Broad Peak

Broad Peak is the 12th highest mountain in the world at 8,051 metres (26,414 ft) above sea level. The literal translation of "Broad Peak" to Falchan Kangri (ཨིྰན་ཨངརི་) is not accepted among the Balti people. The English name was introduced in 1892 by the British explorer Martin Conway, in reference to the similarly named Breithorn in the Alps.

Broad Peak is part of the Gasherbrum massif in Baltistan on the border of Pakistan and China. It is located in the Karakoram mountain range about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from K2. It has a summit over 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) long, thus "Broad Peak".

The mountain has several summits: Broad Peak (8051 m), Rocky Summit (8028 m), Broad Peak Central (8011 m), Broad Peak North (7490 m), and Kharut Kangri (6942 m).


The first ascent of Broad Peak was made between June 8 and 9, 1957 by Fritz Wintersteller, Marcus Schmuck, Kurt Diemberger, and Hermann Buhl of an Austrian expedition led by Marcus Schmuck. A first attempt by the team was made on May 29 where Fritz Wintersteller and Kurt Diemberger reached the forepeak (8,030 m). This was also accomplished without the aid of supplemental oxygen, high altitude porters nor base camp support.

On the same expedition, Marcus Schmuck and Fritz Wintersteller made a flash first ascent of Skil Brum peak (7,360 m) on June 19, 1957 in pure Alpine style in 53 hours.
Hermann Buhl fell to his death when he and Diemberger attempted to climb nearby Chogolisa (7,654 m) on June 27, 1957.
In July 2007 an Austrian mountaineering team climbed Broad Peak and retrieved the corpse of Markus Kronthaler, who had died on the mountain one year before, from over 8,000 metres.

In the winter and summer of 2009 there were no summits. There was one winter expedition by a Polish-Canadian team. In the summer there was one fatality, Cristina Castagna.

In summer 2012, five members of "Koroška 8000" - Slovenian team (led by Gregor Lačen) summitted the mountain (without supplementary oxygen and without high altitude porters). They tracked the way in deep snow from camp 4 to the summit and opened the summit to 7 more individuals from other expeditions. They all summitted on July 31, 2012.

On March 5, 2013 Maciej Berbeka, Adam Bielecki, Tomasz Kowalski and Artur Małek made the first winter ascent. Broad Peak was the 12th Eight-thousander summited in winter time and the 10th Eight-thousander first summitted in winter by Polish climbers.

During the descent, Maciej Berbeka and Tomasz Kowalski did not reach Camp 4 (at 7400 m) and were pronounced missing. On March 7, the head of the expedition Krzysztof Wielicki said there are "no chances at all" of finding alive 58-year-old Maciej Berbeka and 27-year-old Tomasz Kowalski. On March 8 both climbers were declared dead and the expedition was ended.

In July 2013, a group of five Iranian climbers attempted to ascend through a new route from the southwestern face. Three of them — Aidin Bozorgi, Pouya Keivan, and Mojtaba Jarahi — ascended successfully but during descent all three of them were lost and declared dead.