K2/Chogori
Winter 2003
2/26/2003: K2 Winter Expedition It's still blowing
Difficult nights
Despite bad
weather, Denis Urubko and Marcin Kaczkan reached
7630 m. They found camp IV there destroyed by the
wind. The entire equipment has been blown away by
the gale.
The night at camp
III was cold and windy. Rumbling of the tent's walls
did not allow them to sleep. They were very cold. In
the morning they tried to warm themselves up using
the camp burner. The wind did not stop banging
against the tent. According to the weather forecast
the afternoon should be better. You could see the
blue sky from the base camp from time to time. Denis
and Marcin decided to head out for camp IV around
noon.
The head of the
expedition Krzysztof Wielicki had even a worse night
at camp II (6780 m). "I couldn't even shut my eyes.
I struggled so that the wind would not blow me away
together with the tent - he said in the morning. -
Now the wind has eased up a bit. I will try to get
some sleep and I'll head out for camp III. I will
not make it any higher in these conditions". After
spending a night in camp I, Maciej Pawlikowski and
Dariusz Zaluski decided to return to base camp. They
are too exhausted physically and psychologically to
go on. For them the expedition is over.
We were plagued by
a blizzard all day at base camp. The expected
weather clearing did not come. "The squalls are so
loud that I can't hear myself when I talk over the
radio telephone! " - screamed Krzysztof Wielicki
already from camp III to the base camp. Denis Urubko
reported at 4 p.m. from where camp IV stood. The
tent was destroyed. "We put it up with Piotr
Morawski haphazardly. It wasn't properly fastened" -
he explained. Marcin Kaczkan reached him already in
darkness. He has never been that high on K2 and
hasn't got acclimatized yet. Denis put up a small
tent. They brought the minimum emergency equipment.
They have one sleeping bag and a burner for cooking.
They don't have the mattresses. They will sleep on a
coil of rope.
During the evening
communication session Wielicki reminded the guys
from camp IV: "Take preventively some medication
against frost bite which will dilate your blood
vessels. They are in the first-aid kit". But the
first-aid kit was also blown away. Denis and Marcin
have to share one aspirin. We don't know what the
temperature is at that altitude. At camp III, half a
kilometer below, it was minus 36 degrees at 8 p.m.
Late in the evening
we received the current weather forecast from
Pakistan. It's very bad. Another cloudy front is
approaching fast, the wind is to gain in force in
the next few days.
Monika Rogozińska
from the base under K2 (read
the next couple of updates too)
Written by Monika
Rogozinska, "Rzeczpospolita";
translated by "Scrivanek".
Dispatches
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