Sometimes we look on the events of the year behind us around the New Year’s holiday. This time we look at what we can expect in the next twelve months…

WINTER

Two 8,000-meter peaks remain unclimbed in the winter: K2 (28,250 ft./8,611 m.) and Nanga Parbat (26,660 ft./8,125 m.), the second and ninth highest mountains in the world, respectively. Denis Urubko’s desire to attempt K2 has become impossible this season because of a permit issue in China. However, three teams are converging on Nanga Parbat. You can follow their progress on Nanga Parbat on Raheel Adnan’s Altitude Pakistan.

If you admire persistence, Lonnie Dupre is making yet another attempt to summit Denali in calendar winter. I’m hoping his fourth attempt this month does the trick. This time he is carrying a compact tent rather than relying solely on snow caves for shelter, which can be exhausting to setup after a tiring day. Keep in mind, most of his climbing will be in the dark.

In addition, there always seems to be some story worth hearing comimg from Patagonia or somewhere else during the Austral summer. You can get updates from a number of sources, including Climbing, Alpinist, and PlanetMountain.

SPRING

The biggest question for this spring, and possibly year, is about Everest’s southern route. Since the season-ending ice fall collapse last year, the future of commercial guiding and relations with the Sherpa and other local and regional mountaineering supporters are in question. This isn’t a subject I follow closely, but it’s important to the public image of mountain climbing, so I’m sure that I’ll be bringing this up at least on social media. Here’s my commentary from 2014.

SUMMER

Kyle Dempster will return to the Charakusa Valley in Pakistan with Scott Adamson attempts on Latok I and Ogre II. The region is just developing its history now and, it could be argued, is where the most cutting edge exploratory alpine climbing is happening today. For more see the photo of the objectives and the announcement in the Mugs Stump release.

AUTUMN

Hopefully Tommy Caldwell will finish his quest on El Capitan’s Dawn Wall this winter so he won’t have to return in late 2015. We’ll know soon. It’s best to keep track of the journey, and Tommy, on his facebook fan page.

If you think I missed something significant, please don’t hesitate to leave me a comment or shoot me a note.

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