A 10-member international mountaineering team on Monday reached K2 base camp to attempt to scale the world’s second highest mountain at 8,611 meters height in winter.
“The team is led by Taiwan’s female mountaineer Grace Tseng and includes three Pakistan high altitude porters and five Nepalese sherpas,” Karrar Haidri, secretary Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) told APP on Monday.
According to Haidri the plan to summit K2 in winter was prepared by Tseng. “She has embarked on the mission with the support of sherpas Nima Gyalzen, Chhiring, Dawa, Furi, Ngima Tendi, Ningma Dorje Tamang and Tashi and Pakistan’s high-altitude porters Muhammad Sharif, Mohsin Joshi and Karim,” he added.
“Today [Monday], they have hoisted Taiwan, Nepal and Pakistan’s flags at the base camp. They have all the necessary equipment and sufficient food with them and we wish to see them successfully ascending the mountain.
“But they’ll have to complete their expedition till February 28 as after that mountaineering’s summer season begins,” Haidri added.
He said Tseng was not only the first Taiwanese to attempt to scale K2 in winter but also the first woman in the world to do so. The 28-year-old successfully ascended the summit of Kanchenjunga, the world’s third-highest mountain in October last year, becoming not only the first Taiwanese to conquer the world’s third highest mountain, but also the first woman in the world to achieve the feat in autumn. Besides Kanchenjunga, Tseng has scaled Mount Everest (8,848 meters), Lhotse (8,516 meters), Dhaulagiri (8,167 meters), and Manaslu (8,163 meters). She has set the goal to become the youngest person in the world to climb the world’s 14 above 8,000-meter peaks. K2 has only once been summited in winter, when in January last year, it became the final above 8000-metre peak to be summited. The feat was accomplished by a team of Nepalese climbers, led by Nirmal Purja and Mingma Gyalje Sherpa.
