All K2 expedition dispatches
We are waiting for official confirmation from Garrett and the team, but based on one team member’s GPS tracking device, it appears they reached the summit (approximately 06:30 AM local time) and are currently on their way down!
More details when we get them…
Audio dispatch via satellite phone this evening from K2 Camp 4 (8,000 m / 26,250 ft.):
Hello! This is Garrett calling in for the K2 expedition team. Today is July 21st and we are up at Camp 4! High camp on K2! We has a great day climbing from Camp 3 up to Camp 4. We had some rest here, eating some dinner, getting ready to go for the summit tonight! Our plan is to leave tonight about 9:00 PM and hopefully reach the top sometime tomorrow morning around 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 AM. Everyone is doing great! Today our rope fixing team made it to the summit of K2 along with some other climbers. So we are feeling really good about the route conditions. The weather looks good tomorrow and fingers crossed for good climbing. We’ll check in soon. Thanks!
Audio dispatch via satellite phone this evening from K2 Camp 4 (8,000 m / 26,250 ft.):
Hello! This is Garrett calling in for the K2 expedition team. Today is July 21st and we are up at Camp 4! High camp on K2! We has a great day climbing from Camp 3 up to Camp 4. We had some rest here, eating some dinner, getting ready to go for the summit tonight! Our plan is to leave tonight about 9:00 PM and hopefully reach the top sometime tomorrow morning around 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 AM. Everyone is doing great! Today our rope fixing team made it to the summit of K2 along with some other climbers. So we are feeling really good about the route conditions. The weather looks good tomorrow and fingers crossed for good climbing. We’ll check in soon. Thanks!
Audio dispatch via satellite phone this evening from K2 Camp 3:
Hey this is Garrett calling in for the K2 expedition team! Today is July 20th and we are up at Camp 3 – tucked into our tents, just finished our dinner. We had a big climb today from Camp 2, up over the Black Pyramid and on to the glacier here at Camp 3. Some fairly thick clouds as we arrived into camp. We could see a little blue sky and we are hoping for continuing improving weather for the next couple of days. Our rope team [garbled] has been up high working the last two and half days on fixing lines up through the Bottleneck, the Traverse, and they are making good progress but still a lot of hard work to be done. So we are hoping their last day is a very productive one. The weather looks good and everything is on track. Our plan is to move Camp 4 tomorrow. Everyone is doing well and we are enjoy the views here at Camp 3. We will check soon. Thanks.
Audio dispatch via satellite phone this evening from K2 Camp 2:
Hello this is Garret calling in for the K2 expedition. Today is July 19th and we have been sitting tight at Camp 2 today. We had some snow last night so we decided to stay here at Camp 2. [garbled] And let’s see if we might get good weather in the forecast. So our plan, tentatively, is to move up to Camp 3 tomorrow. We will take a look at the forecast and conditions tomorrow when we get up and have breakfast around 06:00 AM and hopefully we’ll be moving to Camp 3! Everyone’s doing well here and we will check in soon. Thanks!
Audio dispatch via satellite phone this evening from K2 Camp 2:
Hey this is Garrett calling in for the K2 expedition team. Today is July 18th and we are up at Camp 2 tucked into our tents! We had a good day coming up to Camp 2. It’s been snowing most of the day and a little breezy but hopefully good weather is on the way. So all’s well here. We are listening to some music in the tent, making some hot water, about to have dinner, go to sleep and tomorrow plan to move up to Camp 3. Our Sherpas are up at Camp 4. They made a good effort today in fixing ropes up towards the Bottleneck. But they still have a long ways to go. So fingers crossed for good weather in the future. That’s all for now, we will check in again soon, bye.
Garrett called in with an audio dispatch this morning from K2 Camp 1:
Hi! This is Garrett calling for the K2 expedition. Today is July 18th. We are up at Camp 1. We had a good climb up here yesterday; it was nice and cool and then in the afternoon some snow showers moved and it was cloudy and a bit blustery. But everyone had a good night and today it’s cleared up, so we are moving to Camp 2! Everyone’s doing well and the Sun’s out so we are looking forward to a nice day! We will check in again once we get to Camp 2. Bye.
Garrett called in with an audio dispatch this evening from K2 Base Camp:
Hi! This is Garrett Madison calling from the K2 expedition. Today is July 16th and we just finished up dinner here in Base Camp and we are ready to move up to Camp 1 tomorrow morning! We are going to head off at 05:00 AM. The weather is looking good, the route conditions are looking solid, and the Sherpas are excited to be climbing with us as well! So all’s good here on K2 and we will check in again soon.
This afternoon our first wave of K2 climbers left Base Camp for Advanced Base Camp. Robert Smith with Klára, Lisa, and James are on their way up to ABC. The rest of the team will set off from Base Camp at 5 AM tomorrow for Camp 1 and will join with the climbers who are spending tonight at ABC.
Today our team of climbers and Sherpas is preparing to begin our summit rotation on K2! The weather is looking good, our equipment is in place up high on the mountain, and we are acclimatized and feeling ready!
We will climb from K2 base camp tomorrow to Camp 1 on the 17th of July, then our plan is to move up to Camp 2 the following day, then Camp 3, and arrive Camp 4 on the 20th of July. If everything looks good we will attempt the summit on the 21st of July, then descend down to Camp 2 or 3 that evening. We should be back in base camp by July 22nd.
Our rope fixing team of Sherpas is currently at Camp 2 and they will move to Camp 4 tomorrow, and aim to fix the ‘bottleneck’ and hopefully fix ropes higher on the peak by July 19/20. Conditions are looking good and we hope for continued good weather!
Last night as we were finishing our dinner and preparing to go to bed some climbers came into our camp and alerted us to an accident taking place on Broad Peak. Apparently one of 2 climbers (1 Poish & 1 Chech) was struck in the leg by rockfall and was in need of assistance, however they were not too far from base camp having just begun their climb that day. We dispatched 2 of our strongest Sherpas (Tashi Sherpa and Lakpa Dandi Sherpa) and they climbed with a few other climbers up to the injured party. They then carried the injured climber back to base camp by early morning, and the injured climber is now doing fine and waiting for a helicopter.