Still no Sign of Polish Climbers on Broad Peak
By Michael Frank on March 7th, 2013
More details are coming out regarding the descent from the first winter ascent of Pakistan’s Broad Peak by a Polish team, but there’s still no trace of Tomasz Kowalski and Maciej Berbeka, who were exhausted and trailed the other two summiters, Adam Bielecki and Artur Małek, by a considerable margin. The two took between seven and eight hours to cover ground that should have taken an hour. Both Kowalski and Berbeka had radios, though only Kowalski’s seemed to be working, and sometime overnight Tuesday he communicated with base camp, saying that he was exhausted and having trouble breathing. He was told to take drugs for the respiration, and at 6:30 a.m. he reported that he’d fallen, a crampon had come loose, and he was having difficulty fixing it. He also said that he’d seen Berberka, and someone in base camp spotted a headlamp at around 4950 meters, as well as a cook who saw someone high on the mountain near a crevasse field. There’s been no word from Kowalski since then. Fortunately, the weather is stable, but cold: -32 Fahrenheit at night, -17 in the day. Via Broad Peak Winter Expedition.
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Tags: Climbing, mountaineering