Winter 2015 | Russians Wrap Up their Expedition, Progress on Diamir Side
Russian team has decided to wrap up the winter Nanga Parbat expedition. Their summit push a week ago resulted in battle against hurricane winds and blizzard in C4 for two days. The four climbers eventually descended to Base Camp in adverse weather on February 3rd. Meanwhile, three teams continue their progress on Diamir side of the mountain.
End of Rupal side Expedition
A message from Russian BC this morning announced the end of expedition. The team wrote, “today exactly 45th day as we left St. Petersburg and unfortunately the time for our expedition runs to the end. The mountain is clear at last, for the first time in two weeks but there're still snow flags on the top due to the strong wind. We pack BC and are going down."
Russian climbers Nickolay Totmjanin, Serguey Kondrashkin, Valery Shamalo and Victor Koval attempted Schell route on Rupal side. They arrived at BC around Christmas. By third week of January, they had established three camps at 5100m, 6000m and 6700m, and made a deposit at around 7150m (which was later converted to C4).
Weather on Nanga Parbat has been terrible since the Russians’ return to BC on Jan 20th. Despite unfavourable conditions, the climbers decide to make a summit attempt on January 28th. They were in C4 by 31st but the conditions were too bad to go further up. The four climbers eventually descended to Base Camp in adverse weather, on February 3rd.
Towards C2 on Kinshofer Route
Two teams reached Diamir BC at the end of January. Arrival of Iranian climbers Reza Bahadorani, Iraj Maani and Mahmood Hashemi was delayed by visa issues. Spaniard Alex Txikon decided to attempt Nanga Parbat after his team’s K2 permit was revoked. Alex is climbing with Ali Sadpara and Muhammad Khan. Both teams have decided to work together on Kinshofer route.
The two teams established C1 (at 5050m) on January 31st. Alex Txikon said that it took them three days to reach there. “We tried to set up first camp on January 28 but due to freshly fallen snow, little acclimatization and my stomach problem, we only managed to reach the start of glacier. On January 30th we returned to it, and this time we did get through both moraine and glacier, but the deep snow that covered us up to the waist did not allow us to move beyond 4850 meters. On Saturday (Jan 31st), also accompanied by the Iranian trio (Reza Bahadorani, Iraj Maani and Mahmood Hashemi), we managed to reach 5050m and set our first camp under a pyramid of rock.”
The teams left BC on February 4th to resume route fixing and setting up C2 and C3. Their plan was to proceed directly to C2. But fresh snow had covered the tracks and it took them 7 hours to reach C1. “We setup tents (at C1), drank, ate, and resumed the upward march, trying to take advantage of remaining daylight hours. We ascended rather quickly along the corridor leading to the base of the Kinshofer wall. Left 400 meters of rope at 5450m and returned to C1 for sleep.”
On Day 2 (Feb 5th), they worked on difficult part of Kinshofer route (between C1 and C2). They managed to open the route till 5800m only, because of deep snow. “It was a hard day, very deep snow,” Alex Txikon wrote from C1 last night.
Climbers are hoping that they will be able to establish C2 today.
Daniele Nardi
The Italian climber set up C3 (at 5600m) on Mummery Rib yesterday afternoon. He is expected to go further up today as weather remains stable.
Daniele Nardi left BC on Feb 4th. He climbed directly to C2 (5200m), where he found his tent broken down under the weight of snow. “had to work a couple of hours to fix everything,” his home team wrote on Wednesday.
End of Rupal side Expedition
A message from Russian BC this morning announced the end of expedition. The team wrote, “today exactly 45th day as we left St. Petersburg and unfortunately the time for our expedition runs to the end. The mountain is clear at last, for the first time in two weeks but there're still snow flags on the top due to the strong wind. We pack BC and are going down."
Russian climbers Nickolay Totmjanin, Serguey Kondrashkin, Valery Shamalo and Victor Koval attempted Schell route on Rupal side. They arrived at BC around Christmas. By third week of January, they had established three camps at 5100m, 6000m and 6700m, and made a deposit at around 7150m (which was later converted to C4).
Weather on Nanga Parbat has been terrible since the Russians’ return to BC on Jan 20th. Despite unfavourable conditions, the climbers decide to make a summit attempt on January 28th. They were in C4 by 31st but the conditions were too bad to go further up. The four climbers eventually descended to Base Camp in adverse weather, on February 3rd.
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| The Russian team; Source |
Towards C2 on Kinshofer Route
Two teams reached Diamir BC at the end of January. Arrival of Iranian climbers Reza Bahadorani, Iraj Maani and Mahmood Hashemi was delayed by visa issues. Spaniard Alex Txikon decided to attempt Nanga Parbat after his team’s K2 permit was revoked. Alex is climbing with Ali Sadpara and Muhammad Khan. Both teams have decided to work together on Kinshofer route.
The two teams established C1 (at 5050m) on January 31st. Alex Txikon said that it took them three days to reach there. “We tried to set up first camp on January 28 but due to freshly fallen snow, little acclimatization and my stomach problem, we only managed to reach the start of glacier. On January 30th we returned to it, and this time we did get through both moraine and glacier, but the deep snow that covered us up to the waist did not allow us to move beyond 4850 meters. On Saturday (Jan 31st), also accompanied by the Iranian trio (Reza Bahadorani, Iraj Maani and Mahmood Hashemi), we managed to reach 5050m and set our first camp under a pyramid of rock.”
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| Sunny days on Nanga Parbat Diamir side; Source |
The teams left BC on February 4th to resume route fixing and setting up C2 and C3. Their plan was to proceed directly to C2. But fresh snow had covered the tracks and it took them 7 hours to reach C1. “We setup tents (at C1), drank, ate, and resumed the upward march, trying to take advantage of remaining daylight hours. We ascended rather quickly along the corridor leading to the base of the Kinshofer wall. Left 400 meters of rope at 5450m and returned to C1 for sleep.”
On Day 2 (Feb 5th), they worked on difficult part of Kinshofer route (between C1 and C2). They managed to open the route till 5800m only, because of deep snow. “It was a hard day, very deep snow,” Alex Txikon wrote from C1 last night.
Climbers are hoping that they will be able to establish C2 today.
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| The Kinshofer route climbers; Source |
Daniele Nardi
The Italian climber set up C3 (at 5600m) on Mummery Rib yesterday afternoon. He is expected to go further up today as weather remains stable.
Daniele Nardi left BC on Feb 4th. He climbed directly to C2 (5200m), where he found his tent broken down under the weight of snow. “had to work a couple of hours to fix everything,” his home team wrote on Wednesday.
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