“It seems that K2 is still not ready this season,” Dawa Sherpa from the expedition operator “Seven Summit Treks” wrote on Facebook. The team’s Climbing Sherpas, who wanted to fix the ropes above the so-called “Bottleneck”, a narrow couloir at about 8,200 meters with huge seracs above, turned around. The snow above the Bottleneck was 1.40 meters deep, Dawa reported adding that two avalanches had swept down.
According to information from the Austrian operator “Furtenbach Adventures” two climbers suffered fractures. The Furtenbach team descended: “Everybody came to the same decision, it was way too dangerous with deep and wind affected snow.”
The Sherpas of the Nepalese operator “Imagine Nepal” came to this conclusion too, as they also turned back because of the deep snow. “They decided not to take risk and not to put other climbers in danger,” wrote expedition leader Mingma Gyalje Sherpa on Facebook.
Third failed attempt
The South African adventurer Mike Horn and his Swiss climbing partner Fred Roux also abandoned their summit attempt yesterday and returned to base camp. Both were on their way without breathing masks. “Strong winds, snow drifts, and the lack of oxygen made breathing difficult,” Mike wrote on Facebook and declared also his third attempt on K2 failed: “But I will be back.”
Mingote’s third 8000er without bottled oxygen this year
Summit successes are reported from the 8034-meter-high Gasherbrum II. Among those who reached the summit was the Spaniard Sergi Mingote. After Lhotse and Nanga Parbat it was already the third eight-thousander he scaled without bottled oxygen this year. In 2018 Sergi had summited Broad Peak, K2 and Manaslu without breathing mask
Purja’s eight and ninth summit success in 2019
According to “The Himalayan Times”, Nirmal, called “Nims” Purja also reached the top of Gasherbrum II today. Last Sunday he summited Gasherbrum I, it said. If the successes are confirmed, the 36-year-old Nepalese, a former soldier of the British Gurkha regiment, has already scaled nine eight-thousanders this year – with breathing mask, on the normal routes. Nims has set himself the goal of summiting the 14 highest mountains in the world within seven months. He is well on schedule.
