ISLAMABAD: The Karakorams remained in focus over the last week as one climber was killed, others injured and some managing to make history.

“The 8,035 metres high Gasherbrum II was summated last week. A second attempt to conquer the 13th highest mountain in the world is underway and the climbers are trying are trying to succeed by Friday,” said Alpine Club of Pakistan Executive Council Member Karrar Haidri. Mr Haidri was quoting the Polish climber Michal Ruszkowski who sent a message to the ACP.

Karrar Haidri said that climbing conditions on Gasherbrum I, the 11th highest peak, also known as the hidden peak were challenging and not many climbers appeared optimistic about succeeding in their attempts.

A climbing attempt was being made by a four member team which included Ferran Latorre, Yannick Graziani, Tom Seidensticker and Muhammad Sadik while, Nick Rice from Taiwan and some Italian climbers had decided to abandon their attempts.

According to a message, sent to the base camp on Wednesday, Ferran Latorre and Yannick Graziani had reached camp II on Tuesday but one else had managed to climb to the camp.

Ferran Latorre in his message said: “The weather is very favourable again but all the ropes to camp III are buried and the snow appears to be unstable.” Gasherbrum I, which is 8,080 meters high, remained unclimbed in 2014.

Meanwhile, as clouds cleared the way on Wednesday, Pakistan Army helicopters managed to fly to the Broad Peak base camp to rescue climbers, injured in an avalanche on Tuesday.

The ACP confirmed that Japanese climber Sumiyo Tsuzuki who was injured on the peak was evacuated and three doctors were overseeing his treatment. “Fortunately, other climbers are not as seriously hurt and did not need to be evacuated,” Karar Haidri said.

Askari Aviation General Manager-Charter Brig Shahid Sardar, said that pilots had been on standby as bad weather was not allowing them to fly from Skardu to the base camp on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, an avalanche killed Pakistani high altitude porter Muhammad Qamber, a native of Shimshal Valley. Six other climbers were injured in avalanche.

A team led by Tunc Findik’s team reported to the ACP that spirits at the base camp were low because of the bad weather but by Wednesday the morale of the climbers had improved. He said that the weather was expected to remain clear for two days.

While the injured Samina Baig has safely returned in Askole, Karrar Haidri said, things were not looking great on K2 either, where bad weather and lack of coordination between different teams was delaying the summit push.

Last week, the Pakistani climber had injured her arm when a rock fell on her, forcing her to abandon her attempt.

Mr Haideri quoted Philippe Gatta, from his fan page on the internet, where he stated that each team on the mountain had their own weather report, strategy and constraints.

“Unfortunately, the result is a lack of enthusiasm and collaboration on a mountain where both are mandatory for success. There is a clear weather window to push on between July 23 and July 26, but it is short. Most teams do not want to take the risk or feel that they are not ready. We were ready to give it a try but without any support from other teams to break trail and fix the route above camp III, the task seems too risky. So we hope that the bad weather coming on July 27 till July 30, will not leave so much snow on the mountain that our expedition is jeopardised.”

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2015

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