The winter season in Karakorum is ended

Big crevasse stopped Robert Szymczak and Ali Sadpara at 7,830 m

 4 climbers: R.Szymczak, K.Starek, A.Sadpara, M.Kaczkan left c3 at 1 o'clock AM March 16. There was no visibility, minus 30 degrees Celsius and weak wind. At 4.30 AM K.Starek turned back because of too slow approach. At 7 AM R.Szymczak and A.Sadpara fixed ropes on the first crevasse and a serac at approx. 7,600 m. At this point the team made first calculations if there was any sense of further climbing because of zero visibility and very poor weather. At this point M.Kaczkan turned back due to exhaustion and started to go back to c3. His duty was to fix some dangerous slopes on his way down and to protect the way down for him and 2 others.

 Robert Szymczak and Ali Sadpara continued up. Weather did not change. Sun did not come. The heavy clouds covered whole sky from Chogolisa to K-2 and BP. Because the wind was not very strong the team managed to climb up to 7,830 m. Then a very big, large and long crevasse stopped them. The crevasse traversing whole slope below the pass at 7,950 m - from rock to rock - a few hundred meters. Some old ropes were possible to find but they were just hanging in the space over the crevasse and could not help to pass it.

Robert and Ali were looking for some possibilities but because of exhaustion, weather and the crevasse, they made some calculations and started to plan to go down. The weather was difficult - see photo made at 9 o'clock local time. Finally at 10.15 AM local time Robert and Ali started to go down.

Artur Hajzer from BP BC

The day before the last attempt on Hidden Peak was ended also without success,

"The mountain was stronger," Gerfried's home team just reported. The Austrian- Basque- Canadian Team turned in the morning due to high winds. “It is impossible to climb to the top under this stormy conditions,” a very disappointed Gerfried reported on the phone.The climbers are currently on their way down to Base Camp.