Hidden Peak - 8th eight-thousander of Alexei Bolotov

ExplorersWeb: “American Marty Schmidt, Canadian Don Bowie, Russian Alexei Bolotov and Czechs Radek Jaros and Libor Uher have checked in from the top of Hidden Peak. Their's may be the first GI summits this season since previous summit claims last week were left unconfirmed or denied by the climbers themselves”.

Don Bowie site (www.calpinist.com):

“Don called at 7:45 am (July 28) PKT to announce that he and Alexey along with Czech climbers Radek Jaros and Libor Uher and American climber Marty Schmidt have summited Gasherbrum I. Don reported that a storm was due to come in shortly, so they would not be long on the summit. He expected the return trip to base camp would be a long, arduous one due to inclement weather, deep, unstable snow, and tired climbers. However, at the moment, they were all elated to have accomplished their summit goal”.

It is possible that Alex and Don will continue the expedition. They will try to climb Gasherbrum - II.   Gasherbrum I was for Alexei eighth eight-thousanders, plus he was first on Lhotse Middle. Bolotov was awarded by two Piolet d'Or (for Makalu and Jannu).

Site Alexei Bolotov, our friend and colleague: http://alexbolotov.ru

Picture of Don from the first attempt on G-I http://alexbolotov.ru