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!