Braving the cold and 8,000 metres more

A three-member Italian expedition has successfully made the first ever winter ascent of Gasherbrum-II.

ISLAMABAD: The expedition was led by Simon Moro, an Italian mountaineer and comprised Denis Urubko from Kazakshtan and Cory Richards from the United States. The team reached the peak of Gasherbrum-II (8,035m) at 11:35 am on February 2 and set the first record for summiting an over 8,000m peak in the winter.

“This Alpine style climb is a historic milestone in the mountaineering history of Pakistan, being the first winter ascent of any peak above 8,000 metres of the country,” said President Alpine Club Colonel (retd) Manzoor Ahmed at a joint press conference.

“The success speaks for the firm determination, strength, mountaineering and survival skills and above all the comradeship of these mountaineers,” he added.

Previously, some mountaineers attempted such a feat, without much luck.

“This success was a result of combined ability, determination, experience and luck,” said the team leader Simon and hoped that it would pave the way for Pakistan to attract winter expeditions.

He opined that it spelled success for the country and Pakistanis should be proud and happier than the team. Adding on, he voiced that the country had enormous potential for tourism as compared to the other countries like Nepal.

“Pakistan could be considered the largest country of the world in terms of water resources as it has huge mountains with rising glaciers,” he said.  Describing his journey, he told the media that the team left Islamabad for Skardu on January 2011 and reached Gasherbrum -II base camp by Army Aviation helicopter on January 2011. In the freezing cold of -40 degrees , they made their first climb to camp-II on January 25, but descended back due to bad weather. They started their summit push from base camp again on January 30, reached camp-II on January 31 and finding good weather, decided to push further and were in camp-III on February 1.

He added the team started for their summit push early on February 2 and finally reached the summit at 11:35 amid temperature less than -60 degrees.

Near camp-II, they were caught in an avalanche which buried two of his team members. Luckily, he said he was able to dig them out, as the avalanche had not hit him and finally reached the base camp after the descent on February 4, 2011.

The team leader Simone Moro, 43, is a strong winter climber of this decade who has made winter ascents of three peaks of the world rising above 8,000 metres. He is a rescue pilot by profession and has made four ascents of Mount Everest (8,848m) including Solo ascent and South-North traverse.

Denis Urubko , a 38-year-old from Kazakhstan is the 15th  mountaineer of the world who has ascended all peaks above 8,000 metres and till date has made winter ascent of two such peaks.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2011.