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2008 K2 and Broad Peak Expedition

Dispatch Forty-eight: July 17th, 2008

Day Forty-eight: Sleepless Night in Camp II; Retreat to Base Camp

The night crept by, as I was unable to stay asleep for more than ten minutes at a time. The wind was gusting quite furiously outside the tent, but as the morning came, the gusts became less powerful, and at 6:00am, when Qudrat, Karim, and Hugues were ready to head out, the morning had become quite gorgeous. The camp was calm, and the sky was clear. I decided not to go with the others to Camp III, as my neck was quite painful (and constantly looking up the steep slope would certainly not help my condition) and I had no real reason to go to Camp III (I wanted my down pants and jacket in Camp II in case we had to begin our summit push in bad weather). I climbed up the route towards Camp III for about an hour, then turned around, and headed back to Base Camp. As I was the first to head down the fixed lines, they were all buried in ice, and I had the lovely task of freeing them. As I neared the bottom of the chimney below Camp II, I saw Gerard coming up. I stopped for a bit to chat with him, then continued on my way back down to Base Camp. I arrived 2 hours later at the base of the route. I slogged in the heat of the day for the remaining 45 minutes over the flat, rocky, icy glacier back to Base Camp. I arrived at 1:00pm. After eating lunch with the three French, we all watched as about ten people were going for the summit of Broad Peak. We also saw one person paraglide off of Broad Peak. We aren’t sure who this person was. After lunch, Abbas and Fazal got busy moving the kitchen tent, and I retired to my tent to try to make up for the sleepless night I had had last night. Hugues, Qudrat and Karim reached Camp III and were visible descending. They said that they might sleep in Camp II if they were tired or come all the way back down to Base Camp if they were feeling fit.

 

In Photos:

Left: Camp II on the Cesan Route

Right: The route just below Camp II; all the fixed lines were buried under snow and ice.