Broad Peak and K2 - Alan's next adventure
I know from my emails, polls and surveys that you love mountaineering so please let me share with you my next adventure that starts next week: a climb of Broad Peak and K2 in Pakistan. You might have read on this site about this climb. I have spent the past year working with Dave Hancock of Field Touring to pull together an international team. We meet in Islamabad in early June and after 14 days of flying, driving and walking our team of 28, including 6 trekkers, will arrive at our basecamp for Broad Peak.
The plan is to take our time on this 26,401' Hill. There are 3 or 4 camps depending on conditions. It should take anywhere from 10 to 20 climbing days depending on the weather. The route up the West Ridge is straightforward with few extremely difficult sections. Broad Peak is more about altitude than anything else. That said, the risk of avalanches and crevasses are real. There is a false summit a few hundred feet below the true summit, my primary goal, which is another half mile across the summit ridge. There have been about 275 summits but 18 deaths. This compares with over 2500 summits on Everest and 300 deaths. So statistically, Broad is a little safer.
About half the team will depart after Broad leaving 14 of us to attempt K2. We will move basecamp a mile up the glacier and prepare for K2. The theory is that we will be very well acclimatized after Broad thus can make a swift climb of K2. That is the theory! I have researched this Hill and spoken with a lot of people including some with K2 experience. They all agree it is the hardest mountain they ever attempted and most say they would never go back. There are four camps that follow the Abruzzi Ridge. Two famous sections are Houses Chimney between C1 and C2 and the Black Pyramid above C3. The Chimney is a steep 150' rock climb at 20,000' and the Pyramid is about 1200' of very steep rock and ice. My primary goal is C2 with C3 if I feel great.
The team is well balanced with a lot of experienced climbers. Eleven have been to Everest, there are a combined 20 summits of 8000m mountains amongst the 22 climbers. And two climbers have been to K2 before. Finally we have three women on the team, two who will attempt K2.
Some of you have been to Everest with me via my website. I have been working on improving my dispatch system and now have the ability to post text, pictures, audio and video immediately and directly from the mountain. This has taken as much time as my training! But all this is based on my satellite phone functioning properly. In any event, I hope it makes following the expedition more enjoyable. There is an automatic notification system available if you visit the site where you enter your email and then you will receive an email every time a new dispatch is posted. As always I will write honestly about what I am feeling and try to bring you a little bit of mountaineering in Pakistan.
I always enjoyed the people and children in Nepal and am eager to see the Pakistani kids. There has been so much said about that part of the world that one of my goals is to see for myself what the people are like. I truly believe most people are good and decent and only want the best for themselves and their families. I will try to capture that element of the human spirit through pictures and my writing. They have been through a lot in the past year with a devastating earthquake that killed 75,000 people and left 3.5 million homeless. Everyone on the team is donating money to earthquake relief.
OK, so that is the background and plan. I will be honest, I am very nervous about this climb. First, it is another climb above 8000m (26,000'). My last time there was less than ideal :) I have taken a very different approach to my preparations this time including gaining weight assuming I will loose 20 pounds or more, also I have not put the endless miles running, like I did for Everest. My knees just won't take it anymore. I have pushed hard on my training climbs including a nice climb up Pikes Peak with my great friend and Colorado climbing partner Patrick. My pack was always loaded and I have stressed my body over and over every weekend this year. I still put in some running and weights but tried to pace myself. I am continuing my training up until I leave.
I am working with Everytrail to have them repost my dispatches along with a map showing the location similar to what they did for Everest this year.
Thanks for reading this and I hope you follow the climb. More on Everest soon as well as my thoughts on the controversy on David Sharp death and the amazing difference between the north and south sides this year.
