K2 Puja!

Climbers Elizabeth and Gina with K2 behind

Today on K2:  Puja!  As is the custom before any climbing begins, a Puja ceremony is held to ask the mountain for blessings and safe passage.  What follows is a fun afternoon party.  Here’s Garrett with the details:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the K2 expedition team!  Today we had our Puja ceremony.  It was a great day with all of our climbing members, our Nepal sherpa staff, and our Pakistani climbing staff and base camp team.  We asked the mountain for safe passage and blessings.  We had a Buddist Lama conduct the ceremony and afterward we had a dance party!  It was a lot of fun – good spirits all around.  And now we are excited to begin climbing up the mountain.  Beautiful weather here on K2 and looking forward to another great day!

Climber Brian leading the dance at the Puja ceremony

Climber Brian leading the dance at the Puja ceremony

Climber Louis dancing at the Puja ceremony! Our liaison officer Captain Faiz on the right

Climber Louis dancing at the Puja ceremony! Our liaison officer Captain Faiz on the right

Climbers Elizabeth and Gina with K2 behind

Climbers Elizabeth and Gina with K2 behind

 

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Training at Base Camp

Training in K2 base camp with Broad Peak behind

Yesterday, the K2 team conducted some training at base camp.  Expedition leader, Garrett Madison, provides the details:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the K2 expedition.  We’re doing great here in base camp.  It’s been beautiful weather the last few days.  We’ve got camp fully dialed in the way we like it:  great dinning tent for the climbers, communications tent, lounge tent, shower tent.  So it’s come along really well.  We’ve had some nice meals here and have been doing some training here in base camp to refresh our technical skills which we will use up on the route:  climbing fixed ropes and descending fixed lines.  So, everybody’s doing well here and we’re excited for our Puja ceremony!

Training in K2 base camp-practicing fixed line ascending and descending

Training in K2 base camp-practicing fixed line ascending and descending

Training in K2 base camp with Broad Peak behind

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Settling into Base Camp

K2 Base Camp

With the team settling into base camp and our satellite terminal uplink up and running, Garrett and team report in with photos and this expedition update:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the K2 expedition team.  We are at base camp.  We had a wonderful trek in over a week.  And arrived in base camp three days ago.  We’re getting base camp set up now and almost have it finally dailed in.  It’s nice to be here and get settled and get ready for our first rotation which is probably five or six days off.  Everyone’s doing well and we are excited to be here enjoying base camp.

K2 as seen from base camp

Broad Peak as seen from K2 base camp

 

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