The Nepalese mountain guide Tenjen Sherpa and the Norwegian Kristin Harila have successfully completed their time chase on the eight-thousanders. The two reached the summit of 8611-meter K2 today – together with the team that fixed the ropes up to the highest point.
This means that Kristin and Tenjen have scaled all 14 eight-thousanders within three months and one day. In doing so, they demonstrated what is possible with physical strength and determination when the means of commercial expedition mountaineering are pushed to the extreme: They reached the summits via the normal routes and were supported on their ascents with bottled oxygen by strong Sherpa teams. Helicopters were also used on some climbs to transport not only materials but also Climbing Sherpas to the high camps. In 2019, Nepalese Nirmal Purja had “ticked off” all 14 eight-thousanders in six months and six days in the same style.
What I think of this way of climbing the highest mountains in the world, I have already let you know.
Long queue in the summit zone
According to the Nepalese expedition operator Seven Summit Treks, more than 20 climbers reached the summit, the second highest mountain on Earth, in the first group. According to reports, well more than 150 summit aspirants were en route.
“(A) Long queue of climbers are heading to (the) summit,” Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, head of operator Imagine Nepal, wrote on Twitter before the first successes were reported.
Update 4pm CEST: According to reports from Pakistan, Pakistani climber Mohammad Hassan has died on K2 near the so-called “Bottleneck” at above 8,000 meters. R.I.P. 🙏
