2007 shared summits expedition

Autor(en): Normand, Bruce

Objekttyp: Article

Zeitschrift: Jahresbericht / Akademischer Alpen-Club Zürich

Band (Jahr): 112 (2007)

PDF erstellt am: 23.09.2021

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http://www.e-periodica.ch 2007 SHARED SUMMITS K2 EXPEDITION

TEAM AND THE PREPARATION temperatures, for a range of altitudes and I met Chris Warner in Peru in the mid- for the next week, cost 2500CHF. I also 1990s. Since then he'd founded Earth- chose a cook and assistant cook from our treks, a Baltimore-based guiding company trekking agent, Adventure Tours with three rock gyms, and climbed Everest, (ATP): with Didar and Javed I came up with , and . He'd two aces, whose work ethic and infectious also been to K2 twice, in years (2002 and enthusiasm would deliver far more to the 2005) when nobody summitted at all. In team than just full stomachs. 2005 I'd failed on Muztagh Tower and we'd Chris and I met in the searing May heat of met again at the Pakistan Alpine Club. For northern Pakistan. I went to change mo- 2007 he planned to try K2 again, aiming for ney while he did the briefing at the Paki- a new route on the remote East Face, and stan Alpine Club: painless except for our this, coupled with the bargain price ($3000, pompous, officious Liaison Officer (LO). my budget for a new-route project on a Then our gear cleared customs and we set high 7000m peak), made me to work packing food and equipment into accept an invitation to join him. indestructible blue plastic barrels. Don ar- Don Bowie is a one-time tech millionaire rived with Chris II and six duffel bags of turned (by bankruptcy) to tracking sponsored down gear, and PV with enough lions in the California Sierra, an emergen- hard cases of camera equipment to sink a cy medic and mountain search-and-rescue medium-sized battleship. We flew to Skar- specialist. Don is Canadian, and was a big- du, diving in through an uncooperative wall and new-route expert in North Ameri- cloud layer as if the pilot had never left the ca, including Baffin Island, before he disco- air force, where Joel caught up with us du- vered High Asia. On his first trip to Pakistan, ring the last-minute shopping and intro- in 2005, he'd met Chris on . ductory interviews. Chris was funding the expedition large- ly through sponsors, which means trebling APPROACH AND BALTORO TREK the budget to keep them happy: cameras, In a convoy of jeeps we left behind the sand lenses, laptops, hard drives, solar panels, dunes of the Indus for the heavily cultiva- batteries, satellite uplinks, porters to carry ted Shigar Valley. As the road turns east- the gear and people to operate it. Our peo- ward again, the valley walls steepen and pie were Joel Shalowitz and Chris Stens- the green fields became tiny cascades of land, enthusiastic friends, and PV Scaturro, stacked emerald terraces in a vertical de- an oilman turned adventurer with extensive sert. At the army checkpost beyond Das- film-making experience. su, our LO fulfilled his only useful function From Europe I could make only two small and then, unusually, left us. The jeeps pu- but essential pre-departure contributions. shed on and up to , the last habita- One was to arrange the weather forecast tion in the Braldu Valley, where we pitched from the best team in the business, Me- our tents while the ATP infrastructure took teotest in Bern. A package of their sup- care of our baggage. port, two months of daily forecasts giving In the morning, our 109 porter loads were wind speeds, humidities, precipitation and reweighed, noted, shouldered and sent on

54 112. Jahresbericht des Akademischen Alpenclubs Zürich their way. The Baltoro trek is imposing from reconnaissance up the centre of the God- the first step, where the last natural terra- win-Austen Glacier, weaving through to a ce is cut by the roaring, dark-brown Braldu high-point from which the smooth upper River, forcing the trail over a cliff. Pointed glacier was visible not far ahead. On our re- peaks are visible in all directions as the rou- turn, we found a pile of clothing still con- te skirts the terminal moraine of the Biafo taining a forearm. We read the labels and Glacier, takes to the cliff-side again beyond searched the pockets for clues, but an e- Korophon, then follows the Panmah River mail search failed to find anyone able to back to the campsite at Jola. The day to Pai- make a positive identification. I later put yu is hot, straight and flat, but ends with the these remains in a shallow crevasse, but first glimpse of the Trango Towers and Ca- the smell persisted and eventually someo- thedral. Paiyu, nestled in the last copse of ne found a torso. trees, was our home for an extra day while the porters ate their goat and prepared cha- The next day, Chris and I set out to shut- patis for six days. tie the first loads to an advanced base camp (ABC) under the East Spur. On a smooth Outside Paiyu, the trail climbs steeply past ice surface near the high-point, I plunged into cliffs at the snout of the scree-covered Balto- a crevasse. The fall was long enough that ro Glacier, then follows cliffs, desert sands, I had time to think about Chris coming in boulders and bare ice to Urdukas, all with after me; in fact he was, but slid feet-first neck-breaking views of snow-lined vertical and chest-deep into another crevasse I had granite from Paiyu Peak around to Lobsang just crossed. Hanging 6-7m down and un- Spire. Beyond Urdukas are the snow walls able to hear Chris, I made an anchor with of Masherbmm, with granite peaks behind two ice-screws, hung my pack on it, remo- and the Shining (West) Wall of ved the ice-axes, strapped on my crampons IV ahead. Amidst such splendour, the camp while hanging, and climbed out. I found at Goro II provides a level of squalour mat- Chris still in his slot, and Don and PV just ched only by itself, with old to- arriving. Don had a Z-pulley set up in se- ilet remains under every rock. On the next conds, so I could go back down for my pack morning, clouds quickly cleared off the Gas- while PV tried to shoot some film. Then we herbrums (I-V) to reveal the unforgettable fled this minefield before the sun could get Concordia vista, with Gasherbmm IV towe- any warmer. ring above, Broad Peak at its side, and finally the immense pyramid of K2 appearing to the Eight porters were arriving with more gear, north. We continued to Broad Peak BC for and now we had to take them left towards the night, and in the morning were soon at the Abruzzi ABC, where we soon left eve- K2 BC, where we paid the porters and set up rything at an intermediate dump at the camp directly below a 10-man Czech team edge of the icefall. While Chris and PV ac- aiming for the Cesen route. companied the porters back to BC, Don and I probed for a path through the maze RECONNAISSANCE of ice blocks. After four dead-ends, dim- On a cold, grey and windy day, Chris bing among ice towers only to find a chasm worked on equipment, PV wired the com- between ourselves and the moraine, I tried munications tent, and Don and I made a a last notch and found a short ramp which

55 would get us out. We fixed a strand of rope, from Chris and Don, creating two-minu- and the 2007 route to Abruzzi ABC had te video "dispatches" for internet uploa- been established. ding. By now BC had become an internati- onal village: at the bottom of the strip was NEW ROUTE ATTEMPT a massive Russian national team on a pro- I was out of action for the next week with longed siege of the Direct West Face; next W. First Chris and PV, rattled by the crevas- came a Korean team of three climbers, all se incident, judged the route to the East called Kim (known by their teammates as Spur to be impassable: the new-route plan "big", "middle" and "small" Kim), aided was over without even seeing it. However, by three Sherpas; later they were joined by right above them, to the right of the Abruzzi the Korean Women's Team built around Ms. line, were two other rock ridges, slicing up Oh; just below us were a large Italian team in straight, narrow lines to the base of the of four climbers and several film-makers, Black Pyramid at 6800m. The new plan was solo Iranian climber Kazem Faridian and to follow the middle spur to a rightward tra- Portuguese climber Joao Garcia with one verse in the Black Pyramid, leading us out high-altitude porter. Above us, beyond the on its upper right (East) side and thence to Czech team, was another 11-man Russian Abruzzi Camp 3 (C3). Chris, Don and PV set expedition, climbing the Abruzzi with oxy- to work in mostly excellent weather, shut- gen, and finally a nine-man American team tling loads, establishing CI at 6000m, and on the Cesen. pushing our fixed line up to 6300m. In another week-long spell of good weather, THE ABRUZZI ROUTE we set out to find a C2 and push our route The weather was still perfect, so Chris and into the Black Pyramid. We found excellent Don packed equipment for the Abruz- climbing, and views into the spectacularly zi while I reclimbed our rope and stripped serac-laden cirque below Broad Peak, but everything, arriving back at CI in a tangle of also that warm afternoons meant massive lkm of red 5mm cord. The next morning we avalanches ripping down all around the up- were back at ABC, talking with the Korean per Godwin-Austen basin. Our own slopes leader, Mr. Hong. His team was using this became perilously soft, and Don was caught window to fix rope to C3. He said he would on the fixed line by a wet slide. I dragged be happy with some of our ropes, and an our heaviest 150m rope strand up to a snow undertaking that the Koreans should be the bench on the ridge at 6600m, but even this first team to summit. We set off up the his- was narrow, sloping and soft. The ridge car- tory-laden slopes of the Abruzzi to CI. ried on steeply, the slopes on our right were On another beautiful day we enjoyed the powdery snow over ice, and on our left soft best climbing yet. The route weaves up snow over rock. Lack of camp sites, fixed snow-fields through rock spurs, then fol- rope and rock protection, plus the warming lows a rock ridge, climbs a short, vertical weather, were adding up to bad news. We wall and comes out at the base of House's had to conclude that the only safe solution Chimney, a steep groove of alpine ice lea- would be the Abruzzi. ding to C2. Stunning panoramas unfolded over , the , Broad Peak, BASE CAMP AND OTHER TEAMS and . It would be the PV had to go home for business, leaving only time we would see this section in good Joel and Chris II well trained in editing film weather, but on this day our only problem

56 112. Jahresbericht des Akademischen Alpenclubs Zürich was the fixed line, an unpleasant spaghetti time. We used one perfect day to clear our of ancient, knotted ropes and decaying an- previous CI. As we overanalysed forecasts chors. At C2 we found one large Korean tent for the next window, the other teams were pitched a stack of destroyed tents, and spent clearly waiting for our cue. two hours hacking in blue ice to make an adequate platform. Of our seven nights at SUMMIT PUSH C2, only the first half of the first one was We set off before dawn on Sunday 15th July, still,and otherwise we saw only hurricane- in the usual driving snow. Even before CI, force winds and driving spindrift. Joel's new forecast window had slipped by Where June had delivered mostly fine wea- a day, offering Thursday and Friday as the ther, July brought storm conditions with best weather. On Monday we moved to C2, only three windows. Lured by a three-day climbing the most technical parts of the window, we climbed straight to C2 in snow route in wind and cold of a ferocity we had and moderate winds, which made for very not yet encountered. Shortly behind us, the atmospheric filming. A fine morning deteri- four-man Russian summit team arrived, fin- orated rapidly as Don led us up the left edge ding their tent ripped and full of snow. Don of the Black Pyramid. I took over at 7100m, helped them dig out their sleeping bags and where the ropes disappeared in metre-deep mats, which they took to the two dilapida- snow. I wallowed into the white-out trai- ted Italian tents. The next morning the wea- ling our own rope, finally finding the plat- ther was as bad as ever, but we left at noon. form of C3 graced by another large, yellow This time I led us through now-standard Korean tent. I had to go back for my pack, storm conditions to 7100m, where Don took and we all staggered into C3 at last light. over, heaving his way through another met- On another fine morning, we abandoned re of snow on top of our fixed line. a vain attempt to move upwards in waist- Wednesday at C3 arrived with better wea- deep snow due to the avalanche threat. ther. All our gear, together with 400m of When Joel radioed from BC to tell us that rope, added up to truly monstrous packs. this ethereal weather window was already Most climbers who die high on K2 fall off closing, we decided to leave just as the Ko- the 45-degree snowfield beside the serac rean team arrived for a summit bid. In the above the Bottleneck, where snow condi- event, they were to spend five nights weat- fions are invariably dreadful. Chris insis- hering the next storm, with the Koreans in ted that we would bring enough rope to fix their tent and the Sherpas in ours. not only the Bottleneck but the entire sec- tion to the top of the serac. I trudged out The next weather window was decisive for in the lead, making reasonable progress on all the teams. The Koreans climbed to C4 the windward side of the ridge, but half- to find that the tent, oxygen, food, fuel and way to C4 the snow became entirely bot- sleeping bags they had deposited had dis- tomless. With storm-force winds suddenly appeared; they returned to BC exhausted whipping around us, we were forced to set and dejected. The Russians had eight clim- up an intermediate camp, C3.5. The Russi- bers at C3, and a pair even left a tent at C4. ans arrived, and one pair pushed through Garcia, Faridian, the Italians and their por- the next hundred metres, but also admitted ters all left gear at C3. Our team sat out the defeat and retreated to C3. window: I felt that we should go for the The morning was still and bright. Garcia's summit, but Chris needed more recovery porter set out first, then middle Kim and I

58 1)2. Jahresbericht des Akademischen Alpenclubs Zürich made the running in waist-deep snow, and the spectacular vista a stark counterpoint to the Russian leader arrived to help with the what we had just witnessed. The women's final trail-breaking. The work was short but team was paralysed. The men's team began brutal, and soon all the teams were pulling to descend: tears streaked big Kim's face into C4 at 7800m, seeing for the first time as he passed us, and the other four wore the serac and Bottleneck. Tents went up, ex- masks of stone. cept for the Russians, whose tent had dis- Chris moved up to the top anchor, fixed the appeared, and they were forced to dig a rope and pushed on as I belayed. I followed snow cave. Faridian and the Korean women Chris, gasping at every step, while Don was also arrived and set up, while the Italians our gatekeeper, letting through only clim- brought up the rear. In the sweeping view bers with fixed ropes, essentially just the down the South Face were 11 climbers far oxygen-assisted Russians. At Chris' be- below, struggling to finish the Cesen: clear- lay we asked Roman if he could lead. He ly even the four leading Czechs would be cracked his trademark big, gold-toothed forced to mount their summit bid from a lo- grin, said "No problem" and churned off wer C4. to the right of the Bottleneck with Chris I went around to discuss summit-day strat- in his wake. Now the queue behind us in- egy and distribute our rope. We agreed that eluded the Italians, Portuguese and Irani- the Korean women's team (Oh and two an, Oh and her Sherpas, small and middle Sherpas) would leave at 10pm and start fi- Kim ascending again, and one Czech clim- xing, then the Korean men would take over ber from the Cesen. Roman and Chris fixed to the Bottleneck, we would fix the traverse the strand and the mob trooped past me to and the Russians would finish to the top of wait again. the serac. At 11pm we had both stoves pro- Don staggered up, feeling ill and thinking ducing water at speed. Another windstorm his day was over. I climbed past the queue had blown up, but had subsided when we and moved in beside Chris, watching the piled out at midnight. Nobody had yet four Russians prepare to lead the traverse moved from C4. Then both Korean teams across 70-degree ice above the Bottleneck. shuffled past, hidden behind their oxygen Roman pulled out another old, blunt moun- masks. We followed their tracks in deep taineering axe. "Roman - use this techical powder, and then on hard-packed snow as tool." Another big, gold grin: "No prob- the Shoulder steepened, seeing only pin- lern". He smashed his way across the 15m pricks of light both above and below in the of steep ice, placing three screws and an silence, pitch darkness and bitter cold. anchor. Nikolai followed, and did another pitch into the suspect snowfield. Then Vic- SUMMIT DAY tor took the front, hacking into deep snow The first light of dawn revealed the Kore- to find purchase in a hard lower layer as the an woman's Sherpas fixing rope three pit- queue snaked slowly upwards behind. ches below the Bottleneck, with the men's When it was finally my turn to clear the team a pitch below them. Suddenly Don serac edge, Don appeared behind me, still was shouting, and above us a body was sli- feeling terrible. I knew he wouldn't turn ding. Nima Sherpa passed us on his back, back now, and dropped in behind him. The feet first, wrestling with his axe to arrest, Czech climber came up to us: „I am from but instead slid away out of sight. The sun Czech team. We climb Cesen route. Pie- rose over Broad Peak and the Gasherbrums, ase look after me going down." Libor Uher

60 112. Jahresbericht des Akademischen Alpenclubs Zürich was feeling exhausted and exposed, and ber at the back, had been broken. Chris was looking for back-up.Visible on the final put Uher in his sleeping bag and made do snow slope were the Russians and Kore- with two down jackets, but for the next few ans. The Italian leader, Daniele Nardi, Chris hours melted snow. I was weak and spent and I headed the oxygen-free charge, Gar- the night wrapped around my bottle of hot cia, Faridian, Don and Uher followed, while fluid. As the winds rose further, Vielmo had two more Italians, Mario Vielmo and Stefa- to radio for help in getting back to C4, whe- no Zavka, were far behind. re he arrived alone at lam. We pulled up onto the summit crest at 4:30pm. Chris filmed Nardi thanking his DESCENT sponsors while I went to the true high point By 7am it was starting to snow. We were and took photographs of disappointingly slow and tired, and were just firing up the small peaks arrayed far below us. The wind stoves when Garcia announced that he was was still and the sun warm, with only a few leaving in 30 minutes with the Koreans and clouds spread around. Chris came over to Russians. As they did so, the storm was gro- me, then Don, and then Uher and Faridian, wing to full white-out conditions. In our for embraces and photographs all round. tent, I was better, Chris was wrecked, Don Then, as the sun sank lower, it was time was now our strongest and Uher wasn't all to go. As Chris and I followed the weaker there. The Italians came repeatedly to our climbers down into the shadows, we met tent: "We must leave. It is terrible out here. Vielmo and Zavka still ascending. Nobody could survive in this." We kept tel- At the fixed line, Chris watched Don while I ling them to go, as we worked to get our- stayed at the back. As I waited for my team- selves and Uher ready, but clearly they were mates to clear the serac edge, taking sun- not capable of descending in these condi- set shots at 8400m, Vielmo and Zavka were tions, and needed us to lead. out of sight on the summit. Don started When Don emerged, he found that one moving faster, while it was my turn to feel pair of crampons had been stolen from our ill. At the bottom of the fixed ropes, in full vestibule. As he was digging all around the darkness, Chris and Don found Uher lying tent in a vain search, Nardi finally dropped in the snow, hypothermic and barely co- the bombshell on us: "Stefano didn't come herent. They marched him to within 200m back last night", and yet here they were of C4 before having to drag him. By now hell-bent on getting out. Uppermost on the wind was picking up, and I passed the our minds were the possibility of the storm others to stagger on to C4 and get help for worsening, the certainty of deteriorating Uher. Garcia's porter started to prepare hot avalanche conditions, and the need to help water, but the two Italians refused to offer Uher. With the storm now raging and with any assistance. The Russians and Koreans all the stronger climbers already descen- had their hands full looking after themsel- ding, the best opportunity to look for Zavka ves, so we piled Uher into our three-man had been lost. However, the Italians' near tent. When Chris moved in, two lights were desperation to leave prevented any rational visible, still above the Bottleneck. By this discussion on the possibility of a search. time Vielmo had told Zavka he was afraid Don set off into the white-out with no cram- of frostbite and had moved ahead, carrying pons, breaking trail for Nardi, Faridian and their only radio: the cardinal rule of moun- Michele Fait, the fourth Italian. Half an hour taineering, never leave the weakest mem- later I did the same, with Chris minding

61 Uher and Vielmo coming behind. After a ra- where they had brought a stretcher. Chris dio call during one wait for a clearing in the stayed here with Don, while I returned to white-out, Chris told me "Don may have BC with the Czechs. broken his ankle". The inevitable had hap- pened and he'd taken a long slide, but was CONCLUSION AND HIKE OUT already heading down the fixed ropes to C2. BC saw first some handshakes with the Chris decided to stay in C3 with Uher, sen- Americans, then some rib-crushing bear- ding me on to help Don. When I caught him hugs from the Russians, then more em- at 7100m, we were back in the teeth of the braces from the Czechs. In our camp Joel, storm. He wasn't making it look as though Chris II, Didar and Javed were almost over- help was necessary, abseiling and hopping come by far more emotion than I had the painfully but efficiently. On the last section energy to muster. The following morning above C2, a gap in the fixed line stopped him saw perhaps the triumphal moment of K2 cold, and I had to climb back up to cut out a 2007, when 34 men and one woman from section of old rope to bridge it. the Czech, Russian, German (just over from In C2, all three Italians and Faridian had Broad Peak), American and Pakistani (BC occupied Garcia's three-man tent, making staff) teams stretchered Don through the no efforts to sort out their own, or to consi- icefall to BC. I slept helplessly through it all. der the injured climber. Given the dark and A Belgian doctor with Garcia's team came stormy conditions, Don pushed into this to bandage Don's ankle. Our attention tur- tent as well. I was left to excavate the snow ned to getting him a helicopter, but the and garbage from the Italian tent, a process weather remained uncooperative. which took half the night by the time I'd In the Italian camp, a self-imposed media prepared enough water. Someone had ea- embargo included refusal to talk to Zavka's ten the food we'd left with Garcia, and I was family or the Italian Embassy, both of whom given Italian left-overs, but Don announced tried contacting us. Then false statements that he was fine. In fact he'd only been gi- were made that they had helped Don, and ven 200ml to drink (black tea from Faridi- that Don's evacuation was the reason they an), which caused a fluid crisis the next day had not waited for Zavka. Next, their non- as the Italians left without lighting a sto- climbing leader began calling his embas- ve. Vielmo simply took Don's sleeping bag, sy every hour for a helicopter evacuation. and Nardi tried to take his down jacket. When we asked the American team to car- At dawn, I was awoken by Nardi's depar- ry Don down to Broad Peak BC to impro- ture. In a shouted exchange with Don over ve his evacuation chances, the Italians felt the roaring wind, I agreed to bring him wa- compelled to walk, despite their claimed in- ter. When Nardi discovered how strong the juries, to Concordia. In the end, the Pakista- wind was, he simply abseiled away, leaving ni airforce used an evening window in the Don on his own. At end of the rope above clouds, some four days after the return to CI, Don had to scream at the Italians until K2 BC, to lift all the evacuation cases. one of their porters fixed a strand for him to At K2 BC, Chris and I packed our dim- reach camp. Chris, Uher and I caught him bing and electronic gear. On the morning at the end of the fixed ropes, finally below of our departure, we gave away the worst of the wind, where were helped of untouched food to the Americans, and immeasurably by members of Uher's team. strode off as well as our weakened frames They set ropes for Don to abseil into ABC, could manage. From Concordia, and our

62 112. Jahresbericht des Akademischen Alpenclubs Zürich final glimpses of K2 and Gasherbrum IV, from my usual new routes and explorati- we wandered down the Baltoro on another on. While using the normal route was not leaden day, far behind our porters. The day the intention, teamwork, safety and re- past Paiyu brought us views of Cathedral, aching a summit are always paramount. It the Trangos and Uli Biaho on a spectacu- was a challenge, and to succeed without lar morning, which lapsed into unaccusto- oxygen or drugs an achievement. Perhaps med heat on the long march to Jola. In As- I am more proud that, in an atmosphere of kole, an ATP jeep was waiting to ferry us egotism, selfishness and incompetence, we to , where we waited for two days were able to help create an attitude among as our gear arrived. Then we drove down the K2 climbers of cooperation, mutual as- the Karakoram Highway, through dramatic, sistance and hard work. Finally, we proved barren mountains to Chilas, then winding quite comprehensively the falsehood and high above the Indus gorge to Besham, stupidity of the "8000m myth" now so pre- over interminable foothills into the gree- valent on the easier high peaks, that at such nery of Azad Kashmir, and finally onto the heights it is impossible to carry equipment plains and to Islamabad. The debriefing was (ropes, stoves, sleeping bags, even tents), uneventful other than the absence of our one cannot perform normal climbing func- LO, a breach which seemed set to earn him tions like belaying, and under no circum- a serious reprimand. The final farewell from stances could one ever rescue another clim- our friends at ATP was phrased in terms of ber. After K2 I can say with authority that "when we return next year", not "if". there are never any excuses for violating the fundamental rules of . PERSONAL REMARKS K2 is known as „the mountaineer's moun- By Bruce Normand tain". Climbing it was for me a departure loioro.s/mredsum;n rfs .com

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Bruce Normand, Don Bowie and Chris Warner on th summit of K2 (8611m)

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