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2008 K2 and Broad Peak Expedition

Dispatch Sixty: July 29th 2008

Day Sixty: SUMMIT PUSH-Windy Climb from Camp II to Camp III

After a windy night in Camp II, Hugues, Karim and Baig got up at 6:00am, and got ready for the climb to Camp III. I took my time gathering my things as I was in no hurry to head out into the cold windy morning outside. The three of them left around 7:00am, and I worked on melting some snow for water, and cleaning up the tent. As I was finishing up, Wilco got word from the Koreans that they weren't going to go up to Camp III on the Abruzzi route as it was too windy. They agreed to wait till noon to decide (if the wind died down, they would head up). I had the feeling that they had already made up their mind, and Wilco said that if the Koreans waited a day, so would his team. His argument was the an extra night in Camp II was better than another night in Camp III, however, since Hugues, Karim and Baig had already headed up and were expecting me to do the same, I left Camp II around 11:30am, and battled through the wind to reach Camp III. As I reached the camp, the weather got even worse, and I arrived quite cold and tired. I told Hugues and his high altitude porters about Wilco’s decision to stay down another day, and he decided to head up and make a camp 3.5. Although I wasn’t pleased to be going up higher in the high winds, I agreed. We made dinner, and I headed over to the Austrian tent (they had told me that since they were no longer going up the Cesan route, I could use their tent, take it up to Camp IV, and then bring it back down for them) to get some sleep.

 

In Photos:

Left: Karim in Camp III

Right: High Winds blast Broad Peak