Karakoram Diaries – 22nd July
A round-up of today’s updates from the mountains of the Karakoram.
Teams and Individuals are resting during a phase of poor weather. It is expected to improve between the 23rd and 27th so expect assaults on the summits soon!
(Updated throughout the day)
“Around 5pm I reached the main top and started descent, there was a strong wind and I was quite exhausted after two days of work and wrote Oswald on Inreach to wait for me in the shoulder area.
“Approaching the scheduled meeting point and crashed into a perilous rope, a snow cornice collapsed on me and I hung on the railings over China, a couple of meters from Oswald. I began to call for help, but I almost completely lacked voice and chance that Oswald would hear me almost there was no calm, given the fact that about an hour walk from me there were still participants.
“After a while, Little Hussein (Mr. Kim’s Porter) came into visual contact with me, he called for Oswald’s help and announced on the radio that the girl had snapped in the junction area and that she needed help.
“After that, for about 7 hours, I was tried to be pulled from the Chinese side together. The British who tried to storm the top, Paul and Peter came to help. The slope conditions didn’t call me to use the icebreaker to get to the top as the snow was crumbled like flour and fell asleep in any attempt to fix the icebreaker I was very exhausted I had no water or food for a long time my walkie sat down was very cold and I could hardly make any decisions.
“Just minutes before I was released, I found that Mr. Kim was a couple of meters away, I thought he descended to help me get to the top and speed up the process of descent of other participants who couldn’t walk this section of the road without using a perilous rope. After getting to the top, I was very frozen and exhausted and sent all the remaining forces to go down to the third camp and not freeze at night here. In an attempt to get out of the Chinese side, I lost one cat and a jumar.
Pete Brittleton and Paul Etheridge (Broad Peak)
“Currently at basecamp regrouping, resting and getting ready to go again!”
“The past few days have been frustrating and truly humbling. I am SAFE and I wanted to share the latest in my attempt to ascend K2.
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“I didn’t get to summit as I had hoped to on Sunday. It was extremely frustrating. I had been warned that Pakistan was not quite as organized as Nepal with climbing, and I experienced that firsthand. The lines were not set like they were supposed to be, which creates obvious hazards and delays combined with the extremely cold temperatures here.
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“We left Camp 2 early in the morning, and because we were sleeping four people to a tent for warmth, sleep wasn’t great. When we got to Camp 3, we were planning to rest from about 2 pm-9 pm and then go for the summit push. At 4pm, during our rest period, we learned the lines were not set for over half of the route. With that news, one of our team members didn’t skip a beat, stepped up, and organized the workload so it could get started on right away.
“Everyone was tired, however, and it didn’t quite work out like planned. I was told to leave at 9:30 pm, which I did in order to run into the rope fixers by 10:30 pm. It was freezing and dark and I would get little naps in between the lines being set. I was on oxygen and this amount of time on the mountain started to work against me. The lines didn’t get set in entirely until after 1 pm the next day. Don’t miss tomorrow’s post as I’ll be sharing how I had to go back to down to Base Camp on NO OXYGEN, that wasn’t fun but all things do happen for a reason and I’ll share that too.”
“The stormy weather seems to be passing at the moment, but still windy up high. We’re all doing well here in base camp, had a few showers today, and just going over our gear and our food, and our plan for our summit push which we hope to start sometime in the next week, but not sure when. It all depends on the weather forecast.
“So all’s well here in K2 and we’ll check in soon.”
“Hushe Pakistani K2 Expedition member are at BC and waiting for a clear window. As weather allow them will start Summit Push. We team already installed camp 4”
Czech / Slovak Team (Gasherbrum II)
“The boys started descent from base camp back to civilization and are flying home next week.
“No one else in the group will try Gasherbrum 2 and Gasherbrum 1 is closed this year.
“There’s no fix and there’s no one there so it would be almost suicide.”
“We are looking forward to the next window of good weather. It doesn’t stop snowing, the temperature is around -10º and we can’t even leave the tent. We have only been able to climb a day and a half since we entered the wall but we have hope for the next few days. We are still strong!”
Summer Season in the Karakoram – 2021
Main Photo: Elia Saikaly
