K2 – Camp 1 – overnight

Camp 1 (FTA)

NB. update 13 May 2010…for any K2 or Karakoram climbers in the 2010 season I have three new cylinders of Poisk oxygen in Skardu that are for sale email Sean on venture@hot.co.za 

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 on; and where we have made a lot of effort now to fix ropes up to 6200m. The problem we face with other teams is that there is very little space to camp on the Cesen route and that is because it’s so steep.

At Camp 1, Wim and I secured a tent onto the postage stamp size ledge which is 2m wide by 3m long – where we overnighted the night before last. The width of a tent wall is the difference between us and a 900m drop. It took us 2 hours to secure the tent and not lose it to the wind.

Dinner was a jungle oats choc-chip biscuit, 2 butternut soups and 3 cups of rooibos tea. Because I hauled the tent, stove, pots, 2 gas canisters, my personal kit, sleeping bag, inflatable mattress, water bottles and video camera to Camp 1, I sacrificed taking my pee bottle. This meant having to climb out of my tent and face the wind and so after this expedition I’ll have bragging rights that I can keep my boots dry when aiming into a gale! As far as number twos are concerned, we use biodegradable plastic bags. Don’t try this at home!

At the moment I feel very nervous about the next 4 weeks. It is warming and we are moving closer to the summit push. Cold weather keeps the mountain intact. When it’s warm, everything moves and it’s amazing how alive K2 really is. At night, the glacier moves under my tent. I hear the tension cracks at the movement of the glacier and it sounds like 2 aluminium tubes being ‘pinged’ together. The bigger movements are like a 2 meter wide steel pipe being struck with a hammer. In the middle of the night they make me jolt in my sleeping bag.

The filming is going well and I’ve shot over 15 hours of video material. From high up the views are wild. Looking down onto the glacier from above, there’s a giant pool of icy blue water that’s the exact shape of Africa – makes me a bit homesick.

It’s very windy at the moment but we’re moving up and we should reach Camp 2 (approx 6700m) by Thursday.

Tags: Camp 1, Cesen route, Filming, K2, Sean Wisedale