One to go: Seattle-area climber summits Pakistan peak

Seattle-area climber Ed Viesturs, aiming to climb the 14 highest peaks in the world without using bottled oxygen, bagged his 13th yesterday in Pakistan.

Viesturs, who turned 44 on Sunday, reached the summit of 26,658-foot Nanga Parbat on Monday at 11:30 a.m., Pakistan time, he told local contacts in a brief satellite telephone call this morning.

It wasn’t easy.

Climbing with French colleague Jean Christophe Lafaille, Viesturs completed a harrowing ascent of the deadly mountain’s upper pyramid in what he described as "dry, inconsistent, powdery snow’’ that made climbing not only difficult, but much more time-consuming than planned.

It meant the climbers spent an extra night in their 24,000-foot upper camp on the world’s ninth-highest mountain. They returned, exhausted and laden with gear from three mountain camps, to the mountain’s main base camp this morning.

Viesturs said the summit route, climbed by numerous members of a Kazakstan national climbing team several days earlier, was loaded with new snow that filled the footsteps of the Kazaks, and made footing treacherous.

"It just made for difficult climbing,’’ he told Seattle contacts today. "For every step that you took, you would slide back down one step. We had to keep trading positions, breaking trail, and we had to keep each other motivated. It was seven hours of very difficult climbing; it was almost like climbing a sand dune for that amount of time. But we persevered, we kept pushing each other on.’’

The duo left their upper camp at 4:30 a.m., summited at 11:30 in heavy mist, but calm conditions, then returned to Camp Four at about 2 p.m., deciding to spend the night. They arose early this morning and descended all the way to base camp.

News of the summit, which reached Seattle only late last night, was a welcome relief for Viesturs’ friends and family, who knew snow had struck the upper mountain, and hadn’t heard from the climber for more than 48 hours. Viesturs initially planned to attempt the summit on Sunday, and be back in base camp yesterday.

"People around here weren’t sleeping much for a couple nights,’’ said Viesturs’ manager, Warren Wyatt.

Heavy cloud cover and snow on the mountain prevented the climbers from calling home on a satellite phone, he said. And for the final 48 hours, they didn’t even have it with them. Viesturs and Lafaille sent their only satellite phone back down the mountain with Italian climber Simone Moro, who was with them at Camp Three, but had to descend because of altitude sickness.

Wyatt said Viesturs, a longtime Seattleite who lives on Bainbridge Island, was exhausted this morning, but healthy and happy.

"We’re very, very happy to be here,’’ Viesturs told him. "It’s flat, it’s green, it’s sunny, it’s warm. There’s grass, there’s flowers. We’re looking forward to our first good night’s sleep in a long time tonight.’’

The successful ascent puts Viesturs tantalizingly close to a mountaineering feat achieved by fewer than a dozen humans and no Americans — climbing all 14 of the world’s highest peaks without supplemental oxygen. Conquering Nanga Parbat, a notoriously deadly mountain that had turned Viesturs away in 2001, leaves only equally deadly, 26,545-foot Annapurna unchecked on Viesturs’ impressive to-do list.

The small, quiet Nanga Parbat expedition was an unusual one. Security concerns about trekking to the mountain through the lawless, dangerous northern Pakistan region prompted Viesturs to impose a news blackout on his activities for nearly a month.

He broke his silence only late last week, after fixing ropes on much of the traditional Kinshofer Route up the west flank of Nanga Parbat, detailing his summit plans to The Seattle Times.

The climb comes on the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of the mountain by German climber Herman Buhl, who spent a night just below the summit with no supplies after reaching the top.

The highly exposed, avalanche-prone peak, also widely known as the "Killer Mountain,’’ has been the scene of some of the worst disasters in mountaineering history.

"This was a very challenging mountain,’’ Viesturs said in his dispatch from satellite phone. "It’s big, it’s steep, it was one of the most difficult I’ve done. I’m very, very happy to be done and have climbed it safely and soundly.’’

Viesturs and Lafaille are expected to stay at base camp for a number of days in support of Italian climber Moro, who hopes to renew his summit bid soon. His return travel plans have not been announced.

Wyatt said some dispatches from Viesturs will be posted soon at www.edviesturs.com.