Broad Peak
The first ascent of Broad Peak was made between June 8 and 9, 1957 by Fritz Wintersteller, Marcus Schmuck, Kurt Diemberger, and Hermann Buhl of an Austrian expedition led by Marcus Schmuck. A first attempt by the team was made on May 29 where Fritz Wintersteller and Kurt Diemberger reached the forepeak (8,030 m). This was also accomplished without the aid of supplemental oxygen, high altitude porters or base camp support.[4]
Broad Peak
Berbeka was certainly one of the major activists in the 1980s Polish scene. He came to global prominence in 1981, when he made a new route on the south face of Annapurna, climbing direct to the Central Summit on a line reported to be similar in difficulty to the north face of the Matterhorn. In January 1984 he made the first winter ascent of Manaslu, only the second 8,000m peak to be climbed during the calendar winter season. One year later, on another major Zawada expedition, he made the first winter ascent of Cho Oyu via a new route on the southeast pillar. In the post-monsoon season of 1986 he climbed a highly difficult new line on the left side of the south face of Dhaulagiri, reaching the Japanese route high on the southwest ridge; he was unable to summit due to bad weather. Berbeka's ascent of Broad Peak made him only the fourth person to achieve first winter ascents of three 8,000m peaks, and out of the world's 14 8,000ers, only K2 and Nanga Parbat have not now received a winter ascent.
Broad Peak - World's 12th highest mountain and one of the 'easiest' 8000 metre peaks!Expert leader, Dan Mazur, has led dozens of successful Himalayan expeditions including Broad Peak, K2, and Everest. Broad Peak News - Dan Mazur & Team, Sherpas, and friendly locals enjoyed a safe and successful summer 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017: K2 Summit & Trek, Broad Peak Summit, Training Climb, Pastore Peak & Gasherbrums
A veteran winter alpinist, Wielicki made winter ascents of Everest (8848m) and Kangchenjunga (8586m), and climbed Lhotse (8516m) solo in the 1980s. Berbeka and Bielecki also have significant winter experience on 8000m peaks. (Read more about Polish climber's long history of high-altitude winter mountaineering in the March 18, 2011 Feature.)
Zawada approved Aleksander Lwow and Berbeka for the winter attempt, and the two climbers started ascending the peak on March 3, 1988, in alpine style. With good weather, the duo made a summit bid on the morning of March 6. However, Lwow turned around due to exhaustion while Berbeka continued toward the summit.
After holding tight for 16 days, the four climbers ascended to Camp IV on March 4, hoping to catch a weather window the following morning. The crevasse at around 7900m posed a major hurdle between them and the summit. The Polish team successfully navigated the obstacle and summited the peak at around 5:30 in the evening, local time.
A major storm has closed in and overtaken the peak, restricting a helicopter rescue of any kind. Karim Hayyat and Artur Malek climbed back to Camp III to assist in a rescue, if needed. Hayyat even climbed as high as 7700m with no sign of the missing climbers.
Broad Peak, the 12th highest mountain in the world at 8,047 meters, is located in the Karakoram Range in Northeastern Pakistan. The mountain is located along the western Baltoro glacier between K2 and Gasherbrum IV. The first westerner who saw the peak was probably Lieutenant T.G. Montgomerie. He was surveying the mountains in the area and in 1856 he spotted some extraordinary peaks, which he gave temporary names. K for Karakoram + a number for the peak. K1, K2, K3 etc. Montgomerie later found out K1had a local name; Masherbrum. K2, still goes under that name, even if some have proposed to re-name it Qogori, a name used by some local people. K3, the third peak to be measured by Montgomerie didn't have a local name. The summit ridge of the peak is almost 2 km long and therefore British explorer W.M. Conway thought Broad Peak was a suitable name. Conway noted: "a fine breadth of mountain splendour...a huge Breithorn, as it were, filing the space between K2 and the hidden Gasherbrum." The name won general acceptance, but some zealots on a mission to get rid of all western names wanted a local name on the peak. They did not find any credible name candidates, so they did what they considered second best: they simply translated Broad Peak into Balti, the local Tibetan dialect. The name - P'alchan Kangri/Ri. It became a bit bastardized over the years and is nowadays spelled and pronounced Falchen Kangri, which is completely off the mark as there are no "f-sounds" in Balti.One or two 8000m peaks?A sometimes raging debate about Broad Peak having one of two "real summits" has been going on for a long time. Most people agree on the fact the central peak is not a separate summit, but the advocates in favor of counting it as one points at the snow on the col in between this summit and the main summit. If the snow are melting due to global warming, Broad Peak central might qualify as the 15'th 8000m peak. Another issue connected to global warming is the fact that the snow on the true summit is melting and the fore summit may overtake it in height. This would be welcomed by climbers as the trickiest part of the whole climb would disappear.First ascents of the main summitsBroad Peak has three seperate summits: main summit 8,047 meters, central summit 8,016 meters, and north summit 7,550 meters.The first ascent of the main summit was made in 1957 by an Austrian expedition consisting of only four climbing members. Using many of the fixed lines set up by the failed German expedition of 1954, all four summited without using oxygen. Hermann Buhl, Fritz Wintersteller, Kurt Diemberger and Marcus Schmuck didn't have the help of any HAPs (high altitude porters) or guides and the climb was a remarkable success for alpine style climbing, as it occurred well before the time of small independent teams attempting the highest peaks on earth.
Broad Peak Middle was climbed by five members of Polish expedition: Marek Kesicki, Bohdan Nowaczyk, Kazimierz Glazek, Janusz Kulis and Andrzej Sikorski. They summited on 28th of July 1975. Kesicki, Nowaczyk and Sikorski died during the descent. The leader of this expedition was Janusz Ferenski. jck helped out with info on this.The north summit was finally acquired in 1983 by an Italian expedition led by Renato Casarotto.Climbing Broad PeakFrom the first ascent in 1957 to August 2003, Broad Peak was climbed 255 times and had 18 deaths. The fatality rate is therefore about 7%, which could be compared with for example Everest which has a death rate of 9%. It is one of the safer 8000m peaks, but the risk of avalanches should never be disregarded.More about this.Many teams today use the moderate climbing on Broad Peak to acclimitize for a rapid alpine style ascent of K2. The main route to the summit, via the west ridge, is moderately strenuous, but like other mountains in the Karakoram range, weather is often the determining factor.Only 5 people have climbed twice and no-one more than that.To the true summit or not?Broad Peak is as Xixabangma and Cho Oyu a peak where a huge majority of "summiteers" don't reach the true summit. A lot stop at the fore-summit and claim to have climbed Broad Peak. In 1994 Hans Kammerlander was sick of this and left a piece of red and purple rope, attached to a ski pole on the summit and asked other climbers what they had seen up there.
1984 One astonishing ascent occured in July of by the amazing Polish climber Krzysztof Wielicki. He left base camp at 4,850 meters at midnight, reaching camp1 at 4am, camp2 at 8am, the col at 2pm, and the main summit by 4pm. His ascent of 3,150 meters in less than 14 hours was an incredible achievement for its time. He completed the round trip in just over 22 hours, all solo. This solo ascent of an 8,000 meter peak in a day was not repeated until 1986.1994 Even faster than Wielicki was Swede Göran Kropp when he soloed the peak in 18h.1982 Jerzy Kukuczka and Wojciech Kurtyka read their climbing permit for K2 carefully. it said: Acclimatization on lower peaks in the area allowed.As Broad Peak is lower than K2, they came to the conclusion it may be allowed and went for the summit as a step in the acclimatization process. On the way up they met Messner, who asked them if they had summited. Kurtyka told messner: We were in the area. Messner smiled and said: Yes. Yes. Understood. He further promised not to tell anyone about the meeting. Messner kept quiet until he released his book "Three Times Eight".2013 Maciej Berbeka, Adam Bielecki, Tomas Kowalski and Artur Małek reached the summit of Broad Peak (8051m), making the first winter ascent of the Broad Peak. Unfortunately the success was soon over shadowed by the fact that Maciej Berbeka and Tomasz Kowalski got lost on the descent.More about the first winter ascent here.See the booklist for Kukuczka's and Messner's books about this incident and more interesting reading about their climbs of all the 14 8000'rs.A list of all summiteers!Scott adds:Broad Peak has also been attempted in the winter. The rocky summit (lower part of main summit) (8,016 meters) was climbed in the winter by Maciej Berbeka of Zakopane, Poland in 1988. Maciej mistook this summit for the main summit in poor weather. In 2003, a Spanish team attempted a winter ascent, but were turned back by extreme wind and cold. Several camps were destroyed, but luckily no-one perished.
Broad Peak is a long way from any arrival point in Pakistan. Sooner or later you have to pass Islamabad as this is the town where you get the permits for the peak. If an organizer have taken care of the arrangements for you, you can just relax and follow your guide through the country. If you want to arrange everything yourself, the following may be of help.From Islamabad to The Northern Areas.Local buses serve Islamabad with Skardu (the normal starting point for the trekking) well. Catch a bus from NATCO or Masherbrum Tours from Pirwadai i Rawalpindi (twin city of Islamabad, 15 km away). The cost for the 22-30h journey is about 12 US$. A taxi from central Islamabad will cost you 200-300 Rps. Some buses stop overnight in Besham, some go straight through to Skardu. If you have booked a ticket on a direct bus, don't be surprised if you have to wait in Besham for some time. Usually this wait is for other buses to gather and also for the police/military to ready a convoy. There are almost always some minor unrest in Indus Kohistan and to play it safe, the authorities arrange a convoy for the night traffic. It's nothing to worry about, it's standard procedure in this area.From Skardu to Broad Peak.There are two routes to the peak from Skardu - via Askole or via Gondogoro Pass. The former is to recommend if you're not acclimatized. Gondogoro Pass is a mighty 5600m, so most trekkers use this route for the way back.To Askole.A jeep ride takes 6-8h on partly miserable roads and the going price in the summer of 2005 was 3500-4000 Rps.In Askole you can either camp out in the wild or use the one of the camping places, which will cost you 100 Rps. Facilities includes toilets, running water and a grassy, walled camping area.The first camp site along the route is Jhula. It takes anywhere between 4 and 8 hours to reach Jhula from Askole and the trek is very straight forward. Most of the time you walk on good paths along a river. An early start is recommended as it gets very hot in this area. Two bridges where you have to pay a small fee have to be crossed. Jhula has shower cabins, running water, toilets and camp platforms. 100 Rps./night.Normally, there is not a problem to reach Paiju the second day. The trek is harder as you sometimes walk in sand along the rivers and there are some ups and downs en route. Paiju has the same facilities as Jhula and the cost to camp there is also 100 Rps./night. The place can be very crowded in the high season and if you don't like that, just continue for another 20 minutes to the first stream or to where the glacier start, where a very good place to camp is situated. Fresh water available here.The next camping place is Urdukas, which has very good views of the Trango group. The camp site is situated on a hillside with good camp spots. Facilities and price is the same as Jhula and Paiju. If you want to go further or a part of the way to Urdukas, remember you'll be camping on the actual glacier. Campspots can easily be found there as well, but in some parts there are half an hour in between good or/and safe ones.From here on the lenght of a normal day trip varies a lot depending on how the persons in the group feel. There are some camps along the way, but they are all very basic, consisting of shelters built of rocks. Most groups stop at Goro II, some stop an hour before this camp, Goro I and some go all the way to Concordia.Concordia, which could be one of the most beautiful places on earth is sadly full of garbage and human waste. To the left you can see Broad Peak and K2. Ahead you Gasherbrum IV is looming and to your right is the impressive Mitre. No fees and no facilities in Concordia.The rest of the way to Broad Peak BC is an easy 3-hour walk on upper Baltoro glacier. The way out of Concordia can be a bit confusing. Ask a local if uncertain. 041b061a72