Alan Arnette: Winter K2 Update | Summit Push in a Few Hours!
The historic first winter summit of K2 may happen on Saturday, January 16, 2021, by an all Nepali team.
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The historic first winter summit of K2 may happen on Saturday, January 16, 2021, by an all Nepali team. K2 is the last of the 14 8,000-meter peaks that has not been summited in winter.
The team’s plan is to leave high camp around 1:00 am on Saturday morning and summit about 12 hours later. Of course a lot depends on snow and wind conditions. It will be cold, with wind chills hovering around -55 degrees Celsicus (-67 degrees Fahrenheit). They will be installing fixed ropes as they climb, so that later teams will be able to move faster. At least one member of the team, Migma G, is climbing without supplemental oxygen. He could be the first to summit K2 in the winter with no Os.
[Read the Previous K2 Winter Update: Camp 2 Destroyed. Expeditions in Jeopardy]
With the fixed ropes set to 7,800 meters, the team will leave Camp 4 (near 7,600 meters) for the summit. The team of ten includes:
Nims’ Team
— Nirmal Purja Pun Magar aka Nimsdai
Mingma G’s Team
— Mingma G
— Kilu Pemba Sherpa
— Dawa Tenjing Sherpa
SST Sherpa
— Sona Sherpa
Nims will lead the summit team and has suggested there will be no one person claiming the summit but rather a team summit on behalf of Nepal. This has been Mingma G.’s plan all along with his Sherpa-only team.
Nims’ summit team is also made up of only Sherpa. One Sherpa from Seven Summits Treks is also on the summit push.
Both gentlemen, Mingma and Nims, have expressed a deep desire to show the world that Nepalis are just as credible climbers as any other nationality on the planet.
Alan Arnette is a speaker, mountaineer and Alzheimer’s Advocate. He has completed over 30 major expeditions including four Everest climbs, with a summit in 2011, and a summit of K2 in 2014. He completed his 7 Summits Climb for Alzheimer’s project to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s research. Find out more at www.alanarnette.com.