I understand that Broad Peak is an easy 8000m climb. How hard is it?
It is not ‘easy’ – no 8000 meter mountain is easy. BP is often called “easy” in the sense that there is almost no technical climbing (e.g. vertical walls). However there is always avalanche dangers plus the biggest challenge is that Broad Peak actually has three summits. Many climbers who claim they have summited Broad have actually only attained the fore-summit. It is another hour, more or less, across a clean ridge that allows climber to claim the true summit at 26,407. As I said, we found it challenging. One climber from another team died near the summit from dehydration and exhaustion plus another climber from another team had to be rescue from a crevasse. The route is usually set with a fixed line from the glacier and higher.
