GILGIT: Two foreign expeditions comprising 21 members have started their journey to climb the world’s most dangerous K2 peak, which has so far not been scaled in winter.

The team members departed to Skardu from Islamabad on Friday.

The climbers are from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland and Spain.

The first team comprises Vassiliy Pivtsov from Kazakhstan, who is the expedition leader, and Artem Brown from Russia, the project organiser.

The rest of the team members include Roman Abildaev from Russia, Michael Danichkin from Kyrgyzstan, Tursunali Aubakirov from Kazakhstan, Dmitry Muraviov from Kazakhstan, Konstantin Shepelin from Russia.

Elena Laletina, the official secretary of Russian K2 expedition, 2019, told Dawn that the team members had departed for Skardu from Islamabad on Friday. “Everyone is in a good mood and feeling well, the team will have reliable satellite communication and Internet in the base camp,” she added.

Winter K2 ascent is a long and expensive project which requires a lot of high-quality equipment, she maintained.

All the team members have a solid experience of climbing the peaks above 7,000 meters, and the team also has a ‘winter snow leopard’ in the person of Vassiliy Pivtsov, who has climbed all 14 highest peaks of the world without the use of artificial oxygen, Ms Laletina explained.

The second team is led by famous climber Alex Txikon, who will be climbing with his longtime friend and partner, Felix Criado from Galicia, Spain. The other team members include Polish climbers Marek Klonowski and Pawel Dunaj and an eight-member strong team of Nepalese Sherpas.

Both the teams departed for Skardu by road as the PIA’s Skardu-bound flight was cancelled over bad weather.

The climbers will drive up to Askole where they will begin the trek to K2 Base Camp.

Meanwhile, Daniele Nardi from Italy with Britain’s Thomas Ballard and two Pakistani team members, Rehmatullah Baig and Karim Hayat, are attempting a new route to Nanga Parbat.

They reached the Camp 1, but heavy snowfall forced them back to the base camp the other day.

The team started its adventure on Dec 24, 2018.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2019