UKC

Polish Climbers Missing on Broad Peak

© Polish Broad Peak Expedition
Polish climbers Maciej Berbeka, Adam Bielecki, Tomasz Kowalski and Artur Malek have made the first winter ascent of Broad Peak (8,051 m), Karakorum, Pakistan.

photo
Broad Peak showing the camps of the Polish team
© Polish Broad Peak Expedition

The team summited in the early evening on the 5th of March.

Artur Małek and Adam Bielecki then managed to descend safely to Camp 4 (7,400m) but Tomasz Kowalski and Maciej Berbeka are reported to have bivved at around 7900m due to being too exhausted to continue down.

Tomasz Kowalski and Maciej Berbeka are now considered to be missing on the mountain.

Updates are currently being published on Facebook at by Artur Hajzer (Polish) and also on Planet Mountain (English), but there is no news of the missing climbers yet.


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7 Mar, 2013
My wife is Polish and praying for Maciej & Tom. Tragic to be following this in real time. Good luck chaps.
7 Mar, 2013
Im Polish myself and I have been following their expedition. Just read interview with Krzysztof Wielicki who is in charge of expedition. He said that today they sent team to 7000 m who is going to observe and to look for missing climbers but they limited what they can do as good weather is going to be over soon. Krsztof said as well that they have to be realistic as chances of them surviving are none at the moment. Saying that Maciej Berbeka who is one of the missing climbers was missing 25 years ago for 2 days and he menage to came back safely and it was on Broad Peak as well.
7 Mar, 2013
A tragic situation with little hope for a positive outcome. For those who don't know, it is worth pointing out that Poles are no strangers to winter himalaism. Krzysztof Wielicki, the expedition leader made 3 first winter ascents of peaks over 8000m. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-thousander
7 Mar, 2013
Climbed in Poland in the early 90s, brilliant place wonderful , friendly and welcoming people. You are both in my thoughts and prayers tonight lads.
8 Mar, 2013
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