Pakistan wrap-up: Kazakhs down on K2 - GI summits confirmed
Veikka Gustafsson (left) and Kazuya Hiraide met for the first time on their recent, successful GI expedition, Image courtesy of ExWeb/Pakistan's Karrar Haidri (click to enlarge).
Kazakhs Max (left) and Vassiliy are on their way back to K2 BC. Images courtesy of Maxut Zhumayev /A. Verkhovod (click to enlarge).
Carlos Soria has just summited his 9th 8000er, GI, at 70. Image of Carlos some months ago on Dome Kang, courtesy of his website (click to enlarge).
11:27 am CDT Aug 05, 2009
(K2Climb.net/Madrid) Forecasted high winds have forced Kazakhs Max and Vasso down from K2’s C4 – the climbers were hoping to launch a new summit push after yesterday’s attempt. Carlos Soria’s and Oh Eun-sun’s teams summited GI two days ago, teams in BC confirm. Iranian climbers are still trying to open a new route on Broad Peak’s SW side, while their female-counterparts summited Spantik yesterday.
K2
“The second summit push planned for today just didn't happen,” Maxut messaged earlier today. “Last night we were ready for a second assault together with the Japanese expedition – but everything has changed. A new weather report announced hurricane winds picking up to 100 km/h today. In the current circumstances, with no one else on the mountain and actually tired after breaking trail yesterday, we are retreating back to BC.”
Gasherbrum I
“We send our congratulations to the Spanish and Korean climbers who summitted Gasherbrum I on the 3rd,” Altitude Junkies’ Phil Crampton reported from Gasherbrums BC. “The information being sent down from the high camp got slightly distorted by the time it reached us as we were told that all the climbers on the summit push had turned around.”
“It was though, due to 50 km/h wind and bitter cold,” summiteer Carlos Soria told Desnivel.com. “Thanks God we had Miss Oh’s Korean team at our side – otherwise we may not have reached the top.”
As for Miss Oh, Carlos confirmed she climbed without supplementary O2. “One of her Sherpas climbs on O2 though, so he can react and move faster.” Soria may have become the oldest GI summiteer by topping out at 70. He has previously summited eight other 8000ers.
Meanwhile, also GI summiteers Veikka Gustafsson and Kazuya Hiraide had a chat with ExWeb-Pakistan’s Karrar Hidri during the debrief session at ACP’s headquarters in Islamabad. “I’ll return to Pakistan as a ttrekker – there are some beautiful valleys to explore in the region,” Veikka said.
By summiting GI on July 26th, he became the first Skandinavian 14x8000er summiteer. Veikka had appraisal words for his expedition outfitter ATP and BC crew, while he showed concernes about increasing pollution in the Baltoro area.
As for Japanese Kazuya Hiraide, 2009's Piolet d’Or winner had actually never met Veikka before they teamed up to climb GI. He is neither interested in pursuing the 14x8000ers, although before heading for GI he had previously climbed GII and Broad Peak.
Broad Peak
The Arash Mountaineers team is still working on a new route up the peak’s SW side. "Four climbers went up to C1 today, hopping to finish the remaining part of route between C2 and C3 in next few days,” leader Kiyoumars Babazadeh told IMZ on Saturday.
Spantik
Iranian lady climbers Leila Ebrahimi, Parastou Abrishami, Shiva Farsi, Fereshteh Khademi-talab, Masoumeh Maleki and Mahsa Moti-ei summited Spantik yesterday, along with Mahmoud Hashemi, Hadi Saberi and Abbaas Ranjbari. The team topped-out at 2,30pm after climbing for 12 hours from C3.
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