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K2 - A North Side Story
11:21 a.m. EDT Aug 7, 2003
As climbers are mailing in their post expedition reports, an interesting K2 attempt arrived in our mailbox:
The past spring, a small six-member international expedition planned to attempt the North Ridge of K2. By the time they met in Kashgar, however, the team had dwindled to half and three remained:
Johan Heersink (Holland) – Leader
Eric Nilles (USA) - Expedition Doctor, Climber
Mike Dorse (Canada) – Photographer, Climber
This is their story, as told by Eric Nilles:
"We arrived 4/20 at the camel dump and spent the next 3 weeks humping loads to ACII (no porters). Our base camp remained at the camel dump and we just took up to ACII what we needed on the mountain. That proved to be a bit of a pain as it meant BC was 30 odd km from the start of the climbing, and that 30 km was brutal; the two very heavy snows and subsequent avalanches (and then mud slides) didn't improve the situation.
Another shock came when Johan announced that he wasn't up for climbing the mountain (at this time) and, after carrying a couple of loads, proceeded to spend the remainder of the time exploring the surrounding peaks.
So our expedition which originated as 6 was now 2. Any plan to fix significant sections of the route was certainly out (although both Mike and I were generally opposed to this style anyway).
Mike and I set off alpine style, simul-soloing, at midnight on 5/14(due to concerns about snow stablity on the lower slopes). The climbing was fantastic: moonlit, crisp, mostly solid ice.
We continued to simul-solo over the next couple of days to a little over 22,000 feet. At this point we climbed late into the evening and Mike developed grade II-III frost bite of three fingers on his right hand and one finger on his left hand. I developed mild frost bite of a few toes on my right foot, but it really wasn't much to write home about. That was enough for Mike, however, and the next day we descended with all our supplies.
Upon reaching the glacier the decision to bring down all the food and fuel -- that we'd worked so hard to get up -- seemed like a bad one. Mike was convinced that he was done but I was feeling pretty good. So now the expedition had, in rather rapid fashion, dwindled from 6 to 1.
If there had been any other expeditions on the North side I would have attempted to join with them. As it was, we were the only expedition so that wasn't an option. So after some serious R&R at BC (13,900 feet) I headed back up to the base of the mountain.
This time the plan was ultralight as I knew the significant amount of knee-deep trail breaking was going to be exhausting. I pared the pack down to about 15 KG (incl. pack) which included 4 days of food and 8 days of fuel. Two days got me back to the same position as I'd been before with Mike (just over 22,000 feet).
I felt better than any of the previous days on the mountain and packed up to move up when high, gusty winds started to whip around the mountain; within an hour clouds were obscuring the summit, the views down to the glacier, and light snow was beginning to fall. Without any weather forecast equipment (no sat phone on the expedition unfortunately!) I took this rather seriously and started to head down.
The weather remained crappy for the rest of the day but the next 3 days were magnificent . . . bummer. We headed out June 20th."
Well guys, better tried and failed than never...thanks for your story!
Image of K2 courtesy ExplorersWeb
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