All eyes are on Broad Peak where a summit push was planned for this weekend. Climbers on GIII posted a thrilling tale of a hairy rescue; while a first ascent of Karim Sar was proudly annunced.
Several interviews went up in the polar section on top of a James Bond-style update about Thule’s (Greenland) ballistic missile early warning radar.
Still, it was Miss Go’s fate on Nanga Parbat that stole most headlines last week.
Nanga Parbat: Among other rescues lately, Askari Aviation (“The Fearless Five”) in Pakistan retrieved Miss Go’s remains on Nanga Parbat. ExWeb’s Korean sources report that the body has arrived in Seoul, Korea, accompanied to the mortuary by expedition leader Jae-Soo Kim. Go’s family reportedly said that some of her ashes will go to Miss Oh and Ji Hyuk Kim to be scattered on the three mountains she had left to summit.
In Korea, some local climbers said that media, sponsors and the “first-ism” of society all fueled a competition between Miss Go and Miss Oh – forcing the climbers to take undue risks. Go’s older brother however replied that his sister and Miss Oh were friends, and never competed with each other. As for the sponsors, “My sister didn’t have enough money to climb, so they helped her,” Seok-Kyun Go said.
Joao Garcia’s Nanga Parbat debrief: “the fixed rope where Miss Go fell was removed” When it comes to fellow climbers, usually Joao Garcia tries to be a diplomat. Not so in his debrief from Nanga Parbat. The veteran climber was upset that the upper rope-fixing task was mostly left to a handful climbers and moreover – the rope where Miss Go fell (and which he had fixed) had been cut.
Denis Urubko had a similar experience on Nanga in 2003, RussianClimb reported: A mint, high-quality rope he fixed at the rock section above Camp 2 on Nanga Parbat had been replaced by short pieces of old rope while he was gone and Denis fell. Only his fast reaction saved him; he had time to push off the slope and prevent to go head over heels: “All was like a slow cartoon, flying some meters with my arms and legs spread out, I caught hold of a rock at the edge of precipice,” Denis wrote.
Gerfried Göschl’s Nanga Parbat debriefs: ÖAV expedition leader Gerfried Göschl posted a fast report on the circumstances surrounding Wolfgang Köblinger’s fatal accident in the commercial part of his Nanga Parbat expedition; and answered Joao’s debrief. “My team brought the most rope and fixing gear,” he said, “it’s normal that if one provides more material and faces higher costs the others fix more.” As for Miss Go; “Porters of ALL expeditions decided to cut ropes from safer places and fix them in the more dangerous parts of the route above C2,” Gerfried explained, threatening Joao with a lawsuit for defamation.
(Ed note): While people have a right to defend their honor; they also have a right to express opinions about wrong-doings they feel strongly about. In countries practicing free speech rights, a defamation lawsuit can only be successful if the offender knowingly makes false allegations with intent to damage. In foreign mountain fatalities especially; fact finding attempts must be open to a free debate without fear.
Gasherbrum III “Bruce struggled to remain conscious throughout the evening and by the night of the 10th he was drifting in and out of consciousness – outside the winds were howling and visibility had dropped to zero,” Bowie recalled the summit attempt last weekend. Read all about the emergency descent in a blizzard with a semi-unconscious Bruce in Bowie’s 3-part debrief.
K2: Human body parts protruding from the moraine on top of Michele Fait’s fatal accident, “the presence of death here is overwhelming,” said Sean Wisedale right before leaving K2’s BC together with Tunc Findik – both climbers have called their attempts off.
Gasherbrum I While most big teams have packed up and gone home, Veikka & Kazuya are ready to sit out and wait for their summit chance.
Gasherbrum II “Scottish conditions” Adele Pennington (JG) said about the weather that thwarted all summit pushes on the Gasherbrums.
Karim Sar (6,180m) first ascent Pat Deavoll (NZ) made a spectacular first ascent of Karim Sar (6,180m) on June 21st. Teaming up with Paul Hersey, Pat forged a route up the 2,600 meters tall south face. On the definitive summit push, she climbed the final 1000m alone while her climbing partner stayed at the top camp at 5100m. “The final 1000 meters took me 12 hours,” Pat told ExplorersWeb.
Spantik – Iranian ladies to the top Lady Iranian climbers Leila Ebrahimi, Parastou Abrishami, Shiva Farsi, Fereshteh Khademi-talab and Masoumeh Maleki are about to attempt Spantik, IMZ News reported.
Broad Peak Iran’s Arash expedition members planned to set up a second camp on the peak’s SW side this weekend.
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Filed under: Climbers, Expedition, Himalayas, Week-In-Review | Tagged: Broad Peak, Climbers, Don Bowie, Expedition, Gasherbrum, Go Mi-Sun, K2, Karakorum, Ko Mi-young, mountaineering, Nanga Parbat, Pakistan, Travel | Leave a comment »
Ryszard Pawłowski (24 June 1950) Polish alpine and high-altitude climber and photographer. Member of The Explorers Club.
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