Broad Peak

Broad Peak
	Broad Peak seen from Concordia Square
height	8051 m
location	Gilgit-Baltistan ( Pakistan ), ; Xinjiang ( PR China )
Mountains	Gasherbrum Group ( Karakoram )
Dominance	9.37 km → K2
Notch height	1701 m
Coordinates	35 ° 48 '35 " N , 76 ° 34' 25" E Coordinates: 35 ° 48 '35 " N , 76 ° 34' 25" E
First ascent	June 9, 1957 by Marcus Schmuck , Fritz Wintersteller , Kurt Diemberger and Hermann Buhl
Normal way	West spur and north ridge
	The three peaks of Broad Peak: north (far left), middle (left third of the picture) and main peaks (center)
	The Breithorn was the inspiration

The three peaks of Broad Peak: north peak (behind clouds), middle and main peak (from left to right)

Broad Peak (background) from the Baltoro Glacier. The gap between the middle summit (left) and the main summit can be clearly seen.

The Broad Peak ( Falchan Kangri ) with 8051 m height one of the fourteen eight-thousanders and the zwölfthöchste mountain in the world. It is located in the Karakoram on the border between Pakistan and the People's Republic of China . He belongs to the Gasherbrum group , which joins in the south. Its northern neighbor is the K2 , from which it is only separated by the Godwin-Austen Glacier .

Surname

Broad Peak got its name in 1892 from William Martin Conway , the leader of a British exploration expedition in the Karakoram, because of its almost uneven summit ridge over a kilometer long. The sight of the mountain reminded Conway of the Breithorn in the Valais Alps . (Also when Conway named Concordiaplatz , Konkordiaplatz on the Aletsch glacier was inspired by the Alps).

The term Falchan (or Phalchan ) Kangri is the translation of the English name into the Balti language and is not accepted by the population.

Summit of Broad Peak

The Broad Peak consists of several peaks, the 7550 m high north peak, the middle peak ( 8011 m ) and the main peak with a height of 8051 m . Due to its apparent independence, there were voices to view the central summit as the 15th eight-thousander ( see also: Lhotse Shar ). However, the pass between the central and main summit does not fall below the height of 7800 m , so that the central summit only shows a difference in altitude of about 200 meters . In order to be considered a mountain , a difference in altitude of 500 meters is set.

When ascending from the west side, on the summit ridge of the main summit, you first reach its lower pre-summit . For an ascent that is considered fully completed, the passage over the long icy summit ridge to the main summit is required. It is peculiar that the main summit appears lower from the pre-summit, just as the pre-summit looks lower from the main summit.

The main Karakoram ridge runs from south to north over the summit ridges of Broad Peak and the Central Summit. There the ridge continues to the northeast over the 6956 m high Kharut Kangri , another sub-peak of Broad Peak. The Broad Peak north summit, however, is exactly north of the central summit and west of the Kharut Kangri and is west of the Karakoram main ridge and thus in Pakistan. The border between China and Pakistan runs over the peaks on the main ridge.

Summit of Broad Peak	height	Notch height	reference
Main summit	8051 m	1701 m	Gasherbrum I
Pre-summit (also "Rocky Summit" or "False Summit")	8028 m	<50 m	Broad Peak
Broad Peak Central (also BP Mid Peak or Middle; Chinese name: Zhongyang)	8011 m	191 m	Broad Peak
North summit	7490 m	212 m	Broad Peak Central
South Summit (Kharut Kangri)	6942 m	402 m	Broad Peak North Summit

Ascent history

The first ascent was made by a small Austrian expedition with Hermann Buhl , Kurt Diemberger , Fritz Wintersteller and expedition leader Marcus Schmuck on June 9, 1957 in the western Alpine style , i.e. without the support of high porters and bottled oxygen. The climbers had previously reached the pre-summit on May 29, where they found that the highest point is even further away. So they first descended again, only to reach the main summit a few days later. Before that, an expedition led by the well-known expedition leader Karl Herrligkoffer had failed in 1954 at about 6,900 m .

The north summit was first climbed in 1983 by Renato Casarotto .

Polish mountaineers Jerzy Kukuczka and Wojciech Kurtyka reached the summit twice: In 1982, the two had received permission from the Pakistani government to climb K2 , which included climbing lower peaks for acclimatization . On the descent from Broad Peak they met Reinhold Messner , to whom they answered when asked about the ascent that they had been 'in the area'. Messner understood and promised secrecy, because the K2 permit ultimately did not include climbing other eight-thousanders. In July 1984, Kukuczka and Kurtyka returned to Broad Peak to officially climb it and cause a sensation by crossing north, central and main peaks.

One day after the two Poles and 27 years after his first ascent, Kurt Diemberger stood on the main summit on July 18, 1984 together with his film and climbing partner Julie Tullis .

Janusz Majer and Walenty Fiut at the summit of Broad Peak. In the back left the pre-summit, above the K2

On July 14, 1984, the Pole Krzysztof Wielicki had already climbed the mountain in 14 hours in a solo ascent; he only needed 22 hours for the ascent and descent. On the summit ridge he met his expedition companions Janusz Majer, Walenty Fiut and Ryszard Pawłowski, who had set out two days earlier and were just beginning the descent.

On July 8, 2006, the Austrian extreme mountaineer Markus Kronthaler died of exhaustion and lack of fluids during the descent after climbing the summit as part of the expedition "In the footsteps of Hermann Buhl". His mountain comrade, Sepp Bachmair, managed with the last of his strength the descent to camp 3, which was 6950 m above sea level outside the death zone . In the summer of 2007, Kronthaler's brother Georg recovered the body from the death zone and brought it home.

On July 12, 2007, Edurne Pasaban entered the summit, her ninth eight-thousander, as part of her project 14 × 8000 at 11:30 am with her comrades Iván Vallejo , Ferrán Latorre, Asier Izaguirre and the porter Hassan. At the same time, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner , Ralf Dujmovits and David Göttler reached the same place that was their tenth eight-thousander.

On March 5, 2013, the Poles Maciej Berbeka, Adam Bielecki , Tomasz Kowalski and Artur Malek made the first winter ascent of the mountain. Berbeka and Kowalski could not follow in the descent and have been missing since then.

literature

Marcus jewelry: Broad Peak 8047 m . Das Bergland-Buch, Salzburg / Stuttgart 1958 (report of the first climbers).
Christine Kopp: Fifty years ago. The first ascent of Broad Peak . In: The Alps . No. 4 , 2007, p. 27–29 (full text available on the web, login required).
Richard Sale: Broad Peak . Carreg, Ross-on-Wye 2007, ISBN 0-9538631-5-8 .
Rollo Steffens: Fascination Karakoram. The wild mountains of Asia . Bruckmann Verlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-7654-3593-7 .
Jochen Hemmleb: Broad Peak - Dream and Nightmare . Tyrolia, Innsbruck 2007, ISBN 3-7022-2811-X .