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We are back down safely at base camp after an unsuccessful attempt on the summit of K2. On August 2 under clear skies we climbed to 6400 meters on the south face of K2. We found the snow conditions good with firm to knee deep snow. We found our stash of gear buried under a thick layer of ice and it took us a couple hours to recover our gear. The next day we climbed with heavy packs a delicate corniced snow and rock ridge. It took several hours. Due to the lateness of the day and the snow conditions we decided to camp at 6700 meters. Early morning on August 4, we traversed under a giant hanging serac. We were exposed to icefall for about 30 minutes before climbing slopes under the SSE ridge to gain the Cesen route (SSE Spur). The weather to the south looked bad with dark clouds forming over Chogolisa. We had a difficult time finding our way to the ridge and were moving slowly. With high winds coming off the summit and the uncertain weather we decided to turn around. We descended to the site of our 6700 meter camp. Due to poor snow conditions we decided to spend the night at here. On August 6, we descended to base camp. Our cook met us at the bottom with cold drinks and a warm greeting. We heard that the Mexican-Spanish team also came down on the 6th due to weather after making a carry to their 6900 meter camp.

The weather fooled us, because the last two days it has been beautiful. We

can't speculate on how high we would of climbed to if we would of continued. Unfortunately we will not have an opportunity for another try.

We had lunch yesterday with the Japanese expedition. Wonderful folks with much climbing experience. Last night the Mexican - Spanish invited us for dinner. They plan to continue to climb on the SSE spur.

We enjoyed our climbs on K2 and Broad Peak this season. We got a lot of climbing in with only a few additional rest days. We can't understand why everyone left base camp so early this season. Climbing in the Karakorum one must be patience and sometimes one must wait out the weather to be successful. The weather in August is looking good so far. We wish we could stay longer, but our porters are expected on the 9th of August.

We look forward to our next climbing objective. There so many mountains to climb and many without permits or LOs to deal with.

Christine

Dispatches

Background on Christine Boskoff and Charlie Fowler Expedition

Christine Boskoff and Charlie Fowler's Dispatch Index