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.
We just spoke with Garrett Madison from K2 base camp. Communications are still limited and photos will be posted soon. The team spent yesterday at base camp recovering from the climb and packing and organizing their gear for the 60 mile trek out to Askole. Today they start the multi-day journey down the Godwin-Austen and Baltoro glaciers. The team is reveling in their amazing success and good fortune with weather, climbing conditions, and overall health of the team. Many lifelong dreams were fulfilled.
Join us one more time in congratulating Matthew Du Puy, Alan Arnette, and Garrett Madison along with Sherpa climbing team Kami Rita Sherpa, Fur Kancha Sherpa and Kami Tshering Sherpa and all of our wonderful base camp staff, including our Pakistani Liason Officer, Squadron Leader Khalid Mehmood Chishti.
Thank you for following along and we hope you enjoyed our dispatches. This concludes our coverage of K2 2014.
https://madisonmountaineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/logomm-300x138.jpg00Garretthttps://madisonmountaineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/logomm-300x138.jpgGarrett2014-07-28 09:47:552014-07-28 10:23:25Text Message from K2 Base Camp
https://madisonmountaineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/logomm-300x138.jpg00Kurthttps://madisonmountaineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/logomm-300x138.jpgKurt2014-07-28 08:51:512014-07-28 08:51:51Back at K2 Base Camp
https://madisonmountaineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/logomm-300x138.jpg00Garretthttps://madisonmountaineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/logomm-300x138.jpgGarrett2014-07-27 00:17:252014-07-27 02:47:04K2 Team Safely Back to High Camp
We just received a sat phone call from the summit of K2 (8611m/28,251ft), the second highest point on Earth. Garrett Madison, Matt Du Puy, and Alan Arnette have just become the 16th, 17th, and 18th Americans to stand on the summit of K2, the first American K2 summit success since 2007. Garrett sounded fantastic! A transcript of the call is provided below.
[UPDATE] The Sherpa team members are Kami Rita Sherpa, Fur Kancha Sherpa (both of Thame Solu Khumbu, Nepal) and Kami Tshering Sherpa (of Pangbotse, Nepal).
Transcript:
Okay! Hey, this is Garrett Madison calling in from Madison Mountaineering. It is July 27th, eight o’clock in the morning (0800 PKT) and today myself and two of the climbers on our team, Alan Arnette and Matt Du Puy are standing on the summit of K2. It’s a glorious morning, hardly any wind, views in every direction for 360 degrees, some clouds building on the horizon, but just a spectacular day.
We are up here all alone with our three climbing Sherpas who we have climbed all over the world with. They are like brothers to us. I have personally climbed Everest five times with two of them and many other Himalayan peaks. We are just so thrilled to be here. It’s a special moment for us and a great, great moment for Madison Mountaineering and also for all the climbers on the team here, so we are just looking forward to a safe descent and rejoining our friends and family in due time. So we will check in when we get down to high camp. And hey beautiful, beautiful day on the summit, thanks for following along and we will check in soon. Bye bye.
We just received a sat phone call from the summit of K2 (8611m/28,251ft), the second highest point on Earth. Garrett Madison, Matt Du Puy, and Alan Arnette have just become the 16th, 17th, and 18th Americans to stand on the summit of K2, the first American K2 summit success since 2007. Garrett sounded fantastic! A transcript of the call is provided below.
[UPDATE] The Sherpa team members are Kami Rita Sherpa, Fur Kancha Sherpa (both of Thame Solu Khumbu, Nepal) and Kami Tshering Sherpa (of Pangbotse, Nepal).
Transcript:
Okay! Hey, this is Garrett Madison calling in from Madison Mountaineering. It is July 27th, eight o’clock in the morning (0800 PKT) and today myself and two of the climbers on our team, Alan Arnette and Matt Du Puy are standing on the summit of K2. It’s a glorious morning, hardly any wind, views in every direction for 360 degrees, some clouds building on the horizon, but just a spectacular day.
We are up here all alone with our three climbing Sherpas who we have climbed all over the world with. They are like brothers to us. I have personally climbed Everest five times with two of them and many other Himalayan peaks. We are just so thrilled to be here. It’s a special moment for us and a great, great moment for Madison Mountaineering and also for all the climbers on the team here, so we are just looking forward to a safe descent and rejoining our friends and family in due time. So we will check in when we get down to high camp. And hey beautiful, beautiful day on the summit, thanks for following along and we will check in soon. Bye bye.
https://madisonmountaineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/logomm-300x138.jpg00Kurthttps://madisonmountaineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/logomm-300x138.jpgKurt2014-07-26 10:31:472014-07-26 11:03:08Climb on! Heading for the summit of K2
Transcript:
Today is Saturday, July 26th at 6:00pm and we are up at High Camp with Alan and Matt. Our plan is to leave in about four hours for our summit push. A few climbers made the summit today and are on their way back now and we are very happy for them. It is snowing a little bit but when we get up tonight we will have clear skies while we are climbing up and early tomorrow morning.
