La Sportiva ambassador François Cazzanelli summitted Nanga Parbat in 20hours and 20 minutes

On the 4th of July 2022, La Sportiva ambassador François Cazzanelli summited Nanga Parbat (8126m) the ninth highest mountain in the world. Climbing up the Kinshofer route on the Diamir Face, the alpinist from Valle d’Aosta made it without supplementary oxygen, in a time of 20 hours and 20 minutes.

François, member of the Italian expedition together with Marco Camandona, Pietro Picco, Roger Bovard, Jerome Perruquet and Emrik Favre, departed from Base Camp later than the rest of the group, at 11.30 (local time). After 8 hours he made it to Camp 3 (6,850m), where he rested for four hours in a tent he pre-prepared a few days earlier on his final acclimatization round.

At 23:30 on July 3rd, François began his summit push from C3, together with Jerome Perruquet and Peruvian alpinist Cesar Rosales. After 8 hours and 20 minutes, at 7:50am on the morning of July 4th, they stood on the summit together. It worth noting that from C3 to the summit the route was not fixed with ropes.

The Italians opted for a single summit push strategy, starting from the CB at an altitude of 4200 meters and not spending the night at intermediate camps but instead resting for a few hours at C3 and continuing to the summit without supplementary oxygen. The route was equipped by Sherpa up to C3 (6850m).

They were joined a short time later by Pietro Picco and then the remaining members of the expedition team, all of whom have reached the summit at 10.30am. Only Cazzanelli and Rosales returned to base camp on the evening of 4 July, while the other climbers chose to spend the night at C3 and returned the next morning.

“Nanga Parbat 8,126 m. A great team brings home a great dream. A gigantic emotion for everyone! – reported François from the Base Camp - The whole team opted for a quick climb along the Kinshofer route from BC (4,200m) to the summit with only a short stop at C3 at around 6,850m. To make everything more exciting, no fixed ropes were placed from this last field to the summit! I am very pleased to have climbed a complex and technical mountain at a good pace with 4,000m of positive altitude difference.”

The ascent comes shortly after the addition of the new variation Aosta Valley Express, a 1400m route that breaches difficulties up to AI 90° M6 85° added by François Cazzanelli and Pietro Picco on the Diamir face, which joins Kinshofer route at Camp 2.

The route involves climbing the vertical serac at the base of the route then follows steepening snowfields up to a mixed section that leads onto the ridge that joins with the Kinshofer route, totalling 1800 of climb at an altitude where lack of oxygen forced very slow climbing.

“With Nanga, we end the first part of our adventure. – announced Cazzanelli - Stay tuned our trip to Pakistan continues!”

The group are now in Skardu before moving on to their next goal.