#K2Calling – Mike’s K2 Diary

Hello everyone, this is Mike reporting from K2 base camp. It has been an intense week trekking up to K2 base camp. Heavy snows started falling from day 1 and didn’t stop until we reached base camp. This is quite a change from our last K2 expedition in 2015, when it only started snowing on our last day before reaching K2 base camp. Occasional snowfalls are to be expected around 5000m and upwards, however I was surprised to witness snow on the second day of our trek.
These conditions have unfortunately made it impossible for us to use our various devices and the lack of sun meant we were unable to use our solar panels to charge our batteries. For this reason, we haven’t been able to provide our team back home with updates and content, as well as tune in to live Q&A’s. But now that we have all arrived at base camp, we hope to be able to catch up on the content and updates you have been missing out on.
To start off with, here are a couple lines from my daily diary:

Wednesday 12th of June
Snowing here this morning, we decided to set out a little later so that the porters don’t have to walk in the fresh snow. We are all well rested and ready to hike higher. The only problem we have is that we have no power to send content because we haven’t had any sun for the past 3 days – impossible to charge the batteries of our communication devices.

Thursday 13th of June
Still snowing nonstop here. We managed to hike up to 4000m today in fresh snow. The porters decided to stay lower in altitude and wait for the bad weather to pass. Our solar system has not been very efficient on the move in bad weather so no live content can be sent at this stage until the weather improves a little. The whole team is doing well and adapting to the altitude.

Friday 14th of June
Arrived in camp “Goro2” for the night. So much snow around the mules might not be able to make it to Concordia tomorrow due to the snow. They will go as far as they can and leave the equipment there to be picked up by porters on foot. It was an amazing day with no clouds in the sky. It feels nice to have good weather for a day. A lot of great content created so far; everyone is working hard when we reach base camp, I hope we will be able to start sending.

Saturday 15th of June
Arrived in Concordia. The fresh snow is knee deep. Tomorrow morning Fred and I will scout a route through the glacier covered with snow that will lead us to K2 base camp. It is still cloudy. K2 and Broad Peak stay hidden behind a curtain of clouds. We can feel the power of the mountains without seeing them at the end of the valley. Tomorrow night we will finally sleep at the foot of K2.

Sunday 16th of June
Fred and I had to make the tracks in heavy snow. The rest of the team and porters stayed behind in Concordia. Tonight, the track will freeze, and we hope the porters and the rest of the team will be able to use the frozen tracks to join us in K2 base camp tomorrow. Some of our climbing equipment had to stay in camp “Goro2” because the mules could not get through the snow. We are feeling strong and are extremely happy to be at BC sharing a tent with friendly Pakistani.

Tuesday 18th of June
The whole team arrived at base camp today! Still snowing though, and we are still waiting for some our climbing equipment. Our power situation is not very easy due to the lack of sun, but I will try to send some photos and short videos, and perhaps find enough power and connection to try and do a live tomorrow.