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K2 says NO! Conditions are extremely dangerous & weather is unfavorable the next 10 days. There will be no K2 Summits in 2015.

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Earlier today, the super strong Swiss Team led by Mike Horn abandoned their Summit attempt and turned back from Camp 2 on the Cesan Route. The 7 Summits group made a go for it earlier this morning but once they arrived at Advanced Base Camp to recover their Crampons, Ice Axes, Harnesses and other climbing gear, they couldn’t find their tent; it was buried 5 meters (17-feet) deep from an overnight avalanche. they worked tirelessly for hours and still couldn’t recover their any gear.

Our Sherpa team tried to carry a load to Camp 3 but their attempt was thwarted at Camp 1 and couldn’t progress further due to deep deep snow and rock fall danger. Unfortunately and sadly, our lead Sherpa Kami was hit by a rock and appears to have three fractures inn his arm. The route between ABC and C1 is a sight to be seen: water streams running down alongside avalanche debris and rock fall. A gigantic boulder was seen rolling down all the way from C1. All the fixed lines between ABC and above appear to have been damaged and rendered unusable.

Bad and sad news all around today. A very depressing day. The forecast is showing bad weather for the next 7 days and we still don’t have fixed lines above C3. It’s very possible that we might not even get a chance for a Summit attempt this season.

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Rotation Day 2: Sunday July 12, 2015

Cloudy and snowy. We left shortly after breakfast on a acclimatization hike to about halfway to camp 1. Right out of ABC, we climbed up a 45 degrees slope; ice axe in hand and ready to self arrest. About 45 minutes later we reached the top of the fixed lines. We continued climbing up the lines for about an hour and a half before deciding to turn back. The weather quickly changed and it started snowing very heavily. I was feeling lousy from the start and all with back pain. I initially thought it was because of carrying the heavy backpack the day before and sleeping on a deflated mat but all muscles feel very achy with sharp stomach pain. Resting the rest of the day and hopefully feeling better for tomorrow’s big move to camp 1.

Rotation Day 3: Monday July 13, 2015
Today we were supposed to move up the camp 1 but we wisely decided to delay it a day due to high avalanche danger. It snowed heavily the previous 18 hours (about a meter / 3-feet at C1). It proved to be the right decision as we witnessed a couple small avalanches on what would be our route up. Smaller avalanches are continuing throughout the day, hopefully getting all out of our way. We plan on moving up very early tomorrow morning. Still feeling under the weather as it appears I have some virus and not the flu as I initially thought. Been craving some Comet Coffee croissants and hand brews, a Horiatiki Salad and Grilled Branzino amongst other things

Rotation Day 4: Tuesday July 14, 2015
Today we moved up to camp 1. It was a very tough and steep climb while battling a stomach virus or parasite. Camp 1 is situated in a very tight and limited space and you basically can’t leave your tent. On the way up we saw a few small avalanches and rock fall. I was hit in the left knee by a small rock that made a big bruise. I’m OK though. Tomorrow we move up to camp 2 for 2 nights. Today’s vertical gain was an impressive 1000 meters /3000 feet on the steepest continuous slopes of 45 to almost 60 degrees.

Rotation Day 5: Wednesday July 15, 2015
Our 3:30 am wake up and subsequent 4:30 am departure to camp 2 was delayed due to very high winds gusting at 80mph/128kmh. We finally departed at 10:30 am even though the winds didn’t slow down much. It was once again a tough tough climb almost all vertical with lots of rock climbing at high altitude. The final obstacle was House’s Chimney which was as tough as advertised. We arrived at Camp 2 at 6700m/22,000ft pretty exhausted. Camp 2 is perched on a ledge with some spectacular view of all three glaciers (Godwin-Austen, Baltoro & Concrodia); we were also treated to clear views of four of the world’s 14 8000 meters peaks (K2, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum I & Gasherbrum II).

Rotation Day 6: Thursday July 16, 2015
My stomach bug/parasite is still not gone and was bothering all night. I slept well at Camp 2 in terms of altitude and no headaches and no medications of some sort but stomach cramps bothered me all night. We woke up leisurely when the sun hit our tent between 6 and 7 am and went up the mountain on a acclimatization hike to the base of the black pyramid, the last hurdle before reaching camp 3. We spent the rest of the afternoon resting back at camp 2 and getting ready for tomorrow’s long descent the base camp to end this rotation.

Rotation Day 7: Friday July 17, 2015
This morning we got up at 5:30AM and got moving on the descent all the way from Camp 2 to Base Camp. It was a long long way under some tough conditions.The descent from C2 to C1 is riddled with lots of rocks and repelling, especially House’s Chimney with many suspect ropes. From C1 to Advanced Base Camp, the snow conditions were terrible: deep snow, soft snow that looks and feels exactly like granulated sugar; what’s normally an easy quick descent took a long time as we have to carefully move down the fixed lines. Finally, ABC to BC was hot hot hot. The heat was melting a lot of the glacier and many steps were breaking through the soft ice and into water. We finally arrived at Base Camp 6 hours later and very exhausted. Now we get to rest for the next few days and await a good weather window for our Summit attempt.

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It was good to be reunited with Kami Sherpa who was with us on the Everest/Lhotse Expedition.

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Despite the 45 minutes detour, we made it to Broad Peak Base Camp in 2.5 hours and an hour later we arrived at K2 Base Camp. The tough 75 miles/120 Kilometers journey was over. Getting to K2 Base Camp is a feat in its own and only surpassed by my trek trough the Indonesia/Papua Jungle on the was to Carstensz Pyramid Base Camp. There were a lot of happy faces amongst our group knowing we base to the base of K2. We will now take a couple of days rest to get settled in and acclimatized before we go up on our first rotation to Advanced Base Camp, Camps 1 and 2.

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