A 'Dream Team' for the last great challenge of mountaineering. "It freezes to your retina"
A message when history had already been made.
"We did it. Believe me, we did it,"
wrote expedition director Chhang Dawa, confirming that the most inaccessible mountain on earth, K2, had been conquered in the worst possible conditions, in winter.
There will be exploits, routes to open, expeditions with less help, but, in the strictest sense, the mountaineering list is already complete.
All the 'eight thousand' have already been trodden in spring-summer, a milestone that was completed in 1964 and since this Saturday, also in winter.
"I have had the opportunity to form a very good group, in total there will be about 50 people who, in my point of view, is what is necessary to confront such a challenge with guarantees. We will have two working groups and we will try to take advantage of the scarce margin that we offer the mountain. We will
try to climb to the most extreme summit in the most extreme conditions
, but this is also the strongest group that has ever been to K2 ", analyzed Sergi Mingote, one of the expedition directors, before embarking on a feat of which finally he was not part.
The Spaniard reached camp 3 with the Chilean Juan Pablo Mohr, but on his descent to base camp he suffered an accident and had to be evacuated by helicopter.
The success remained as a completely Nepalese pride, the confirmation of the paradigm shift.
At dawn this Saturday, 10 Nepalese, the media Nirmal Purja, Gelje, Mingma David, Mingma Tenzi, Pem Chhiri, Dawa Temba, Mingma Gyalje, Dawa Tenzin, Kili Pemba and Sona launched themselves to conquer K2 as a unique group.
They arrived on various expeditions, seven together with Purja and the
Seven Summit Treks company
and three on their own, but they joined in Camp 4 to make history for their country and show that the Sherpas are no longer just helpers, they are protagonists of the ascents. more advanced.
Bottleneck
Presumably all with bottled oxygen and laying the ropes that the next few days will help Mingote, Mohr and other mountaineers, they passed the famous Bottleneck,
a narrow corridor with a drop of up to 60 degrees
, and launched themselves to the top.
Around 9:30 am -Spanish time- Mingma Gyalje reported that they were 200 meters from the summit and the next communication was that everyone was waiting 10 meters from the roof to climb together.
The mountain was trampled and the Nepalese took advantage of it.
In an area where 60 degrees below zero can be reached and gusts of 100 km / h wind are usually exceeded, the meteorology offered a splendid day, with sun, temperatures that were around 35 degrees below zero and practically no wind.
The challenge now will be to descend in the absolute darkness of night.
After
Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy
were the first to climb Everest in winter
in 1980
, after the conquest of Manaslu (1984), Kangchenjunga (1986), Dhaulagiri (1986) and the rest of the 'eight thousand' up to Nanga Parbat, four years ago, the K2 has already received human beings in the worst conditions.
The mountaineering list is now complete.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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