Gerlinde short bevor reaching Camp III - International K2 Expedition
Update 10AM Local Time
At midnight last night, Gerlinde, and a little later also Darek, reached Camp IV at 8,000m. Vassily and Maxut stayed the night at their bivouac at 8,300m, from where they left at 7am. They have now almost reached Camp IV.
Today, they are planning to descend to Camp I at 5,300m, where they will spend one last night at the foot of the North Pillar before they will go down to our deposit camp tomorrow. I am planning to go up and meet them there.
Continue reading “24 August 2011 – Team still descending – International K2 Expedition” »
K2 Ramp Summitridge
2nd Update – 16:15pm local time
I was able to speak to Gerlinde over the radio at 3pm. They had just arrived at the ramp, which leads from the Japanese Couloirs to the summit ridge and progress was very slow due to the deep snow. At one point we could see from base camp how the four climbers were going in three different directions to break trail, however, all of them had to start from scratch as the snow was just too deep.
Continue reading “23 August 2011 – K2 SUMMIT – International K2 Expedition” »
Bivouc - Japanese Couloir
23 August, 2011 – Start towards the Summit
After Gerlinde, Vassiliy, Maxut and Darek had spent an icy and bittercold night at 8,300m, they were getting ready for a 1am start in their cramped bivouac. Shortly after their departure at about 1.30am, they started having problems with their hands due to the intense cold. Even though the gradient above the bivouac is ‘only’ 45° – the climbers still have to stand on their forefeet most of the time. This reduces the blood circulation and with temperatures of -25°C leads to very cold feed.
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Ascent CIV – Japanese Couloir
Latest news from K2-North-Pillar-Expedition
Yesterday evening, our four friends took the difficult decision to use today as a rest and fixing day. They spent a very cold night at 8000 m and this morning at 6:30 a.m. they started to fix some rope along the traverse into the Japanese Couloirs and further up this couloirs.
Continue reading “22 August 2011 – Latest news from K2 North Pillar Expedition” »
Tommy has a close look to Vassily's totally destroyed tent.
Dear Friends
At midday today, I was finally able to talk to Gerlinde. She said that the wind had still been very strong and that Vassiliy, Maxut, Darek and herself had just reached a point above Camp III. At about two-thirds up the very steep bit directly on the pillar after Camp III, they had been wading through huge amounts of fresh snow and snowdrifts. They all sounded well, however, they were quite exhausted due to the strong winds.
Continue reading “7th Report – the International K2 Expedition to the North Pillar of K2” »
