Islamabad (AFP)

Determined to brave the excess of the elements, polar cold, hurricane-force winds and extremely rarefied air, about sixty mountaineers are currently launched to attack K2, the only summit over 8,000 meters not to have been climbed in winter.

Such an influx is unheard of in winter on the second highest peak on the planet (8,611 m), located in Pakistan, in the Karakoram massif, on the border with China.

Only a handful of winter expeditions had been carried out so far, since the first attempt in 1987-1988.

But this year, no less than four teams are hard at work.

The health situation linked to Covid-19 partially explains it.

"People had plans for the year and they couldn't go anywhere," Dutchman Arnold Coster told AFP.

"We've kind of been out of a job for a year and now a lot of people want to do something."

This seasoned hymalayist co-leads the expedition organized by the Nepalese company Seven Summit Treks, with around fifty climbers of different nationalities, half of whom are Nepalese.

This team includes some reputable Europeans, such as the Spaniard Sergi Mingote who, because of the Covid, had to put aside his plan to climb the 14 summits of more than 8,000 m without oxygen in less than 1,000 days, but also good customers. less experienced.

The other groups are much smaller, like the one led by Nirmal Purja, the new star of Nepalese mountaineering.

- The 'wild mountain' -

This former British special forces soldier, who climbed these fourteen "8,000" in 2019, with oxygen, in six months and six days, feeds the insane project of paragliding from the top of K2.

Climbed for the first time in 1954, the K2 will not be easily defeated.

In the summer, only about 450 people reached the summit, with more than 80 dying there.

And in winter, no one climbed above 7,650 m.

On the K2, nicknamed the "wild mountain", the winds can blow in winter at more than 200 km / h and temperatures drop to -60 °.

Due to its geographical position, further north than the other "8,000", the atmospheric pressure is lower there and the air therefore even rarer.

Its ascent is also very technical.

"Several factors have to converge for someone to have a chance of reaching the top," observes specialist blogger Alan Arnette, discussing the ability to acclimatize, stay healthy, manage egos, and luck to avoid avalanches or landslides.

Nirmal Purja, who as soon as he arrived on the mountain set out to attack the intermediate camps, has the talent and the determination to get there, but lacks experience in winter.

The Seven Summit Treks team hopes to use force in numbers to install the fixed ropes and acclimatize its members to the altitude, while sparing the organisms.

But it must also accommodate their varying ambitions, between those who want to ride alone or with the help of sherpas, and those who will use oxygen or not.

- 'Not a good sign' -

"We have a lot of different people, with different ideas (...) It is difficult to manage all these different ideas", admits Arnold Coster.

"But from a workforce perspective, if people work together, we have a better chance."

The winter on the "8,000" has long been the preserve of the Poles.

The Nepalese have never put any mountaineer on a first in winter.

But they are determined to make amends for this historical oversight.

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, who has climbed 13 of the "8,000", including K2 twice, and had given up prematurely last winter on the same mountain, is back with two Sherpa friends.

He too is a candidate for the top.

Surprised last year by the cold, he said he had learned the "lesson" and this time he was better prepared.

However, he does not hide a certain anxiety at the idea of ​​finding so many people on the mountain.

"I don't think it's a good sign to have too many people, too many clients. Because it puts pressure on the management," he warns.

"There are people (...) who do not want to come back without the summit".

Several renowned climbers echoed his concerns, believing that many of those present on K2 this winter were not sufficiently prepared.

Alan Arnette believes, however, that with this high number of contenders, "the chances are good that at least one person" will succeed.

However, he also warns, "almost everything will have to go almost perfectly, and this rarely happens on a summit of 8,000 m, let alone on K2".

© 2021 AFP