DISPATCHES

Ziel

	click for dispatch photos

This mountain is certainly big. However, the longer we spend with it, the more familiar and comfortable we become. It is an incredibly hot place during the day. When the sun is out, the temperatures on the snow goes over 90 degrees. The avalanche I came close to on my first trip up the route seems to be a daily occurrence.

Shortly after the sun hits (10:30am) and late in the afternoon when the temperature tends to drop (5:00pm), the big serac to the right of our route dumps a load of ice 4000 feet to the K2 glacier. What to do? We've elected to climb by moonlight. Leaving ABC at three or 4am for a trip to Camp 1 seems to have effectively lowered the risk of personal injury from heat stroke and an incontinent serac.

We now have Camp 1 established and stocked, and are pushing out to a site for Camp 2. To keep things moving, the climbing team has divided up into three groups of four so we can rotate climbing responsibilities from day to day; leading and fixing rope, humping loads up the fixed ropes, or resting for the next round. This afternoon, from ABC, I can sit here with the spotting scope and follow the lead team (Mike, Jeff, Wayne, and Ziggy) running out rope up the steep ice and snow to Camp 2. My team (Jay, Shawn, and Heidi) and I will wait for early a.m. tomorrow to go up the ropes to trade places with the lead team. Paul, Ivan, Wayne, and John have just completed a carry to Camp 2 (all before the a.m. avalanche show).

The route so far is snow and ice tilted at an angle of up to 50 percent. Camp 1 is hacked out of a bergschrund in the slope. Camp 2 will sit near the top of this slope. It is all tied together with our fixed rope.

We brought with us 4000 meters of Pigeon Mountain Industries rope to safeguard the route. Most of it is 8mm thick and dyed bright orange. Once "fixed" to ice and snow anchors, it becomes the only way up and the only way down the mountain. Our progress is measured in how much rope has been placed. Travelling up and down the line is like being cast adrift in a white sea with only a thin orange line for reference.

Tomorrow will be another opportunity for our team to run out the orange line.

— Fred Ziel, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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