ISLAMABAD: Some of the toughest climbers in the mountaineering world have been forced to turn back on their mission to summit Nanga Parbat.

Polish climbers Adam Bielecki and Jacek Teler had planned to avail the good weather and ascend the 8,126 metre-high peak alpine style – fast and light – but the veteran climbers were forced to turn back due to bad weather.

The Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) said that this year climbers had planned to launch an assault on the mountain in December when there were more clear days than January or February.

“Snowstorms, hurricane-strength winds and subzero temperatures remain unpredictable on Nanga Parbat,” APC executive council member Karrar Haidri said.

World renowned Italian climber Simone Moro was also on Nanga Parbat alongside Tamara Lunjer, Elisabeth Revol and Tomk, making the action on the Killer Mountain’s Diamer face exciting as they attempted to summit the peak through an unfinished route.

Alex Txikon, Daniele Nardi and Ali Sadpara will be sharing the Kinshofer route with the two Polish climbers.

According to ACP, unlike the few winter expeditions to K2, Nanga Parbat has a long history of winter attempts. Easy access to the mountain is the main attraction. Since the winter of 1988-1989, there have been 21 attempts on Nanga Parbat, which sits at the tail end of the Himalayan Range in Pakistan.

As many as 12 summit attempts were made in the past four years. Other than the Polish winter expedition of 1996-1997, none of the climbing teams had any real prospects of reaching the top.

Mr Haidri said Nanga Parbat became infamous in the summer of 2013 when 11 foreign climbers were killed in a terror attack on its base camp.

“Nanga Parbat is notorious for having difficult winter conditions, high winds, deep snow and unpredictable weather that leaves few, if any, narrow weather windows for the climbers to attempt to reach its top.

“Most climbers prefer to climb alpine style after acclimatising on other peaks in order to take advantage of these short windows with fast climbs to the summit,” he said.

Some of the most impressive winter attempts were made by Zbigniew Trzmiel in 1997 – who was forced to retreat just 250 metres short of the summit due to frostbite, Tomek Mackiewicz – who reached roughly 7,800 metres, and Elisabeth Revol and Tomek Mackiewicz – who reached 7,860 metres in January 2015.

Ali Sadpara, Daniele Nardi and Alex Txikon reached 7,200 metres in January 2015 as well, but retreated to the base camp after they took a wrong turn.

K2 and Nanga Parbat are the only over 8,000 metres high peaks out of the world’s 14 highest mountains that no climber has been able to summit during the winter season.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2016