GI summits, Kaltenbrunner turns back on K2

The Karakorum season is now well under way in the Pakistani Himalaya, with mountaineers heading for the summits of the world’s highest mountains outside of Nepal.

On the planet’s second highest mountain K2, female alpinist Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner turned back high on the peak in the face of tough conditions, ExplorersWeb reported this week.

Kaltenbrunner is one of the world’s top climbers with thirteen 8000 metre peaks under her belt, all accomplished without the use of supplementary oxygen.

On this her third attempt on K2, is hoping to become the 3rd woman to climb all fourteen 8000ers, after Miss Oh and Edurne Pasaban both completed their Himalayan big mountain tour earlier this year.

Climbing with her husband Ralf Dujmovits, who himself has climbed the 8000ers, her final push to become the first woman to complete the summits without O2 started earlier this week. An excerpt reads:

"Confident and motivated, on July 24 we set off at 4.00AM, together with Fredrik Ericsson, Trey Cook, Fabrizio Zangrilli and three Polish climbers," Gerlinde recalls. That day they reached 6,300 meters on the Cesen route in storm conditions, and proceeded further up to 7,100 meters on the following day. Meanwhile, flattened tents in C2 put an end to the summit hopes of teams on the Abruzzi Spur route.

"On the third day, I thought I knew the route very well--but now it looked completely different, with less ice, fragile rock and sections with loads of unstable snow. Fast progress was impossible. We stopped for bivouac shortly before the Shoulder. We sat in the tent on an icy ledge and discussed whether we could recover enough to go for the summit a couple of hours later.... By midnight, there was nothing to discuss: the wind was picking up; we were turning back."

"Our cook was waiting for us in BC. 'Inshallah next time, good thing back.' Indeed, he was right. In the descent we had dealt with frequent rockfalls and much melted water, so we were very relieved to be back in BC."

"Now we will get crazy looking at forecasts for some days, hoping for yet another chance to attempt the summit!" Gerlinde concluded.

Elsewhere in the Karakorum, mountaineers on GI have reported success with five summits including climbers Radek Jaros (Czech), Don Bowie (Canada) and American Marty Schmidt. GII still awaits summits as does Broad Peak, both which have seen poor weather and high snowfalls this season.

Source: ExplorersWeb

Image: Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner on a mixed section near C3. Image by Ralf Dujmovits