Another inspiring Italian to take down the dangerous Nanga Parbat for the first winter ascent this year

Winter Mountaineering has now entered in an altogether different mode as the toughened Winter Mountaineers are hoping to grab the last three 8000ers in the world, never been climbed before in winters. 

Polish and Italian climbers are currently leading the dangerous world of Winter Mountaineering and both camps are eager to grab the remaining 8000ers in the cold Karakorum in the coming season.

After Italian Simone Moro’s first winter ascent of the Gasherbrum-2 in 2010, Polish veteran Artur Hajzer and his team bagged the first winter ascent of the Gasherbrum-1, giving a new impetus to the decades old rivalry between the Poles and the rest of the Mountaineering world.

Moro is still leading the pack from the front for having three virgin winter ascents for which he is rightfully called as the “Mr. Winter”. But this year around, he will not be the only Italian hoping to bag yet another 8000er.

---

The 36-year-old Daniele Nardi will be yet another aspirant to bag the notorious Nanga Parbat in the cold Western Himalayas in Pakistan along with no fewer than half-a-dozen different expeditions from all over the world.

Nardi comes with an impressive resume for having successfully summitted four 8000ers in his career and has always hoped to climb one of the deadliest and most difficult mountains in the world. His dream of climbing the second highest mountain in the world came in the year 2007 when he summitted the 8,611m high K-2 in the rugged Karakorum Mountain range in Pakistan. 

Nardi has fond memories of the ascent but also regrets the loss of his friend during the expedition.

---

“I started to go to the mountains as a child”, said Nardi. “My family would take us every summer to spend holidays in the Alps Then one day, at age 13 in Courmayeur we saw a documentary on a mountaineering expedition. Was to Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli in 1954 climbed “the most difficult mountain in the world, "K2”.

“I decided I also wanted to climb that mountain. At age 18 I went alone direct the Alps, the next day I climbed the Grand Jorasses. The years that followed were years totally devoted to the mountains and to the inner search that generates mountaineering”. He added.

“In 2007 crown my dream, call K2, the mountain teaches me his law, I must learn to accept the loss of a friend on those slopes of ice.”  

Nardi along with his team of International climbers is likely to take the Kinshofer route and will switch over to the Diamir face on the North side of the mountain. 

He will be negotiating his path on what is often referred to the world’s tallest wall of over 4000metres. He will be bracing strong winds surging to a gruesome 150km/h with temperatures as low as -40 Degree Celsius. 

---