ISLAMABAD: Waist-deep snow on the Broad Peak forced some of the mountaineers to retreat, hindering their plans for the final push on Saturday.

According to the Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP), fresh snow had made the summit attempt difficult for a small group of climbers who set off for Broad Peak’s summit at 8,047 metres.

During the night, 10 climbers set off, but only two kept going to try their luck, said Alpine Club of Pakistan secretary Karrar Haidri. He said Oswald Rodrigo Pereira from Poland and Russian Anastasia Rumova continued while others turned around. The small group of climbers also included Belgian Niels Jespers, Hugo Ayaviri from Bolivia and Finnish climber Lotta Hintsa.

Mr Haidri elaborated that the mountaineers wanted to reach the summit on Saturday, but negotiating through heavy snow made climbing difficult. By noon, the climbers had not yet reached the saddle that leads to the Broad Peak’s summit ridge. And later, nearly everyone had turned around and descended to Camp-III.

However, mountaineering activity continued on the Gasherbrum and K2.

The ACP said that climbers were heading higher for the Camp-III of G-II (8,035 metres). It said they needed to reopen the trail up to the Banana Ridge as fresh snow had buried their previous tracks.

Mr Haidri said the summit push on K2 was also taking shape where veteran climbers had plans to attempt the summit by 27th of this month.

Some of the climbers, who plan to scale the 8,611 metres peak, have acclimatised on Broad Peak and returned to K2.

While the Canadian and American duo is back on K2 after climbing till Camp-III on the Broad Peak, the Ukranian-Nepali team is fixing ropes on K2 and opening up the route, the ACP said.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2021