News Flash: The following news flash is a preliminary report posted as a service to our readers. Alpinist has not confirmed the veracity of its contents but will post a story in more detail when more information becomes available. –Ed.
It is now unclear as to whether or not Polish climber Piotr Morawski and Slovak Peter Hamor repeated the Gasherbrum I (26,509′) and Gasherbrum II (26,362′) traverse via the route originally established by Reinhold Messner and Hans Kammerlander twenty-four years ago (read the July 14, 2008 NewsWire for more information). The third member of the “Himalayan Trilogy Dream Team,” Piotr Pustelnik, is claiming that his companions Hamor and Morawski in fact descended to base camp during the eleven days between reaching the summit of GI and GII. Pustelnik explains that since the two descended to base camp “it wasn’t a traverse itself, rather a double header.” In order to be classified as a true traverse, the two would have had to follow Messner and Kammerlander’s route along the ridge between the Gasherbrum peaks. “They are great and honest climbers,” said Pustelnik. “I am sure that they want us to ‘admire’ their real achievements, not ones they didn’t do. I am waiting anxiously for their original report.”
For more information on this story, see www.desnivel.com and www.mounteverest.net