.

2008 K2 and Broad Peak Expedition

Dispatch Sixty-two: July 31th 2008

Day Sixty-two: SUMMIT PUSH-7,800 meter Camp to Camp IV (Shoulder)

This morning, Hugues and I were happy to see that the winds had died down, and that the weather had become quite nice. I took my time, yet again, getting ready to head out, as I hadn’t slept very many hours in the night. I again had to take down and pack up my tent, which was quite a cold job, and it took me around 30 minutes more to warm up my hands. I began the climb to the shoulder around 10:30am, wearing my down pants, something I began to regret as the afternoon was windless and sunny. However, a short couple hours later, I arrived at the end of the fixed lines on the Cesan Route, and walked the final 20 minutes to meet Hugues in Camp IV. His was the first tent in camp, and I stopped in it to rest for a few minutes; I could definitely feel that the camp was at 8000 meters. After a few other groups arrived, I decided to quickly claim my tent spot quite close to Hugues’ and began working to make a comfortable platform that I could actually get some sleep on. I finished this, but realized that I had neglected to bring any bamboo sticks to use as guyout points. I improvised a few anchors with some stuff sacks and some old broken tent poles from one of the destroyed tents in camp. After this was finished, I took out my gear from my backpack so that it could hopefully thaw out from the other day (the high winds had blown a significant amount of snow into the backpack and had plastered everything in ice). I organized my tent to an extent, and tried to warm up before the sun set and the –30 degree weather sucked the warmth from everything.

 

In Photos:

Left: The Summit of K2 viewed from just below Camp IV on the Cesan Route

Right: My tent in Camp IV with Broad Peak in the background