July 9
The team left base camp today, all six members, for a summit and descent attempt. They are hoping to take advantage of a good weather window that is opening on Saturday and Sunday for their ski descent. Word of their progress should come early next week.
July 7
We’ve been at base camp for 3 days now after our last push up the mountain—we
spent the night of July 4th at camp 3, over 22,000ft. As we ate our
freeze-dried dinners huddled in two tents, we shouted “Happy Fourth of July”
back and forth between tents. The views more than made up for the lack of
fireworks and red-white-and-blue dessert buffets—even as tired as we were it
was amazing to see all of the surrounding peaks as the sun was setting.
On the 5th of July, we made our way all the way back down to base camp, and
we’ve been in hog heaven (well, compared to up on the mountain—in base camp you can eat Dedar’s home-cooked Pakistani meals as opposed to freeze dried food and gels, sleep well in your perfectly nested tent as opposed to the restlessness that sometimes comes at night at altitude, and drink plenty of “du chai,” the milk tea that tastes so awesome and that our cook is constantly making for us)ever since.
All of our technology here at base camp—Kris and John even set up a makeshift
computer desk in our TNF dome consisting of two boxes spanned by some
Styrofoam, for editing and uploading and such—depends on solar power. We were lucky on the 4 days we were up on the mountain to have sunny weather, but since we’ve been back in base camp it’s been mostly cloudy with some occasional drizzle; fine for resting at base camp but not so good for all of the computer and battery needs, which is why we haven’t been able to post our dispatches until today. So, if you’re wondering why we can’t always be as prompt as possible with our blogging, that’s the reason.
And now, having had a few days to rest, we’re all ready to get back on the mountain for our final push. However, like the tech stuff, we’re also now waiting on weather. It’s supposed to be unsettled for the next few days, getting worse towards the end of the week, after which we might have a good enough window to climb back up. Fingers crossed!
In the meantime, we’ll be figuring out how to finagle another invite down to the Italian camp to snack on some more homemade cheese…..!
Ingrid Backstrom
July 7
Heading to Camp 3 I am beginning to understand what makes high altitude climbing so hard, there is no air to BREATH! Eating is hard, sleeping is harder and that stinging headache won’t go away.
On our last push, the fourth up the icefall and our final before our summit attempt, we made it to camp 3 to spend the night. From Camp 1 to Camp 2 everyone seemed to be doing well. We all had heavy packs with our skis and gear for up higher. The ropes we fixed earlier on the Banana worked well and allowed us to make good time. Here we had some amazing views looking back toward Base Camp and we could realize our progress. After some rest we decided that we should start to break the trail toward Camp 3 and begin fixing lines for the next day. Kris, Jon and Kim made it about half way to Camp 3, breaking trail and fixing lines. By the time we caught up with them they decided it was time to turn around so we left a tent and some rope there and headed back to Camp 2.
At first our freeze-dried meals for up high on the mountain were a great compliment for our American palates but now they are starting to lose their appeal and aren’t such a treat. It seems for all the work we are doing we should be eating more. I still get excited for my freeze-dried Beef Stroganoff but have a hard time eating all of it now. The high altitude weight loss plan!
The perch that is Camp 2 slowly began to seem further below has we made our way to Camp 3. Each step up meant that each breath provided less of the Oxygen needed to move forward. Camp 3, located high on the shoulder below the summit pyramid, is beautiful. From 22,750 ft. we can look down onto the Baltoro Glacier, can see into India and out into the mighty Karakoram. We were left alone at Camp 3 to take advantage of what little Oxygen was there. Sleep here was restless and not that comfortable but should help with acclimatizing.
From our high point at Camp 3 we descended all the way back to Base Camp for some quality rest before we will attempt the summit. It is hard to leave Camp 3 knowing that we will have to climb the six thousand feet back to Camp 3 before we attempt the summit.
Now we will wait for some good weather, let’s hope we get some. Our time is coming to an end and we need a few good days so we can try for the summit.
Kip Garre
July 7
June 30th was a great team day- we have befriended the Italian team, and after their hospitality the night before, they joined us for coffee late morning. Our supplies are beyond limited and so we enjoyed great coffee and great company up at our site at BC. They are energetic, positive, and vibrant people to be around, and we all greatly appreciate the ambiance they create. That same evening, our team watched “Scrapple”, a classic Telluride film, in our fab TNF dome tent. For Hil and I, it was a nice little slice of home.
We ended up heading to Camp 1 on the 2nd of July, due to inclement weather the day before. Another 3am start got us rolling with the ladies as one rope team and the fellas as another. The afternoon at C1 was extremely warm as we geared up for our next push to Camp 2 & 3.
The morning of the 3rd, our team as a whole headed to Camp 2. Hil, Kip and I brought our skis. There was more tent maintenance and camp set up once we arrived but we had the camp to ourselves, more or less. We have been about a day or so ahead of the masses so far and that has allowed us more freedom and privacy on the ropes and at camp.
Early afternoon on the 3rd, John, Kris and I set out to break trail and fix lines to Camp 3 for the next day push. The Swiss team’s Sherpas (whom they flew in from Nepal) followed up behind us about 4 hours later and finished where we left off. The three of us had an incredible afternoon being on the front line again as we worked the route up to about 22,000ft. Griber had some great cliffhanger moves as we moved up the mountain, as this section actually had more ice, exposure and steepness to it then the route to Camp 2 (which is different from years past). Kip and Hil joined us later, after working on tent platform maintenance etc that morning.
On July 4th, Kris, Griber, Ingrid, Kip and I headed up to Camp 3 at 22,750ft. It was slow going once again as we were the first team to move up on the new section, and encountered mixed conditions from pure ice to isothermic snow. We all got to Camp 3 between roughly 3-5 hours, after an 8:30am start from Camp 2. Camp 3 is situated on a steeper snow ridge, and so upon arrival, we had to again dig out tent platforms into the steep and exposed hillside. Kris had already dug out one platform as we all rolled in one by one.
Our ski gear is now scattered about the mountain due to how we individually approached our loads. John, Kris and Ingrid have their gear at Camp 1, Kip and Hil at Camp 2, and mine is at Camp 3. We are constantly and carefully evaluating the ski route and are proceeding with caution as to what sections (if not all) can be skied safely. The mountain has changed dramatically in the past five years, according to several climbers that are here that have been here before, including the Italians. As the conditions are a moving target, we will make decisions based on what is before us on our summit push.
On the 5th of July, the five of us traveled from Camp 3 back to BC. The icefalls are changing rapidly as summer continues, and the melting within the route is extraordinary. It may take some time in our future trip/s to detour from the original route to avoid the opening crevasses and glacial pools.
Now that all of us are back at BC, we await another weather window and are resting up for a summit attempt, which may be a few days away. As soon as we get a good 4 day stretch, some of us will move from BC to Camp 2 direct, and another group will go from BC to Camp 1 to Camp 2. From there, we will have to monitor our progress from Camp 2 to the summit…it is all weather and conditions permitting.
To date, we all are really pleased with the style in which we have climbed the mountain- carrying our own loads, hauling shared fixed line, fixing the route, breaking trail, etc. Each camp arrival has been a success in and of itself, and we are looking forward to going for the summit as a team of 6.
Kim Havell
June 24
So as Hil mentioned, our stuff got to base camp really late so we are catching up on our dispatches..
Our camp in Goro II marked a significant transition from the dust and the heat of the past few days of trekking. Though the death star continued to pound down, we were now camping on a glacial rock moraine with a nearby cold stream. The ladies headed down first for some very cold water bottle showers and to do a bit of laundry. It was one of the most rejuvenating moments of the trip to date. The fellas got their turn shortly thereafter.
That evening was also one of the most fun of our journey so far..somehow our kitchen and porter crew had deduced that our group likes to have a good time, and so they arranged an impromptu Pakistani dance party in our mess tent. The group was comprised of porters from several different expeditions, and was full of talent. While one man would sing, another would keep beat on a gasoline drum, and the top few groovers would grab one or all of us on to the dance floor. The walls literally came down a short time after the party started as the audience expanded exponentially, leaving us all panting at 14,000ft. We hoped that the dancing might have removed some of the mystic of American women, but no such luck as we continue to be a source of great curiosity- though we had made some new friends.
The trek to Shagring, our last stop before bc, was pretty straight-forward. The highlight was lunch in Concordia where groups broke off for K2 and G1/G2. The weather was a bit cloudier that day and so no views of the summit of K2. We gained roughly another 350 meters before arriving to Shagring in rainy weather.
Our final day of trekking to bc led us to our final home base at 16,150ft. We arrived late morning, and Karim, the Major, and Kris headed over to the military bc compound to gain approval for our camp spot at the head of the glacier ice-fall. They were successful in their negotiations, and so we were lucky enough to have the highest spot at bc and therefore relatively more privacy.
Our first two days were comprised of sorting gear, getting our camp and tent sites set up, putting up the TNF dome, and planning. We drew the short straw on porters on this trip, and were missing 16 loads up to our 3rd day in camp- so no communication for anyone other then sat phones. Our gear and remaining food finally arrived on the third day so stress levels greatly diminished for the TNF folks.
We have now had three pushes to Camp 1. The first day we headed up to about 17,200ft wanding/marking the route as we traveled. It was exciting stuff as the icefall is very broken, with significant crevasses. Kris did a tremendous job with some initial recon and also on the sharp end on this first excursion. For all of us, it was a great adventure to actually be the first group to really start putting in the route to Camp 1- very rewarding, and an unusual position to be in with the crowds that can accumulate in these mtns. For the group, putting in the route adds many other elements to approaching this unfamiliar terrain.
As more teams begin to arrive, on the 22nd, we got up at 2am and headed out into the darkness with heavy loads for setting up Camp 1. It was rough going- the weather and visibility were quite poor at times, we were dodging ahead of groups that were not quite as acclimatized, all the while breaking trail, punching through, and dangling some legs in crevasses as we attempted to negotiate the tricky conditions. We ended up working through some of the route with an Austrian team and Korean team right behind us. At about 10:30am, Kris made the leadership call of camping on a relatively flat, safer area a couple hours before Camp 1.
The other teams followed the piper and we soon found ourselves surrounded by 6 other tents. As the weather improved steadily throughout the afternoon, and the sun baked the glacier, the other teams came out and showed some unique color and character. We were surrounded by a 2 person Portuguese team, a 3 person Italian team with a dynamo team leader, Gloria, who, due to the heat, decided to strut her stuff in great lingerie for us all to enjoy, a Swiss team, a German team, a Korean team, and an Austrian team.
The next morning, we finished up the route to Camp 1 at 19, 300ft, and spent the day setting up our future home for our next few pushes. The views of the rest of our journey were mind blowing, and the ridge line route that we will be moving up on our next trip looks steep and exciting.
This morning, we arrived back at camp to a great breakfast, pseudo showers, and tent platform maintenance. We plan to go for Camp 1 and then Camp 2 early morning on the 26th.
Kim
June 24
Our apologies to everyone who has been following our expedition dispatches. We’ve had the one two punch of computer problems (the computer with the dispatches crashed when it decided it didn’t like the high altitude) combined with a missing barrel with all of our technology inside. The latter issue took several days and a lot of grief to solve, but solved it is and we are all connected again!!!
So on with the climb!! We just returned from one night at camp ¾’ers and a second night at Camp 1. Two days ago we set out into the labyrinth of a glacier that makes up the route to Camp 1. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t exactly play out in our favor. The snow started falling and the temperature warmed up and we all expended tons of energy with route-finding and post-holing through a white out in waist deep snow. More than one of us fell in crevasses with a leg or two dangling into open space. As time wore on we realized that it was a bit silly to try to continue to push through to Camp 1. Kris made the call to make camp around 10:30 am somewhere on the upper glacier, hence Camp ¾.
Apparently it was a good call because every other team ascending that day followed suite and pretty soon there was a cluster of 8 or so tents stacked together on top of a perfect little serac somewhere below the true Camp 1.
The next morning we woke to a perfect day-cold and clear. We packed up and headed to Camp 1, roughly two hours above us on a fairly clean route, especially now that we could see. Again we spent the night at about 19, 300ft, with everyone feeling great, we had plenty of time to dig out a great space and check out the route that lay ahead of us. It snowed again in the afternoon, as it has been every day, but cleared for a beautiful evening.
We all got up pretty early so as to avoid the heat of the sun , which, even at altitude, has been overwhelmingly intense. Walking back down the route that was so difficult on the way up, felt like a different climb altogether. With all the teams ascending and descending in the last two days, the route was totally stomped in and felt like a cruiser, especially with the hard freeze from the clear nights.
It took us barely even 3 hours to make it to base camp, and as we were short on food for breakfast we were all extremely excited about Dee Dar’s cooking(we definitely scored with a great chef!) and a cup of strong coffee. The sun is shining, everyone is feeling great after a bit of food and we each took showers (except Griber, watch out!!!!)- we were all bummed that Ingrid didn’t join us on our latest excursion but it seems that she is finally healthy again and will be able to charge to Camp I in a couple days. We will be a whole team once again.
Thanks for all your patience and we promise to keep up our dispatches in the upcoming weeks,
Hilaree….
June 24
Heading up the Baltoro Glacier we start to recognize some of the peaks, Trango Towers, Nameless Peak, Uli Biofo. Today I am excited we have such great weather for hiking and checking out the mountains but hope that it doesn’t mean that we will run into weather when we hit base camp.
From camp at Paiyu we get onto the Baltoro Glacier and head to Urdukus. Camp at Urdukus will be the last time we camp on solid earth until we begin our trek out. Here we will also see our last fixed toilets and showers. Urdukus sits up off the glacier on the hillside across from Trango Towers. Once at Urdukus we spend the afternoon finding shade and staring across the glacier at some of the world’s most stunning natural formations and some of the greatest rock climbs on earth. Since the heat has been so draining we decide to leave Urdukus early, hoping to arrive at camp Goro 2 before the hottest part of the day. While hiking we get a clear view of Broad Peak, one of the four 8000 meter peaks in the area. The trail on the glacier is vague but the porters know the way well which helps us to make good time to camp Goro 2.
After dinner the porters and cooks all gathered around our camp and began to play music. Quickly porters from other camps showed up and the banging, chanting and dancing took form. This seemed to be a good bonding experience for everyone. The highlight of the night was when one of the porters dressed in purple fleece top to bottom outlined in gold was pushed to the center of the dance circle. Obviously trained in porter dancing he wowed everyone with his funky chicken and pelvis pumps.
Again we decided to leave camp early with hope to avoid the heat for our trek to Shagrin. We stopped at Concordia base camp for lunch. Concordia is the confluence of the Goodwin Austin Glacier, the Baltoro Glacier and the Upper Baltoro Glacier. Here groups heading for K2 go North while we head toward the Upper Baltoro and for Base camp. Twelve days since we left home and we are almost to base camp. I am excited to get settled in and go through my bags and set up camp.
Kip
