Mountaineering: 10-member team scales Gasherbrum-II

GILGIT:

A 10-member multinational expedition team successfully reached the peak of the 8,068-metre high Gasherbrum-II on Wednesday.

Adventure Pakistan Chief Executive Officer Muhammad Ali, who organised the expedition, told The Express Tribune that expedition leader Grefied Goeshl informed him via satellite phone that the joint expedition team has succeeded in putting their feet on the summit at 10:40am on Wednesday.

Those who successfully reached the peak are Gerfried Göschl, Hans Wenzl, Stephen Uchman and Günter Unterberger from Austria, Carlos Tomayo, Juanra Madariaga  and Alex Txikon from Spain, and Louis Rousseau, Mario Vielmo and Silvio Forigoni from Italy.

Ali said that all the expedition members are in good health and have successfully descended down to the base camp.

Ali further said that this is the first expedition team to have successfully scaled any peak in the Karakoram Range during this tourist season.

Several expedition teams from various countries are trying to scale different peaks in the Baltoro region, including K2, the world’s second-highest peak, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum-II and Nanga Parbat.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2011.