K2 2004: K2 South and North Update: Italian expedition Everest/K2 2004 expedition

K2 2004 - 50 years later

K2 South – Base Camp – July 12, 2004

As of today, the climbers are set in the various camps on the mountain.  At camp I we have Karl Unterkircher, Sergio Minoggio and Nadia Tiraboschi. Camp II  has been occupied by Marco Forcatura, Leandro Giannangeli, Stefano Zavka, Pierangelo Maurizio, Tarcisio Bello, Walter Nones and Paolo Confortola.

The objective of all ten climbers is to climb to camp III tomorrow.  Once they have reached the designated position, the team will set up the large model tent “ South Col” higher up on the shoulder of the mountain, above 7500 meters and they will then complete the setup of the camp.

Once this task is completed, all of the climbers will descend back down to base camp for what our Leader, Agostino Da Polenza calls our “week of penance”.  Unfortunately this is what we have to expect, given the current weather predictions, explains Da Polenza. More than likely we will have quite a few days during which it will be impossible to make any headway up the mountain.  During this week we will concentrate our efforts on setting up the satellite communications and TV direct signal equipment for transmitting directly from the mountain

K2 North: further snow samplings

A recon mission to the deposit camp and further snow samplings on the K2 North face. The slopes are still unstable and climbers wait for an improvement of the weather, still unsettled.

July, 12th 2004 – K2 North base camp

This morning Agostino and I have climbed to the base of the wall to verify the condition of the slopes leading to camp I and to proceed to another snow sampling, considering the difficulties in drawing samples at higher altitudes for the moment.

The fixed ropes were almost completely buried by the last snowfalls…

The weather is rather unstable, with the sky clearing up and suddenly clouding over. All of a sudden, it began sleeting. This conditions do nothing but delaying the snow settling down process on the long and steep way to camp I.

All other climbers remained at the base camp, except Romano and Nives that dropped down to the intermediate camp.

We are evaluating the evolution of the weather before laying out a plan for tomorrow. Michele

copyright Italian expedition Everest/K2 2004 expedition Expedition

 

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