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Dispatch: Minor Fretting Advanced Base Camp, China - Sunday, July 2, 2000
A mild but persistent storm has curtailed all activity on the mountain for three days now. Here at ABC we've had light snow, mostly falling at night. Up to six inches can be on the ground by morning, but then the sun burns through the clouds, at times during the day, sublimating most of the snow, heating our tents to unbearable temperatures. K2 comes in and out of view: an ice slope here, the North Ridge vignetted there, or the whole mountain, maybe with a lenticular cloud cap curling off the summit. Then it's simply gone, this mighty landform less than one mile from our camp. Now and then we can hear a muffled powder avalanche or a serac fall, but mostly it's quiet. The winds shift, sometimes upvalley, sometimes down, as if we are in the middle of a big, lazy low-pressure system, undulating slowly, but in no hurry to move on. Life is pretty slow here. Reading, eating, resting, playing bridge, and miscellaneous minor fretting are the predominant activities. Paul's team is the most impatient. They were ready to move onto the route and establish Camp 2. Now they are waiting. Due to the climbing team rotation, the rest of us don't mind the chance to recoup a bit. It could be fascinating to see how things manifest after the weather clears. Up till now, even though these other teams (the Japanese, the Chinese/Tibetan, and Mexican/Catalan/ex-pat American) have been lurking in the peripheries; we have been the only ones advancing the route. When we have been up there putting in the fixed lines, we pretty much have had the feeling that we have the place to ourselves. Although it's likely that we will be the first ones to Camp 2, at some point, the sheer mass of these other groups will make itself evident. The Chinese plan alone is a bit mind-boggling. As they have told it to us, they plan on mounting what could only be called a gigantic alpine-style siege blitz. They will, in one continuous upwards push, move in full force up through their five proposed campsites, surging past us, at some point, with support team members peeling off from formation at each camp, until their summit team is poised in high camp. Then they go to the top (our fixed ropes across the ice faces between Camp 1 and Camp 2 will come in pretty handy in the execution of this plan). The other two teams, four members each, are also fairly dependent on us to put in the fixed lines, or they will need to ask us to let them put in some of our rope themselves because they didn't bring enough to do the job on their own. Either way, they will be left with the last choice of tent sites for a while. So, when the sun again shines brightly on K2, stay tuned. — Mike Bearzi, MountainZone.com Correspondent |
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