The Irish K2 expedition has been forced to abandon its attempt on the world's second-highest mountain because of persistent bad weather in the Himalayas.
Several other expeditions have also decided to quit as winter closes in. No climber has reached the summit of K2 this season due to some of the worst weather conditions on record.
The Irish group packed up its camp earlier this week for the three day walk-out, and is expected to leave Pakistan for home by the weekend.
"We are very disappointed, but we are happy to be on our way back with all our fingers and toes," the expedition leader, Mr Calvin Torrans, told The Irish Times yesterday, speaking by satellite phone from Pakistan.
"We didn't even get a good shot at it. In fact, no team got above camp three, at 7,400 metres, because of the constant high winds cutting across the mountain shoulder."
The expedition did record the first Irish ascent without oxygen or sherpa support of a mountain over 8,000 metres when Belfast man, Mr Eddie Cooper, reached the summit of Broad Peak, the world's 12th-highest mountain, during acclimatisation for K2. Weather deteriorated rapidly after this, and two French climbers, a guide and a tourist, perished on the same peak some days later.
The Irish group, which had also hoped to record an oxygenless ascent of K2, left along with frustrated Italians, Turkish, Spanish and Canadian climbers.
Such was the extent of cabin or "tent" fever that solo dancing to local Balti music, comprising four singers and two plastic kerosene drums, has been the daily social event among the climbing community on the hillside for weeks.
The 8,611 metre K2 has a fearsome reputation, and is regarded as more difficult technically than Everest, which an Irish expedition climbed for the first time in 1993. In 1996, the British Everest climber, Ms Alison Hargreaves, lost her life on K2, along with six other climbers who were swept off in a 260 m.p.h. maelstrom which hit them on the Abruzzi Ridge.
Just a decade before, a dozen climbers perished on its flanks, including Ms Julie Tullis and Mr Alan Rouse, the first Britons to reach its summit.
