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2008 K2 and Broad Peak Expedition

Dispatch Forty-one: July 10th, 2008

Day Forty-one: Wait for Summit Weather Window Continues

Today, we woke up at 8:30am and I saw that another expedition was arriving. I quickly threw on my jacket and ran out to see who it was. Sure enough, it was my good friend Robert Goh from Singapore. He had climbed as our sister team on Cho Oyu in 2004. After talking for a few minutes and meeting his climbing partner Edwin, I allowed him to continue up to his camp to tip the porters and get his base camp set up and invited him to come down and have a cup of tea with us later in the afternoon. After this, we had our usual breakfast, and then I returned to my tent to resend my dispatches as they somehow hadn’t arrived even though they had successfully sent last night. I worked on the computer for awhile, and then Hugues stopped by my tent. He showed me his pictures of Kilimanjaro (since I had been invited to go with Lina yesterday). I in return showed my pictures of our last winter trip to Morocco. We chatted about Marrakech and the atlas mountains for a bit, until the computer’s battery died and we were forced to leave the comfort of the tent and join the others in the mess tent, so that the computer could charge off the generator. We went through some other photos, and then got busy writing our dispatches and emails to family and friends. This morning, we also chatted for a bit with the Austrians, who are climbing on the Abruzzi. They are planning on going up to Camp II and then maybe III to acclimatize in the following days, depending on weather of course. They were going from camp to camp checking everyone’s weather forecast. Also today, I awoke with quite a severe sinus ache, so I have begun taking Azithromycin (500mg today, and 250mg for the next three days; the same as a Z-pack®) in order to treat the Sinusitis. Within a couple of hours of taking the medicine (I also took diphenhyrdamine and fluticasone to relieve the congestion), I felt much better. I also believe that the weather will cooperate with my antibiotic therapy, as it’s not improving too quickly and will probably remain average with high winds up high for at least the next few days; long enough for me to finish my antibiotics, as I don’t like climbing with any medicine in my system. Around 2:00pm, we had lunch (it seems for some reason that all our meals are getting to be later and later by the day). After this, Hugues and I chatted for a bit, continued to work on our computers. I sent my dispatches, paid a visit to the Singaporean Base Camp (I still wish that Lulin Reutins was here, again as base camp manager like in 2004 on Cho Oyu), had dinner, and went to bed.

 

In photos:

Left: Broad Peak viewed from Camp III on K2; Cesan Route (7000 meters)

Right: Climber descending between Camp III and Camp II