Simone Moro (Italy), Alex Txikon (Spain) and Ali Sadpara (Pakistan) have made the long-awaited first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat 8,126m in Pakistan. The multi-national trio summitted around 3:40pm local time on 26th February and returned safely to Camp 4 at 7100m around 8pm, before arriving in Base Camp the following day.

Having arrived in Pakistan in December 2015, Simone and partner Tamara Lunger began climbing the Messner Route on 22nd February in stormy conditions, but abandoned their plan at 5,800 metres due to serac and avalanche danger. The pair then teamed up with Alex Txikon and Ali Sadpara, whose third partner, Daniel Nardi, left early.

However, Lunger fell ill the following morning, but progressed to the summit ridge a few hundred metres shy of the summit. Unable to continue, she chose to remain on the ridge whilst her three team-mates headed for the summit.

At 3:37 p.m. local time, Moro, Txikon, and Sadpara reached the top.

Since 1988, over 30 separate attempts to summit the peak in winter have come away empty handed. Simone had already made two unsuccessful expeditions before succeeding this year, and adds Nanaga Parbat to his growing list of 8,000m peaks ascended in winter, having summited more peaks in winter than anyone else : Shisha Pangma (2005), Makalu (2009), Gasherbrum II (2011) and now Nanga Parbat (2016).

13 of the 14 8,000-metre peaks have now seen winter ascents. Only K2 remains to be summitted in winter.

Watch a brief pre-expedition interview describing Simone's Winter 2016 attempt below:

Read more information about the expedition on Simone's website.

Alex and Ali's expedition was sponsored by: @techrockfixefaders, Adidas Eyewear, Boreal, CadenasVicinay, DAS, Extrem-Isard, Gorbea Rent, K35, Trangoworld and Turkish Airlines

Simone and Tamara's expedition was sponsored by: Accapi, DJI, Dr. Zipe Rohner Advanced Socks, GORE-TEX, Garmin, C.A.M.P., Clif Bar,Acerbis, Fineco Bank Intermatica, La Sportiva, Leki, Marianna Zanatta - Synchronicity Sports Connection, Primus, Südtirol bewegt - Alto Adige da vivere and The North Face