K2 Expedition Underway!
The 2023 Madison Mountaineering K2 expedition is underway in Pakistan! Over the course of the last few days, our climbers, guides and Sherpa team arrived in Islamabad and are eager to keep the expedition moving. After a short stay at the team hotel and celebrating one climbers birthday, the team once again packed their bags and boarded another plane en route to Skardu. Tomorrow, the team will enjoy a rest day and do some sight seeing before continuing their expedition the following day to the trailhead where they’ll embark on this incredible journey towards K2. Expedition guide, Terray Sylvester checks in with todays dispatch from Pakistan:
Hello! This is Terray calling in for the 2023 Madison Mountaineering K2 expedition – today is June 25th.
Over the last couple of days, our team arrived in Islamabad, and this morning we flew from Islamabad to Skardu (2220m/7283ft) up in Gilgit-Baltistan in the Karakoram mountains. It was a beautiful morning for the flight! We had great views of Nanga Parbat (8126m/26,660ft), and then off of the left side of the plane as we approached Skardu, excellent views of K2 (8611m/28,251ft), the Gasherbrums, Broad Peak (8051m/26,414ft) and other peaks in that zone.
We touched down, and then headed to our hotel, and spent the evening organizing and relaxing at the hotel. It’s pretty hot here, but we had a beautiful evening – beautiful sunset out over the Skardu valley – and then we enjoyed a nice dinner here at our hotel!
Tomorrow, we’ll take a rest day here in Skardu and then the next day we plan to drive to our trailhead at Askole (3040m/9,974ft) up in the mountains. So everything is going really well here in Pakistan and we’ll be in touch tomorrow!
The team preparing to board our flight from Islamabad to Skardu. Photo: Terray Sylvester
The Madison Mountaineering K2 sherpa team, with two of our Pakistani staff. Photo: Terray Sylvester
A birthday celebration this evening for our climber, Yuri!
In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:
– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:
- Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions. Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“
– Instagram:
Best of luck guys. I was in Skardu in early July last year. Bloody hot! The road to Askole was almost non existant, as it was partly washed away, as were the bridges. Still a great adventure.