Tamara Lunger continues K2 winter expedition

34-year-old South Tyrolean mountaineer Tamara Lunger has announced she will continue her attempt to climb K2 in the winter. The decision wasn’t taken for granted after the tragic death of Catalan mountaineer Sergi Mingote, which Lunger had witnessed personally, but after what was "a very turbulent time for me, full of worries, tears and dark moments" she has decided to remain on the second highest mountain in the world "because I always try to find in every bad thing also something to discover, to understand, to overcome and thus become stronger."

The mountain is now far less crowded than just a week ago: following the historic first winter ascent of K2 carried out by 10 Nepalese mountaineers last Saturday, many of the climbers have already left base camp. In the wake of Mingote’s death Tamara's original climbing partner, Alex Gavan from Romania, has preferred to withdraw from the expedition.

Lunger announced that she now plans on continuing with young Chilean mountaineer Juan Pablo Mohr, Sergi Mingote's climbing partner, with whom she has already acclimatised during the first rotations on the mountain.

Writing on her social media channels, Lunger explained: "We decided to join forces and continue our climb in Sergi's name and spirit. Looking at the first photo here, it doesn't seem true that he is not here anymore! J.P. and me in the sun and Sergi in the shadows who I know is now our guardian angel with us during the climb! Sergi we miss you but we will take you up with us. Sincere gratitude for everything"

Link: La Sportiva, Camp Cassin, Garmin