I lamented the fact that we had gone another season on K2 without a summit, but I barely had that story written and posted, when ExWeb updated with the news that Austrian climber Christian Stangl has just arrived back in BC after a 70-hour push to the summit of the mountain.
According to the story, Christian reached the top yesterday at around 10 AM local time. He took a few photos from the summit, but the batteries were dead on his satellite phone, so he was unable to check in with the support team and let them know that he had completed the climb.
The descent was no less dramatic, as Christian reports that darkness caught him on the way down, and he stopped and rested under a rock for awhile. He fell asleep there, but doesn't know for how long, and after his nap he proceeded down the mountain, where he is reportedly "exhausted – but happy!"
Expect more details on the climb once Christian has had a chance to rest. It sounds like this was a solo, alpine style assault on the summit, so it'll be interesting to hear how it all went down. The Austrian now has the claim to the only summit on K2 in 2010.
Well done Christian!
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