So after a few rest days, and unfortunately with two members left due to sickness and personal problems, we finally started our ascent with a first rotation. This first involves getting to ‘crampon point’: a tedious one hour walk over the glacier moraine. At crampon point we put on our crampons, and clipped our jumars into the fixed lines. We’re finally climbing! I enjoyed this first move upward. The mountain is so steep that you are quickly making altitude meters. Quickly the views got better and better. But then the Sun came, and it started to get boiling hot. Despite only wearing a longsleeve, we were all roasting. Nevertheless, almost seven hours after crampon point I arrived at camp 1 at 5.7 km altitude. I was one of the last, but noticed that some others were struggling a lot. Ken broke down; he knew that with his performance he could not continue going up. Robin indicated that he would go down and not continue. We could see that slowly but surely, the mountain started to take its toll. There was only one spot on the way where you could take a seat at reasonably flat terrain; 99% of the mountain was simply steep steep steep. I don’t think any of us realised well how steep this mountain was. Even camp 1 is on a steep slope: tents needed to be held by ropes. One misstep and you descent into the abyss. Going to the toilet meant attaching yourself to a rope behind a large rock at the backside of the camp. I met a guy called Jesus from Bolivia and we had a chat in Spanish. He was attempting to climb the mountain alpine style (which meant ascending two meters next to the fixed lines…) and we were to meet several times during the expedition, and develop a bit of a friendship. The same applied for my teammate Bruce with whom I shared the tent. We had lots of nice chats in the tent, where it was a nice 40 degrees Celsius during the day (and -10 degrees during the night..) and developed a routine of having dinner together outside the tent, just before sunset so we could see the Sun setting over K2. A wonderful sight. Avalanches were coming down continuously, sometimes scary close…and at one point our tent got covered with snow from an avalanche. Camp 1 is a scary place.
After a good sleep we left for camp 2. Just as we thought that the ascent to camp 1 was steep….the route to camp 2 was even steeper, reaching sometimes 80 degrees slope. It was a short but tiring ascent, which took me a bit under five hours. Camp 2 was again on a fairly steep slope, with a fixed line going through camp to help getting from one tent to another. The view from camp 2 was stunning and Bruce and I got some of the best views we’d seen with the Sun setting next to K2. Despite the altitude (about 6.2 km) we slept like a rock: this pre-acclimatization at home really works. The plan was now for a few people to climb a little bit higher early in the morning, and then at 8 o’clock they would be back in camp 2 and we would all descent together.
Next morning our lead guide Roli woke us up at 6 o’clock. “Time to go”. “What? Weren’t we supposed to go at 8?”. “Change in plans”. “OK”. “Get ready and go down, I will go down already”. Now, changing plans in the mountains is normal. But leaving us completely by ourselves, on our first ever descent on an 8000er, is not. Roli left us completely by ourselves. It would have been logical to have someone cover the back of the trail of clients going down, but no such thing happened. Rudi spotted a High Altitude Porter (HAP), Dilawar, and begged him to stay around on our descent, which he did. After having breakfast and getting dressed we went down, Bruce in front of Rudi and me. It was a long way down and the final part in soft and deep snow drained my muscles. Also I started to develop a big back ache. This pain occurred since I got the COVID vaccination a few months earlier, and was the start of a disease that would drag on for years (see here). The way down took more energy of me than the way up. I did most by arm wrapping the rope but would certainly use an ACT next time. When I came to basecamp, I realised that Bruce wasn’t there. “Where is Bruce?” I asked everyone. Nobody knew. Our lead guide Roli was more interested in his card game than the safety of his team, and took no action. Half an hour later the doctor took over “We should go and search for him!”. Mingma Sherpa was sent out to find him; he quickly located him on the moraine, more in the direction of K2 than Broad Peak, and ran (literally!) after him to catch him. Bruce could not find a spot to safely cross the glacier streams, and was continuing to walk upstream to find a spot. Luckily he ended up in safety.
Time for some rest days. Or not… Bad weather was moving in. It was either going up again earlier than expected, or wait for the bad weather to pass, which could be well over a week. We opted for the first option. This basically gave us two days to recover. My muscles were destroyed from the descent, and on day two they were still aching so I took a easy walk to K2 basecamp. I was asked whether to take another rest day and go straight up to camp 2 in one go with out lead guide, or to go the next day and do a sleep-over in camp 1, with Uli. I chose the latter. Moreover I did not enjoy my time in basecamp. It’s an inhospitable place, with filthy toilets and boiling temperatures in our tents, freezing at night. I rather go up again and do what we came for. The Pakistan army seemed to have blocked our WIFI and the only 4G pole in the neighbourhood, cutting communication with my family off for the rest of the expedition. Luckily I had the Garmin Inreach, so at least I could send some plain text messages. We got a lesson in using the supplemental oxygen by Uli, and Roli promised us that if on summit night we would want to turn around, there would always be a sherpa or HAP to support us. Also, all sherpa’s would be carrying walkie talkies.
So our summit bid started. First to camp 1, now with Guide Uli. What a difference this was! Uli, in contrast to the Austrian guides, was continuously motivating us, continuously giving direction, making jokes, forcing us to take rest, and making sure that both front and rear of the trail of clients was covered by someone. It was clear that from now on, I would stay with Uli. We went up slowly but arrived in camp 1 still an hour quicker than the first time. Our tents in camp 1 needed to be fixed a bit better since somehow the slope got a bit worse and the tents looked like they were to slide down the slope. We left some things behind in camp 1 that we wouldn’t need anymore, and took the stuff we stacked that we would need. Some more members like Ken gave up that day. It was a dreadful night in the completely inclined tent. I had to sleep legs down which meant being cramped up in the short side of the tent.
This resulted in a heavy backpack though, with sleeping bag, down suite, sleeping pad, and food for the higher camps, and my shoulder ache started to come back again, worse than ever. The ascent to camp 2 was worse than the first time: it took me longer and I’m sure the backpack and shoulder ache were responsible for that. It even gave me a bad sleep, despite not having problems with the altitude. But I simply couldn’t find a good position to lie down without pain.
Now for the real deal: our first ascent to camp 3, at 7.1 km. A staggering 1 km ascent at high altitude. I decided to take it really easy, not wanting to exhaust myself for summit night. I put on my down suit to remove some weight from the backpack, and left all zippers open in the suit to not get too hot. The ascent had some little tricks: on two occasions I was sure to have reached camp, only to find out that the camp was still far, far away. This was mental shock that happened twice, which somehow made it even harder to climb further. On my way I saw a HAP sitting down for a rest. I asked him to make a picture of me. One of the objectives of my climb was to have a nice picture of myself with the Goodwin-Austen glacier behind me, far below us. Thanks to him, I got what I wanted. When I continued though, I noticed that he wasn’t continuing too. In fact he turned around and went down, started a sequence of events that led to a complete failure in any of us summitting….as he was carrying ropes needed for the summit.
Camp 3 was the only ‘flat’ camp. Quite a delight in a way, though we entered our tents immediately and didn’t leave them until our summit bid started. It was a success in itself to be in camp 3, as with that I qualified myself for a future Everest climb. I noticed that my taste had inverted. I had brought large Tony Chocolonely chocolate bars, which I absolutely adore at sea level. I found myself now struggling to finish them. Do I normally hate salty things like salty sausages, I was now suddenly longing for some salty sausages! Being close to the Death zone certainly started to already have an impact on my body. We were to leave in three groups: first the sherpa’s would go up fixing ropes, then a few hours later (only a few hours!) the climbers without supplemental oxygen would go up, and finally we, the climbers with supplemental oxygen would go up again a few hours later.
Our summit bid started at 19:00. It was dark, my backpack was empty apart from drinks, snacks, oxygen bottle and warmer mitts. We set off, all following Uli who set a nice slow pace. The first part was without fixed lines. I assumed this was because of the missing ropes from the HAP who turned around, but then again the slope was not too steep so it was all ok to walk without the fixed lines. Not long into the climb, our lead guide Roli turns around, not feeling well. He gave me some encouraging words ‘go on and become the first Dutch to summit Broad Peak!’ and went down. I was boiling hot and opened several zippers of my down suit. I realised I wanted to go down as well, but told myself some encouraging words to not give up. We continue up, now on fixed lines with our jumars. Suddenly the doctor who was in the second group of people not using supplemental oxygen, came down. ‘The mountain doesn’t let me go up without supplemental oxygen it seems’ she said. In the meantime, my hands had started to get freezing cold. I always used my Mercury mitts on summit nights, but on recommendation of several guides I was now using the Guide Gloves. This was a big mistake. My hands are very large and I always have troubles fitting cloves. My hands were now freezing cold. I discussed again going down, together with the doctor. But again, gave myself a kick in the butt and told me to go on. A sherpa (the only one in our group) came to help and increased oxygen flow from 1.5 to 2L/min. Also I put on my 8000er mitts. This helped. We continued up but I had several problems: my shoulder kept hurting like hell, somehow my stomach wasn’t warming up, and worst of all…I wasn’t enjoying it and was wondering what I was doing there. Just below the col two more Swiss climbers came down. I realised I felt jealous. Suddenly I shouted ‘Wait! I’ll go with you guys’. That was it. In a split second my summit bid was aborted. Thinking about it later, on one hand I wonder how I could have made such an easy call to go down after a year of preparation, and weeks of climbing. On the other hand, I do not regret it. It was never the objective to summit, but to gain experience in an 8000er expedition before attempting Everest. It would have been nice, but I clearly wasn’t up to it. I was missing 20% of fitness, and worst of all I found myself most of the time not enjoying what I was doing, especially due to the agonising shoulder pain.
Despite the promise, no Sherpa could support us going down. I asked the Sherpa to radio to Uli that I was going down, but also despite the promise he didn’t have a radio, so I went down without informing the rest. The way down though, was lovely, both the other guy’s headlamp and mine started to switch off occasionally (my guess is due to the lithium batteries) and we sometimes found ourselves in complete darkness, looking down at all the mountains around, a small lit tent far below, and an entire universe of stars above it. That, added by a complete silence, made it a special moment, which for the first time in days, I enjoyed. I came down in camp 3, and lay down. It was cold despite the down suit and lying in a down sleeping bag, but when I put on my oxygen mask at 1/2 L/min, I fell asleep within seconds.
Early in the morning I woke up from a shaking tent. The bad weather had come earlier than expected! I look outside the tent and see the entire summit covered in clouds. I now start to worry about the five members who continued up. As it turned out, they met the Sherpa’s going down: they ran out of rope! The Sherpa’s managed to go down to camp 3, get new rope, climb up again and overtake the group (imagine their climbing speed!). The group continued over the final knife-edged cliff that leads to the summit, but found themselves catching up with the Sherpa’s. The only thing to do was to sit down and wait, in the now freezing cold. Carole’s finger burst open from frostbite, and visibility was just a few meters. A Pakistan porter from another group that was following our group, decided to help the Sherpa’s in fixing the rope. He stood up, walked behind our member Michael, and then the snow underneath him collapsed. He was walking on an overhang, and his weight made it collapse. A Sherpa jumped up pushing his crampons into the leg of member Christian, and tried to catch the porter but it was too late. The porter fell down the cliff to his death, in front of the entire group. This tragedy, combined with weather and missing ropes, made the group turn around. Nobody summited that day. Our expedition ended with zero summits of Broad Peak.
At five in the morning Roli wakes me up, telling me we should go down asap. I get dressed quickly, and without breakfast I go down. During the descent from camp 3 to camp 2, Roli sticks with me, for the first time this expedition. However in camp 2 he wants to continue down quickly, and I tell him that I really need to eat, and go down without me. I have a decent breakfast, and continue down. I took me nine hours to get down. During a stop at camp 1 I collect my stored stuff, only to find out that my inflatable sleeping pad was stolen. But Dorje Sherpa from 8K expeditions has the best way to cheer me up: a coca cola! After weeks of drinking nothing but warmed up water, this is a treat you cannot imagine. He could not have made me more happy at that time. Thank you Dorje. In the fhe final part the snow is so soft that even the Sherpa’s going down are struggling. I take out the enforcement in my backpack and use it as a sleigh, while attaching my ACT to the fixed line. Just before reaching crampon point, the snow had turned into a waterfall, and the only way down is rappelling over the rocks. Suddenly I hear a familiar voice ‘Hola Robin!’. My friend Jesus from Bolivia had caught up, with his mate Luc. We continued the three of us, with Jesus often indicating the best way down. When we get to the streams in the moraine we find that they are a lot wider, and it takes a while to find a place to cross. It is for this reason that a supervision would have been important; later we find out that a porter jumped the stream but didn’t make it. He fell in the freezing water, and got sucked underneath the glacier and died.
Back in camp slowly the others started coming down. Shattered, Christian preferred not to speak about the events. Bruce said he slipped on the way down and crashed his head on to the rocks, and thought that his life would end there. He told me to consider myself lucky to have missed all the drama. Rudi told me that the summit ridge was far beyond his comfort zone. It is strange that Broad Peak is sold as an entry to 8000ers. Not only is it hard in terms of expedition, with its basecamp so far from civilization, but the steep climb and summit ridge make this a mountain that is far from easy, even maybe for an 8000er. Several members who climbed Everest before our expedition told me ‘You should have climbed Everest first, and then do Broad Peak’.
It was time to go back. I must admit, I couldn’t wait. Some stayed to climb K2. Some K2 climbers decided, after the Broad Peak ascent, to call it a day and return as well. One member told me he refused to climb K2 under this leadership. Some other clients paid thousands of dollars to get a helicopter ride out and not have to do the 4-day trek again. I was jealous and did not look forward to the trip over the glacier, but Uli was the guide to go back to Islamabad with us, and the return was therefore very pleasant and relaxing. Despite taking many rest brakes, it only took us three days to get back to the last camp, from which we could take a jeep to Askole. Rain had widened many rivers, and we found that the only solution was to cross the rivers on foot through the water, this was a nice experience. On several occasions in camps I was offered coca cola bottles at a lovely price of 13 euros per bottle (!). I bought several of them and was in heaven. Our camp/kitchen manager Sajid was continuously taking good care of us, which was another delight. Despite this, several of us got quite ill on the way back. Most of them with throat infections, caused by the continuous coughing during the expedition (at high altitude you breath in many tiny ice crystals, which stay in your lungs and make you cough like crazy). For myself, like when I descended Kilimanjaro, I developed a tooth infection which hurt like crazy. When we arrived in our very nice hotel in Skardu, the infection was so swollen that I proceeded with a small operation by myself to remove the swelling. This helped a lot. While the doctor was with us, somehow the expedition did not intent to give doctor support during the trek to/from the mountain, and both Uli and the doctor ended up giving their personal medication to the members (such as antibiotics to me) to help us.
From Askole we began our long drive to Skardu. At one of the military checkpoints there was a long holdup. When I asked what was going on they told me they couldn’t find my brother. I told them my brother wasn’t on the expedition! As it turned out, since I have two first names, they interpreted this as having two persons with different names in the expedition! After clarifying this we could continue. Several bridges had collapsed due to the heavy rainfall but our organisation had perfectly arranged for us to cross on foot and have new jeeps waiting for us on the other side.
On the final days, we enjoyed ourselves a lot. We had a nice rafting experience on one of the beautiful lakes of Skardu, and Uli and I had a nice shave so we looked decent again. At Skardu airport, the multi-first-name issue popped up again; at checkin they asked where my brother was. No problem though. One strange things was that all our plane luggage had to be weighed together. This meant stacking 13 large duffel bags on top of the scale, which clearly ended up in a mess..
Back in Islamabad we had the most delicious kebab and Papaya milkshakes in the streets of Islamabad. My expedition was a success: I qualified for Everest, I learned a lot about Himalaya expeditions, and got the amazing view that I wanted to see, and even got a picture of it. I think many things went wrong and could have been managed better. But the team was great, guide Uli made all the difference with his continuous good mood, and the Pakistan people were simply lovely. No summit then, but a real adventure it was!
Ciao!
Robin
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