Tag Archive for: Urdukas

First Views of K2!

First views of K2 from Concordia

The team has reached Concordia Camp and has spectacular views of the Karakoram Range, including their first views of K2! Garrett checks in with todays expedition dispatch:

Hello, this is Garrett checking in for the Madison Mountaineering K2 Expedition Team.

Today is June 25th and we have arrived in Concordia Camp. This is where the Baltoro Glacier splits and goes up to K2–Broad Peak or the other direction towards the Gasherbrums. We’re happy to be here. We had another beautiful day – sunny and not a cloud in the sky. We had our first view of K2 today – beautiful peak!

The team’s doing well. It’s a beautiful day here, everyone’s doing well, we’re looking forward to a good dinner and a good night’s rest. Up to K2 base camp tomorrow!

We’ll check in soon.

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:

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Trekking from Paiju to Urdukas Camp

Trekking towards Urdukas Camp

The team had a beautiful day trekking up the Baltoro Glacier to Urdukas Camp. Expedition leader, Garrett Madison provides todays dispatch via sat-phone:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering K2 Expedition Team. Today is June 23rd.

We’ve reached Urdukas Camp (4034m/13,235ft) on the way to K2 Basecamp. It was a long day trekking from Paiju up the Baltoro Glacier. We had a beautiful day that started off cool, but then warmed up. It got very warm for a while during mid-day on the glacier, then cooled off in the afternoon. We’re just about to settle down and have dinner. Everyone’s doing well, but we’re a little tired.

We’re looking forward to a shorter day tomorrow, trekking up the glacier towards Goro 2 Camp. It’s great to be here, we’re having a good time. We saw a lot of beautiful peaks today; Great Trango Towers, Broad Peak, and a lot of other mountains.

We’re really enjoying the trek so far, we’ll check in soon.

Team trekking along the Braldo River

Team trekking along the Braldo River

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:

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K2 Trekking Continues to Goro 2 Camp

Hiking up the Baltoro Glacier between Urdukas and Goro 2

The K2 base camp trek continues.  Today the team reached Goro 2 camp on the Baltoro Glacier and has their sights set on Concordia tomorrow where hopefully the skies will clear and provide the first views of K2.  Expedition leader Garrett Madison provides today’s expedition dispatch and some of the first photos of the trek via our Iridium GO! global connection device:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering K2/Broad Peak expedition team.

Today we trekked from Urdukas camp (4034m/13,235ft) to Goro 2 camp (4285m/14,058ft) on the Baltoro Glacier.  It was a rainy day; it started raining last night and cleared up a little bit during the day today.  It was cool and cloudy, which was actually really nice for trekking – not too hot.

We got into Goro 2 camp here and just had a nice dinner.  We can see some of the surrounding peaks: Masherbrum, G4 and we’re looking forward to trekking up through Concordia (4570m/14,993ft) tomorrow.  Hopefully, it will clear and we’ll get a nice view of K2.

Everyone’s doing well here.  The team’s excited to be working our way up the glacier towards base camp and hoping for some good weather!

2021 K2/Broad Peak team in Skardu

2021 K2/Broad Peak team in Skardu

Crossing a stream while trekking from Paiju to Urdukas

Crossing a stream while trekking from Paiju to Urdukas

If climbing K2 or Broad Peak is in your future, please contact our office, we would love to have you climb with us!

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 Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my Madison Mountaineering flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

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Urdukas Camp (4034m/13,235ft)

Nameless Tower (Trango group) as seen from the trail to K2 base camp

Day two of trekking to K2 base camp is completed and expedition leader Garrett Madison provides the day’s expedition dispatch:

Hello, this is Garrett callling in for the Madison Mountaineering K2 and Broad Peak expedition team.

Today is June 30th and today we trekked from Paiju camp up to Urdukas camp on the Baltoro Glacier.  We had a wonderful day!  It was hot and we did find one glacier pond to jump in and cool off late morning.  Had lunch in Khoburtse and then made our way up to Urdukas camp here by the afternoon.

Great views today of the Trango Towers, Nameless Tower, … so many beautiful peaks here, just very spectacular!  Very special to be here.  We had a wonderful dinner of fresh chicken with rice and curry and fresh tomato cabbage onion salad.

Tomorrow our plan is to leave at 7:00 AM and head up to Goro 2 camp (4285m/14,058ft) out in the middle of the Baltoro Glacier.

Everyone’s doing well here, we’ve been having great weather so far – its a little bit hot until the clouds form in the afternoon.  But we’ve all doing well.  Looking forward to another great day trekking tomorrow on our way up to K2 base camp.

(photo:  The Nameless Tower from the Madison Mountaineering archives)

If climbing K2 or Broad Peak is in your future, please contact our office, we would love to have you climb with us!

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 Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my Madison Mountaineering flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

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Stunning views of the Trango Towers

K2 team enjoying a lunch break on the trail

The team enjoyed stunning views of the Trango Towers and surrounding peaks as they made their way to camp at Urdukas.  Here’s Garrett with today’s K2 expedition dispatch:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the K2 expedition team.  Today is June 25th, and we had a great day trekking from Paiju (3400m/11,155ft) up to Urdukas camp (4034m/13,235ft).  We passed by the Grand Trango Towers, Nameless Tower, some beautiful rock spires, and the weather was really nice today.  It was cool for a bit, and then sunny, and we got some great views.  We had a nice lunch break and made it to Urdukas camp.  So everyone’s doing great here, and we are heading up the Baltoro Glacier to Goro 2 (4285m/14,058ft) camp tomorrow!

Nameless Tower (Trango group) as seen from the trail to K2 base camp

Nameless Tower (Trango group) as seen from the trail to K2 base camp

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