For four days we walked typically 6-9 hours along or on the Baltoro glacier. It was a difficult walk for me. My knees are poorly resistant to the endless rocks and boulders we had to walk on. Slowly but surely the weather and the views got better, with the first Broad Peak sighting on the third day walking, and accumulating in the gorgeous viewpoint ‘Concordia’ where K2, Broad Peak and Gasherbrum 4 are nicely surrounding you.
The first sighing of Broad Peak was a ‘we came…we saw… we got scared’ moment for all of us. On that 3rd day we were already surrounded by 6 and 7 km mountains. We could see them next to us and in front of us. Above them were the clouds. Suddenly we mountain sticking out high above the clouds. ‘That’s Broad Peak’ said Roli. We all stood there for a moment, realising how high 8000 meter actually is. That night, Urs was feeling quite sick. Seemed to have a bad cold. He asked if I had medicine and I gave him some of mine.
Whereas other teams were spending the night at Concordia, we continued walking for several hours and arrived in our basecamp, which is for both Broad Peak and K2. Ken and myself, got quite lost on the glacier. It’s the second time I got lost, as I found that our lead guide continuously pushed forward with the fast people, without leaving another guide trailing the group to make sure we’re all safe. A strange approach in my opinion, and it led to a dangerous situation where I did not know where to cross a glacier stream (they current is very strong and my suck you quickly underneath the glacier). I got behind as I received some emergency calls from home that I had to solve on the spot. I caught up with Ken. Ken was feeling sick; the altitude seemed to get to him, so I stayed with him until we finally found our camp. Urs was now so sick that the last day of the trek he had to be carried by a mule.
We had days of rest before moving up on Monday. At ease we were not though. Urs was diagnosed with COVID. This made me in particular worried as I sat next to him during dinner two days ago and gave him my medicines. We were all tested and all of us tested negative. Urs was picked up by helicopter and moved to a hospital. His expedition was over.
You could clearly tell the difference between the ‘classic team’ and the ‘flash team (us)’. The classic team was already on expedition for a month and despite the setbacks of having severe weather for two weeks (and not being able to do the first rotations) their companionship was strong. While the flash team was all quiet, the classic team was loud, singing, and generally having a good time together. The team consisted of K2 climbers Balint and Michael, as well as climber/doctor Angelika, climber Carola and a Portuguese climber who left the next day for personal reasons. There were Austrian guide Christian and Argentinian guide Ulises who was clearly the mood-maker within the team with his positive attitude and singing.
The first thing you realise at basecamp is the continuous avalanches in the afternoon, it’s crazy. Sometimes with an interval of no more than one minute. On Sunday we tested ascending and descending on fixed lines. Later, Ulises pointing up and we could see the Sherpas arriving at camp 2.
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Ciao!
Robin
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