The Duke's Spur

In 1909 the Duke of Abruzzi's expedition surveyed nearly three quarters of K2, from the West Face which rises above the Savoia Glacier to the South Face above the de Felipi and Godwin-Austen Glacier (immediately above our base camp) to the SE spur and the East Face. The Duke's plan to climb K2 was extremely ambitious for the day. After their survey, they decided to attempt the SE spur, now known as the Abruzzi Spur. The climbing is difficult and the Duke and his guides reached a little over 20,000 feet before calling it quits. They later went to nearby Chogolisa where they reached over 25,000 feet, 500 feet shy of the summit and an altitude record that stood until it was surpassed on Mt. Everest in 1922.

A couple days ago I went to Camp 1 (5,900m/19,357ft) to sleep and then to Camp 2 (6,450m/21,161ft) for another night before returning to base camp. I was able to shoot spectacular footage of the views from Camp 2 and some decent footage of people moving between the camps.

Our route is the SSE Spur, generally known as the "Cesen" route after Slovenian alpinist Tomo Cesen. The conditions are excellent. Some deep snow in places, but importantly there has been little rockfall due to a late Spring.

Perhaps as soon as tomorrow (July 11) we will return to Camp 2, spend a night and then fix rope to Camp 3 (7,200m/23,622ft) the following day. Weather, as usual, is the determining factor. Fabrizio receives forecasts from a variety of sources and the consensus is no precipitation, but increasing winds over the next few days. The jet stream is directly overhead and its height is the important factor. When it dips down, winds at 8,000 meters (26,247ft) will reach over 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour). High winds above Camp 2 would preclude fixing to Camp 3. We'll have to play it by ear.

Filming is going well. Unfortunately, most of the time K2 is obscured by clouds. But there have been some nice periods and I've managed to shoot some nice light on the summit. After sunset I've been able to shoot some amazing stills of K2 lit by moonlight. On my many rest days I've been wandering about shooting anything I can find. Rivers flowing over the ice, avalanches (though I missed the biggest one), Yellow-billed Choughs, Broad Peak (another 8,000'er directly across the valley from K2), various base camps and a million shots of the grand vistas surrounding us.

More to come in a few days!

Bad Weather at K2 Base Camp

The third of July. Sitting in base camp while it snows and blows outside. We've been here eleven days and have only gotten one good day of climbing in. Made a carry to base camp and, in the interest of the expedition, I left my camera behind and carried more rope instead. We had hoped to finish fixing line to camp 2 today and tomorrow, but bad weather has moved in early.

This morning I awoke to the sound of snow on my tent. Knowing that meant we wouldn't climb, I stayed in my sleeping bag until breakfast at 8:00 AM. In the morning it was frigid and windy and I wore several pair of long johns, boots, a down parka, balaclava and hat. By noon the temperature inside our tent was up to 95°F (35°C) as the sun tried poking out. Now it's snowing again and quite cold. It's a bit annoying, constantly having to put layers on and take them off off as the temperature fluctuates wildly.

We have ten climbers here, each with their own tent. Then there's our dining tent, with a long table and chairs, and our kitchen tent where three guys work most of the day to keep everyone fed. We also have a nice dome tent, a Marmot Lair, which is about seven feet high in the middle and a nice, warm place to hang out during these snowy days. It's where I'm tapping out this message now.

That's it for now. We're probably snowed in for another couple of days, so shooting lots of tent interiors and snowdrifts.

Power Problems on the Baltoro

K2 base camp is not a very sunny place. Situated on the Godwin-Austen Glacier between K2 and Broad Peak, the sun is usually obscured by clouds hanging around the summits. So I have to keep my blog posts short.

The hike from Askole to base camp is 66 miles and very rugged. The Karakorams are some of the biggest, baddest mountains I've ever seen. Very impressive.

We left Askole on the 16th of June and got to base camp on the 22nd. This walk took us from the last inhabited areas and high into the glacial valleys. It took several days to reach the snout of the Baltoro Glacier, from which the Braldoh River issues forth. This is one of the few glaciers in the world that has not receded... much. The snout appears to be in the same position as it ever was, with no terminal moraine at a distance from the end of the ice. The height has changed and, from looking at the walls of the valley, you can see that the maximum height was probably 200 feet higher than it is now, but that was probably more than 15,000 years ago.

The day after we arrived here we carried loads of equipment to the base of the Cesen Route (SSE Spur). Later, two skiers were attempting to descend from Camp 2. I didn't see it, but one of them fell almost 800 meters. We quickly put on our gear, packed the medical kit and hoped to help in someway. Unfortunately, the skier died and we watched rather helplessly as his partner dragged him down the slope towards the bottom. No one dared to ascend to them because the slope they were on is incredibly dangerous, threatened as it is by a massive wall of seracs at about 6,000 meters. Towards the bottom Fabrizio did go up and encourage him to continue descending without the body and to get out of harm's way, which -- thankfully -- he did. The next day we climbed up and recovered the body and the day after that, we carried him down valley where a helicopter came to pick up the body and his partner. It was a grim start to the trip and our only satisfaction can be in the fact that we were able to help in some small way. I hope everyone one will keep their eyes up and their minds clear for the rest of the trip as I really do not want to have to evacuate anyone else.

The latest update is that we have fixed past Camp 1. In another day or two I will go up, sleep at Camp 1 and then help to fix ropes to Camp 2. I may even sleep there before returning to base camp. The weather has been OK. It snowed last night and is cloudy and windy a lot, but it is not preventing us from moving on the mountain. The higher elevations are getting hammered by wind as the jet stream has dropped to about 8,000 meters. If we are lucky, the weather up high will improve when we get up there.

Wish us luck!

The Road to Askole

The road from Skardu to Askole is notorious for being narrow, bumpy and dangerous. Many people have died on this route as a result of rockfall or their Jeep plunging into the river below. We are lucky in that the road has been much improved over the the last ten years. Our Jeep ride took only six hours, where in the past it has taken some up to 16 hours with digging, flat tires, landslides and what not.

Fabrizio, Adam and I shared an open air Jeep on the ride up. A canvas roof and no windows allowed me to shoot out the sides effectively, but also meant that dust blew in all around us. Two thirds of the way to Askole we stopped and got out to look at a point where the massive Braldoh River pinches down to perhaps fifteen feet across as it pushes through a rock gap. Basically the entire force of the river pushes against a rock wall here and boils up and sideways to go farther down the valley. The ferocity and violence of that roiling mass iof water was quite amazing.

After our stop we changed seats so that instead of occupying the back right I had the front left (people drive on the left side of the road here). Ten minutes later we came to a muddy waterfall that fell from the right side across the roadway. I looked at the muddy road and contemplated getting out, but our driver charged ahead and I kept filming as as we passed through the torrent. I don't think I got any great video, but the audio of Fabrizio and Adam screaming as the muddy water poured in the right side of the jeep is quite compelling.

After the waterfall the driver stopped. He opened his door and put his head out. I watched him as we rolled slowly backwards, then stopped. He got out to wipe off the windscreen and I turned to Fabrizio and Adam and said, "Do you realize what he's just done?" These Jeeps have no emergency brake, so he had just rolled us back against a rock and then got out. We all shrugged. Letting go is an important part of staying sane in this part of the world. I looked at the brake and wondered if I'd be able to jam my foot onto it fast enough to keep us from rolling off the cliff. Later that day we learned that another Jeep driver had pulled the same maneuver, but his Jeep then rolled off the road and fell several hundred meters towards the river. Luckily, the passengers had gotten out beforehand.

From Dave in Pakistan: Hangin' in Skardu Part Dieux

In 1909 when the Duke of the Abruzzi and his entourage came to Skardu, "the Duke was received by the Rajah of Skardu and his brothers, accompanied by a suite of dignitaries, a numerous orchestra and a great crowd."

Vittorio Sella took a photograph of the polo grounds below a fort originally built in 1610. One of the many things the Duke did in Skardu was to take in a game here.

Today I stood in the same place that Sella must have, viewing the fort and taking photographs of a vigorous game of polo. I was wandering about looking for candy bars and toilet paper and so I didn't have anything but a still camera with me. Still, it was a unique feeling to know that I had traveled half way around the world to arrive at this exact spot, almost exactly one century later and to see the same people playing the same game.

The Meager Medical Kit

Today Jim Freeman, our expedition doctor came over to check out the medical kit I cobbled together for this trip. After having been involved in a bad accident on Pumori last year, I've become a lot more conscious of the fact that if you are not prepared to handle major medical problems in the field, people will die because of you lack of preparation. We were extremely lucky that our patient did not die last year. If someone died for lack of simple things like drugs, or oxygen, or the ability to listen to their lungs, I think I would feel like pretty shitty about it.

This kit will do I suppose. And it will have to, since it's the only medical kit that will be present at K2 basecamp. Jim and his kit will be over at Broad Peak basecamp, about an hour and a half's walk away.

On the 15th we leave to Askole on Jeeps and after that I'll be trying to update this blog via satellite phone.

By the way, if you ever come to Skardu, don't touch this flower.


And this is me in my traditional Pakistani kurta. Sweet huh?

Dave & Adam in Islamabad

People say things like, "Man it was hot! Like, Africa hot." But seriously, these people must have never been to Pakistan because down here in the low elevation city of Islamabad it is HOT! PAKISTAN hot. And this is Spring time, so it's going to be even hotter when we return here in August--typically over 40 degrees Celsius (104° F).

We arrived here without event and have begun shooting some little slice-of-life segments, shopping for shalwar kamiz, riding in taxis that sort of thing. We have a rather large group. Some people have already flown to Skardu, the rest will go by bus tomorrow. After arriving and going to bed after 5:00 this morning I woke at 7:00 being kicked on the bottoms of my feet by Fabrizio who said, ”Be in the lobby in fifteen minutes. We got a flight.” It didn't work that way, of course. Mountain weather has kept flights from leaving for days, so although we were issued tickets, other passengers with pre-booked flights trumped us.

So tomorrow Fabrizio, Chris (the Broad Peak leader), Adam, and I get to spend another sunny day here and hope to leave the following day. By air if we're lucky, otherwise by land rover.

I realized today, as I was contemplating visiting the Abu Faisal mosque (a gigantic modernistic mosque built in the seventies by the Saudi King Faisal) that I didn't even bring a long sleeved shirt with me. At least, not one that can be worn in this heat. So I went out and bought a traditional and rather stylish kurta (the long cotton shirt worn by most Pakistani men). Mine has some great embroidery and will hopefully be impressive enough that tomorrow I will be allowed into the mosque, despite the fact that I am not a Muslim.

And by the way, for those of you who follow the news close enough to have heard, the bombing at the Pearl Continental was at the one in Peshawar. There is one here in Islamabad, right across the street from the hotel we had planned on staying at and, for much of today we thought that was the one that had been bombed. I was packing my camera gear to go to the scene when I was informed that it was the one in Peshawar. In any event, much of this city is locked down by roadblocks and the general consensus is that leaving is a good thing. Skardu is calm and quiet and a bit cooler.

A Dispatch from Dave: Dubai: Land of Plenty

As Adam said, this place is like a cross between the Mall of America and Las Vegas.

Had the pleasure of seeing how little ice remains as we flew over Canada and Greenland, though the perpetual sunset is nice. Off to Islamabad in thirty minutes.

--Dave

Off to Pakistan

Dave and Adam are on their way to K2 in Pakistan (or will be in about ten minutes, when their flight takes off -- and really not even then, since they're flying through San Francisco and Dubai). Watch this space for updates and hopefully some photos sent back from the mountain.