It took a long time, but now the moment has arrived. Today, the first more than two dozen summit successes of the summer season were reported from K2, the second highest mountain in the world, located in the Karakoram in Pakistan. The Nepalese expedition operator Imagine Nepal provided the largest group with 15 members at the summit.
The team was led by Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, the head of the company. For him, it was his sixth K2 summit success. Mingma and Imagine Nepal had taken on the task of fixing the ropes to the highest point at 8,611 meters.
Thanks to the fixed rope team
Seven Summits Treks and 14 Peaks Expeditions, also operators from Nepal, thanked Mingma’s rope-fixing team and informed that ten members of their joint team had reached the summit. Nepalese Pasang Tenje Sherpa and Kyrgyz Eduard Kubatov had climbed without bottled oxygen, it said.
Karrar Haidri from the Pakistan Mountaineering Association announced that two climbers from the team of the Pakistani operator Masherbrum Expedition had also scaled K2.
The teams had to wait around two months for their chance to reach the summit. Initially, rockfall caused by high temperatures prevented ascents, and later there was a high risk of avalanches and strong winds. Some expedition teams left early.
Update 13 August: According to their operators, another 14 climbers reached the summit of K2 on 11 August. The Nepalese operator Alpinist Climber Expeditions reported nine summit successes. Slovakian Lenka Polackova and Leow Kah Shin climbed without bottled oxygen, it said. British organizer Elite Exped informed that five of its team members had reached the highest point. This brought the number of those who made it to the top on the only K2 summit day so far this summer to 41.
