DISPATCHES

Jordan

	click for dispatch photos

Day 24 of the trip, day 10 of the trek and we are still a good week away from any semblance of being settled at Advanced Base Camp. But it's a hell of a journey so far.

And what a beautiful "hell" as we look up at our object, towering some 15 miles and 15,000ft above us. By day, K2 is a rocky fortress, the North Ridge as prominent as if carved out of the mountain. By night, under the waxing moon, she stands as if stage lit, neon bright and utterly calm with all of this commotion at her feet.

Currently we are in the final process of moving us and our remaining tons of supplies up from where the camels dumped it at the snout of the glacier, about 13,500ft. For the past two days, the team has been ferrying loads from here to the midway point between us and ABC. While it's only about six miles, it takes a good six to seven hours roundtrip because, for a good portion of the route, you are in a dry river bed, jumping between boulders, careful with each footfall because there is no stability in the river bed.

After about an hour and a half of that mess, you start to climb, but again, most of the route is across scree fall — treacherous, sliding slopes — and for some of us, a lot of ankle twisting hell. The days start cold and icy, but by midday it's hot with a south wind blowing from China's famed Taklamaklan Desert which means, "If you enter, you won't come out."

Half of the team has moved up from here at the Camel Dump to the midway point at 15,000ft in order to make an assault on ABC tomorrow, while the rest of us clean up, repack, organize, supervise and basically hang out in the 80-plus degree heat awaiting our trek up tomorrow.

All in all, the team is doing great, feeling great, and acclimatizing well, although it's tempting to go too fast, as we continually look over our shoulders up at K2. It's so close, you can feel its mass in your belly. But, it's also unbelievably far for those setting sights on its summit.

— Jennifer Jordan, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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