Karakoram Expedition 2022

Eric on the summit of K2 on 28th July 2022 - photo Eric Gilbertson

K2 via the Abruzzi Spur

On July 28 2022 Andreas Frydensberg and I summitted K2 (8,614m, P4020m), the highest mountain in Pakistan and second highest mountain in the world.  We were unguided and did not use supplemental oxygen.  The trip started in mid-June and we acclimatised by climbing Broad Peak (8,051m, P1701m) via its west ridge, also unguided without supplemental oxygen.  Broad Peak took two attempts, with the first thwarted by challenging trail breaking conditions above 7500m and bad weather.  We summitted on our second attempt on July 18, then rested a few days before moving on for K2.

We started up K2 on July 24.  While climbing to camp 1, I was hit by a large rock and we almost turned around, but we decided to continue to camp 2 (6700m) that night.  The plan was to then make a summit push fast and light, directly from camp 2 and back.  However, bad weather set in the next day and we were forced to stop at camp 3 and spend two nights waiting for an  improvement.  We got through the nights with no sleeping bags in a friend’s tent, with food supply running to near zero.  We used boiling water in our water bottles to help stay warm those nights.

On July 27 the weather improved and we moved up to camp 4 (7600m) with other climbers.  We rested a few hours and pushed on for the summit up the bottleneck at 11pm in a light snow squall.  The lack of supplemental oxygen made my fingers and toes get cold very easily, but I managed to avoid frostbite.  We reached the summit around 8am.  On the descent we had to help a few other climbers get down the bottleneck (one with snow blindness, one who had fainted from lack of oxygen).  We made it down to camp 1 that night and to basecamp the next morning.

This makes 131/196 country highpoints for me so far, though many difficult ones still remain.      

For a longer account of our expedition, see at:

http://www.countryhighpoints.com/k2/

Eric Gilbertson