Nanga Parbat 2005: Everest Summiter IVAN VALLEJO RICAURTE GOING FOR THE SUMMIT OF NANGA PARBAT

Finally the wait has ended.  After ten days of unstable weather with snowfalls, and even hail and rain, the good winds have arrived and we could enjoy two consecutive beautiful afternoons that have shown us the superb beauty of the wall of Diamir, on the West Face of Nanga Parbat.  We have had several reports, which luckily agree between them, assuring that good weather is coming next week, especially on Wednesday and Thursday.  That is why we are getting our attack plan ready to try to reach, if God permits, the summit of Nanga Parbat next Thursday, July 14.  

Since we have different acclimatization conditions we have divided in three groups.

The first group is made by Ester Sabadel and José Bereziartua, who have left today, Sunday, at three in the afternoon toward Camp 1 at 4,800 m.  Everybody will sleep there and tomorrow, Monday, they will climb to Camp 2; on Tuesday, to Camp 3 at 6,800 m and on Wednesday they will be on Camp 4 at 7,200 m, previous to the summit attack.

In the second group there is Edurne Pasaban, Mariane Chaupisat, Silvio Mondinelli and Hassan (Pakistani high altitude porter), who will leave on the early morning of Monday directly from BC to C2.  On Tuesday they will meet Bereziartua's group to continue together.

And in the third and last group is yours truly, only.  But because of the happy presence in these altitudes of my friend and teammate, Colombian Fernando González-Rubio, we will join efforts for the summit attack.  Fernando and I, along with the Aragon expedition group will leave on the early morning of Tuesday, July 12 from BC (4,200 m) directly to C2 (6,000).  We hope to be there around noon, we will rehydrate, eat and rest to continue on the next day.  Wednesday, July 13, will be a very long day, we will move in just one journey from C2 to C4, which means we have to cover one thousand two hundred meters of altitude difference in a period of 10 hours, more or less; on the ascent we will meet my teammates who have slept on C3 (6,800 m) and we will continue together to the location of C4 at 7,200 m.  We estimated that we will get to C4 around 3 in the afternoon of Thursday.  There, the main worry will be to change clothes, rehydrate a lot and rest.  We will leave to the summit after midnight and we estimate that climb up and down the summit pyramid will take us around 10 hours.  If we make it, we will be on the summit, if God permits, around ten in the morning of Thursday, July 14.

IVAN VALLEJO RICAURTE

Expeditioneer

Translated from Spanish by Jorge Rivera

Updates

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