Updated: Climbers Make Final Effort for K2 Winter Summit

Spanish climber Alex Txikon has started the final push up K2 this winter after returning to the world’s second highest peak from a rescue operation on Nanga Parbat. Felix Criado and Ignacio de Zuloaga are currently ahead of Txikon and are moving to advanced basecamp. Txikon is joined by Nepalese climbers Cheppal, Walung, Geljen and Cheppal. The Polish climbers who were hoping for a summit push have called their expedition off.
UPDATE March 17:
Alex Txikon and team are back at K2 Base Camp thus ending their summit attempt and expedition due to high winds.
— Alan Arnette (@alan_arnette) March 17, 2019
UPDATE March 15:
K2 UPDATE 2: 16 March 2019: At Camp 3 at 7050m at top of the Black Pyramid. Winds are extremely strong. Sunday will be critical when terrain become fairly open until the Bottleneck, Tomorrow’s wind chill at -50C/-50F. They sound optimistic but realistic.https://t.co/iFn3dplZAf pic.twitter.com/LcqOid0hm4
— Alan Arnette (@alan_arnette) March 16, 2019
“The moment has come and we’re ready,” said Txikon. “The atmosphere of this mountain will never cease to surprise me. Here, we have grown as alpinists and human beings. We’ll do our best, but will keep a cool head about our ultimate goal: a safe return to Base Camp.”
The first winter attempt was a Polish expedition (1987-1988), the second attempt was a Polish expedition (2002-2003), the third attempt was a Russian expedition (2011-2012) and the fourth attempt was a Polish expedition (2017 -2018). Txikon has only one week until the equinox.