K2 Mountain In Pakistan

                                                     

The first successfully guided business mountaineering excursion to K2 became led through Madison Mountaineering in 2014. On July 27th, 2014 Garrett Madison reached the summit of K2 in conjunction with climbers Alan Arnette and Matthew Dupuy (read the day trip dispatches). We plan to return to K2 in 2017 and wish to copy our fulfillment, bringing a team of 6 climbers.

 

Climbing K2 is a good deal extra challenging and a ways extra dangerous than climbing Everest thru the same old North or Southside routes, and for this reason, we plan to preserve our crew length small and produced from qualified climbers, supported by way of a number of the best mountain climbing Sherpas and mountain publications within the international. Unlike on Everest, because the weather and route situations are notoriously fickle on K2, we have to be organized to take gain of very brief intervals of appropriate climate. Rockfall and snow avalanches are not unusual on the route following K2’s Abruzzi ridge, making it regularly risky to climb or camp (as evidenced by means of the 2013 tragedy), and the monolithic ice cliff which overhangs the “bottleneck” and “traverse” portions of the course on summit day sheds ice regularly (as evidenced by way of the 2008 tragedy), so taking advantage of appropriate path situations and moving speedy are paramount.

 

8000-meter peaks inclusive of Everest, Cho Oyu, and Manaslu are now frequented via industrial operators coordinating together to set the fixed ropes, therefore sharing this workload, however for the reason that K2 is undeveloped we will probable be operating by myself or with handiest an additional team to set the constant lines. Additionally, counting on assist from other teams for assist isn't to be had so we ought to be self-enough all through.

 

Unfortunately, the meals to be had in Pakistan is not the excellent for foreigners, so we've got developed a meal plan that encompasses the whole trek and climb. Most of this food is introduced from america, and we've a Nepalese cook dinner who we've worked with for many years who (with his team of workers) meticulously prepares every meal for our team. On the mountain, our guides and Sherpas help prepare the meals. We locate that climbers perform tons higher, and are often in better spirits when the food is appetizing and nutritious.

 

We rent many porters to ferry our day trip masses to base camp. The trek to K2 base camp is extra than two times the space because the trek to Everest base camp (south facet) and is considerably greater onerous being totally on glacier and loose rock. There are no villages or lodges (as on the Everest trek) so we have to transport our entire camp kit via porters every day as we move our caravan towards base camp. Each porter on hire requires a further porter to hold food and personal items, so we've got a small navy making our way up and down the Baltoro Glacier. It may be very essential to differentiate ourselves from other operators in that we've got a totally best base camp, with big not unusual tents with heating for eating and communications, and comfortable personal tents for every member. Being right here for almost 2 months, it's miles critical for our team to have a secure camp, as well as to have get admission to to the internet thru a satellite tv for pc modem (this cost is unfastened to all members). We have contemporary VHF radios for communications on the mountain, and each member is issued their own radio. We also have satellite phones available to individuals.

 

We have ordinary get entry to to warm showers, sinks for washing a couple of instances each day, one sanitary rest room tent for men and one for women, as well as ample space for storing your personal gadget securely.

 

Above base camp (sixteen,300’) we have 5 camps: Advanced Base Camp (17,four hundred’), Camp 1 (19,900’), Camp 2 (21,980’), Camp 3 (23,800), and Camp 4 (25,three hundred’). Unlike many groups who percentage tents in various camps, we've got our very own committed tents in each camp which are preset to order our area at the start of the season. One ought to notice that at Camp 1 and Camp 2 there is handiest space for 6-eight tents most, so in case you arrive late in the season you ought to percentage a tent with another team that already has their camp hooked up if you wish to use that camp. Much of the path main up to Camp 4 is on steep snow or ice slopes, however, there may be additionally tremendous rock. Portions of the direction consisting of House’s Chimney and The Black Pyramid contain sustained periods of vertical rock climbing, so one need to be properly versed the usage of crampons on steep rock at excessive altitude.

 

Our plan is to climb partway up the route reaching Camp 3 to acclimatize before making our summit rotation. For details regarding our acclimatization and Oxygen method please touch our office.

 

On summit day we begin the sluggish ascent of “the Shoulder” on tough snow and ice leading up to the bottleneck, a rock and snow climb under the looming Serac. Next is the “Traverse” that is usually the front pointing, and then the higher snow slopes leading to K2’s summit, in which we are often breaking trail thru knee-deep snow. The view from the top is amazing!