2007 shared summits K2 expedition Autor(en): Normand, Bruce Objekttyp: Article Zeitschrift: Jahresbericht / Akademischer Alpen-Club Zürich Band (Jahr): 112 (2007) PDF erstellt am: 23.09.2021 Nutzungsbedingungen Die ETH-Bibliothek ist Anbieterin der digitalisierten Zeitschriften. Sie besitzt keine Urheberrechte an den Inhalten der Zeitschriften. Die Rechte liegen in der Regel bei den Herausgebern. Die auf der Plattform e-periodica veröffentlichten Dokumente stehen für nicht-kommerzielle Zwecke in Lehre und Forschung sowie für die private Nutzung frei zur Verfügung. Einzelne Dateien oder Ausdrucke aus diesem Angebot können zusammen mit diesen Nutzungsbedingungen und den korrekten Herkunftsbezeichnungen weitergegeben werden. Das Veröffentlichen von Bildern in Print- und Online-Publikationen ist nur mit vorheriger Genehmigung der Rechteinhaber erlaubt. 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Since then he'd founded Earth- chose a cook and assistant cook from our treks, a Baltimore-based guiding company trekking agent, Adventure Tours Pakistan with three rock gyms, and climbed Everest, (ATP): with Didar and Javed I came up with Lhotse, Cho Oyu and Shishapangma. 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 Karakoram 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 mountain 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 Broad Peak. 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 Askole, 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 Gasherbrum 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 Concordia 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.