Broad Peak & K2 Expedition

Thursday 4th August

That’s all folks

I’m sure it was Looney Tunes who coined that phrase which is really quite apt for a couple of Looney climbers……

Well it’s that inevitable time again when we say our good byes to all that is Pakistani mountaineering.

We have had a life changing experience out here and have so many people we need to acknowledge and thank. 

Firstly, Summit Karakoram – Sakhi and Iqbal. 
http://summitkarakoram.com/

They continue to give 110% in everything they do and offer, they organise everything from a bottle of coke at basecamp to flying casualty’s out from the Karakoram, I’ve seen with my own eyes that they work tirelessly to ensure if they can do it…… they will. THANK YOU Iqbal and Sakhi you are all amazing!

8k Sherpa, Lakpa. Although we proudly do not use Sherpa and only use Pakistani support we fully acknowledge and thank Lakpa for all his guidance and help at basecamp and his offer of assistance when our summit descent turned into an epic. His unflappable nature and kindness to a mountaineering brother will not be forgotten and we will see you in Nepal soon.

We must acknowledge the loss of Sharif Sadpara who sadly died during our descent from Broad Peak. Sharif was an integral part of our team and a loving husband and father. Pete and I have been to visit all of his children and wife to ensure they know, Impact Ascents will continue to support the children’s education as part of our promise to the family through our Y.E.S project. Sharif’s legacy in the mountains will continue in what we achieve.

Pakistan, Pakistan you have been amazing, beautiful scenery, beautiful people and a truly beautiful soul. Pete and I have time after time been amazed by its kindness and genuine sense of warmth. The people of Pakistan try so very hard to make you welcome.

We have been into private houses for tea, offered random lifts in Toyota pick ups and offered more food, help and support than any other country we have been to. I only wish that when a Pakistani visits the Uk they are treated to the same hospitality as we have been afforded. 

Never, ever have we felt anything other that kindness and love whilst being out here, walking the streets late at night to climbing it’s hardest mountains we have never felt at risk or seen anything untoward. Pakistan and it’s people, culture and society are a beacon for what we and others should strive towards. Thank you Pakistan.

Finally, our long suffering family and friends who continually support and drive us forward.

Undoubtedly they question our sanity from time to time and I would suggest even struggle to understand what drives two middle aged men to want to spend two months wasting away in Pakistan………..We know how hard it is to be left alone for long periods of time whilst we “play” our dangerous game, we can’t imagine the anxiety it must cause not knowing where, or what we are up to but we can assure you, you are always in our thoughts and YOU are the reason why we return each and every time. THANK YOU x

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Tuesday 2nd August

The long walk out

Having drunk copious amounts of coke, sprite and 7up Pete and I had a full 24hrs to recover at basecamp. Sore, bruised and really quite shocked with the past 48hrs events we agreed to get out of dodge as quickly and efficiently as possibly. 

Because of the reported land slides at Urdukus and Askole we reluctantly agreed to head out through and over the Gondorgorla pass. We went this way in 2019 and I swore never again as it’s a hard hard push which I personally felt wasn’t worth it but the alternative of many jeep rides and landslides really didn’t do it for me.

We set off at 06:00 the following morning having packed up our base camp and ensured all rubbish was packed and transported out with us.
The first leg was back to Concordia, a steady walk over ankle breaking terrain which really did wake up the senses and those tired muscles. About 3 hours later after several stops for trekkers to take our pictures and a quick stop literally under the phone mast we arrived for some hot tea and biscuits. 

The walk out always seems hard especially as it felt our cook team was in the bloody Pakistani relay race handing us like a Batton over to the next leaders. Obviously I took every opportunity to moan at the conditions and the speed in which we hurried along to just wait around at the next stop.

We set off from the Concordia with two of the worst guides ever……. Literally laurel and hardy or the chuckle brothers could have done a better job. Having watched them bum slide down a glacier and remove their shoes first we had doubts but to then see the said shoes fall into a shallow stream and one continue to throw the shoe back up to his friend BUT to miss throw and launch the bloody shoe into the dark dark depths of a lagoon….. gone forever was the last straw! 

Pete and I took the lead and they followed!
We followed the glacier for the next 3-4hrs and eventually ended up a pop-up camp called a Ali camp, it’s an interim, overnight camp for climbers and trekkers before doing the midnight fling over gondorgorala pass. It’s a tidy enough place, a few colourful tents and a decent water source plus a good tea shack where we went and crashed. We drank copious amounts of sugared green tea and we’re able to talk with the local folk who were very interested in our achievements. It will appear (as we secretly knew) we were the first climbers over who had done both mountains so it was nice to have our egos massaged, although a good leg massage would have been better!

We ate some rice at about 17:00 and laid down to get some sleep before our 23:00 start that evening, to be honest it was pretty pointless the noise of happy trekkers and singing porters kept us awake and I’m sure I only just managed to close my eyes for an hour or so.

I was awoken by a bloody head torch shining in my face, it was Pete who had clearly not slept at all BUT had been up watching Korean rice being cooked “ hey mate get a load of this” he handed me a plastic bag of Korean rice! I must say I’ve never, ever woken up and been handed a plastic bag of Korean rice……
He seemed bright as button and I felt so dopey, sick, dizzy and now with bloody Korean rice – there weren’t even any bloody Koreans about!

Sadly we were led out by Laurel and Hardy again in the hope that this is there area of expertise, night navigation over a high pass!

We were very wrong!
About an hour in we were in the lead of about 60 trekkers, climbers and porters all following us with head torches, again why we were going so quickly was beyond me. We soon found ourselves in the bloody middle of a crevasse field, literally surrounded by ice cracks, frozen pools and slush…….Obviously laurel and hardy had no idea where to go, Pete and I again said that we’d not follow them due to our very strong will to NOT die!
About 45mins later a proper guide arrived and we were able to follow some semi competent folk slowly up an iced snow covered slope with the most token gesture ropes for hand guides.

I’m amazed no more accidents occurred, the snow slope was slippery, cold and at about 4900m was high enough to create altitude issues for trekkers.
We plodded up to the plateau which again was a very strange affair with the rope guide ending and an expectation that folk would stay on the same navigational path. I met Pete at the top who’d been waiting for me so we could descend the other side together.
By this time it was pretty cold, 03:00 and snowing.

Pete and I went to the start of some really poorly fixed and mixed ropes. Any rope you can think of was used, I’d not be surprised if my bloody mothers washing line was in there somewhere! 
We set off into the dark with quite possibly the dimmest head torches going. Arm rapping down a broken rock path into the darkness, we really couldn’t see anything it was one dim head torch following the other. We had rocks, sand and dust following us down with snow, sleet and rain covering us. If the severity of the situation was so grave it would be laughable….. folk were sliding around, getting hit with rocks and crying, genuinely crying because the terrain was so unexpected.

Both Pete and I were amazed that it was so hard, we would have preferred to have harnesses and tied into the rope like on a mountain but instead it was like a kiddies ride with a huge pile up at the bottom.

The morning light started to shine as the sun rose and Pete and I had survived the night and more importantly we were injury free!

We arrived at a small camp in the rain and sheltered in the smokiest of kitchen huts, full of kerosene smoke along with the cooks cigarette smoke it made for a toxic air. We drank sweet tea and ate fresh chapati until my clumsiness indicated time to leave. I was handed a cup of tea and managed to spill it over a porters socks……. The second cup got spilt on the rug in the middle of the hut, then a third was spilt all over my left sock-bollocks to this I said, let’s go!

We both set off at a good pace and crossed the final glacier heading down the valley, we remembered the way from 2019 and felt really quite strong, this said we had only done 12km but had gained and lost 3000m!  

Pete and I spent a further 5 hours trekking out of the valley until we arrived at the designated campsite, which very very sadly had been victim of an horrendous rock slide and wash out, it was awful, what was a lush green oasis a few months ago and was now a rubble filled plain that had destroyed everything in its path including the hut, kitchens and trees. It really was awful to see, apparently it happened the 5th of July, the very day we summited broad peak.

We sat for about 30 minutes and purchased our cheapest bottle of coke for 2 months. We sat and reflected on what’s was once a beautiful idyllic space but now looked like bomb site. The original plan was to stay here the night and then trek the further 3 hours in the morning to Hushe but it typical fashion we both agreed that we should crack on and try our best to get into some kind of civilisation today, then at least we can relax in the knowledge that we have done all of the necessary foot work.
The final 8-10km was really pleasant, it’s a beautiful walk and if you hadn’t just climbed K2 I would whole heartedly advocate coming to Hushe and trekking the path. The trees and the shrubs all seem to smell amazing when you brush past them and the trail is clean and very surprising litter free. In complete contrast to the start of your K2 experiance in the village of Askole, where it’s dirty, smelly and the villages really are hostile.

Hushe had also suffered in the recent floods and landslides as the road and tracks were split by the occasional slide and trail.

On arriving in the village, lined with apricot trees, wheat fields and children playing it really was the perfect finish to the longest walk out ever.

Pete and I bound into the local hotel/hostel/ converted shed and announced who we were and what we had achieved, beaming smiles and handshake along with the compulsory picture requests followed and a room was soon found with a bed and a toilet. Whoop whoop we had finally arrived and got out of “dodge”.
Summit Karakoram our in-country support team had been called and were already getting folk along to transport us the next day.

32km trek out and within 24hrs we would be back in Skardu where it all began.

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Battle scars

Saturday 30th July

As any good mountaineer will tell you, getting to the top is only half the battle of mountaineering. You, at all costs must come down.

Pete, myself and Muhammad had got to the top despite EVERYTHING K2 could throw at us but of course this is K2, nothing would be straight forward for us and by the time the night and day had played out, I would be cowering in my tent alone sobbing for my lost friends.

As you will know for each rope you climbed up to reach the summit you will need to abseil down it to retreat, meaning hanging off backwards relying on the rope, the anchors and the purchase of your oh so blunt crampons!

I realised with all of the excitement of climbing up that at some point I had lost my abseil device, figure of eight!
You’ll appreciate that this is kinda a big deal as you need a system to abseil down safely. As the summit mound is quite shallow in comparison to the rest of the climb we were able to “arm wrap” the first 2 pitches, a crude technique were by you literally wrap the rope around your forearm and hold it with a gloved hand and your increasing grip strength to speed up or slow down your descent.
Fundamentally it works as long as your strong enough to hold a slip, don’t fall over or don’t get hit by rocks……. 

On reaching the stance of the 3rd rope just above the bottleneck, I had to sit down to take my mask off for a few minutes as I was about to throw up, I had an awful stomach cramp and felt really quite sick, perhaps it was delayed excitement from the summit achievement or quite possibly the fact that I was looking down deep into the bottleneck knowing I had no belay or abseil device!

It felt as though I’d sat there for ages when Pete came down, clearly we were all rather cautious, he said what’s wrong? I tried to play it a bit cool but with puke down my down suit and a complete look of dread I said I’m not “feeling great”……. Now in hindsight this was quite possibly the most stupid thing that I could have said, what was I expecting from him? A little sit down with a comforting pat on the back? There, there Paul, all better now?
Of course not! 
He in no uncertain terms told me to “get moving and sort myself out”.

Carefully and methodically I created an Italian hitch and prussik to abseil from and like a child I edged further and further towards the start of my ledge.
Out loud, I wasn’t embarrassed to be going through the ABC of abseiling, exactly as I have taught 1000’s of times, Feet-knees-hips-hands, again Feet-knees-hips-hands again…………
Off I went, abseil after abseil, after abseil I passed the tangled up body on the bottleneck, I cleared the mass of ropes at the chimney I even managed to clear the solid blue ice of traverse wall. Although I didn’t feel great, I did feel confident and just before the traverse I was able to take stock of what I was doing. The traverse took much, much longer to reverse that it did to climb but this was to be expected as you can’t use your ascender device going down. I think I cleared the traverse in just under an hour and was pleased I was ahead of Pete as the pressure of someone behind you can force mistakes.

I joined the rock ridge and continued down the band, I could feel exhaustion setting in as I was no longer doing my ABC’s out loud which annoyed me. I stopped, had a word with myself and continued out loud, ABC, ABC the rock ridge was still as solid as it first was with lots of places for good foot placements which gave me confidence in moving, I was conscious that I needed to clear the ridge before Pete and Muhammad got above me, Pete is pretty deft of foot but Muhammad, as much of a mountain god he is, he is a bit of a bulldozer and would quite happily knock rocks off so to avoid the inevitable I wanted to be clear.

Thankfully I cleared the fixed ropes we’d put in place without major incident.

I started the slow trek back to camp 4 from the higher shoulder with a slight smugness of success, the weather was really bad and I knew Pete and Muhammad would not be far behind, I looked back several times but it was a complete white out on the mountain so visibility was awful.

I’m slightly ashamed to admit that I allowed myself to become quite big headed in my thoughts of what we had just achieved, I grew in confidence and started to stride out thinking of how I had “escaped” K2 summit and possibly how I would retell this story.
Up in the distance on my right a “rock” caught my eye, I don’t know why but I had not seen this before and the speed in which we were moving on the ascent this made me question my legendary observation skills…..
As I got closer this rock appeared to be too regular, too smooth, too shiny and just odd.

About 2m always I made out that this was clearly not a rock but a rucksack, an osprey rucksack. I figured one of the Gucci climbing companies had ditched it there a few days earlier after their summit attempt as I knew a certain public figure was sponsored by them.

Inexplicably my entire body turned cold before my consciousness really acknowledged what I had just seen, I saw that the lid of the sack was missing, I saw that I recognised that sack “FUCK” it was Petes rucksack……….
His sack he was wearing on the summit, his sack he was wearing to descend, his sack with his emergency oxygen in, his sack with all his life support which should be on his back!
In moments like this there are so many questions you simply put irrational answers to but you can’t find the right answer to fit.
Pete was 100% behind me, Petes bag could not be in front of me and above all Pete is a true northerner he doesn’t waste money or throw gear away, Christ he’s still wearing his 2008 baselayer!

Like a punch in the gut it hit me, there was only one real answer that I knew but was trying hard to avoid, Pete had been involved in an accident and he and his bag had fallen.
One’s natural reaction to this is to want to get back up the mountain and help out but this is K2, there are NO slips and trips, there are NO little accidents there are just tragedies what are left immortalised in time. Plus, to return would be to retrace my steps without fault or error and do what has taken me 18 hours  to do, it would be simply impossible.

I grabbed the bag and sat down, I staired up into the clouds in the hope to see something any glimpse of a flash of yellow downsuit, anything unnatural that I could work with but nothing. Just grey cloud. My head played with my mind, I could hear voices and whispers, names being called, it made me turn like a lunatic left-right,left-right. I was making myself believe I wasn’t alone.
I jumped up and headed back to camp 4, my tent my place of safety. I literally fell through the door ripping its zip, cramponed feet hanging outside I grabbed the emergent radio:

“K2 Basecamp, K2 Basecamp Emergency call, over”
I repeated this 2 times……

My 3rd time was interrupted “K2 basecamp go ahead” 

I explained what I believed to have happened, I explained the bag and the absence of my climbing team, I explained that I am alone now and more importantly I explained that Pete was missing and and can give no explanation.

There was silence for what seemed like hours, I rudely impatiently “Did you fucking hear me?”

Calmly, soothingly the voice said “ Please keep the channel open, melt some ice and have a drink we will be in touch, over”

Have a fucking drink? They have almost just told me to calm down……. Calm down, NEVER in the history of someone telling you to calm down has this resulted in the person calming down! Never!

I slumped onto the damp mattress and started to cry, I cried like a baby, I cried out of exhaustion and frustration, I cried from absolutely no where. Knowing at the front of my consciousness, accidents on K2 kill people, they end lives, they ruin families………..Fuck, how do I tell Petes amazing family their father and husband is dead. My tears grew and I started to throw up, just retching but could not hold my emotions in.
Out of shear exhaustion I must have fallen asleep.

I awoke about 2hrs later with the radio squelching:

“Camp 4, Paul, over”
“Camp 4, Paul, over”

I grabbed the radio, “Camp 4, go ahead”?

The calming voice asked if I was with Muhammad, slightly dazed from my sleep I questioned this stupid question, of course I was not, I’ve just told you of the bloody incident. The radio voice explained “We have contacted Muhammad and he and Pete are ok, tired, exhausted but ok, they will be with you in about an hour, can you please get some water ready”

Oh my god….. tears this time of joy filled my eyes and my confirmation of what I had heard just completely finished me off.

Indeed about an hour later I heard a cough and spluttering “Pete is that you”
A shivering, white wet Pete fell to his knees by the ripped door “Mate, I nearly died”……….

……..On leaving the 3rd rope from the summit where we last saw each other, Pete started to abseil over the blue ice. On becoming parallel with the deceased climber of previous years he slipped and landed upside down with the rope wrapped around his crampon lugs, Pete was literally hanging upside down being supported and restricted in space by a 10mm lug on his boot.
Petes tells me he tried calling for both myself and Muhammad but obviously I was too far beneath him and Muhammad had become tangled in the waste of ropes above.
Pete tried several attempts to sit up and free himself but was being held back by the weight of the rucksack and having to hold on for his life, clearly removing either hand from your “locking” rope would mean you fall. Pete was wearing large insulated mittens which would have obviously meant the grip would have been so difficult.
Hanging for well over 30mins with no help coming Pete managed to muster the strength to release his rucksack and let it fall into the darkness, this Pete says allowed him to sit up and just remove the entanglement on his boot. Once upright Pete was able to get an ice screw in and attach himself to the solid blue ice.
In complete shock he managed to attach himself to another rope and abseil onto a ledge where he sat for about an hour.
Let us not forget that Pete was hanging upside down on K2 at 8500m without oxygen.
As an experienced climber and mountaineer I can categorically state that this is not an accident or a story or survival, this is a genuine life changing occurrence. Any one of those issues, entanglement, inversion, suspension or no oxygen would mean death on K2 but Pete found the will and the determination to continue to fight and get back down.

It’s no surprise that Pete and Muhammad joined me about 5 hours after I had returned to camp 4. Petes story and experience is one that neither of us will forget. Despite Petes outward exterior and his usual casual approach, I asked him how he managed to do it, how did you find anything in your psyche to free yourself and unsurprisingly he tells me he thought of his family and the possibility of not returning to his kids was NOT an option and I have absolutely no doubt he used his very last breath to sit up and free himself.

I’d like to say that that the rest of the descent was incident free, but as recently documented the mountain was strune with rock fall claiming the life of a Canadian climber and an American mountaineer. Pete, myself and Muhammad arrived safely back to BC on the 24th July and were able to thank those ground support who unbeknownst to me had 5 hours or turmoil instigating an emergency plan for us.

I know which 50% I’d rather have again…… 

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Friday 29th July

**Adult language and descriptions of death**

“And this time the road will rise up”
A quote from a very, very good friend of mine in an email a week ago or so, Thank you Janet.

It all feels so very surreal today as we hobble around base camp looking and feeling like very old men.

So the facts are at 08:15 on the 23rd July, 2022 Pete and I summited K2, Karakoram 2 here in Pakistan at 8611m

Despite our efforts to the contrary the mood is not one of celebration but rather “grey” for us both today probably because it feels we have just gone 12 rounds with Tyson Fury, we are physically beaten men, men who try to cover up the kicks and punches of the mountain but today, we have let the shields down a little and are allowing the  battle scars to proudly show.

As soon as the internet allows we will be blogging you senseless with all the glorious details of the achievement and how we were able to become summiteers, we have our evacuation plan to get in order and try to sort admin out for the next few days. I suspect I’ll write a camp musings post once the coffee has kicked in, so I’ll keep this page going for general bits and a more detailed telling of summit day.

Our summit push started on the day we left Broad Peak base camp and hobbled with 25/30kg of kit up towards ABC, advanced basecamp at the foot of K2. Although this is normally a jolly jaunt, it felt like a huge struggle as we had been laying in our tents weathering the storm for about 12 days, it took some motivation to really get going and get our head onto the climb.

We arrived at ABC about 16:30 and set up our tent, boiled plenty of water and ate a little food, which was negotiated from the K2 basecamp kitchen staff, Isaac. 

Up at 05:00 we set off for the start of the climb which at the beginning is an energy sapping, thigh deep trudge through avalanche debris and wet snow, instantly you regret this commitment and try your best to get your head in the game. We started the roped climbing about an hour into the day, without missing an opportunity to moan about the sheer weight of our carry loads….

Now for the uninitiated,  K2 is a huge lump of rock covered head to toe in ice. But the later in the season the snow and ice give way to falling unstable rocks, some as small as coins, some as large at footballs, possibly falling from 3km up. Apart from the terror of climbing the worlds scariest mountain the fear of being struck by an object moving at such speed is incomprehensible as the damage it can do is no different to being hit by a high velocity round, you would not stand a chance, game over.

We spend the next few hours climbing to camp 1, then as agreed (relaxing at basecamp WITHOUT 30kg on your back dodging rocks) we continued onto camp 2, more of the same, just higher and cold. 
Perversely, just before camp 2 there is a steeper technical section called “houses chimney” a narrow section where you need to focus that much more as it’s notoriously difficult to rescue or support anyone…….
Up Pete went, no issues, still moaning about the weight he was carrying and as graceful as a pregnant elephant he slipped through.

Mohammed who was going second did look that little bit scared which was surprising as the man is a literal machine….. a mountain bulldozer he just keeps going.
He started to climb and about 15mins in the worse possible situation, he was wedged stuck, his bag was caught between old ropes and he started to panic like I’d never seen before, he was effectively a casualty to us and we were in the shit…….
…….I climbed past the obstacle and reached the top and could hear Pete calling from a tent, “We haven’t got a bloody tent” he called? “I’ve found this shit heap” seeing Pete exit an old windswept tent pitched on the edge of a ledge. Pete was physically shivering as he’d climbed about looking for our loaned tents which clearly had been squatted by other climbers seeking refuge from the wind and snow.
……., And that b#%^*d is stuck in the chimney I stated as if my issue was more important. 

Spending the night in the squatted tent was crap, just awful we covered ourselves the best we could but with terrible winds and a ripped door the night was cold and snow filled.
The next day, when regrouped we went and took over our tent slightly higher up and decided a day at camp 2 was called for, 1 to get some food and warmth in us, 2 to allow Mohammed some recovery time!

We set off climbing at 06:25 the following day after the usual snow melting and water boiling regime in our down suits as it this point the temperatures get pretty cold, like -15 windchill.

Today was a sloooooooow day, really slow climbing the corridor ledge, black pyramid and final ice wall, all obstacles that just test you fear level and ability to climb rock in crampons, whilst keeping warm.
Today was the first time we experienced climbers who had turned back or who had summited returning and what an experience that was……. I observed a climber being walked down an abseil by 3 Nepalese Sherpa who then proceeded to clip, tie then untie the climber onto the next belay and explain where to put her feet – I was gobsmacked at their incompetence on such a deadly mountain.
I would love to detail all those “Gucci” celebrity companies who just accept folks money without the appropriate training or necessary skills BUT for our professionalism I’ll keep that to myself.

We continued up and sadly you pass your first deceased climber who is in a laying sleeping position in a tangle of ropes, we like most pass by in silence reflecting on the sadness but the understanding of removing a body and gear of over 100kg at such a height would be suicidal for anyone attempting it so a quiet contemplation is all that we can afford.

The next 400m, vertical takes all that we can muster, genuinely when I say this, the experience was sickening for both of us, after 8-9 hours being asked, needing to find more energy and more resilience was almost impossible. I can only speak for myself but the idea of giving up came through my mind and more importantly “what would happen if I just sat down”?……..well that’s easy, you’d sit, catch your breath, close your eyes, feel the warmth of a down suit and simply fall asleep and not wake up- simple.
I can’t tell you why I didn’t do that, I can’t say what kept me going, I can’t describe what makes a human reject the warmth and nice feeling and choose pain, but I can say both Pete and I have agreed to take pain over death every time, every single time.

We arrived at camp 3 to another crappy old tent without a fly sheet BUT we managed to get out of the wind chill which I’d guess to be in the range of -25/28 or on our personal scale of “Bloody freezing, don’t take a poo” we warmed our hands over the stove so at least we could feel what we were doing, we then settled into our tent admin to keep warm.

Camp 3 to 4 is relatively an easy day in terms of distance and climbing because it is actually up a snow slope and one would certainly enjoy it if it were at sea level…… 7800m however your kinda blowing some what and feeling the affects of not only altitude but also lack of quality, nutritional food which despite our best efforts is a real nightmare to consume. As the weather is agreeable we take our time to get to “fake camp 4” where some folk slump with exhaustion. We have a bite to eat and take some time to moan at the amount rubbish and Gucci crap left behind, it’s surprising that with every breath we cough, choke and in some cases throw up but still find enough energy to moan, it must make us real English men as we would prefer to moan than breathe…..

Camp 4 for real, 7900m is set nice and high up on a flat shoulder, in fact it’s called the shoulder and gets you in a prime spot for the final summit push.
Our tent, this time was a quality Nepalese branded tent sitting proudly in the path of the nights summit push, we laid in the sun boiling water and eating as much as we can and getting our bodies ready for a 21:00 start.
It was hard to imagine that this could actually be challenging as the sun was warming and the down suits give a sense of false warmth while laying there.

We lay in the tent as the hours slip past in quiet, nervous contemplation awaiting the time to leave, both Pete and I prepare our packs and ready the oxygen along with water.

This period of time, certainly for me is the most challenging, trying to rest, trying to stay warm and remembering you are about to take on one of the worlds most dangerous mountains really does make you physically sick, almost comically I retch and throw up outside the door and within seconds Pete throws up in a tent pouch…….

By now, 18:30 the sun has gone in and bloody hell it’s got cold, really cold ice forming on the inside of the tent, every breath is frozen, every movement creates a draft of frozen air.
Pete and I lay there like mummified dummies just waiting……. Waiting to go.
This might seem weird that we wait or just lay there but as I’ve said many many times before, we make a plan, we make a climb plan based on our abilities and needs, we never break that plan because of the cold or our individual whims.
Boom! 21:00 we ready hot water, we get boots on, we glove up, we break open hand warmers and set off…
Crampons
Oxygen
Packs 

Christ man it’s cold! The second you take your gloves off it’s freezing, the nip sets in and will wipe out fingers in seconds.
We take a nice steady climb up the shoulder, un-roped and steady away. We rope up as soon as we need to clamber and climb on rock and the consequences of falling become severe.
It’s slow going as we focus on foot placements and ensure each rope is secure and will take a fall, should the worse happen.

We climb the rock gulley and arrive at the “traverse” which is stuff of legends on K2.
It’s a horizontal, side stepping, front pointing, arse clenching nightmare of truly epic proportions!
If you slip….. you will simply fall and die
If you untie…… you will simply fall and die
If the rope breaks……you will simply fall and die

I’m not exaggerating when I say that the ledge where you walk is so small you have NO margin of error.
Pete and I tentatively walk the traverse without a word said, we focus on nothing else but the very next step, we inch across getting to the end, THEN Jeeeeeeesus! You leave the 8-10 inch ledge to start the vertical climb on iced rock to the start of the bottle neck, you try to balance your front points of your crampons on tiny lips of frozen rock, literally millimetres of purchase on each step.

All of this slow purposeful movement is done under 1000’s no millions of tons of over hanging Seracs, frozen snow/ice hanging over like coins waiting to drop in a arcade machine.

The exact situation where you would normally run, or at least move quickly but no, we could only go at a snail pace to ensure each and every movement was done exactly right.

We make our way up the bottleneck which is solid, blue ice so hard our front points hardly penetrate the ice. Our saving grace is we have made the right choice of days where no other team are on the summit push, so it’s irrelevant that’s it’s a bottleneck we take our time inching up the chimney style crack.

The sun starts to rise and I’m glad that I couldn’t really make out the traverse as I’m sure I’d have frozen with fear.

We still have about 3 hours to the summit so carry on at a steady pace, after the initial bottleneck chimney you have to pass the 2nd casualty of the attempted winter ascent, hanging frozen in time the body is again wrapped in rope.

As you are going so very slow you can only stop and witness such a waste of life and what would have gone wrong. Both Pete and I take a minute to reflect on this whilst getting our breath.

Also the summit mound is in sight it feels like it takes ages to reach to the top, the top we have both worked so very hard for. The summit of K2 which personally I have sacrificed more to achieve than any other goal in my life. I’ve lost friends, ruined relationships, lost jobs, homes and not to even think of the money I’ve sacrificed. Pete has an amazing family he has to leave time after time after time, they selflessly allow him to follow his dream of climbing the worlds deadliest mountain and wait patiently to hear news of his safe return.

After another hour we both reach the summit, the top of K2 08:15, 23rd July 2022. We finally after 18 years of dreaming, after the losses we stand on the world’s deadliest mountain, cold, exhausted, emotional we acknowledge what we have done with a masculine, manly hug “Fuck me dude, that’s was a bastard”….. in my best articulated English I eloquently described.

We spent some time on the top, sadly surrounded by cloud which meant the panorama that is so famous eluded us. We take pictures and congratulate Muhammad who is also with us. Because of the loss of Sheriff on Broad peak any celebration is very subdued and muted noting we are 1 less in our team now.

I can only quote my personal experience on the top of K2, which of course will differ from Pete.

I felt sad, I felt that my 18 years of trying, dreaming and working towards this goal has meant I have over looked things and people who matter, I have missed opportunities and become so very focused almost autistic in my focus which has meant the person standing on this awesome mountain is no longer the person who started out on the journey, and quite possibly a worse version of that individual.

I always reflect on my starting days as a Cub, with my amazing Leaders Sheila Cook, who from her very first warming, comforting hug allowed me to thrive in the adventurous setting despite my size and academic ability, through to Ian Butcher who physically took me under his wing and developed me as a feral young man, fighting every rule, challenging every authority and contesting life. 

My development by these selfless people and many more in my scouting days created the man, the mountaineer that is standing on this mountain. I can only hope with an emotional heart that the pain I put them through can be forgiven as they know their importance in my life and I hope they have pride in THEIR achievement.

I also have a word with my grandfather my best friend in life. He was a solid rock for me in times of trouble and worry, he was an upright, smart, RAF gentleman who adored my grandmother and taught me so very much. I talk to him and thank him for helping me through the adversity and thank him for giving me the motivation to go on. He was an ill man throughout my lifetime, but never was there a day when he didn’t have a shirt and tie on. Never in his most painful days did he not dress smartly and show kindness and love towards my grandmother. I like to think I get my resolve and determination from him, I like to think in my darkest of days and hardest of times it is his support that gets me dressed, shirt, tie, kindness……….1 more step in front of the other, keep going, keep focussed. I become quite emotional on the summit and see what this mountain has done to me, moreover what I have done to myself in the pursuit of the achievement. Do Olympians feel this? Do great warriors feel this once their campaigns are over? I’ve done it, it’s done what now?

50% of the mountain is still to be achieved, you must get down….. both bodies we passed died on the descent and statistically more people die trying to get down from 80000m peaks that climbing up them. Both Pete and I have a word with each other, we remind each other of our achievements BUT also what’s at stake.

Then the descent!

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Monday 25th July

** Summit Success **

0815, 23rd July. Paul and Pete both successfully summited K2. Both are safe and well and resting at Base Camp.

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Monday 18th July

“Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, breath the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.”

A very good friend from Nepal sent this in response to some of the more colourful comments we have had over the past 2 weeks and it really resonated with Pete and I.
What others think of us and what others believe of our efforts and achievements mean so very little to us.

We both, as a team climb for very personal reasons and it has never been to impress the world…….

Over the past 3 days we have had very little outside contact, it’s been snowing and mobile communication has been intermittent to say the least. No emails or messages have been sent or received in the past 4 days.

Although receiving messages from loved ones is a real boost, one must remember we have been climbing out here since 2016, when it meant 60-70 days of zero contact with anyone, at least now with the creation of the Concordia mask we get some signal….. sometimes.

Quite possibly the catch line of SCOM “Delivering some signal at some time”

Today sees the sun out for the 2nd day in a row, which means showers, washing, airing and crocs’ rather than boots.

Importantly it means plans to return to the mountain almost 2 weeks since our last visit.

Pete and I are preparing gear and making plans to move over to K2 in the next few days and start our attempt at what has alluded us for the past 8 years. Please keep an eye on the tracker above, we will post when we can BUT our priority is the safety and the safe return over blogging and reporting.

Pete and I are healthy and fit and looking forward to getting back on the mountain.

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Friday 15th July

“Thank you to everyone for all your kind words and thoughts regarding the loss of Sharif. As you will expect we are working to support his wife and children through this awful time and to ensure his amazing legacy lives on. 

We will NOT be answering requests from newspapers, websites or insignificant parties regarding the tragedy but will ensure we honour his families request in all that we do.”

You’ll appreciate the tone and delivery of the blog will follow a more serious note now but we are keen to keep sharing this amazing journey with those that are interested in what we are experiencing.

Unlike todays Gucci, celebrity climbers and mountaineers Kristin is possibly one of the most down to earth, kind, interesting people you could meet. Kristin was interested in our pursuits, our company and the ethos behind it, she is so very down to earth when I left Pete for 5 minutes he had already handed over his clothes for her to repair… ( On a previous meeting she had stated that whilst waiting for weather to clear she repairs downsuits and clothes at basecamp). 

We can only wish her every success for her challenge and sincerely hope in any circumstance she remains healthy throughout.

In true British form we should mention and moan about the weather. 

We understand back in the UK you are experiencing a heatwave, well here for the past 4 days it’s been snowing and windy, two components which makes for NO big mountain climbing, or anything remotely exciting, In fact a basic time table for the day is…. Breakfast at 07:30, back to teenie tiny tent at 08:00, lunch at 12:00, back to teenie tiny tent at 12:30, dinner at 18:00, back to teenie tiny tent at 18:30 so apart from the meal breaks we are currently spending about 22hrs in our teenie tiny tents listening to podcasts, reading, contemplating life and hoping for that all elusive wether window.

This morning I invented a new game, or in all honesty I think I rehashed a 1970/80 kids game. My tent is double skinned, and when it snows the outer is squeezed towards the inner creating a layer of moisture/wet where you can draw images, simple images but images nevertheless, and to clear the image simply slide the layers apart-boom tent art. I’m sure the Tate or Lowery would appreciate a couple of originals?!?

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Saturday 9th July

Decisions Made

Edit: From our last blog we stated we were the first to summit Broad Peak in 2022. We stated this as we believed the first day of summits was the 5th July and we were in fact the first. However, since the post we understand two independent Italian Climbers have claimed the summit on the 4th July. As we were very much “on” the mountain at that time we could not have known. So our apologies.

It’s been a long few days since we have returned from the mountain and we have had to make some challenging decisions which have been based on personal choices not team. This is very unique in the mountaineering world as most decisions are very much based of team work.

Two of the team have decided that enough is enough and they have achieved what they set out to do and are content and happy to return home to family and loved ones. We as a team respect their decision and wish them a safe and speedy return journey home.

Those remaining will move their attention to the the main objective, K2 and will start to manage logistics and rotations to fit in with those already claiming their place on the mountain, which sadly this year is over run with “Gucci” climbers and celebrities trying to claim their mountaineering badges!
We spent a good, productive afternoon talking and discussing our plans with some very good friends of ours who have a strong standing on the mountain and will return in a few days to finalise our transition over to K2.

This morning, or rather yesterday evening was a mixed bag for Pete and I as we had volunteered to lead the search and recovery of Sharif’s body, by request of his family.

At 19:30 yesterday evening we had the go ahead to be on the mornings helicopter to fly into China and search and recover the body.
Pete and I took this as a privilege and of course set about ensuring EVERY contingency was thought through to enable us to do what was needed.

The helicopter lands we get out…….
The helicopter winches us out…….
We abseil from helicopter……
Helicopter lands we climb……
And another 100 scenarios enabling us to do the recovery at 7000m

We worked into the small hours collecting rescue gear from other climbers, setting up rigs, coiling ropes into tangle free drop bags, setting up harnesses and a multitude of other gear related work.
We then meticulously went through each scenario “If I abseil down….you follow with”
And so on……

Neither of us slept but were up for 07:00, downsuits  on, big boots at the ready, helmets, crampons rescue gear by the tent door.
We cautiously ate breakfast and awaited the helicopter.

If arrived, well they arrived a little passed 09:00 all helicopters up here travel in tandem.
We ran….. walked fast towards the pick up point and jumped in, jumped into a flat bed, no seats helicopter wide open windows and almost 5000m. The pilots already wearing oxygen indicated we should sit back and kneel, blimey this was going to be a “firm” flight.

Still very, very much engaged in what we believed to be a search and recovery flight we were glued to the windows and as soon as we knew we were over the Chinese border we studied every dark spot, every rock, anything what would give some indication of what we were looking for.

As time went by and the helicopter struggled to get much higher than 6800m I started questioning the pilots, “Why are we not going closer” “Take me to the ridge and I’ll show you”……… then sadly, slowly and almost like a smack in the mouth it hit me.
The family wanted a recovery attempt-The army wanted to be seen to do something and of course this was that something.

We were literally looking for a tiny spec of red amongst 1000’s of square metres of ice and snow from 200/300m away, in a wobbly helicopter. It was bloody pointless, it was heartbreaking. Pete and I had planned, planned and planned again as to what we were going to do just to helplessly sit there staring through windows.
We felt absolutely used just for someone to say “Yeah, we tried our best, we went out”.

We understand that at no point should anyone risk their own life for recovery BUT if folk are willing, then make it happen.

We returned to base camp with nothing to report, nothing to our staff, nothing to sharif’s friends nothing. A sickening feeling came over us we were just a publicity stunt.

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Thursday 7th July

Bitter sweet, Summit Success

“On the 5th July, 2022 at 05:14 the 5 members of Impact Ascents summited Broad Peak, becoming the first team in 2022 to do so.

We are so very proud of each member who worked extremely hard throughout the entire project to stand on top of the worlds 12th highest mountain at 8047.

Each and every team member put a 100% effort and commitment into making this happen and worked beyond belief”

Sadly, in atrocious weather conditions and at a height of 8020m a freak accident occurred and Sharif Sadpara lost his life. Sharif was an integral part of the team, being as important as the next member and bringing his professionalism and experience in all that he did. We are proud to have worked, trained and climbed with Sharif and our thoughts and prayers are with his wife and children.

As expected we are now regrouping and working out logistics of recovering tents, equipment and personal belongings from the various camps. All members are looking into options and will post once agreed the next steps.

Can we ask that NO comments are left below and only direct messages are sent to your friends or loved ones.

“Mountaineering is such a glorious, glorious pursuit allowing just a few to experience the true ecstasy of commitment and motivation”

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Friday 1st July 2022

The morning after the night before

Well it feels as though loads has happened in the past couple of days not least of all Pete offered to dispose of my poo! – I’ll get to that shortly.

As a team we have had some really good mountaineering luck and have worked hard to secure some luck of our own.

A few days ago we set off back up Broad Peak to secure camps and the various stages, which is referred to as “rotations”- getting back on the mountain and going up to each camp, getting tents set up, sleeping and going higher.
Now, yes, yes we know the usual and safer technique of “Climbing high, sleeping low” is what most folk follow and respect.
This is a time honoured and well researched pattern that has kept many mountaineers safe. It basically allows the body to create more red blood cells whilst climbing high then allows the body to acclimatise whilst sleeping, more red cells more quality oxygen to the necessary body parts, In fact some of the very best research has been done by Leeds Carnegie University in the UK.

We respected this research and usually follow it but also are experienced enough to follow what our bodies are saying and how we feel.

We took a calculated risk to get the outcomes we wanted.

We climbed from BC, through to camp 1 and directly to high camp at camp 2 where we pitched both tents just under a very large boulder which gave great protection from avalanche and amazing views of the camping area. This is a motivational nightmare! Because when arriving at camp 2 having climbed some quite steep ice for about 9-10 hours you have to climb a further 2 hours to the boulder, BUT it’s safe, it’s less populated and most importantly it’s 2 less the next day.

Camp 2 gets really quite cold as soon as the sun goes in, like super cold. You’ll need hats gloves and boots just to go outside and in the morning the tent, your sleeping bag, and anything outside of your sleeping bag is frozen with ice.

Getting mobilised in the morning is a case of ‘how much discomfort can you take’? It gets light at 04:15 but you will not feel any heat from the sun until 08:30 so you could miss out on 4hrs of quality hard climbing ice, cooler climbing temperatures less folk on a route and a good head start, but all this comes with a price.
Waking up with ice crystals on your sleeping bag collars, getting dressed in freezing temperatures, melting ice for water, packing cold wet gear away, applying sunscreen to a freezing face, putting cold feet into freezing boots, having a bare bum poo outside in freezing temperatures, breathing in glass like freezing air with every step.
Yep……. We took an early start!

We knew every step closer to camp 3 was a step closer the holy grail of sleeping at the 7100m which is needed before an attempt at an 8000m Peak.

We had heard that a few other teams had got to C3 the night previously so we had expected a few tents and folk descending BUT as is the usual mountaineering BS! We arrived at C3 only to find nothing, no one, apart from last year’s remnants of tents. In fact from the shoulder 2hrs before C3 foot prints ran out and we could only assume that they believed that they were in fact at the camping area, but sadly they were very much mistaken, because the cheeky sting in the tale of C3 is that when you are so very tired and physically broken you have to find another 2hrs in you…….

We were able to select exactly where we put tents up and dig into what felt like a never ending snow slope. We must have dug out 5-6 tons of snow/ice to create a large enough platform for 2 tents. As we take no snow stakes with us we set about foraging from old broken tents of previous years. Old poles, old stakes, old guy lines, even old material was of use to secure our nights accommodation.

We filled out water bottles with boiled water which seemed to take longer than we thought. It took about 2 hours to melt enough snow for 4 litres of water. The final 2 litres were done in the late evening air during that magical time when you are both burnt to a crisp boiling, and freezing every extremity it’s truly a beautiful time….. or is it!

You get into your sleeping bag as soon as possible as it’s damn cold, you try to eat a little something but at 7000m you’ve not much appetite. 

Your nights sleep/rest/unconsciousness is somewhat of an experience. Your combatting headaches, with water that’s about to freeze, you toss and turn to find that sweet spot that might give a hours sleep, you prey you don’t need that wee’ or poo’ that’s always just a few seconds warning away whilst in Pakistan.

***BOOM*** at 03:17, whilst rubbing my toes warm, whilst in the inverted cat position, whilst accidentally hitting the tent ceiling and awaking Pete with a million ice crystals it happened, the 30 second warning of an imminent internal about to be external explosion was given. 

Like a coiled spring, a poised ninja, a cat about to pounce I booted up, jumped out through the smallest of openings and commando rolled into a space. Jeeeeeesus it was like I’d set the garden sprayer on W-I-D-E I was so happy to actually be outside rather than in my sleeping bag I’d missed the majesty of the splatter pattern being double the size of by back side!
I quickly cleaned up and dived back into my tent to a relieved Pete who had clearly heard the explosion and was buried deep into his sleeping bag fearing for an avalanche he was already planning which items of my kit to have as “crag swag”….

The next day, well 3 hours later we both awoke freezing cold and slightly in shock because of the night’s interruption. We knew we wanted to get down as quick as possible but at 7000m things take so much longer, getting up and getting motivated take a few levels more than camp 2 and to hear outside a team member in mixed Urdu/English/American swearing about something just complicates matters. Pete went out to calm the situation down but found a very upset Sharif with a broken crampon. Pete tried to calm the situation but his Urdu is really not up to my international level, so with all the decorum of Cofi Annan mediating world issue he announced “Paul will come and sort this, I’ll go burry his shit”.
Indeed I did sort it and the poo was dealt with, what a team!

The descent at the beginning is as slow as the ascent, you are still physically working at about 7000m so things take time, but the quicker you descend you feel a fog lifting from your brain, you start to see folk from lower camps trying to climb higher, you revel in their complete and utter disgust for you being able to sleep in your own bed tonight and they are heading into the nightmare….. well that’s how it plays out to us.

We get to C2, breathe eat, drink then start our descent to C1.
Pete is a few minutes ahead of the main party as he’s in charge of “OMM” On mountain media he gets some great shots of the team arriving at camps looking fresh as a daisy!

Now to put some context to this next anecdote when we arrived at base camp 21st June a team from the ********** Army was in situ and had been onsite for 2 (Two) week prior to us coming. And for reasons unknown to us had done nothing, like nothing.
Pete approached a tent just above C1 “Bloody hell lads you still here” I think they understood his sarcasm and explained that they were still in the rotation stage of base camp to camp 1.
Amazing team ********** let’s hope you never have an armed conflict in the mountains – oh that’s right, you currently have!?!

It took the team about 10/12 hours to descend back to BC it was like wading through treacle as the hard, sexy ice of days before had turned into flaccid, wet saturated glue.
On arrival back to BC the few teams who had bailed earlier from C2 came out shake our hands and offer congratulations for getting up to C3 even a bare chested chap came out to give us a hug, but in true form we explained unless your hug comes with a bottle of Coke EACH you can keep you hugs and nonchalantly walked on by.
That evening as we went to bed very, very early we really appreciated the Baltistan and Pakistani party that went on into the small hours, really we did!

Well done team Impact Ascents, 2022
1st to Crampon Point (IA Point)
1st to Camp 1
1st to Camp 3

U2 had a thing, quite possibly the only thing they said with any relevance “Sunday Bloody Sunday” I start todays blog with an open moan for which I hope all team members will read and take heed….

As the camp administrator for which I am, I have arranged the “mess” tent onto a very utilitarian and welcoming space, this is super important as we have lots of gear that needs stashing and we need to access the important bits daily sometimes hourly, like the Comms desk, it’s a desk for Comms’

Communication all things connected to ensuing communication pathways and energy is maintained: Solar charging system is fixed outside facing the sun, 2 system 2 directions covering the entire day of sun….. when we have it. Laptop and charger, charger connected to batteries. Radios for the mountain communications, cables and all associated COMMUNICATION appliances.

NOT bloody dirty unwashed socks! NOT a pair of gloves, NOT moisturiser, NOT tooth-bloody-paste and certainly NOT a P#%^*ing climbing harness…….phewww, and breath.

Back to climbing big mountains.

We’ve had a good couple of days, 4 out of 4 of the team made a really impressive Alpine climb to camp 1, to get a tent up and space secured.

The start was at 04:00 to get across the glacier and up the first part before sun rise, well that was plan, like racing snakes we set off and because of the fantastic route across the glacier we set on day 2 we made really good, safe Alpine progress in super quick time. In fact we arrived at camp 1 about 30mins after sun rise……..it was great consolidated ice and snow, with bomber purchase with our axes.
We had a full day of acclimatisation and we were also able to sight in a route to camp 2.

We met a couple of weird French climbers one of who when we looked closely resembled a younger Basil Fawlty, and could have very much created the ministry of silly walks, he had legs right the way up…… like almost he was just legs!

We spent the night at camp1 enjoying the amazing panorama of the Baltoro glacier K2 and it’s surrounding peaks. We got to see the Avalanche fall routes from camp 2, we spoke with Basil and to a lesser extent his partner obviously Manuel until it got too chilly to stand outside. Bedtime is something of a personal invasion really, although we sleep 2 to a tent having 4 we squeezed 4 chaps into a SMALL 2 man tent, this we all found highly amusing- or did we? 

Bed at 18:30, spooning for 8 hours think very much a miserable version of that nursery rhyme without anyone willing to rollover!!

For me, time to get up couldn’t have come quicker as the the need to pee was greater than the need to continue to cuddle my climbing team members. 

I’m sure we have all been cold before getting out of bed, but an Alpine camp at about 5900m at 05:15 is a different sort of cold, every turn allows just a little gust of freezing air into your sleeping bag, the ice crystals on the tent drop on you like tiny needles reminding you that 4 blokes have been heavily breathing all night, and the awakening odour….. oh my god, the odour. That alone should collated, boxed and used in strategic military operations, it would clear buildings in seconds, the embassy siege would have ended in minutes!

By 08:30 we were all up and had a good brew, we stashed our gear, gas, stoves, tents for higher camps and started our descent. I’ll not lie it was rather “butt twitching” as it’s one thing to climb UP on good solid snow/ice but to down climb was a bit different. I’m super proud of the team we all safely descended without many incidents…. And arrived at “Impact Ascents” crampon point (Named after the team who opened it up and set the route, you’re welcome!)

We had a nice chat with some foreign sorts who recognised Pete obviously, they were preparing to climb up for the day. We had made a good impression the days before with offer of real coffee and VOOM bars.

The route back across the glacier was so very different to that of the day before, it was a completely different vista as the snow had melted and the streams and glacier had mixed and morphed into hills and bumps which just 24hrs earlier were not there. I was super happy to see our original route of the ridge was still being used as we knew once thawed it would create a tiny water feature which was to be avoided, between Pete and I we were unsure who should take the credit for this. But we all know it is me….. because I’m writing it!

Arriving back to basecamp is weird, what was a real challenge 4/5 days earlier is now a small slice of heaven. You can get in your own tent, change into your own clothes, eat HOT food and have the kerosine shower which let me tell is bloody amazing!

Personally, I have allowed myself a daily treat if I have worked hard enough I can have 5 Squishies, kiddies sweets from the Uk, as I have been away for 2 days thats 10 of gods own delights- winner winner chicken dinner!

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Friday 24th June 2022

Well this climbing lark is a doddle

“We awoke to a beautiful snowy panorama of Broad Peak and K2, it was toasty warm in the tent and we in our own time got up to a tasty breakfast…..” 

Now that’s one way of looking at it, our way at Impact Ascents, we could have painted it in a different light.

“It bloody snowed all night, I’d filled my pee bottle by 23:30, my tent was getting colder and colder, those noisy trekkers had their generator going at 06:15 which woke me up, on throwing the contents of my pee bottle out of the smallest crack in my tent the bloody wing blew it back at me…… covered in Pee I could see it was going to be another forced breakfast in my down jacket”

Seriously though, basecamp life is what you make of it, there is no denying it, it is a hard existence and to be in the right state of mind, fit and capable of climbing the mountains you aspire to your need to adjust your expectations and “roll with it”.

You will be cold for 90% of snow days, you’ll be hungry for the first few days because you just can’t face food at altitude. You’ll probably be sun burnt because waking up at 04;00 and applying sunscreen at -5 is not something you want or think to do. You’ll be apprehensive to what is coming up and possibly lonely.
BUT as our loved ones will always say, we choose this sport.

Today, despite all of that we had a great, productive day. Our amazing team at Summit Karakoram had made us some great pancakes for breakfast and with our help we created our teams mess tent, which includes a nice tidy space for our imported treats, Comms desk and eating area.

All team members have set up their solar chargers, all have settled in to the logistics and moving around camp in 8000m boots just for tea.

We as a team took a very short walk to familiarise ourselves with the walk into the base of Broad Peak, we studied the ever changing glacier and a possible route across it. Think of an 80’s game show “The Adventure Game, the Vortex” you tentatively step ahead, place a delicate foot down and feel and hear out for squeaking or cracking, well thats my approach, Pete will throw a rock and if it doesn’t crack he’ll bound over it.

We used last years pictures and maps we created to visualise a path through which tomorrow we will try and get through.

On being seen to do this a small party of “competitors” smooshed over to us and questions where we thought the route was, “Do we start here?” “Can we cross here?” “When are you going?” Obviously knowing that the game starts here our team leader nonchalantly replied “Blimey there’s far too much snow to tell, perhaps we’ll see in a few days” (Ending the sentence with a slight comedy evil genius laugh)

We finished our day with a hearty meal in our team tent, which with the benefit of triple skin kept us warm almost into the small hours….. by that I mean 20:00.

A good day had by all.

Whoop whoop what a start to the season. I awoke with a start this morning to hear the dolsit tones of our lead guide Mr Brittleton talking to a group of trekkers who had congregated around him listening to his tales of record breaking feats and Himalayan exploits. I heard at least three requests for selfies before I suggested he put the coffee on rather than talking to muggles!

When, as a team we had breakfast and coffee we decided today we should send a small contingent up to the start of the climb, known as “crampon point” for 2 reasons, 1 Because we wanted to ensure we put the correct route up knowing last years problems, and 2…….Egotistically we want to be the first up there to dominate the game playing.

And wow! What a day we got through the ice field, around under the serac and up to the ridge in a really good time, and thank goodness no one asking Mr Brittleton for selfies.

Now, before the arm chair mountaineers comment about the recent amounts of snow and avalanche risk, you are right.

The valley has had a awesome amount of snow falling and you MUST respect the hill and what it wants to do. Just like buying a new jacket, you must wear it, wiggle a bit and let is sit nicely, that’s exactly what the mountain will do.

It’ll get loaded with snow, rest and wiggle…. Then snow will fall off it as an avalanche.
Although these and very much unpredictable if you study a mountain long enough you’ll soon understand where it wants to “wiggle” and where it falls, we have watched this mountain over the past 2 years quite a lot and took a very calculated risk as to the route, in-fact this was a proactive approach to ensure us and other teams followed the correct path away from avalanche paths and rock fall.

We got back down to enjoy a good meal and we even had time to a shower…… A bucket of boiled water stood on a rock, with a soup bowl to pour it over you, it’s was amazing, the only downside is the sunburn did feel some what “zingy” from the remnants of kerosine in the bucket.

As we write this report we are listening to the wiggle of the mountain and the snow being released, we hope it continues well into the afternoon to allow our master plan to come into fruition, oh yes and I’m planning to start pimping out Pete for $5 a selfie….

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Wednesday 22nd June 2022

Snow, snow everywhere.

Well at last we have all finally made it to base camp. Wow! So much snow.

We had a good early start from Goro 2 this morning in really rather annoyingly heavy snow. We found ourselves at the front of the trek with all other parties behind, this meant Pete, our allocated pathfinder had to make a path across the cravasse field which was slower than we would have wanted but we made up time on the more flat terrain.

We had some amazing “wins” today that could have bought a tear to our eyes had we been that way inclined.
On sprinting onto Concordia at about 09:30 we saw we were really rather ahead of the other teams and got ushered into a mess tent, there we saw about 10 Baltistan men huddling together. We were recognised from last year, let me remind you……

Whilst trekking down from Base camp last year we had an epic day and missed 2 camps out for a 32mile day. I was shattered, wet and cold Pete ahead of me went into a stone shack and bartered a hot sweet tea in a room filled with smoke BUT toasty warm, here after some international negotiations we managed to spend the night in this chaps house, hut, shed. We had donkey blankets and old jerrycans to support the walls but my goodness it was the bloody Hilton to us!

So we were overjoyed to see him again wanting to introduce us to the other chaps, we want to think he was proud of helping us out and wanted to tell his friends, but possibly just possibly he told them that we were the b%#^ds who broke into his house and stayed the night!!!!
We had great hot tea and fresh hand made bread.

The next part of the trek was hard, like super hard. The sun was warming the snow creating slush and with increasingly wet boots and socks I had started to lose my renowned sense of humour, so much so I observed a little fat trekker slipping on the ice and gave no time to mock or laugh we were just focussed (Don’t worry when we arrived at base camp we had a plethora of fat trekker jokes)

As we arrived on the glacier which is to be callled home now we thrilled to see a huge collection of rubbish, bags and bags of collected rubbish, admittedly it was snow covered but at least we could see a change was a foot, we Impact Ascents had championed this clean up for the past year, not only with our friends from summit Karakoram but also the embassy and Pakistani tourist board, now I’m sure this is not down to us solely, but we are now seeing rubbish collection areas and barrel toilets not the internationally recognised “Pooing rock” which caused diplomatic issues last year. Never before has the sight of a pile of rubbish been so welcoming and the sight of blue barrels to poo in……Impact Ascents might just make that difference.

As I write this it’s snowing hard, but we are all tucked up in our tents and I personally have put a fresh pair of socks and undies on. I fear tonight that having worn the same pair for 6 days of trekking they might just get up and continue the trek themselves…

Usually snowing means sit doing nothing a frustrations that we can’t climb, but as we’ve just arrived tomorrow will be an admin day, washing, cleaning and sitting smugly watching trekkers walk by, as we and climbers now see, we are the ones they want to talk to and get pictures of.

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Monday 20th June 2022

Tourist, to trekkers, to climbers

Yesterday was a funny old day, we arrived at Askole after the devils own jeep ride, I imagine those who are descending after death will be made to sit in a 1970’s jeep and ride into oblivion via the baltoro glacier…. Truly grim!

Askole itself is a really bad representation of Pakistan, it’s dirty, smelly and those inhabitants are really, hmmmmm challenging!

It’s not unheard of to have stones thrown at you or tyres of vehicles mysteriously let down so we didn’t hang around and jumped back into the jeep for the final nail in the tourist coffins, a further 2 hours to the next camp which the Pakistani army have kindly build a road………removed the largest of boulders and blown 2m into the rock to allow a 2.1m vehicle to pass, driving this takes some serious skill.

Arriving at Jhola used to be an occasion the first of 50-60 day under canvas, but now it’s a yogatastic opportunity to stretch out and see to all travel based bumps, bruises and whiplash. Jhola has running water from the hills where you can at least rinse a shirt or socks if one so desired.
All of the party slept well despite the associated travel aches and the 05:00 start, which was welcome as by 08:00 it was 33 degrees and cloudless.

The trek to Payu follows the river up and down through baron terrain which actually is navigationally challenging. We kept together as a team which saw us arrive in good time to “slow clap” the trekkers into camp who arrived 2-5hours later, I’m quite sure by the look on their faces they appreciated the clapping climbers drinking coffee…..

The evening meal was great, good hot plentiful, rice and Dahl as well as the last of the fresh salad bought in.

We are super glad that we have negotiated the non use of animals as it not only gives the local population employment but also allows us the teach the porters sustainability of their natural habitats. Simple things like not ripping bark from trees to feed the animals, not burning bushes, and collecting human rubbish. Clearly we have lots of work to do as this way of thinking is very obscure to them but my goodness they want to learn.

The use of human power quadruples our workforce, usually (but it’s very difficult monitor once out of sight) each donkey would be made to carry 100kg, so each porter dictates payment for each 25kg they carry, we pay more BUT our difference is we are reducing the harm to animals, which is one of our objectives and promises.

Todays trek to Urdukus was as expected, loooooong. At least the weather was on our side, a mixture of sun, cloud with occasional snow showers which suited us. The going is quite hard from the outset with undulating terrain then your first steps into the glacier for real, from this moment you are no longer on solid tera firma until your return journey.

This in our opinion is one of the more dangerous parts of the trek to basecamp as there is a continued risk of rock slide and rock fall all mixed up with awful navigational challenges, 1 minute you can see porters/trekkers in front of you, the next they have either trekked into a dip or you have been eclipsed by glacier spires, you have to be confident and bold in your decision making.

We chose to stop about 20mins past the normal lunch spot because last years experience shows it to be a dirty, filthy smelly place where to many folk dump rubbish.
We stopped in a veritable oasis compared to there. Out of the wind, surrounded by mountain alpine plants and away from the crowds.

The next part of the trek, which is about 3hours is mainly along narrow mountain trails which you share with scatty, spooked ponies so you have to keep you wits about you.
You see Urdukus about an hour away and the slow windy track really takes it toll on you as you begin to feel affects of thinning oxygen. Urdukus sits about 4000m.

At this stage you must be careful, with your route choices, turn left too soon and you literally end up climbing through the toilet “drop zone” so you must ensure you dig in that bit longer to climb higher and traverse into camp.

Because we are using man power only we have decided to have a rest day here at Urdukus, this allows the porters to rest and actually socialise with other friends they have not seen for a while, however Urdukus isn’t the beautiful oasis one would want to rest in, it’s a mountain base just above the glacier that literally runs with water, well at least I convince myself it’s water as the toileting area is above the camping area obviously all waste runs down hill…… I’ve visited Urdukus more than 7 times and never has it not rained/snowed. You have all good intentions to wash yourself and your clothes but the temperature and weather usually puts a stop to this as you’ll not be able to dry anything. The benefit of a rest day is that you do get some good food as the cook team have had time to prepare and cook some nutritious food for us.

Also and quite importantly the team are developing a good level of “Exped Banter” many of the slower trekking parties from around the world are super targets and also the Hungarian climbers who seem oblivious to cultural etiquette exposing themselves as and when they seem fit?!?

We have an early start tomorrow heading towards Goro 1 which is a camp on an exposed glacier. We’ll start at 05:00 to get a head start.
Well, well, well that didn’t go to plan.

We awoke with the inevitable noises from the mess tent of water being boiled, this was about 03:15, we laid snoozing until our 04:30 time to stir, with a knowing reticent I left the tent having packed my damp sleeping bag and donned my warm weather gear, we drunk some tea whilst watching the large flakes of snow falling and more importantly NOT seeing the glacier for which we were to cross, knowing full well that with a clear route the masses of porters would not want to risk the crossing nor would we want them to, so reluctantly we returned to a wet miserable tent to unpack the sleeping bag and try to keep warm. Sadly this disappointment went on all day, we knew we could only leave at the latest at 10am any time after this we risked arriving at the next camp stop in the darkness, which was not an option.

As I write it’s 16:30 and snowing heavily, we hope that it stops and we can progress tomorrow as Urdukus in the snow is not the place one wants to be……

Thankfully today, although it was snowy underfoot we set off in a rather mixed way, folk had decided to stay back another day and some had decided to break camp and go for it, we were that team. Leading off at 05:30 we set off for Goro1 then onto Goro2.

Thankfully it was uneventful and we followed a faint path into camp, we had hoped we could “bounce” off the army camps data connection to get some messages out but sadly they seem to have changed last years password which cryptically was “PASSWORD”.

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Tuesday 14th June 2022

Administration Day in Skardu

“Familiarity breeds contempt”……. well certainly not with us today.

We love arriving to into Skardu as it has so many happy memories for us. We meet old friends who have been with us since 2015, we eat in restaurants and cafes which recognise us and welcome us with open hands and warm hearts. A great example of this was today whilst shopping for a few last minute items we went back to Asid and Irham where we purchased our dried fruit and nuts. As soon as we had finished our shop they insisted we sat and drunk tea with them. This was of course and experience, although we are fluent in Cumbrian, Suffolk and some words in Lancastrian we struggled to converse in Urdu and Chinese for which our hosts decided to use….. never the less we graciously accepted a brew and together were able to  shout in true British style several Urdu words we actually know. I could see how impressed they were to hear that “I have the shits” and of course “Too much Snow”, I cant say for sure but I could sense how impressed he was with my conversational Urdu.

If at any time you have ever worried about the safety or security here in Pakistan let me regale a couple of incidents that we have experienced with our team so far:

The Toyota Hilux – Is synonymous with rebel forces throughout the world, every BBC news coverage of a war or uprising will see the standard proud insurgents driving a heavily laden old pick up, with this in mind Pete and I decided to take a walk to a local village to get a few things for the trek, whilst walking the 30 minutes we had started to realise that we take one or two possible wrong turns, well in fact because of our deep intense conversation we had started to walk into a rather traditional area of a mountain village, this we could see as the district lack of friendly faces and more inquisitive stares came our way. As mountain guides we did what was of course the very basic “re-location technique” learnt over many decades of teaching navigation, Hmmmmm no we didn’t we just carried on walking. With things looking a bit grim now it started to rain and get dark and in fact with swirls’ of wind it was bloody spooky. So a brief discussion between us we were going to walk towards either a main road or up higher into the hill to locate our destination or home! 

Well, Hollywood didn’t let us down, just as the rain became “Cumbrian” around the corner came a loaded Hilux with men in traditional Pakistani attire. Pete ever the optimist said, “There’s our Taxi”……….What? have you never, ever watched any recent films? No? oh well then yeah well, why not flag down a Toyota Hilux, laden with men to see if they just fancy giving us a quick lift back to our hotel…….. Well, obviously Hollywood is utter crap, I was wrong, the men were delighted to give us a lift and for the princely fee of a selfie…..Wow humanity at its best.

On a more serious note, a cleaner working in a hotel in Islamabad earns the equivalent of $1300 a YEAR…

He who will remain nameless left $4000 dollars under a pillow, in a hotel room in Islamabad yesterday, less that 6 hours after arriving in Skardu we received a phone call from Sakhi our friends saying it had been found by a cleaner who handed it in. They had handed in 3 years salary worth of cash! Would you do this?

A-MAZ-ING Truly a kind and honest person. 

Tomorrow we set off for Askole in a rather interesting Jeep ride through the high roads of the Karakorum. We will endeavour to write up blogs and send images but we will leave you with the beautiful image of Skardu.

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Monday 6th June 2022

Hi folks,

Welcome to the start of our blog containing all of the information about our summer 2022 expedition. Once again Pete and I will be travelling to Pakistan and leading an international expedition to Broad Peak and then onto K2. We will try to capture the highs and lows along with the mundane goings-on whilst we travel deep into the Karakorum.

We will introduce our team when we get to Pakistan and share with you the training element of our visit and hopefully show you why Impact Ascents is so very different to other expedition companies.

We have already sent our food, camping and climbing equipment ahead which just means we are awaiting our flight confirmation then it’s all systems go.

A quick thankyou and acknowledgement to those companies who have helped us with our expeditions.

RAB –   https://rab.equipment/uk/

La Sportiva – https://www.lasportiva.com/en

Expedition foods – https://expeditionfoods.com/

VOOM – https://www.voomnutrition.co.uk/

Window Warehouse – https://www.windowwarehousekendal.co.uk/

Nexus – http://www.nexuscomponents.co.uk/Home/About

Paul/Pete