If the challenge and the adventure is not big enough under "normal" seasonal conditions. you can always try to climb 8000m peaks in the winter.
"In modern rules, a winter ascent is one in which all events of the expedition, from arrival at BC to departure, are performed in calendar winter (from 21 December to 21 March).
The mountaineering community endorses these rules. Since top climber Simone Moro begun to mention, in his interviews, that a winter ascent must be strict to the calendar, all expeditions from 2007-on are arriving at BC after December 21.
This does not affect the “first winter ascents” by the Poles, because those ascents were in different times, with different rules, but we are forced to admit that some of the classic ascents are not complete winter, but just partial winter ascents (like, for example, Wielicki on Lhotse, when they arrived at BC early November and all the route and camps were set and prepared in Autumn).
2011 Winter season
In spite of low temperatures, the season was very hot and exciting, with action on nine different mountains, including four 8000ers. The most important event in many years took place on Gasherbrum II, with the first ascent of a Pakistani 8000er.
While the story of winter in Himalaya begun with the ascent of the highest peak (Everest, 1980), the story of winter in Karakoram started with the lowest one (Gasherbrum II, 2011)."
Simone Moro, Denis Urubko & Cory Richards on Gasherbrum II summit.
Image by Cory Richards, http://www.thenorthfacejournal.com
