In every crisis lies an opportunity, they say. This could be the case in the Karakorum mountains where, against all odds, the summer is looking promising. After the horrors of spring in the Himalayas – covid and overcrowding on Everest – Pakistan is poised to see some good (or even very good) climbers attempt original ascents, or failing that, with a lighter style than usual. The upside of the health crisis ?
Spring season in Nepal left somehow a bitter taste. Secrecy, crowds, overuse of ropes, helicopters and oxygen but, most of all, a business based on selling as many permits as possible (a record 408 for Everest!) in a highly vulnerable country and in a middle of a pandemic, brought disastrous consequences and made the kind of headlines that Nepal government had precisely tried to avoid. With the surge of COVID in southern Asia, perspectives for the Karakorum