Tim leaves, the rest continue
July 17th, 2008
July 17: Here’s a short report. As the Magic 8 Ball says, “Things may become clear shortly.”
Tim Horvath has left for home to attend to some personal matters. We’ll really miss Tim’s experience on the mountain. He departed with Kirsty (who trekked to Base Camp with Paul) and both were escorted down by Taimur, our trusty LO. They should be back to Skardu in the next couple of days.
As for the rest of us, we’ve split into two groups: Chris K., Fredrick, Chhiring and Eric form one team while Chris W., Paul, and Mike form the other group. We had to do this because there are simply not enough tent sites available on the mountain. The photo attached shows the best tent site available at Camp II (6700m, 22,000 ft). The ‘campsite’ is a 30 degree slope, and the stuff you see sticking out of the platform is bits of old abandoned tents. We can’t get in enough tents at either Camp 1 or Camp 2 to handle more than 4 climbers at a time. (You may be able to see a telephoto of Camp 2 if you go to the expedition web page and navigate to the route description).
All of the ‘climbing’ is on fixed ropes so far. Even so, the route is not an obvious ridge. We follow snowfields, rock ribs, and generally weave our way up through fairly featureless terrain
Chris W., Paul, and Mike spent four nights on the mountain from June 11-15, acclimatizing at Camps I and 2 during some windy weather. The other group is on the hill today, having spend last night (June 16) at Camp 2. We are really hoping they are pushing for Camp 3 today, as the weather appears excellent from Base Camp.
The other teams that arrived earlier than us are thinking about a summit attempt in a few days, assuming the weather forecast holds. It’s unlikely that any of our team could participate as we are behind the other groups in acclimatization. But who knows? Each climber will make his own decision.
As we spend more time on the mountain, there will be longer intervals between blog posts. We’ll try and keep you up-to-date as well as we can.
Mike
Tags: 2008 K2 Expedition
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