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2008 K2 and Broad Peak Expedition

Dispatch Fifty-seven: July 26th 2008

Day Fifty-seven: Visit to Broad Peak BC; Spanish, Mexican, Italian

Last night, all the expeditions got together for a meeting to discuss the departure dates for each route and the different weather forecasts. In the end, they agreed on a summit day of the 31st; Abruzzi leaving base camp on the 28th, and Cesan leaving on the 29th, both routes meeting at the shoulder (around 8000 meters) on the 30th. The teams involved in this summit push are the Dutch (Cesan), Korean (Abruzzi), American (Abruzzi), Serbian (Abruzzi), Italian (Abruzzi), an Austrian (Cesan), a Serbian (Cesan), Hugues and I (Cesan). After the meeting, the groups got together to take a group picture, and then chatted for a bit over coffee. After the group broke up and headed back to their respective camps, Hugues returned to our camp, and we warmed up before dinner. We had quite a pleasant dinner with Peter, who chatted with us for quite a few hours. The evening was extremely cold, as the clouds had cleared, and K2 was visible in full for the first time in probably two weeks. Before I went to bed, I received an invitation to a party in the Spanish Broad Peak Base Camp tomorrow at 2pm, at which the Mexicans (Badia and Mauricio) were going to prepare authentic Mexican food. I agreed to come. A little while later we received another invitation from the Spanish for the same event. I assured them that we would be there, then went to bed. This morning, since we plan on leaving for Broad Peak BC at noon, Hugues and I rushed through breakfast and I quickly worked on getting the generator started. We are planning on getting our messages sent before leaving for the Spanish Party. We also are hoping to take a coffee with our Italian friends (Daniele and Mario) in Broad Peak, and stop for a quick chat with the Mexicans before we all join the Spanish group for lunch. After all this, we headed back to K2 Base camp to check the weather forecast, as Wilco has indicated that his report shows that the summit window might be shifting one day later, making the first of August a better summit day than the 31st. After this, we had dinner, and went to bed.

 

In Photos:

Left: Groups gathered after the base camp meeting for a picture

Right: Karim, Nick, Hugues, and Baig in front of K2