Pakistan issues report on 2010 expeditions

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Last year proved to be a very bleak year for mountaineering tourism in Pakistan, according to the Alpine Club of Pakistan. Karrar Haidri, a member of the Executive Council of the club, provides the following report:

Just 26 mountaineering expeditions comprising of 234 climbers attempted various peaks in Pakistan this year, including 3 expeditions attempting K2, Broad Peak, Nanga Parbat and GII during winter i-e December/January 2011.

6 out of these teams attempted both GI and GII , 4 teams attempted both K2 & Broad Peak, whereas one team decided to attempt 4 Gasherbrum range peaks in tandem i-e GI, GII, GV and GVI raising the total number of attempts to 40 and attempting members to 305.

As per record received from the Alpine Club of Pakistan 12 expeditions were successful in putting 53 members on top of Broad Peak, Nanga Parbat GI and GII. Brief account in respect of various peaks is appended below:

International Korea K2 Expedition 2010 led by Cha Moung Kwan

K2 8611-M
52 members of 07 expeditions tried their luck on K2 but failed to reach summit this year.
Unfortunately this peak claimed 2 lives.

Nanga Parbat 8125-M
2 out of 4 expeditions comprising 34 members were successful in putting 9 members on top of this invincible peak. Winter Expedition on Nanga Parbat has returned Unsuccessful.

Gashebrum I 8068-M
58 members of 8 expedition tried to scale GI out of which 12 members of 3 expedition were able to reach the summit of GI.

Broad Peak 8047-M
8 expeditions comprising of 56 members were engaged in surmounting this Peak. Out of which 2 expeditions returned successful in putting 8 members on top of Broad Peak.

Gasherbrum II 8035-M
GII turned out to be the most successful peak this year as 24 members of 5 expeditions out of 72 members of 8 expeditions were successful in putting their national flags on top of GII.

Gasherbrum II 8035-M (Winter Expedition)
Winter GII Expedition led by Mr. Simone Moro from Italy has returned successful by putting all 03 members on the summit of G-II on 2nd February 2011. This is the first ever winter success on any peak above 8000-M in Pakistan.

Other Expeditions
All other expedition to the peaks of GV, GVI, Spantik, Latok - I and Tahu Rutum failed to achieve success.

Fatalities
i) Peter Georgiev Unzhiev of Bulgaria died at Camp-II K2 on 18th July 2010 due to High Altitude Sickness. He was member of ATP International K2 & Broad Peak Expedition 2010 led by Jaroslav Bartos.
ii) Jan Fredrik Ericsson of Sweden died due to about 1000 Meters fall from Bottle Neck ( 8300-M ) of K2 on 6 August 2010.

 Annex A