Just back to camp 4 (high camp) with the team:) a long descent down from the summit..
– Garrett
Elevation = 25,460.96 ft. Location = (35.878408, 76.524947)
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.
K2 Summit! Garrett, Alan, & Matt are on top of the worlds 2nd highest peak!
– Garrett
Elevation = 28,278.08 ft. Location = (35.881720, 76.513230)
The RainOn powered real-time tracking map shows that the climbing team has just left Camp 4 at 25,200 ft. and is heading for the summit of K2!
| Message Type | startTrack |
| Trackpoint | 65 of 65 |
| Time | 7/26/2014 5:31:00 PM UTC |
| Latitude | 35.87823° |
| Longitude | 76.52377° |
| Elevation | 25,046 ft. |
| Distance | 0.066 mi. |
| Heading | 267.3° |
| Total Distance | 5.75 mi. |
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.
Just pulled into Camp 4 on K2 with the team, we plan to leave for the summit push in about 12 hours. Looks like nice weather and a good route!
– Garrett
Elevation = 24,310.11 ft. Location = (35.87828, 76.524947)
Transcript:
Hey, this is Garrett Madison from Madison Mountaineering calling in from Camp 3 on K2. Today is July 25th. It’s 6:00pm and myself, Alan Arnette, and Matt Du Puy along with our sherpa team are all up at Camp 3 right now. Today we climbed from Camp 2 up and over The Black Pyramid on K2 to get to Camp 3. And we are happy to be here. Good weather, cloudy right now but we had clear skies climbing up to Camp 3. And boy, just great conditions and tomorrow our plan is to move up to high camp.
The Madison Mountaineering American Team (Garrett, Alan, & Matt) have arrived in camp 3. A tough climb up through the black pyramid!
– Garrett
Elevation = 24,310.11 ft. Location = (35.875156, 76.531130)
Failed sat phone connection attempts did not allow expedition leader, Garrett Madison, to provide an audio update of the K2 summit push progress today. However, the RainOn tracking map shows they arrived at Camp 2 (6700m/21,980ft) just before noon local time. Team member Alan Arnette was able to provide a great audio update on his blog, reporting the team made good time up to Camp 2 and everyone enjoyed the climbing. Alan also reports that there is a lot of climbers above them on the mountain positioning for a summit attempt in the couple of days preceding our team’s target summit day of July 27th. The great weather continues with just a little bit of wind. The team is feeling strong and healthy and enjoying the amazing views provided by the clear skies!
Tomorrow the team will get an early start in their move to Camp 3 which includes climbing K2’s Black Pyramid feature. The Black Pyramid is considered the most technical section of the route and involves approximately 400m of vertical and near-vertical mixed rock and ice climbing. Camp 3 (7250m/23,800ft) is located at the top of the Black Pyramid.