More nights at 6-7 thousand meters:the Italian mountaineers ready for the K2 summit

The acclimatization phase in very harsh weather conditions has concluded

ROME - Federica Mingolla, Silvia Loreggian, Cristina Piolini and Anna Torretta -the Italian athletes who are part of the female expedition K2-70, organized by the Italian Alpine Club to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first ascent of the second highest mountain on Earth - they finished the acclimatization phase by all returning to base camp two days ago, on 23 July. A difficult acclimatization phase due to the weather conditions which this year at K2 are very unstable, with strong wind and cloud cover, which left few short intervals for the mountaineers to climb to altitude.

Since July 1st there have been four rotations on the mountain which allowed everyone to sleep several nights in camp 1 (6,060 metres).Cristina Piolini and Anna Torretta then spent a night at Camp 2 (6,260 metres), while Federica Mingolla and Silvia Loreggian slept two nights in Camp 2, then climbing to 7,000 meters, 350 meters below Camp 3 (7,350 meters), where they spent a few hours.For athletes, having spent a month above 5,000 meters altitude allows them to move on to the next phase, the summit attempt.

“The mountaineers are fine, even if there are some differences in response to altitude linked to individual characteristics and different acclimatization. During acclimatization they also understood how to feed and hydrate“, declares Lorenza Pratali, doctor of the expedition.At the moment the route is equipped up to below camp 3, at the height of the Black Pyramid.Over the next two days the four Pakistani porters, together with the Sherpa teams, will equip the route up to camp 4 (7,700 metres) and set up the remaining camps.

The mountaineers are now at base camp to rest and recover energy in view of the summit attempt which will happen at the next window of good weather, which is expected from July 27th to July 29th.Samana Rahim and Nadeema Sahar, the two young mountaineers of the Pakistani group who reached camp 2 in recent days with the support of their Italian companions and Pakistani porters, unfortunately in this extremely complex phase on the mountain, will remain at the base camp also for their safety .

“The adverse and extremely unstable weather conditions upset our plans and those of the other expeditions, even the commercial ones present on the glacier at the foot of K2 with their 150 contenders for the summit.Our expedition is ready and is among the most accredited for the summit attempt, it will be carried out by our mountaineers together with the Sherpa mountaineers", states Agostino Da Polenza, expedition leader of K2-70.