Award Winning Alpinist Feared Dead

The climbing season in the Karakoram was all but over for the summer when Russian climbers Dmitry Golovchenko and Sergey Nilov started up Gasherbrum IV. Nilov recently returned to base camp and alerted others that Golovchenko had disappeared. (UPDATE BELOW)

It’s unknown at this point what went wrong, but the two had been attempting a route up the southeast ridge and had presumably been above 7,000 metre for several days since leaving base camp on August 18. They were attempting the route alpine style.

The highly accomplished alpinists had won two Piolet d’Or together, an award given to ascents considered the boldest and most cutting-edge each year. They received one in 2012 for a climb up the northeast ridge of Muztagh Tower with Alexander Lange; and one in 2016 first a first ascent up the north face of Thalay Sagar with Dmitry Grigoriev.

In 2019, Nilov and Golovchenko spent almost three weeks trying a new route in alpine-style up the unclimbed east face of Jannu/Kumbhakarna (7,710 m) in Nepal. They bailed just shy of the summit in bad weather, but made the first ascent of the mountain’s east face. Watch a trailer to a film about their climb below.

Wall of Shadows

Update Sept. 6

Gasherbrum IV southeast ridge

Sergey Nilov has been evacuated to the hospital, he has third degree frostbite.

His partner Dmitry Golovchenko is still missing after falling off the mountain.
At the moment no more news.

Source and photo: Mountain RU Anna Piunova pic.twitter.com/eA7j9GcnEl

— k2 (@KrisAnnapurna) September 6, 2023