Gasherbrum 1 expedition

The initial idea was to climb two eight thousand meter peaks in one single expedition: Gasherbrum 1 (8068m) and Gasherbrum 2 (8035m).


The plan was to first climb G2 (considered easier) in expedition style and then, having the proper acclimatization, to make a fast alpine style ascent of G1. The things turned to worse when two German climbers were killed on an avalanche between camps Two and Three on G2, many others having a close call as well. Few days before, Alex just retreated from the mountain at around 6800 m due to the same highly unstable snow conditions.


A period of prolonged bad weather followed and Andrei Nan, Alex’s partner, considered their project as not being an attainable goal anymore. Feeling in a realistically way that the game was not over yet and partnering with Polish Pawel Michalski (which he had met one year before on Cho Oyu and by sheer luck the guys happened to share the same base camp) , Alex succeeded in climbing G1 via the Japanese Couloir. Spanish Jordi Jill and Iranian Mehdi Etefadmar were also part of the summit team (and sharing with the two the tent in Camp 3 at 7000m as well).

August 20, 2007
August 8, 2007
August 1, 2007

Gasherbrum 1 Summit Movie and Photos

On July 30, at 16,00 pm I reached the summit of Gasherbrum 1 after a 14 hours difficult ascent from Camp Three at 7000m. That day 6 people reached the summit, in this order, within 30 minutes between the first and the last: ...
July 21, 2007

Andrei takes the decision to leave the expedition

Alex remains in the base camp hoping for at least five days of good weather      
July 19, 2007

Several alpinists are caught by avalanches, two of them died

Alex and Andrei remained safe in the base camp

Audio File

July 15, 2007

Bad weather goes on

Avalanche danger on the way to camp 2  
July 14, 2007

Change of plans because of the bad weather

Andrei reaches Camp 3 (~7000m)  
July 11, 2007
July 10, 2007
July 9, 2007
July 4, 2007
July 3, 2007

German climber dies on the mountain

Preparing for climbing to Camp 1 and Camp 2  
June 27, 2007
June 24, 2007

Gasherbrum Base Camp, ~5000m

    Yesterday, june 24 we finally reach Base Camp at about 5000m altitude on the upper part of the Abruzzi Glacier, 8 hours from Concordia. Given no shadow where to hide, our one week 80 km trek from Askole and along the ...
June 21, 2007
June 18, 2007
June 16, 2007

Askole, 3105m, Baltistan

Today we arrived in the remote village of Askole by jeep from Skardu, during a 6 hours, 150 km, wild ride. We are at about 950 km distance from Islamabad and this is the point where tomorrow at 6,30 in the morning we will start ...
June 15, 2007

Skardu, 2340m, Baltistan

If you get through your first day in Pakistan then you shall start thinking that up there, almost 8 km difference in altitude, there are two mountains to be climbed. We reached Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, on June 13th after a ...
June 14, 2007
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