UKC

Three climbers from the Polish Alpine Club - Boguslaw Magrel, Wlodek Kierus and Adam Stadnik - have released a blogpost on their website detailing their account and experience of the Nanga Parbat massacre.

The trio were lucky enough to be up on the mountain when the attack happened, and here Boguslaw Magrel describes the event from his perspective. He also advises climbers not to travel to Pakistan.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=68166

In reply to UKC News:

It makes grim reading. The fact that the Taliban has said they will continue to attack tourists means that for all intents and purposes mountaineering and treking expeditions to Pakistan will very likely cease. Dreadful for the relatives and friends of those killed and dreadful for the local economy which relies so much on tourism.

In reply to UKC News:
Surprisingly good translation for "online translating tools" ! The two missing bits:

"zaporęczować for two" - fix the ropes to second camp and then and 350 m above the second camp.
"'Okoliczolności' executions" - circumstances of the executions are familiar to me but I will not recount them here.

Andrzej

In reply to Trangia:

Sad news. Ironically I was originally scheduled to land in Islamabad on the morning of 22nd so quite likely I would have been in the area of Chilas by nightfall had we ended up travelling up the KKH. A bit of a reality check.

On the 'optimitic' side, the Diamir region south of Gilgit has always been moderately unsafe compared to the rest of the Northern Areas. Even ten years ago it was recommended to trek with a guide in the area. Hopefully the likes of Hunza will remain safer given the dominant Ismaili presence that would probably have made staging such an attack by the Talaban harder to organise. I suppose it will all depend I how seriously the security services take this incident and what measures are put in place to prevent a repeat. I don't think it will totally stop climbers visiting. I noticed there was no mention of the LO in the reports. Presumably he was down the valley as often seems to be the case. Maybe the authorities need to serioulsy look at the LO arrangements again.

In reply to Mr. Lee:

I suppose you saw the Dawn article announcing that the Gondoghoro La has just been closed? Trekkers turned back etc. So right now the only way in/out is the Baltoro. Article had typical amount of bullish*t about trekkers going off 'set' routes etc. That kind of management is not helpful. The GLa was low-hanging fruit for ass-covering so that they could be seen to do something. http://dawn.com/news/1021991/trekkers-barred-from-another-peak

I agree climbers may go back, but maybe not to the KKH. Possibly the draw of K2 is so strong that at 'best' what we can hope for is a military-secured route from Skardu up the Baltoro - nothing more. Given the Chinese shut off Xinjiang again this year for expeditions there is no northern alternative, unless they change their minds.

Of course now everyone is saying that only flying ISB-Skardu is possible, no road travel, but those flights were always a mess - unavailable for all sorts of reasons, not just 'weather'. That will have to change. So given tension in Islamabad, a fly-in only access to Skardu, then an approach only safe with military presence, up a single route, people may seriously question whether they want to climb there at all.

Worth remembering there are at least two expeditions in the Biafo-Hispar area currently climbing, in addition to whoever is up the Baltoro.

In reply to Damo:

Yes the Gondogoro La closure made no sense to me in the article given that Concordia is still permitted, which probably allows easier access to more sensitive areas. Maybe the 8000m peak royalty fees swung the decision towards just closing a trekking route. I'm not sure how you could wonder off route from GL anyway.

Also, to my knowledge access to Hushe hasn't been restricted. I know there are climbers currently in the Charakusa area for example.

I had planned to be in the Karakoram next year but will probably consider alternative plan. Maybe Nepal. More so because I don't anticipate the security situation improving and I don't trust the authorities to do anything decisive for next year.