K2 Teams Join Forces for Big Winter Ascent Attempt
The push to make the first winter ascent of K2 is on its way with a number of climbers joining forces to make history.
The two major teams of Vassily Pivtsov and Alex Txikon have combined resources and climbers to better their chances of reaching the summit.
There are now climbers from Nepal, Russia, Spain, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan working together. They’ve all met and are currently on their way to basecamp with most climbers already on the Baltoro Glacier.
The first winter attempt on K2 was led by Polish mountaineering legend Andrzej Zawada. The 24 man team (13 Poles, 7 Canadians and 4 Brits) flew to Pakistan at the start of December, and arrived in Base Camp on Christmas Day, to heavy snow and strong winds.
In total, the team would have just ten days of ‘good’ weather in the three months they spent at basecamp.
Despite the adverse conditions, Maciej Pawlikowski, Maciej Berbeka, Krzysztof Wielicki and Jon Tinker managed to establish camp one at 6,100 metres
A few days later, Wielicki and Cichy set up camp two, but due to stormy weather, the climbers did not reach camp three until March 2nd.
Wielicki and Cichy were the first to reach Camp 3, then Roger Mear and Jean-Francois Gagnon joined them on March 6th. However, that night, with hurricane winds raging, both Mear and Gagnon suffered frostbite, and had to be assisted down the mountain the next day. This brought an end to the expedition, and the idea of further winter attempts on K2 was forgotten for over a decade.
Check out the latest buyer's guide:
