Himalaism - Polish K2 winter expedition

[Tricycle Rider]

Re:

http://www.alanarnette.com/blog/201...t-and-the-spirit-of-mountaineering-is-strong/

What hit me from this article the most, and it's something that will always ring true...

Climbing any mountain in winter is dangerous. Adding in the altitude and terrain of an 8000-meter mountain makes success almost always impossible. For those who try, they fully understand the risks.

 

[Brullnux]

I've been following the thread since the start, I just haven't posted anything since I don't really post much at the moment and had little to add. But thank you for detailing an incredibly inspiring story of genuine altruism. The word hero is true for all four of them. Rip tomasz, and condolences to his family, but I guess at least he died doing the thing he loved.

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

So, if anybody is interested in continuing this thread :
- there is no need to change thread topic tittle: first I'd would like to give you some information about K2 summit winter attempt, but suddenly we had to face the tragedy of Eli and Tomasz.. :-(;
- Elisabeth is in a hospital, there was no chance to help Tomasz;
- probably some parts of her hands and feet will have to amputated;
- French Embassy officially stated their acknowledgement for surviving French citizen;
- till today there was no proper weather conditions to transport rescue team via heli to the base camp of K2 - now they joined the rest of the team;
- after a few days of horrible weather, members of K2 winter expedition has started to continue achieving of K2 summit...

 

[Armchair cyclist]

BBC and Guardian articles.

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Re:

BBC and Guardian articles.

Yes, it's nice that even in UK the whole rescue expedition is describied.. And the words of Denis in the middle of the night at 6100 m: "Elisabeth.....nice to see you. Adam, I have her......"

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Re: Re:

BBC and Guardian articles.

Yes, it's nice that even in UK the whole rescue expedition is describied.. And the words of Denis in the middle of the night at 6100 m: "Elisabeth.....nice to see you. Adam, I have her......"

I had read the BBC article, it had a short interview with Elisabeth. Even though she may lose a few fingers, or even a limb, she think she'll climb again because it's what she needs.

It definitely takes a certain kind of personality to climb to begin with, but to go back after such a harrowing experience...

Anyhoo, please do keep posting, I think this is all very interesting.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Has anyone here read No Way Down: Life and Death on K2, by Graham Bowley? I just ordered it, have no idea if it's any good. But being it's only a cheapy used paperback copy I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Interesting factoid about Elisabeth Revol, btw. (the French climber who had just been rescued from Nanga Parbat ), apparently she partook on a climb of Annapurna a while back where a Czech climber had been left behind and died, and she had been rescued. Some more vitriolic posts on the webs call here the Black Widow of mountaineering now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Mina%C5%99%C3%ADk

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Gotta be a couple of good hills where you are TR. Try them out....
As for Revol, well she survived which is really the name of the game at that level.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Re:

Gotta be a couple of good hills where you are TR. Try them out....
As for Revol, well she survived which is really the name of the game at that level.

We do have some nice peaks here in the Cascades, but just climbing in my bike saddle after a winter (and fall) of hibernating will be challenge enough. :lol:

---------

Update on the book I had posted about upthread - I started reading Amazon's free kindle preview, and while I have a hard time imagining all the glaciers and crevasses and stuff I am positively hooked! (So much so that I will have to pay for the whole kindle version now because I want to continue reading. Now, figuring out this modern kindle stuff will be a whole other challenge...)

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Re: Re:

Gotta be a couple of good hills where you are TR. Try them out....
As for Revol, well she survived which is really the name of the game at that level.

We do have some nice peaks here in the Cascades, but just climbing in my bike saddle after a winter (and fall) of hibernating will be challenge enough. :lol:

---------

Update on the book I had posted about upthread - I started reading Amazon's free kindle preview, and while I have a hard time imagining all the glaciers and crevasses and stuff I am positively hooked! (So much so that I will have to pay for the whole kindle version now because I want to continue reading. Now, figuring out this modern kindle stuff will be a whole other challenge...)

good luck with the kindle.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Re: Re:

good luck with the kindle.

lol... yes, it's something like that. (So far I have learned how to upload the kindle app, how to purchase and download the book, and how to bookmark the last page when I need to rest my eyeballs. This is such a historical moment for me!)

But seriously, there is a brief mention of the history of K2 climbing in the beginning of the book, but then it goes back to the story itself. It's really very enthralling, and just to help me picture things a bit better I found this very helpful website that has all kinds of info and pictures of the mountain. (And if Bot.Sky_Bot continues to post about the Polish climbing group I'll be able to understand where they are and what they are up to better.) http://www.caingram.info/Worldwide/seven_summits/htm/k2.htm

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

https://scontent-waw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/26991648_1765218093523620_344586903249086390_n.jpg?oh=b18d2f901c696fddadefe1a44d2fc5b5&oe=5B22E3B3

Here you have location of 1st camp at 5900m at K2 (just 1 tent, one of 3-4 camps on the road to K2 summit). Let say - very comfortable location, but you can see many ropes responsible for setting the camp.

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

https://scontent-waw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19554766_540715089654741_2250964455379276550_n.jpg?oh=cddc32b1720952c9c47ae8b517024c14&oe=5B232430

And here you have, behind Denis Urubko, C2 at 6300 m- second camp, two tents.. just on the edge..

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Denis Urubko in a tent at C2 (6300 m). During the night he must be all the time attached to the ropes because of the wind..

https://scontent-waw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/26907849_540715079654742_6582412334696227522_n.jpg?oh=8b93b6231176bf345883dbf633407e7c&oe=5B19D66C

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

https://scontent-waw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/27331833_1774804035898359_3161165752853453462_n.jpg?oh=a702607c81fd874225536042906a2890&oe=5AE0CE1C

https://scontent-waw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19642636_540715082988075_8965453194317413177_n.jpg?oh=c0b4e9e5294d79c662f087fa922a8e6f&oe=5B234538

Location of C2 camp (6300 m) and all the ropes responsible for its establishing

 

[Tricycle Rider]

While much appreciated I think Denis needs to quit taking those selfies and needs to pay more attention to the mountain. She is not called the "Savage Mountain" for no reason, after all.

 

[Irondan]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43286857

Looks like K2 has prevailed in winter again.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Re:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43286857

Looks like K2 has prevailed in winter again.

I remember reading about Urubko trying to ascent on his own last month because there was some kind of a split in the group, at least they all gave up now without anyone dying. And I'd like to say there's always next year, but these expeditions are so expensive...

These are expert climbers though, so maybe they'll find the funding for next year, who knows?

 

[Kokoso]

No summit at the end. Urubko was disappointed that Wielicki ordered him not to proceed from C2 to C3 and let him acclimatize, which was against their agreement. So he went down to the basecamp.
Later Urubko undertook unsuccesful attemp to summit on his own because he regards 28th February as end of winter (which in fact is end of so called meteorological winter, so there are whole organizations and whole lotta people recognizing this date as end of the winter at least some way - despite what BotSkyBot states).
After that "Denis Urubko, according to his convictions regarding the end of the winter season, decided to leave the Winter Expedition on K2.
This decision was accepted by the participants of the expedition, who did not see any further possibility of cooperation with Denis after his independent attempt to get the top." They weren't very happy with Urubko trying to summit on his own. I wonder what would they say if Urubko actually managed to summit