Text message received from Sean this am: “Wind & snow. Hunkered down in base camp. Why are mountains made so cold?”
Below is Sean’s K2 gear list:
Long thermal underwear
Socks
Fleece jacket
Polartec Long Sleeve pullover
Pants
Down Jacket
Down Pants
Fleece Balaclavas
Glacier Sun Glasses
Ski Mask
Liners, Outer and Windstopper gloves
Alpine Climbing Mitts
Sandals for base camp
Double Plastic boots for ice climbing and alpine [...]
Camp 1 (FTA)
We’ve been at K2 base camp for a week – it seems like a month. Other expeditions are arriving – a Japanese team of 7 climbers on the Abruzzi route and a Spanish team of 10 who are looking to climb on the Cesen route – the same route we are [...]
To Camp 1 (FTA)
Michele Fait’s body was helicoptered out of BC yesterday. We saw the two military helicopters fly in tandem while we were half way up the slope to Camp 1.
Throughout the day yesterday, Fabrizio led strongly up the slope. Tunc, Wim, Ron, the two high altitude porters – Roosel [...]
Recording from Sean on 24 June 09
We left base camp at 07h00 this morning for the foot of the Cesen route to recover Michele Fait’s body. The weather was perfect but there was a wind building from the west. Wim, Jake, Fabrizio, Tunc, Dave, Fredrik (Michele’s skiing partner), Dave from the German expedition and I [...]
Recording from Sean on 23 June 09.
We arrived at Base Camp yesterday. Our camp is situated high up on the glacier, 45 minutes away from the foot of the Cesen route. To the north and towering directly over us is omnipotent K2. To the south is Broad Peak. The Godwin-Austen Glacier runs between two massive mountains [...]
Today we arrived at Concordia at 4800m. Concordia is the confluence of the Godwin-Austin Glacier, the Baltoro Glacier and the upper Baltoro Glacier. Concordia is otherwise known as the Throne of the Gods and it’s really an appropriate name. The trek to this point today was absolutely outstanding. We are surrounded by hundreds of giant [...]
Yesterday, we had a rest day in Paiju at 3300m. This gave us an opportunity to have an involved, lengthy chat about the plan and strategy for K2. We discussed rock falls and avalanches and how best to deal with these ‘objective dangers’ – there has already been quite a dump of snow. We trekked [...]
It’s been a fantastic 2 days from Skardu to Ghula. We left Skardu in jeeps and took the road to Askole. The jeep track must be the dodgiest road on earth – there are constant land slides as the road is cut out of the faces of super loose and steep slopes that follow a [...]
Written by Sean from Skardu.
Thanks to everyone who’s commented on the blog. It’s great to read your messages but that ends from here on unfortunately. No more computers.
Written/recorded by Sean: Friday 12th June at 7.30 pm from Skardu, Pakistan
This is basically my first recording live from the field. It’s been a testing 30 hours on a bus from Islamabad to Skardu.
