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2008 K2 and Broad Peak Expedition

Dispatch Forty-two: July 11th, 2008

Day Forty-two: Aga Khan Golden Jubilee Celebration in K2 Base Camp

Today, we woke up at 8:00am and said our goodbye to the three French who are going up to Camp II on the Abruzzi route today. Hugues and I had a peaceful breakfast together and afterwards, checked email and hoped to get some news of the weather. We plan on going up tomorrow to Camp I and maybe all the way to Camp II. I will be carrying some fuel, food, my down suit, goggles, etc. so that when I go up for the summit push, I won’t be carrying too heavy of a pack, and so that I can save my energy for the climb to the shoulder and the bottleneck. The weather at the moment isn’t too bad. We saw people approaching the coluoir on Broad Peak this morning so I expect to hear news of summits in the coming days. As Hugues and I were working in the mess tent, our cook Abbas Ali was hard at work preparing the feast that marks this day of celebration. Around 12:00pm, we went outside and joined all the other expeditions around a chain of seven tables. The Koreans, Italians, Dutch, Serbian, and Singaporeans were all in attendance. After listening to one of the liaison officers talk about the meaning of the holiday, Qudrat sang from the Quran and then Hugues and the Serbian leader (the eldest of base camp) cut the cake. After this was finished, we all enjoyed a feast of food that all the cooks in base camp had helped prepare, and then had some cake. After the feast, some of the cooks began to sing and that led to dancing. This continued for around an hour in the beautiful weather of midday. After we thanked the cooks, Hugues and I returned to our mess tent to work on our computers, get the weather report, and sort food for our carry tomorrow and for our summit bid. We are hopeful that a weather window will open soon and that we can begin our summit push. Tomorrow, we climb only to maintain our acclimatization as the wind and weather up high are far from ideal.

 

In photos:

Left: Climbers at base camp being served food for Aga Khan Celebration

Right: Fazal Karim preparing food; Abbas Ali in the background