Yesterday I mentioned that Everest News was reporting that there could very well be an attempt on the summit of K2 this week, despite the recent tragedy there, and poor weather conditions over the course of the past few weeks.
Today, we get a bit more information on the climbers who are still on that mountain and are, reportedly, making their way to the top even now. According to this post, American’s Dave Watson and Chuck Boyd have abandoned their attempts on the summit and have come down from the high camps. There is no word as to how they reached before turning back, and considering how late in the season we are, it’s fairly safe to assume that they are done with K2 for 2008.
On the other hand, George Dijmarescu, Mingma Sherpa and Rinjin Sherpa are still proceeding up the mountain. All three are climbing with the Sunny Mountain Guides and are looking to top out by this weekend. As Everest News reminds us, there are no fixed ropes in place any longer, having been buried by the collapsing serac, so it’s going to be a long, slow, and challenging climb for this trio.
Clearly they are very determined. They waited this long for their window, and it’s finally here. Probably the last window for K2 this season. If they make it to the top, it’ll be quite the story and a herculean effort is required to get them there. Lets hope they just come back safely. The summit will be there next year guys. Keep that in mind!
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Any updates on this? Fascinating story to follow. So much conflicting information floating around on George but I’ve very much enjoyed his posts on everestnews.com. Best of luck to the three.
I looked for updates on Everest News this morning, but there has been nothing yet. They noted that updates would have to come via sat phone at this point, so they may be conserving battery life and waiting until the reach the summit or come back down.
I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on things over the weekend though.