ISLAMABAD: After the German mountaineer Ralf Dujmovits and his team member called it quits in the first week of January out of fear of avalanche exactly above their camp, two Italian and Polish winter expeditions on Nanga Parbat are also presumably packing up.

This was confirmed by Karrar Haidri, the member, Executive Council, Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP).

According to ACP it was not just the obvious hazards like extreme cold, ice and risks of avalanches. “One of the main reasons behind failure is continuous bad weather,” said Karrar Haidri, explaining how the climbers hardly got the chance to climb past Base Camp III some 6,700 metres high and then launch a push for summit.

According to ACP spokesperson, in nearly 25 years, seventeen climbing expeditions, including the finest mountaineers, had attempted to reach Nanga Parbat peak in winter season but failed.

Karrar Haidri said both teams tried but intense cold, harsh wind and predictions of deteriorating weather forced the climbers to return to base camp.

According to ACP, on Saturday, Tomek Mackeiwicz of the Polish expedition and the Italian duo Simone Moro and David Goettler, tried to reach Camp III at 6, 700 metres but strong winds forced them to drop the idea of scaling the summit.

While Tomek Mackeiwicz went up from Camp II, but he too could not withstand the wind and cold, the Alpine Club quoted the mountaineer as saying.

Simone Moro and David Goettler also reached 5,700 metres. But by the afternoon, all the teams came down.

“All the climbers are now resting back in the base camps,” said Karrar Haidri elaborating on the mountain forecast from Tuesday, when summit winds will be touching 100-km per hour throughout next week.

Probably the climbers will have to remain patient and wait for some time before they can go up again.

The teams reached Pakistan late in December 2013 and had spent more than a month on the 8,126 meters high killer mountain on the tail end of the Himalayan Range in Pakistan.

German mountaineer, Ralf Dujmovits was the 16th climber in the world to have scaled all 14 plus peaks of 8000 metre in the world. Besides conquering all the 14 plus peaks, Simone Moro was best known for the first ever winter ascent in December 2011 on Gasherbrum II.

ACP said that the climbers will have to stay put in their tents at base camp for a week at least before the weather permits climbing again.