Himalaya 2009 climbing season, Karakoram and Himalaya wrap-up /26/ – Week in Review.

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in 2003, RussianClimb reported: A mint, high-quality rope he fixed at the rock section above Camp 2 on Nanga Parbat had been replaced by short pieces of old rope while he was gone and Denis fell.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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Karakoram Summer 2009 expeditions wrap-up : Broad Peak summit watch, GIII attempt and incredible rescue debrief.

(K2Climb.net – Jul 17, 2009) Climbers on Broad Peak are expected to depart C3 for the summit tonight. Bids on K2 might follow next week. Veikka and Kazuya are among the few still holding on the Gasherbrums.

The attempt on GIII last week ended with an impressive rescue.

Broad Peak

Nearly 30 climbers reached C2 yesterday, planning for C3 today. Summit push will start midnight, weather pending.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Arash expedition members climbed to C1 on the peak’s SW side in a spell of good weather. A second camp is planned for tomorrow. “We have already fixed 1400 meters of ropes from BC at 4750m to 6000m through the last ten days.” Babazadeh told IMZ.

Nanga Parbat

Korean Go Mi-sun’s remains were retrieved yesterday and will be airlifted to Islamabad, Askari Aviation’s Lt. Col. Ilyas Ahmad confirmed to ExplorersWeb.

Gasherbrum III

Don, Guy, Bruce and Billy set off from BC towards GIII on July 6th, hoping to give the summit a shot by July 10th. Things didn’t go as planned though. Bruce Normand became sick at C4 (7,300m) on the night before the team’s summit push. His state worsened through the following day, while a storm unfolded outside – by the second night the situation became critical.

“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 last O2 sat measurement I took in the night for Bruce was a staggeringly low 37%. I congratulated him for officially breaking the Guinness World Record for having the lowest oxygen sats and still being alive. He didn’t laugh.”

Read all about the emergency descent in a blizzard with a semi-unconscious Bruce in Bowie’s 3-part debrief debrief (last part to be posted today).

K2

“We are planning to head back up the mountain in two waves to try and fix to C3 (7200m approx) over the weekend, as the weather will hopefully be good enough for a few days,” Jake Meyer reported from K2 BC yesterday.

Jorge Egocheaga and Martin Ramos are also headed from BC to C3 in one push tomorrow. “That will be our last acclimatization trip before the definitive summit push – which could be launched in a weather window expected next week,” Martin said.

Gasherbrum I

While several big teams have packed up and gone home, Veikka & Kazuya are ready to sit out and wait for their summit chance – no matter how long. “They are taking it easy and just relaxing at the Gasherbrum base camp, while they wait for the right climbing weather,” home team’s Tammisuo reported.

* Previous story  : – https://himalman.wordpress.com/category/karakoram/

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Karakoram Summer 2009 expeditions wrap-up : Gasherbrums Turn Back Teams, More On Go Mi-Sun.

The Karakorum climbing season is evolving quickly in no small part because of the weather conditions there. While many of the teams are remaining patient and hoping for the best, others are electing to call it a day and head home for the year. Take for example the Jagged Globe team, who were hoping to summit Gasherbrum II, but have now decided it is time to go home. They blame the shifting jet stream that has brought a ton of snow to the mountain and are now preparing to leave base camp on the weekend. Apparently they won’t be the only ones fleeing the Gasherbrums, as ExWeb is reporting that other teams are planning on packing it in for the season too. 

Don Bowie and the rest of his crew having been struggling away on G3 for the past few weeks, and he posted the first of his summit bid dispatches today.

Over on Broad Peak, the summit bids are underway for the Field Touring Alpine team, who are on their way to Camp 2 today and hope to top out on Saturday. From the sounds of things, there is a mass summit push underway, with nearly every climber on BP giving it ago. Winds are expected to die down tomorrow, opening a weather window through the weekend.

Snow continues to fly on K2, but the weather is also said to be quite warm in base camp. The climbers are still finishing up their acclimatization process for the most part, while Kazakh climbers Maxut Zhumayev and Vassiliy Pivtsov have just arrived in camp and well be climbing under the same permit with Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, who is going for her 13th 8000m peak.

Finally, ExWeb posted a story a few days back that shed more light on the death of Korean climber Go Mi-Sun. In a dispatch sent out from Joao Garcia, we learn a lot more about the conditions on Nanga Parbat and what led to the tragic fall that took the life of Miss Go. Joao doesn’t pull any punches when he explains how the process for fixing the lines worked this year, and how a certain Austrian team didn’t really pull their weight. It was because of them that the lines were removed between Camp 2 and Camp 3, which led to Miss Go not being roped in when she slipped and fell. Joao stops short of accusing the other team of being responsible for her death, but he makes it clear how he feels about the whole incident.

There is another report today on the state of climbing in Korea, where a culture of competitiveness has built up. ExWeb received word from someone in Korea that talked about the rivalries between the mountaineers, in this case Miss Go and another female climber named Miss Oh. It’s a rather revealing look at the drive to be “first” in some capacity in the mountains.

* Source : – http://theadventureblog.blogspot.com/

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Tragedy on Nanga Parbat update: survivors in BC, summits and accidents’ details.

Jul 13, 2009
(K2Climb.net) Lt Col(R) Ilyas Ahmad Mirza of Askari Aviation (“The Fearless Five”) in Pakistan told ExWeb in an email this morning that two helicopters were sent yesterday to retrieve Miss Go’s remains on Nanga Parbat but her body, earlier spotted on a steep slope, was missing from the location today. The helis are likely to return tomorrow to resume the search.

As climbers return to BC, more details are emerging about the weekend’s summit push and difficult descent on Nanga Parbat:

Wolfgang Köblinger lost balance in high winds and fell to his death shortly after reaching the summit. Another fall, on an unroped section between C3 and C2 took Miss Go’s life on Saturday.

No hopes for Köblinger

Gerfried’s Göschl’s home team stated all hope is out to find Wolfgang Köblinger alive. The team leader explained over sat phone the circumstances during which Köblinger disappeared. “Wolfgang was part of the group who attempted the summit from the Kinshoffer route,” Gerfried’s home team wrote.

“Hans Wenzl topped-out at about 2.30pm; Michaela Landl and Herbert Schütter turned around due to the late hour – but Wolfgang continued. He reached the summit together with a Korean expedition at 6:10pm. On descent, Wolfgang was behind the Koreans. Following a very strong gust of wind the Koreans glanced back with Wolfgang nowhere to be seen. His footprints ended at a steep slope at approx. 8060m. Louis Rousseau took pictures of the track and found some of Wolfgang’s belongings (backpack, a globe, a cap) and took them down to BC.”

“Meanwhile climbers in BC have helped some exhausted members of the summit group on their way down. Today (yesterday) at six, all our team members are safely back in BC.”

Details on Miss Oh and Miss Go

Giuseppe Pompili confirmed the late Korean Go Mi-Sun’s summit time, provided some details on her accident, and added a correction – stating Miss Oh Eun-Sun was first to summit that day, climbing on O2.

“I had mistaken the two Koreans,” Giuseppe Pompili noted. “Miss Oh was the one climbing on Oxygen – Miss Go was slowly ascending behind.”

“Miss Go topped-out at around 6.00 pm,” Pompili confirmed. “Shortly after she was forced to take shelter behind a rock for two hours due to the strong wind. She spent the night in C4. On the following morning (Saturday), while climbing down between C3 and C2 on a section without fixed ropes, she fell.”

“There are about 20 sections of double ropes along the three first camps, but also some unroped sections which are dangerous. Adriano and I were extremely careful when we had to climb down these passages – and definitely less tired than Miss Go.”

Sadness in BC

“Sadness – That’s the word to describe the feelings here in BC,” Pompili wrote. “Miss Go’s body was sighted down the Messner Couloir. Some people argue the rope in the section where she fell had been removed – others discuss the late departure hour from C4 (apparently about 3:00 am)…”

“One of Miss Go’s Sherpas has sustained severe frostbites in his hands,” Giuseppe added. “Today (yesterday) a chopper is scheduled to take Miss Oh to GI – I am not sure whether she’s finally taking it though.”

“Herbert (Schütter) is helped down by Gerfried and three others (Ed note: at the time of the report). He turned back without reaching the summit on Friday, but topped-out in a second attempt on Saturday,” the Italian climber stated.

Joao’s summit pics

One of the first to summit and also among the first climbers back in BC; Portuguese Joao García has sent a summit pic and a video report is expected soon.

Here is a preliminary summit list:

Friday, July 10th – Kinshoffer route summits:

Approx. 12:00pm: Miss Oh (probably on O2 – in her 12th 8000er) and at least one of her Sherpas.

Approx. 12:00pm: Joao (in his 13th 8000er), Ali and Amin.

2:30pm: Hans Wenzl.

6.00 pm: Miss Go (in her 11th 8000er, lost on descent), Kim Jae-Soo (his 11th 8000er), possibly other members in her team, and Wolfgang Köblinger (lost on descent).

Saturday, July 11th – New Route summits:

Gerfried Göschl, Louis Rousseau, Sepp Bachmair and Hans Goger.

Herbert Schütter joined the New Route group from C4 to the summit – he had previously climbed up the Kinshoffer route.

Others:

British Richard (Rick) Allen and Alexander (Sandy) Allan were quoted as summiteers – dates and route are still to be confirmed.

* Previous story  : – https://himalman.wordpress.com/category/karakoram/

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