Winter 2018: Everest Teams on the way to C2, Few Details from K2, Nanga Parbat

Winter 2018 climbing season is progressing smoothly, as three teams work on the mountains at their own pace. Everest team is currently fixing the icefall route to C2. Whereas, Nanga Parbat and K2 team would resume the climb as weather conditions improve.

Everest
Alex Txikon and Ali Sadpara flew to Kathmandu in last week of December and began the trek to BC without any delay. The team was also joined by seven climbers, including two icefall doctors, from Nepal. They reached BC on Jan 2nd and spent next few days setting up and organizing the camp. In an unfortunate accident, a member of BC staff suffered a fall and had to be evacuated to hospital.

On January 6th, team started fixing the route through icefall. Within a couple of days, they were able to reach 5600m. In next foray, they extended the route to 6050m and established C1.

“We have managed to equip up to Camp 1. After 4 hard working days through Kumbu Icefall, we have reached 6050 m. Last year it took us 5 more days to meet this objective. The work has been carried out by 6 climbers whereas last year we made it between 11.” Txikon wrote on Jan 12th.

The team is back on the mountain and working on the route to C2. Alex Txikon’s tracker showed that the climber was at around 6280m this morning.


K2
The Polish team left for Pakistan on Dec 29th, flew to Skardu on 31st and drove to Askole on Jan 2nd. Their march from Askole to K2 BC went without any incident. They were welcomed by strong wind and clouds at Base Camp.

"The manager is reporting 'Base. A little blows.' They are gusts. 'Bivouac' as before. From tomorrow we are building a base. Greetings K." The team messaged on January 9th after reaching the camp.

On January 12th, first group of climbers went up to check the route conditions, whereas others remained busy setting up the Base Camp. The team is currently having some difficulty in communication due to issues with their satellite link. As per last communication on Jan 13th, they had all equipment delivered at BC and a second team was to go up following morning.


Nanga Parbat
Tomek Mackiewicz and Elisabeth Revol are not sending any direct updates from the mountain this season. Few details we have, come from either the local tour operator or their home teams.

By Jan 3rd, the duo had acclimatized to 6000m on mountain and were ready to go further. On 7th, it was learnt that they had set up C3 at around 7300m.

On January 10th, Tomek’s home team wrote, “Thank you so much for your support. He is offline, there is no Internet access in BC, very limited connection by satellite phone. All your fantastic messages he will reply after his happy and hopefully successful descent from above his beloved mountain. [He is] presumably waiting out very strong wind in BC now.”

Weather-Forecast (click to enlarge)



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