Winter K2 Summit made possible by Nepalese mountaineers!

Scaling K2 Summit in winter has been made possible by Nepalese mountaineers!

         

First image of Winter K2 Ascent

Rashid Hussain
 

On December 19, 2020, an international winter K2 expedition reached Pakistan’s capital Islamabad. From 18 countries, 60 climbers comprising of different teams started their adventure in early January to reach the world’s second-highest peak of the Karakorum mountainous ranges K2, located on the Pakistan-China border.

K2 is 8,611 metres (28,251 feet) above sea level, it is the world’s most challenging and dangerous peak known as “Savage mountain” or “King of North”. Since the first failed attempts in 1987-88, only a few international climbers tried their luck to scale the peak in winter, but all attempts were unsuccessful.

On January 16, 2021, ten Nepalese climbers from three different expeditions, namely Nirmal Pujra, Mingma David Sherpa, Mingma Tenzi Sherpa, Geljen Sherpa, Pem Chiri Sherpa, Dawa Temba Sherpa, Dawa Tenjin Sherpa, Mingma Gyalje, Sona Sherpa, and Kilu Pemba Sherpa managed to reach the top of K2, they made a new world record of a winter ascent.

Although the summit of Everest is at a higher altitude, K2 is a more difficult, challenging, and dangerous climb due to its sheer slopes and deadliest rocky areas, mountaineers say that weather is always the toughest opponent on K2 round the year.

Every one of four climbers, die to reach the K2 summit, a famous Spanish mountaineer Sergio Mingote Moreno, who was also a part of this winter expedition, lost his life after falling into a crevasse at base camp 1.

49 years old Sergio Mingote Moreno aged was on a mission to scale all 14 highest peaks of 8000 metres without supplemental oxygen, but he could summit six of them and lost his life while attempting Mt. K2. Pakistan Army’s helicopter reached the base camp and brought the dead body to Islamabad.

“Summit winds reach hurricane force, still-air temperatures are well below -65 degrees and the winter’s low barometric pressure means even less oxygen – so the margins of error are almost nonexistent, the smallest mistake can have catastrophic consequences,” the Nepalese expedition team wrote on its webpage before undertaking the mission.

Another mountaineer Alex Goldfarb who went missing during a climb attempt on K2 has been found dead a couple of days ago. He was a Russian-American doctor who pushed on alone when his teammates failed to convince him to give up their attempt to scale the world’s most lethal summit.

A Nepalese expedition team member Jangbu Sherpa was also injured due to rock falls, he was rescued and brought to Skardu hospital by Pakistan Army’s team.

The international winter expedition team leader Chhang Dawa congratulated all team members and the Nepalese nation on successfully making a history of scaling K2 in the winter season. The mountaineering community celebrated the first-ever winter summit of K2 as the 10 Nepalese climbers reached the top of the world’s deadliest and the second-highest peak.

So far, 367 climbers in summer and 10 Nepalese climbers in winter have managed to scale the K2 summit, 86 mountaineers have lost their lives in attempts to climb the peak since 1954.