FTA Broad Peak 2012 - Summit Bid Brewing!

Ben called in a few hours ago to let us know that the team all down resting at base camp and looking forward to the summit push ahead of them.

The team will begin moving up on to the hill over the next 2-3 days and assemble at the highest camps with hopes for a summit bid on the 19th, 20th or 21st. With some work still to do to put in the route to C4 at near 7400m and with winds expected to diminish from 19 to 22 July our team hopes to be in a good position for any small windows that open up. Already several teams have made bids and been turned back by deep snows and it will take a concerted effort by our team to have a good chance for the top.

We'll be updating the site daily during the push with audio dispatches and written dispatches so stay tuned!

Brad's Blog
In the mean time please enjoy Brad's daily logs from the last push up the hill during which they established camp three at just about 7000m:

descent from c3 © brad jackson

July 9th - Base camp to Camp 2
We got up early, keen for an early start up to Camp 2 but were thwarted by some snow flurries and strong winds. We ate our brekky and then hung out till the flurries finished. We set up once again across the glacier and had magnificent views of K2 and surrounding mountains. The climb to camp 1
seemed different with the snow and melt cycles changing the nature of the ice up to camp 1. We moved quickly as we are now really acclimatized and were moving upwards on a big breakfast.

A quick stop at Camp 1 and Al Hancock moving fast had caught up to at this time. Al was staying at Camp 1 as the rest of us moved to Camp 2 to meet Grace and Matt who had climbed up the day before. We shuffled on to Camp 2 with the snow and ice in reasonable good condition and not too much feet sliding backwards in the couloir sections. I was surprised to see Tacqui, Mahadi and a HAP from the Taiwanese team about an hour out from Camp 2.

That day they had been tasked with pushing the tents and fixing the ropes to Camp 3. In a stilted conversation sliding past each other on the fixed lines, Tacqui explained that the weather approaching Camp 3 had been no good and that the tents were cached at about 6,700 m. This was disappointing
news but of course understandable. But it was only once they were long past did I stop to think and wonder why they didn’t stay at Camp 2 and wait for the following day instead of retreating all the way to base camp.

Robbo coming into C2

Anyways, I got to camp 2 around midday and once again I was amused how difficult the last 20-30 meters to my tent proved to be. I, once again was sharing a tent with Ben. It was only once Ben arrived at Camp 2 that I realized it was his birthday. I wished the young lad ‘Happy Birthday’. He then confessed that he had been dropping hints all the way to Camp 1 on ‘how old he was feeling’ etc. As a birthday treat, I promised to cook diner, which in reality just meant melting snow. We then settled into the small 2 person tent and waited for Arnie and Robbo to arrive before we could really relax. While waiting, I saw the arrival of the ‘Chinese team’, which consisted of a Chinese couple and supporting Sherpas and HAP’s. From Ben’s version of conversation with them, they had already climbed Everest Lhotse, Shishapangma, Cho Oyu and Makalu and were now on the way to try G1, G2 and Broad Peak. The Chinese entourage quickly settled into camp with Robbo and Arnie quick behind them

July 10th - Rest day at Camp 2
Snow fell steadily that evening and quashed our hopes of pushing to camp 3 that day. We poked our heads out at 05:30 am and saw enough snow drift to realize that holding off a day for the snow to consolidate would be our most energy conserving option. Unfortunately Grace had basically run out of food, so made the choice to descend back to base camp for rest and resupply. Al radioed in from Camp 1 and misconstrued our future intentions and also hightailed it back to Base camp. The rest of us (Louis, Hamza, Ben, Arnie, Robbo and myself) hung in at camp 2 and tried to figure out what to do for the rest of the day. I was engrossed in Mantel’s ‘Wolf Hall’, so ended up flicking through that on my iPhone as I kept abreast of Cromwell’s rise to the head of King Henry VIII’s court.

July 11th - Camp 2 to Camp 3
A clear night meant our push to Camp 3 was on. The Chinese team was also helping with fixing rope to Camp 3 so we basically waited until the sun hit our tents before departing with the Chinese team. It was good to be moving on new terrain as we started the 45-degree slope to the ‘gendarmes’ above camp 2. Our little convoy of 7 FTA members and 5 ‘Chinese team’ made a good path in the somewhat consolidated snow. Through some of the more dicey sections, the HAP’s fixed some nice quality 7 mm rope and we made our way steadily to the cache point. As the day progressed, the weather deteriorated and we were buffeted with gusts. We had initially inwardly scoffed at the Chinese team donned in down suits at the start of the day but as the day progressed, I at least became jealous of their ‘Himex’ down suits as our team was just in shells and mid-layer insulating layers.

After picking up the cached 3 x 3 person tents we came across an undulating snowfield riddled with parallel crevasses. Some co-ordination on the fixed lines was required to make sure lower climbers did not pull the higher climbers into the crevasses. Prior to this point I had snapped at a 2 person ‘independent’ team who had had declared they were climbing the mountain without support and thus would not help with the fixed lines. As they came up behind me pulling on the fixed lines, I asked ‘what the deal was?’, but they just laughed and kept jugging on the lines. They are not our favorite team on the mountain.

As the sun dropped, the wind increased and we felt an increased need to get to Camp 3. Both our teams stalled at a rocky outcrop above the crevasses and the Pakistani HAP’s of the Chinese team asked Ben for help to fix rope. Ben gallantly took the lead and fed out rope and fixed while the rest of us waited. Once again, us clad in shells and fleeces etc looked on with green eyes at the down suit garbed Chinese team. After a numbing 30 minutes we got the go ahead to start ascending and we entered rocky terrain mixed with dinner plate ice. We had been on the go for 8 hours now and the sun was getting low in the sky. I was getting concerned that some of us would be getting cold injuries and was relieved that although I was cold, I was not yet dangerously cold.

Finally, we saw the camp spot as Louis and Ben milled around a flat spot. The day was far from over, as we had to dig out a platform for 3 x 3 person tents. Shoveling snow at 7,000 m was intense, Not my most graceful of efforts, but I found it easiest to sink to my knees and then shovel rather than the more normal standing stance, After about 10 shovels of snow, I was gasping for air and handed of the shovel to the other guys. From this cooperative effort we finally managed to get a space cleared and the mountain gods were smiling as the wind did dissipate as the sun set and we managed to get the tents up without too much further complication. We also kept all our fingers intact. I was very proud of Matt, Louis, Arnie, Darren, Hamza and Ben. We all worked very well together under very trying conditions

It was getting dark as we finally got onto our tents and I think it fair to say that we were all collectively trashed. My dinner consisted of a kit kat and some orange tang. Ben managed to get in some 2 minute noodles and then we prepared ourselves for the cold, battening down the hatches so to speak by ensuring our sleeping bags were snug around our heads and feet were well insulated. Unfortunately, I quickly lost feeling in my toes and spent the night working my feet to ensure they didn’t freeze completely.

July 12th - Descent from Camp 3 to Base Camp
The morning was quiet, too quiet and Ben and I wondered what our charges were up to in the adjacent tents. Had everyone survived the night at 7,000 m ? Basically everyone was being as soundless as possible to avoid having to get out of sleeping bags. It was very cold that morning and spindrift has crept into all our tents overnight and frost covered everything not horizontal. All we could see was white from the eye slits of our sleeping bags. I was worried about my toes but also pining for basecamp so as light entered out tent, I covered my head and kicked at the walls to clear the snow. I shouted out to Robbo to get up and received a painful groan in response. Everyone else,
thus knew that it was time to get out of camp 3.

Having left my pee bottle at Camp 2, I left the relative warm confines of the tent to free willy and saw the Chinese team trotting down the hill, their summit push aborted (due to high winds). I am sure I felt my fingers solidify as I painted snow yellow and once finished dashed back into the tent to warm up my digits. My attempts at cold weather bravery over, I snuggled back into my sleeping bag and waited for the sun to hit the tent.

Hamza on descent

Like cold-blooded reptiles, once the sun hit the tents, we collectively stirred and base camp really beckoned. We all had rudimentary breakfasts; mine was a kiwi bumper bar and a liter of water that I had slept with over night. Even in the morning sunlight, pulling down the tents was painful. Ben had the wisdom to wear mittens, but the rest of lacked the dexterous skills to thread poles and wore less warm gloves. Much huffing and puffing, rubbing of hands and selective profanities were said in getting down those bloody tents.

Louis and Matt had their tent packed up first and went downwards as Ben and I helped Hamza, Arnie and Robbo pack up their TNF VE-25. The fresh snow overnight meant that we were post holing down the hill but was nice to see the tents at Camp 2 quickly appear in view. Some funky rap-ping down the steeper sections amongst the gendarmes and we were back at Camp 2. We re-deposited our wet sleeping bags at camp 2, to hopefully dry out and I melted some snow and had another bumper bar.

The descent from Camp 2 to Camp 1 was shrouded in mist and intermittent snow. I almost ran into a Slovenian climber who was just acclimatizing above Camp 1. I hadn’t expected to see anyone on my descent. The tents at Camp 1 appeared through the shroud and seemed to coincide with a clearing in the weather. I waited at Cap 1 until I saw Ben and Arnie appear and then made my way downward. The path from Camp 1 in the afternoon is increasingly chopped up with mini waterfalls appearing beneath the snow. The rock band in the afternoon now is a waterfall and I hope to get a picture on our summit push of someone abseiling down that waterfall, although to take a pic there is an invite to a rock in the head.

I caught up with Robbo at crampon point and Mahadi was there with biscuits and tea, which was simply delightful. Spurred on by this additional energy, we walked through the glacier with ease, much better than last time. At the new bamboo bridge, I videotaped one of the Chinese climbers crossing, evilly hoping to get some footage of some climber dunkage not realizing that Matt had fallen of the bridge perhaps half an hour earlier.

We got back to base camp around 3-4ish and Atta was in attendance with some soup, rice and mixed fruit. I was craving fluids and skipped the rice and got stuck into the soup and fruit. Was really great to see Al and Grace again, but I soon sneaked of to my tent for a bit of a Nana nap before reappearing
again at dinner. Grace and Al regaled us up with all the base camp activities, including the Aga Khan activities on the 11th July and the comings and goings of all the new climber at base camp.

base camp barber

FTA Broad Peak 2012 - C3 established!

Ben called in a bit out of breath just a short time ago from camp 3 at just over 7000m on Broad Peak with the good news that the route is fixed and tents set up.

They had a long a demanding day in difficult conditions that varied from deep snow to icy and rocky sections. Encumbered with tents and rope it made for a "full on" day and they are looking forward to a few well earned rest days after they return to base camp tomorrow.

Alex Txicon at C3 in 2003 showing well how one may feel at 7100m!
© stu remensnyder

We'll look forward to the images and full report of the push up to camp three when Brad gets back to his technocenter!

FTA Broad Peak 2012 - Snowy day in C2

Push to establish C3 at 7100m is on!

Our team is back on the hill after a good rest and hoping the weather will allow them to push the route through to camp three over the next few days. They had 4-5cm of snow today so will have to see what the morning brings. Taqui, Matt and Grace made a push towards C3 today but founds the going very deep so it may take a real team effort to make the trail!

At this time most of the team in in C2 with Al and Aziz in C1 and moving up to join the rest of the group tomorrow. Ben, Brad and crew will take additional rope and tents in the morning and hope to reach C3 and will call in to let us know how the day goes. Everyone is in good spirits and feeling well so now it is up to the weather gods!

(By the way today is FTA guide Ben Kane's birthday - not a bad way to spend it perched high on the slopes of a great mountain!  Happy Birthday Ben!)

The Base Camp Cancan  © brad jackson

Brad's Journal
Brad had continued to chronicle the daily events of the trip and the reports below will bring you up to speed on all things karakoram!

July 2nd - Another Rest day and push to Camp 1

Matt, Grace, Louis and Arnie went to Camp 1 while the rest of us had an additional rest day.

July 3rd - Climb from Base Camp to Camp 2

Ben, Hamza and I pushed to Camp 2 while Robbo and Al climbed to Camp 1 The crew that had camped at Camp 1 that day pushed to Camp 2.  I followed Robbo up to Camp 1. We got up a bit earlier that morning with breakfast at 03:30 am but still managed to depart at about 04:45 m and crampon point at 05:50. We were once again treated to a magnificent sunrise with clear views of K2.  We did manage to wind through the glacier without too much difficulty. It was a joy to climb with Robbo on a crystal clear morning and Darren had left some of his earlier difficulties behind.  Despite our steady pace, Fredrick from Sweden quickly passed us as did the French team, The French are guides from Chamonix and is a simple joy to watch their efficient movement up the mountains. 

Climbing the open slopes towards C1 © stu remensnyder

We got into Camp 1 at around 09:30 and I was struggling, once again I had made the mistake of not eating and drinking for over 3 hours and my body was struggling. At Camp 1 picked up my stashed gear and with a full load set off at a snail’s pace. I had been watching a lot of ‘The Wire’ recently and reminded myself of the quote “ as slow as a white guys in slippers’. After an hour slog, I finally sat down to some food and water and instantly felt re-energized and cursed my laziness at not eating earlier.  I continued my merry way up to Camp 2 with the French footsteps quickly fading. It was hot but I was solely dressed in a Patagonia full sleeve silk top and the sun’s rays simply bounced off me. As long as I didn’t rush ,I was in a comfy little body temperature homeostasis.

resting up at C1 en route to C2 © stu remensnyder

Rocking up to Camp 2, I saw Ben in a hive of activity. The platforms at 2 had not been prepared in the best manner possible and sauntered over to assist Ben in chipping ice and removing additional rocks to ensure a more horizontal environment for our Marmot Thor 2 p tents. This activity took our breaths away as we performed manual labour at 6,200 m. Once the tent was somewhat more stable, we chatted with our fellow high altitude campers and briefly watched the sunrise over the Karakorum.

That night for diner, I shared a with Ben a Beef Rotini.(freeze-dried of course) Ben,also was roped into melting snow while I collected the same, and I had a laugh as Ben inadvertently filled up my pee bottle with water. We then watched the sunlight slowly fade through our tent …but this time I was prepared for tent bound drudgery and had my sat phone and iPhone on hand to pass the time until entering the land of nod.

Tent perched at C2 © stu remensnyder

July 4th - Hang out at Camp 2

Today was just an acclimatization day. Al and Robbo left early in the cold hours of the morning at 5:00 and met us at Camp 2. We all spent our day wasting the day at Camp 2 on a milder day compared to the day previous.  Ben and I went on an arduous and epic journey up and down camp 2 without crampons to visit the rest of the team. Louis went on a voyage of discovery up to about 6,650m for a look at the route to Camp 3.  Trusty ramen noodles were for lunch courtesy of Ben. For dinner, I provided Spaghetti Marinara, which was sans Seafood anywhere in the list of ingredients.

Ben at C2 © brad jackson

July 5th

Descent from Camp 2 to Base Camp

A windy morning greeted us on the 5th and our previous night’s irrational exuberance of getting up at 6 am for a early departure dissipated as we snuggled up in our bags for an extra half hour of warmth.  The sun hit our tents and I boiled snow previous melted snow and added a sachet of instant coffee. This was our sustenance for the morning’s activities and payback for non-eating was later as I struggled to return back through the glacier to base camp.

Ben and I were the last to leave at around 9am and I popped down the ridge just below Camp 2 to take some pics and videos of Ben rapping down the ridge with K2 in the background.  The down climb was quick and uneventful and was once again was impressed at how quickly we get off this mountain. About 1:30 minutes from Camp 2 to crampon point.  The snow wasn’t balling up our crampons so the fixed line really dug into our jackets as we whizzed down the lines.

Ben descending from C2 © brad jackson

By the time I hit the glacier, I was trashed. Once again, I had the odd feeling of requiring an incredibly amount of effort to walk up a 5 m hill on the glacier despite my previous efforts.

At the end of the glacier, close to our base camp, our team has been stymied by a large river flow. I so wish I had caught it on video, but one of the Taiwanese teams’ HAP’s ended up throwing a sweater/jumper across the river to which we would hold on to the sleeve and then jump across.  A completely insecure device to which cross a river, but secure enough to give us confidence to leap. 6 of us sweater-leapt across the river and then climbed the last hill to the safe confines of our base camp.

Darren and Hamza with K2 behind © brad jackson

July 6th

Rest day and attend to climber’s frostbite

Al came down on the morning after his additional night at Camp 2 with Aziz. That morning Robbo helped me ‘landscape garden’ my tent as a sunken hollow had formed where my head should have laid.

At around 11am Ben received a phone call, nominally from the family of one the climbers on Broad Peak that he was in distress and needed a rescue team. A flurry of activity ensued as we tried to ascertain if the climber was actually in distress and needed rescue, complicated by the European language/Urdu/Balti/English interchange. .  We trained our eyes and telephoto lenses on the slopes of Broad Peak trying vainly to spot anyone in need of help.

Two climbers were spotted descending from Camp 1 and Ben and the HAP’s of Taqui. Mahade, Aziz and Sayeed formed a team to meet them at crampon point. They also took along some recently acquired bamboo lengths to use as an interim bridge to cross the swollen afternoon river in the glacier.

On meeting the climbers, Ben radioed ahead and we at base camp prepared to treat a case of frostbite.  Water was heated to 100deg F and a sterile place for treatment was made in our storage tent. Upon arrival, the afflicted climber removed his shoes and socks in Ben and my presence and I was personally ecstatic that he showed no major signs of frostbite. We treated the climber for frostbite injury as a precautionary measure. Probably best I not get too immersed in private medical details, but appears he was very prudent in his decision making and turned around on his summit attempt before serious medical issues arose.  His relative injury free escape from the mountain was of great relief to all of us at the FTA team.

Bridge and rescue team © brad jackson

July 7th - Rest Day

A day of errands and preparations. Our next trip up the hill will most likely be our last rotation before the summit push. Matt and Grace decided to go up earlier than the rest of us.  Such is the flexibility this trip allows and they were scurrying around getting ready.  They made the bold call to wake up at 1:30 am and depart at 2am to escape the daytime heat.

Ben and I strolled over to the adjacent camp and checked on the feet of the climber we had attended the day before. His feet were in great shape and we spent the rest of the morning discussing war stories and naming obscure mountains that we would like to climb. Was a fun morning followed by a fairly lackadaisical afternoon.  The evening’s entertainment was ‘Get him to the Greek’

July 8th - Additional Rest day

We’re getting antsy now, we have had our rest and recuperation and time to get back up the hill.  Last minute packing and milling about the mess tent as we idle time until our departure. Breakfast has been declared at 03:00, considered the best time between getting some sleep and escaping the sun on the slopes. Today we woke up considerably colder with a cloudless night, so we are hoping we will not get too cold on our early morning departure tomorrow morning.

The plan tomorrow is to sleep at 2 and then move up and establish camp 3 at 7,100 m before dropping back to base camp again. We are taking up an additional tent, emergency oxygen, food for 3 days and various other sundries. The weather forecast is for high winds from the 13-15th so we wish to have camp 3 prepared and safely back at base camp before the possibility of being blown away.

[note: see images below of C3 in good and bad conditions]

FTA 2003 member Fred Muylert at C3 on a warm day © stu remensnyder

Avalanche and wind destroyed tents at C3 in 2003 © stu remensnyder

FTA Broad Peak 2012 - C2 Established, C3 up next!

Our team has made great strides in the last 3-4 days having now established and occupied camp 2 at 6250m. They will take the next few days to rest up back at base camp and then make a push to establish and sleep in camp 3 at 7100m which will prepare them for  a summit bid.

The camps on Broad Peak © stu remensnyder

Ben called in to let us know everyone was well and that they were looking forward to an evening of movies and a long sand well deserved sleep after 2 night nigh on the hill. We expect a full report on the effort in the next 24 hours along with new images from Brad Jackson.

Brad's reports from the days leading up to the latest push and images are below..enjoy!

June 30th - Rest day at Base Camp and return of the remainder of the team.

Louis popped his head in around midday and then the rest of the team came in over the next 2 hours and those of us who were rested may have expressed an evil smirk as we witnessed members arrive in in various states of exhaustion from their return of tagging Camp 2.

K2 by moonlight © brad jackson

July 1st  - Rest day and Canada day

At breakfast, three of our members, in a in a bout of patriotic fever sang the first 2 words of their national anthem before losing interest and leaving the rest of us to eat our porridge and eggs in peace.

Ben and I did a grand tour of the Broad peak base camp and met for the first time a 4 member Taiwanese team and a returning Polish climber – Pavel. We had morning tea with the remainder of the French team and were impressed with the hospitality and friendliness. Those guys are Chamonix guides and not requiring fixed ropes but were still willing to help out..Merci beaucoup. Unfortunately it looks like FTA is providing the vast majority fixed rope and manpower on this mountain and Ben and I spent much of the day calculating rope requirements.

At lunch, Al and Mat returned from their foray to K2 base camp and reported some disarray as it appears that some of the climbers there are waiting for a ‘big team’ to fix lines on either the Cesen or Abruzzi routes. The rest of lunch was spent eating of course and organizing ourselves for our first night to sleep at Camp 2.

The basic outline of the next couple of days is as follows. Louis, Grace, Matt and Arnie will climb to Camp 1 and rest on the 2nd July. The remainder of the team to spend an additional rest day and then Al and Darren go to camp 1 and Ben, Hamza and myself to try and make camp 2. The days following hopefully will be spent sleeping at camps 1 and 2 and then making our way to base camp before forecast snow and winds appear on the mountain on the 5th/6th July.

This evening we watched ‘The Dictator’ on Zeeshan’s wonderful Sony laptop and Polish Pavel joined us in the tent for the evening’s entertainment. We were finished by 8pm in time for the first group to get some decent sleep before their 4am departure.

FTA Broad Peak - C2 reached!

Our team has established camp one on a narrow ridge at approximately 5400m/18000ft and have made carries already to camp 2 at 6250m. In the next few days we hope the entire team will be in C2 and making loads to C3!

C1 on Broad Peak © Brad Jackson

Brad's Journal 
As trips wear on there is no doubt that themes become centered around the elemental aspects of life - waking up, finding or making water, moving from one place to another, drinking, eating, peeing and pooping, sleeping and so on. It is really one of the great joys of expeditions that the complexities of daily life are reduced and one is able to put full concentration into things we often do without much thought.

(Often the language becomes a bit more spicy as you will find below. I've taken the liberty of adjusting a few of the spicier terms as we have some families following along!)

One also gets very excited about simple things that are hard to imagine back home. How many of us get really excited by the fact that our tea water boiled quicker today than yesterday?

Enjoy Brad's elemental notes below!


June 28th - Base Camp to Camp 1

A call of nature at 3:30am was an effective alarm clock and I used the half hour before our 4am breakfast to once again sort my gear to take to Camp 1. This was a carry load and this time I took up sleeping bag, mattresses (Z-Lite and Nemo Zor), stove and food for a couple of days.

Al and Matt, took off first at about 4:45 am and I departed 15 minutes later as I piss farted around with additional gear. Once again I found myself weaving through the glacier making a couple of “Jacksonvariation’s’ on the route as I played footprint detective trying to follow the route. Each time through the glacier is different as the glacier melts away in the summer sun and former landmarks become distorted and unrecognizable.


Briefly caught up with Al and Matt at "crampon point" but the fixed roped I was carrying to Camp 1 weighed me down and soon they were in the distance. I did though manage to get past the rock band with lips intact, playing it more careful this time on the verglas covered rock.

crampon point © stu remensnyder

‘Frederick from Sweden’ as he is found of saying, passed me by I and made a point of introducing myself. Next the four HAP’s passed by and I took some snaps as they trudged on up to Camp 1.

I got into Camp 1 at 10am, not a great time; I blamed that on the fixed rope I was carrying, or could just be I’m bloody slow. Matt and Al and the HAP’s had already established their respective tents and I was shunted into the ‘storage tent’ which was actually quite comfy as I padded the tent with the 7 packed tents and various other paraphernalia.

FTA HAP Taqui Mohammed at C1 © brad jackson

Once safely ensconced in tent it dawned on me the horror of what was I going to do for the next 21 hours. I for once was without electronic gadgetry having failed even to bring up my iPhone. So various packing and unpacking ensued and I got to play with my MSR Reactor for the first time. What a beast! I wasn’t prepared for the incredibly fast boiling time as I am normally used to waiting ‘ages’ for snow to melt and boil. I had 2 liters of water prepared in less than 10 minutes and my thoughts of an idle afternoon of melting snow was swiftly quashed as I had all the water I needed.

MSR Reactor at C1 © brad jackson

That afternoon was pretty sh**ty, with light wet snow covering the tent and every 5 minutes I had to kick the top of the tent to prevent heavy snow, collapsing the tent and blocking the light.  Around 5pm though, the clouds dramatically broke, sunlight poured through the ripstop nylon and with head popped out of tent, we were treated with dramatic views of the Karakorum from Camp1.

I am guilty of instigating a mass photo shoot as Al and Matt plus our Swedish/Lithuanian brethren were summoned on my behalf to get the hell out of their tents and have a look at the amazing view. Ernie and Frederick for some fun climbed the pillar at the end of camp 1 and we had fun taking their pics. I also got roped into helping Frederick film footage for his sponsored products and hearing him speak in Swedish of course reminded me of watching the original “Girl with a Dragon Tattoo’

Fredryk at C1 © brad jackson

With the sun quickly tucked behind the mountains opposite, the temperature plummeted and we scurried back into our tents. After eating a dehydrated “Hash Brown’ meal for lunch which tasted like rubber with a slight aftertaste, I approached with trepidation the Mountain Hut ‘ Chicken Teriyaki with Rice’ but it wasn’t too bad with actual hints of chicken teriyaki flavor amongst the rubber  taste.


June 29th - Carry to Camp 2 and drop back to base camp

Morning was cold and my water bottles had partially frozen over night. I had put off the discomfort and slight risk of sleeping with my water bottles but looks like will have to sleep with bottles from Camp 1 upwards.

We were in no rush to depart as we suspected that we would be waiting on the HAP’s to fix rope and our assumptions were justified.  Matt carried some rope, I carried a 2-person tent and Al some snow stakes as we left Camp 1 bound for Camp 2.

climbing to C2 © brad jackson

The cold conditions meant the snow was crisp underfoot and while the going was steep, we easily moved amongst well-defined steps. Trying to figure out what to wear was difficult as it was a cold morning, so when moving we were fine but while waiting for the rope to be fixed we quickly became quite frigid.

In fairness though conditions were quite benign with light cloud and low winds. Looking up towards the summit though we could see a maelstrom of strong winds and swirling clouds. As the sun rises behind the summit, the sun ray’s diffract through the summit clouds to give a really unusual light display, somewhat of a cross between a borealis and a rainbow. I haven’t seen this phenomenon anywhere else.

sun formations nearing C2 © brad jackson

As the sun rose, the snow became mushy underfoot and our clearly defined steps of the early morning disappeared. The last hour in particular to camp 2 became particularly difficult as steps gave way and I imagined I was climbing the flutings of Siula Grande (?) in ‘Touching the Void’ (Of course I’m exaggerating)

Al, Matt and I didn’t spend long at camp 2. Matt, a 3rd time veteran to Camp 2 was surprised to see no tents pitched at camp 2 as in previous expeditions he had encountered 10- 15 tents. A product of the denial of visas to Americans and UK citizens and various international austerity measures we speculated.

After caching the fixed rope, tent and stakes, we turned to face downhill. Going downhill is basically a very long arm rap session with 2 raps thrown in for good measure. Any new jacket is quickly cauterized with the nylon rope coiling around the lower arm and I blew out the finger on my Hestra leather glove from the continuous friction.

Arriving at Camp 1 we could see Ben, Robbo, Grace, Hamza and Louis milling around the precarious Camp 1 platform. We asked, ‘where was Arnie?’ and as if hearing his voice, we saw Arnies’s yellow helmet peeking over the edge. Arnie had some GI issues earlier that morning but in testament to his strength and endurance waited another hour for ‘issues’ to settle before making his way to Camp 1.

Even though we had only been apart 1 night, was really good to see the rest of the team and we swapped some idle banter and asked each other how we were. We picked up some stuff that we needed back at base camp that we had left at Camp 1 like headlamps, the illustrious pee bottles and our rubbish and continued on our merry way to base camp.

Ben had commented that one can get off the mountain really quickly and his words proved correct as Matt, Al and I dropped the 1200 m from Camp 2 to crampon point in approximately 2 hours.  Matt noticed that one of the pitons protecting the fixed rope above the rock had popped out and we did some Scottish/Australian jiggery on belting in the piton and equalizing the anchors. I watched the piton as Matt rapped of the rock band and I then followed with perhaps one of my most careful abseils, gingerly placing steps down the rocks.

By the time, we get to crampon point we were "knackered", "buggered" and "f**ked" in our respective parlance as the day’s activity finally took its toll. The 30-45 minute journey through the glacier took us an hour, as we had to find some alternate routes to cross the deep and rapid flowing ‘rivers’ now streaming through the glacier after a full day of sun.  We finally got back to base camp at 15:30 hours, yes just an 8 hour day but we were collectively spent.  Atta served us some wonderful noodle soup and a gargantuan amount of rice and noodles but we were more thirsty than hungry and simply drank up a storm with some token efforts at eating the rice and noodles.

Despite being spent, none of us slept that well and it seemed we spent the hours till dinner listening to music and generally just lying on our backs.  I went into the tent to get a drink and saw 3 members of the French team having a drink. We introduced ourselves and had a collective moan about the snow conditions on the mountain. I suggested they come around in 2 days time and our respective teams put our heads together on how we will climb the mountain.

Chatted with Ben at the designated 6pm radio call and let him know of the loose piton and the perils of crossing the glacier mid afternoon.  Al, Matt and I quickly wolfed down our dinner at 7pm and had an early night. We were all pleased with our day’s efforts and our fatigue from the days climb appeared to have dissipated. We are keen to start our next foray onto Broad Peak.