Diary of the expedition of the 7 Summits Club and the 8000 Club on K2. July 12-17

July 12. All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2!  The most persistent celebrated the meeting on the Elbe all night - the meeting of our expedition and trekkers. In the morning it snowed again.

The trekkers decided to try to pass through Gondogoro La after all and left our camp at 11 am. And we just got some not very good news from above - our entire Camp-2 was blown away by the wind. 8 tents are missing. 5 seem to have remained. The gas is all gone.

In general, we decided to postpone the exit for one more night. 

 July 13.

Due to the lack of tents, we decided to go out in two groups. The first is 9 participants and 6 Sherpas. This morning, immediately to Camp-1, overnight, then to Camp-2, overnight, then exit to Camp-3 and immediately down. The second group of 3 participants and 2 Sherpas - ABC, C1, C2, down.

 The hurricane raged all night. Our tents were almost torn in the camp. The toilet was torn after all. We got up at 4 in the morning. They tried to put a toilet. In vain. Let's go wake up Vladimir Kotlyar and congratulate him on his birthday. He seemed pleased. At 5 a.m. we went out with a strong wind. By 7 in the morning they came to ABC. We rested a little and went to the first camp. In 4-5 hours we went from 5300 to 6100. There's a problem with places here. There is nowhere to put tents - about 10 tents were barely huddled over the abyss. We were accommodated in 3 tents for 3 participants. And two more Sherpas.

We rest, eat, acclimatize. Tomorrow we will go higher.

 July 14th.

The night in Camp 1 passed quietly. The wind died down. It was even hot. In the morning, everyone woke up long before 7 o'clock - it was at this time that the general rise was planned. We had breakfast and left before 8 am. On the way, we admired the views, who could. The ascent became steeper, there were many rocky areas and mixed. By 11-12 days we came to Camp-2 under the fireplace. It was hardly possible to place 5 tents here. The toilet is a quest again - on a steep slope you have to somehow manage to do something.

After lunch, we decided to make an acclimatization rotation. We climbed 300 meters vertically. On the way, I had to climb the chimney  - everyone was impressed here - 50 meters of almost vertical mixed climbing with flowing ice. But the rest of the route was much simpler and the views are very beautiful - both Gasherbrum, Broad Peak, Masherbrum, Chinese Summits were opened…

We went down to dinnertime to our Camp-2. Having dinner, getting ready for bed at 6600. Tomorrow morning we will go down to the BC to rest and prepare for the decisive assault on the summit.

 July 15th.

We woke up at 6600 in Camp-2, again earlier than planned. At 6 o'clock there was a start according to the plan, but most did not sleep well at this height and at 5 in the morning they were ready to go down. The weather in the morning was not very cloudy and windy.

Around 7 a.m., the descent began. Near the first camp we met our second group with Sergey Bogomolov, Dmitry Moskalev and Volodya Kotlyar. They walked briskly up. By 10 a.m. we were at ABC. We drank tea and rode to the sun for lunch. Kristina was waiting for us here with a film crew, Coca-Cola and - most importantly - with compote!!!

We returned almost whole and healthy.  Only Arno was slightly touched by a stone on the descent, another whistled very close to Daniil, and I managed to fall into a crack not far from BC - I got off with one wet foot!

As it turned out, during the three days of our absence from the camp, the popularity of our expedition doctor Andrei Selivanov increased significantly - a Pakistani princess began to come to his office - that's how we dubbed her. In fact, this is a famous Pakistani climber from the family of a Pakistani government official, Naili Kiani. She has already climbed 8 out of 14 eight-thousand meters. Of the Pakistani ones, only Broad Peak remained to her.  And the next morning news came that rescue work was underway on Broad Peak…

 July 16.

In the morning, everyone slept off after a difficult acclimatization exit. Although the weather forecast was expected to be good, it started raining in the morning. By lunchtime, our second group - Sergey, Dmitry and Vladimir - came down to the camp. The guys worked out their program well and returned satisfied with the results.

After lunch, Alina Pekova came to visit us. This modest girl has gone 5 eight-thousand meters in three months and tomorrow she goes to the sixth - Broad Peak. And then - it looks like K2 and further on all 14. What to say? You can only take off your hat!

A beaming doc came to dinner and boasted that he had just pulled out a tooth of one of the Sherpas, who had been suffering with a bad tooth for a long time. In general, our expedition doctor Andrey is a resuscitator. But here in the camp under K2 he has to face various problems to restore the health of participants in fact of all expeditions:

Yesterday I did a blockade to a Pakistani who fell and got a compression fracture; I was struggling with the asthma of a participant from Estonia who went 4 eight-thousandths without oxygen and now wants to go to K2 without oxygen too…

 July 17.

The morning began at 4.00, when a messenger from the trekking group from the Goro II camp came running and said that oxygen and a doctor were urgently needed, as one of the group was ill. Oxygen was sent urgently, and the doctor came down later.

There was a lot of fuss and commotion, but when mobile communication appeared, it turned out that our group of trekkers was already doing well and they were moving normally to Concordia.

In the afternoon, we held talks with our sirdar about plans for installation of high-altitude camps. So far, the ropes are only up to the Camp-3 (7400 m), plus 8 tents and gas flew away from us in the last bad weather, so it's difficult to plan the upper camps. And according to the forecast, the weather will worsen again soon.

But in the evening, the twin sisters pleased us - they cooked stuffed peppers and mimosa salad!

In touch - the leaders of the expedition to K2 Alex Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko.