Karakoram Summer coverage 2018: Struggle due to bad weather, death & Nanga summit

2. Romanian Alex Gavan who was on an expedition of Nanga Parbat without supplemental oxygen, with Turkish mountaineer Tunç Findik, abandoned their expedition due to bad weather condition and increased danger of avalanche. "...it would have made the climb rather a Russian Roulette...," posted by Alex in his Facebook page on 2nd July, 2018.

3. Famous South African-born Swiss explorer and adventurer Mike Horn who was on an expedition of Nanga Parbat with his Swiss friends Fred Roux and Köbi Reichen, abandoned their expedition due to bad weather on 24th June, 2018.

K2 & Broad Peak:

1. Polish mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel is now at the Base Camp of K2 for his quest to make the first full ski descent from K2. Previously he abandoned his expedition on Gasherbrum II, which was for acclimatization for the K2 Ski Challenge with his Polish mate Janusz Golab. "Me along with Janusz Gołąb climbing on K2, probably Cessen route, now the plan is to set up Camp-3," Andrzej told Dream Wanderlust yesterday.

2. Canadian climbers Serge Dessureault, Maurice Beauséjour and Nathalie Fortin, who were on their expedition on K2, abandoned after the tragic death of Serge Dessureault on 7th July, 2018. He fall from an altitude of around 6300m, reported by the expedition agency.

3. 10 members Japanese team led by Akira Oyabe, aiming to summit K2, established Camp-3 on 10th July, 2018. Some of the members are headed towards Camp-3 on 11th July, 2018, as reported.

4. International team of SST on K2, led by Chhang Dawa Sherpa, hope to set up Camp-4 by today. They open the route up to 7650m (150m below Camp-4) yesterday. They are looking for a probable summit push after 19 July, 2018.

5. International team led by American climber Garrett Madison, aiming to summit K2, is now returned to Base Camp. They have reached up to Camp-2 so far. Mexican mountaineer David Liaño Gonzalez, who took a project to climb 4 eight-thousanders (Everest, K2, Kangchenjunga and Lhotse) within a few months to support "The Live Love Laugh Foundation", is one of the members of this team. David summited Everest in last spring season on 20th May, 2018. However he was unable to attempt Lhotse due to shortage of time and abandoned Kangchenjunga expedition due to bad weather in the same season.

6. Mingma G. Sherpa along with two sherpas left for Pakistan from Kathmandu for Broad Peak expedition on 9th July, 2018. He will lead two members in this expedition.

7. Swedish climber Fredrik Sträng with his climber partner David Roeske from America, aiming for K2, are now returned to the Base Camp of Broad Peak. They reached up to the Camp-3. They are on Broad Peak for acclimatization for K2. They are waiting for a probable summit bid on coming monday.

8. International team led by British climber Daniel Mazur, aiming to summit K2 and Broad Peak, is now returned to Base Camp. They have reached up to Camp-3 so far. British climber Jake Meyer who is actually aiming for K2 summit, made a solo summit to Broad Peak on 10th July, 2018. But he forced to turn back 150m from the summit due to shortage of ropes, sugary snow.

9. Furtenbach Adventures team led by Austrian mountaineer Roli Striemitzer, aiming to summit K2 and Broad Peak, returned to Base Camp of Broad Peak. They are looking for their second attempt on Broad Peak. Previously, on 8th July, 2018, they made their first summit bid, in which they turned back from 7800m due to the danger of avalanche.

10. Spanish team led by Sergi Mingote, aiming to summit K2 and Broad Peak, are returned to the Base Camp of Broad Peak. They have reached up to Camp-3 so far. They are waiting for a probable summit bid on coming monday.

Gasherbrum I, II & IV:

1. Hungarian climbers Dávid Klein and Szilárd Suhajda who are aiming for Gasherbrum I and II, reached upto around 6800m.

2. There is no recent update about Frenchmen Yannick Graziani, Hélias Millerioux and British woman climber Masha Gordon who are aiming to traverse Gasherbrum I and II without supplemental oxygen. Masha Gordon posted on 3rd July, 2018 in her Facebook profile that they had stayed 3 nights at 6000m.

3. Italian alpinist Hervé Barmasse and German climber David Göttler, aiming for Gasherbrum IV, via a new route without supplemental oxygen. Previously due to permit issue rejection from Chinese authority, they cancelled their unclimbed North Face of Gasherbrum I. They arrived at Base Camp of Gasherbrum IV on 9th July, 2018.

4. Italian climbers Giampaolo Corona and Mario Vielmo on Gasherbrum I, returned to Base Camp. Previously they reached up to Camp-1 so far.

5. Italian climber Maurizio Giordano who was on an expedition Gasherbrum IV with Italian Army climbers Marco Majori, Marco Farina and Daniele Bernasconi, reportedly killed while rappelling down from Camp-2, at approximately 6300m, when he was hit by falling ice on 11th July, 2018. The team wanted to repeat the "Bonatti-Mauri" route along the NE ridge on its sixty anniversary. Italan climbes Walter Bonatti and Carlo Mauri did it in 1958. Since then the route had never repeated.

6. Basque-Catalan team lead by Oriol Baró with Marc Toralles, Roger Cararach and Iker Madoz, aiming for the South Pillar of Gasherbrum IV, returned to Base Camp after setting up Camp-1.

7. Ukrainian expedition on Gasherbrum I & II established Camp-3 on 9th July, 2018. Members are now at Camp-2 and Camp-3. They planned to summit Gasherbrum I via new route and Gasherbrum II via standard route.

8. Polish climbers Adam Bielecki and Jacek Paweł Czech, and German climber Felix Berg aiming to summit Gasherbrum II, have returned to Base Camp on 11th July, 2018. They have reached up to 7120m so far. They have a plan to climb Gasherbrum IV via Eastern wall after Gasherbrum II.

9. Italian mountaineer Cala Cimenti and Swiss Matthias Koenig and their team members abandoned their Gasherbrum II expedition due to bad weather.

Photo Courtesy: Kim Migon