We are happy to report our success this week on Kilimanjaro and share a few pics from the expedition.

Kilimanjaro post climb celebration

Celebrating the summit success and completion of the expedition

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Summit Success!


Machame Gate

Setting out from Machame Gate.

The Kilimanjaro Team has assembled in Arusha, after a safari to several of Tanzania’s best game viewing parks. We are excited to begin our climb tomorrow! — at Mount Meru Hotel.

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After a two day bus ride from Skardu we are finally back in Islamabad, and very happy to be here! This is the end of our journey back from K2, the 75 mile trek from base camp to Askole, the jeep ride from Askole to Skardu, then the two day bus ride from Skardu to Islamabad (because of flight delays out of Skardu). We are indulging in our celebration dinner and will be flying out over the next few days. It’s been an incredible experience and a very successful one!

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As we are making our way from Skardu to Islamabad we can’t help feel like our climb to the top of K2 was all just a dream. We had perfect weather and route conditions for our climb, and had the summit all to ourselves with little to no wind as we gazed for hundreds of miles in every direction, it was truly a magnificent experience, with a great team. There are less than twenty American climbers including ourselves to reach the top of K2 since the first American ascent in 1978, so we feel lucky to be part of this special group. After three days of trekking from base camp down the Baltoro Glacier we reached Askole and then traveled by jeep yesterday to Skardu. It’s comforting to be here in the hotel, and on our way to an even better hotel in Islamabad! Most of us are heading home, however I will stay in the Eastern Hemisphere and meet my next group in Tanzania, for a climb of Kilimanjaro!

Attached are a few photos of our perfect summit day!

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Transcript:

New tonight a local man has done what fewer than 20 Americans ever have.

He summited the second tallest mountain in the world, K2.  Garrett Madison is a Bainbridge Island native and president of Madison Mountaineering.  Yesterday he and two other Americans became the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth climbers from the U.S. to stand atop the summit of K2 which is on the border of China and Pakistan.  It’s considered more dangerous to climb than Everest and deadlier.  One out of four climbers don’t survive.

Congratulations to those guys.