Samina Baig – K2 Updates
Samina Baig was one of the first climbers on K2 this summer so saw events unfold on the mountain from start to finish.
We followed her progress closely with this diary…
26th July
“Dear friends and family, I have been blessed to have your support and prayers.
“Tomorrow was the moment to go for the summit push on the mighty K2, however a series of incidents on Broad Peak and Yesterday avalanche Killing British legendary Mountaineer Rick Allen and nearly escaped two other mountaineers on K2
While climbing above Camp 1, we nearly got hit by rocks multiple times, the extremely warm conditions made things very dangerous for me and my team! The conditions above the mountain were unclear!
“Assessing the danger and unclarity on the mountain above, I was mentally very disturbed as on the one hand I had the summit as my dream, on the other hand, was the safety of my life and my team!
“Hence I made the most difficult decision to call off the Summit Push and expedition.
“I know the summit of K2 means the whole world for a mountaineer, but I believe safety is the most important not only for me but the people with me on the mountain.
“I am extremely grateful to my sponsor.
special communications organization for their financial support! SCO support was undoubtedly very unique and a great help for my dream expedition of K2! I desired to hoist both the national flag and SCO flag on the summit, however, mountains are unpredictable!
“Thank you Special Communications Organization – SCO once again!
“Thank you everyone for your kind support and prayers!”
24th July
“Dear family, friends and well-wishers, I with my team arrived at camp 1 on K2, I am on my summit push now! We aim to summit on 27th July, if all goes well! The storm and high winds destroyed our tents at camp 1, camp 2 and camp 3, we had to bring new tents. It’s hard work on K2 and I am proud of my team for their great work!”
“Thank you to each one of you for your constant prayers. Please keep me and my team in your prayers.”
18th July
“Dear family and friends, Alhamdulillah I completed my final acclimatisation on K2, I, Arshad bhai and Ahmed Baig spent a night at camp1, then climbed up to camp2 and descended back to be camp, this was a long day but everything was great, earlier I did my acclimatization up to camp2 on the broad peak, please enjoy the video! Now I am ready for the summit push!”
10th July
“Hi everyone we were having some issues with internet! now it has been fixed! Thank you team SCO.”
7th July
“On the 7th of July morning our plan was to climb up to the fixed line towards camp3, but Mirza bhai updated us about the weather for 7th of July and the weather forecast was supposed to be heavy snowfall, It started snowing at 2am it was windy and super cold! We woke up at 6am make some tea and water and at 7am we descended to camp1, we spent night at camp1 and 8th morning we came back to basecamp safe and sound!”
6th July
“We reached Broad peak Camp 2 on 6th of July! Despite the fresh and deep snow it took us 3 hours and 45 minutes to reach Camp 2 on Broad Peak. Both I and Arishad bhai are feeling absolutely fine! Enjoying the incredible view of the mighty K2 and off course the Karakoram range.”
5th July
“Dear family & friends, I have started my acclimatisation for K2 on Broad Peak
Today I and Arshad bhai finally made it to broad peak camp1, it took us 5 hours from K2 basecamp to Broad peak Camp1, will be spending night here at camp1, tomorrow if weather permits we will go to BPcamp2″
3rd July
“At K2 Basecamp with my brothers. After so many days of bad weather we finally can see sunshine.”
1st July
“Got back to basecamp from K2 ABC this morning, spent one night up there! The plan was to touch Camp1, but because of bad weather we turned back to Basecamp!”
28th June
(Team update)
“Karakoram Expeditions and Samina’s team has fixed rope up to camp 1 on K2 today.
“After establishing camp one the whole team is safely back to base camp.”
“Team members = Jalal U Din, Eid Mohammad, Ahmed Baig, Basharat, Faryad Karim, Inayat.”
25th June
“It’s such a beautiful day at K2 Base Camp.”
“I am blessed to be here again.”
24th June
“By the grace of Almighty Allah, we arrived at The mighty K2 base camp. Offered special prayers for the safety and wellbeing of the entire team and now settled! This place will be my home for the next one and a half month!
“SCOM 4g works incredibly fast despite the tower is 12km away from the base camp.
Great work team SCO”
23rd June
“The team has arrived in Concordia after 5 hours trek from ghoro ll. We started our day with a beautiful sunny day. But on arrival the weather turned bad, it’s very windy and cold but all the team members are in good health.”
22nd June
“After one day rest in Urdukas the team has reached Goro ll. The weather was windy and cloudy! Everyone is doing great! Happy and blessed to be here in the mountains!
“The exciting part is that now you can make a phone call to your family from Urdukus and across Baltoro glacier broad Peak and K2 base camp! We are excited to experience 4G at Concordia and K2 base camp thank you and Great work Special Communications Organization – SCO”
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