Stuart Peacock K2 Expedition 2004 Dispatch 10

Hi Folks, Sad news I'm afraid, our summit attempt of K2 is over. We headed up the mountain 2 days ago. Chris turned round en-route to camp 1 and managed to get avalanched on his descent. He's Ok though slightly bruised and a cut nose.

The decision came yesterday dinner after receiving an updated weather forecast from Chris. The predicted good spell leading up to Sunday had changed with high winds building up. We reached a height of 6400m on the way to camp 2. The weather had worsened during the morning and I finally decided that if the summit was out of the question it wasn't worth going any higher in progressively worse conditions. It is a shame having spent so little time on the mountain, I had been moving well and had conditions been right I believe I could have got a good way up the mountain. However with the updated forecast we all agree it was the right decision.

We had decided before setting off that this would be our only attempt on the summit, with a full on 5 day push to the summit, luck and weather definitely had to be on our side. We plan to start heading out on the 30th of this month. Many teams have also brought forward there departure dates believing that there is no more good weather to be had.

All the team believe we could not have done any better in the time we have had on both mountains and we shall just have to put this one down to experience of the very unusual weather system out here.

Once the porters arrive we have a 3 day walk out and then one days jeep drive to Skardu. Hopefully we can get the flight back to Islamabad where we can relax by the pool in our 5 star hotel for a couple of days before heading back home. All being well we will return to England on or around 5th August.

Next update probably from Islamabad.

Regards, Stu

Stu summited Everest and made a movie in which he filmed most of the route click on the picture below to see more about this video (DVD and VHS).

 

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