Winter Climbs 2013: Summit Bid Halted On BP, Search Continues On Nanga

More news from Pakistan this morning where weather has once again put a temporary halt to a summit attempt and the search continues for a missing climber who hasn't been heard from in two weeks.

Yesterday I posted that the Polish team on Broad Peak was in the middle of a summit push as they strove to take advantage of an open weather window. It turns out that window didn't last as high winds moved over the summit of the mountain. Two climbers got as high as 7820 meters (25,656 ft) before turning back as visibility decreased and the already frigid temperatures began to drop further.

Two other  two-man squads were standing by to make their attempts but as conditions worsened, the entire team decided to return to Base Camp. All are safely in BC now and will wait to make another attempt as the forecast permits. There is no word yet as to when that might possibly happen.

Meanwhile, the search continues on Nanga Parbat for missing French snowboarder Joel Wischnewski. According to ExWeb, the SAR team has now climbed as high as Camp 1 but they still haven't seen any signs of Joel. They reached that point yesterday and hoped to climb higher today, although the weather forecasts indicate heavy snows moving into the region over the next three days.

The last we heard from Wischnewski he was climbing above Camp 2 in an attempt to make the summit in a three-day push. That was on February 6. Unfortunately, that doesn't bode well for the man who was climbing solo and already quite sick before he set out. Hopes have to be growing dim at this point, but he was well supplied and it is possible he is still holed up somewhere without any way to communicate. That seems increasingly unlikely to me at this point, but it isn't beyond the realm of possibility. Hopefully we'll know more soon.