GILGIT: The three expedition groups currently attempting to set a world record by climbing the tallest mountain Everest, the second tallest peak K2, and the killer mountain Nanga Parbat in winter, have arrived at the decisive stage in their adventurous journeys.

According to information gathered from various sources, including social media sites like WhatsApp , Twitter and satellite messages and from expedition members, famous mountaineer Mohammad Ali Sadpara from Pakistan with his climbing partner, Spanish Alex Txikon, and two Nepalese Sherpas, started climbing Everest without bottled oxygen.

They had climbed the 7,200-metre-high Mount Pamori on Saturday by 11am, which is the hardest climb of the Everest.

This is the first ever summit by any Pakistani on this peak.

“The wind was very strong, but we all are fine,” Alex Txikon said.

After returning to the base camp, Txikon and Ali Sadpara wanted to focus again on their actual goal, a winter ascent of Everest without bottled oxygen.

Biafo tours manager Shakeel Ahmed Nagri told Dawn that it was expected that expedition team would take two weeks more to scale the Everest.

According Polish expedition spokesman Michal Leksinski, currently a 13-member Polish climbers’ team, has reached K2 camp 2, which is at an altitude of above 6,000 metres.

Michal Leksinski said if the Polish team could succeed to scale the K2, which is considered a savage mountain in winter, it would be first event in the history. PolKrzysztof Wielicki, 67, the team leader, made headlines in 1980, when he became the first person to climb Mount Everest in winters.

He led three different winter expeditions in past to different peaks on K2, but never went to its highest point.

The two-member expedition team comprising Polish mountaineer Tomek Mackiewicz and French woman Elisabeth Revol started scaling Nanga Parbat, famously known as naked peak, on Jan 8. According to Polish media, the two climbers reached Nanga Parbat camp 3, which is at an altitude of 7,200 metres, at 2am on Saturday. The Polish media said the couple would attempt Nanga Parbat climb on Jan 25.

Nanga Parbat was climbed first time in winter by Ali Sadpara.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2018