Mountain Madness Gasherbrum II 2005: aborted our summit attempt

Dispatch: July 18, 2005: This is Charlie Fowler reporting from basecamp. The Mountain Madness team returned to basecamp early this morning, having aborted our summit attempt. For the last few days we had been at Camp 1, waiting for better weather and snow conditions to launch a serious bid for the summit. However, during our time up there the wind and snowstorms were frequent, rendering conditions on the mountain hazardous. Many other climbers were also waiting at Camp 1, and yesterday a little snowball battle between a couple of climbers escalated into a huge fight involving most teams. At least everyone is having fun and in good cheer!

We had planned on moving to Camp 2 this morning, but it was apparent that we needed to wait a few more days for conditions on the mountain to settle - time that we do not have. Our two high altitude porters, both very experienced on Gasherbrum 2, expressed great concern and reckoned it was too dangerous to proceed; an assessment I also shared. Nevertheless, a few teams did move up to Camp 2 today, but as expected reported poor snow conditions and slow going. 

The adventure is not yet over for us, though. In a few days, on July 22, we will be leaving basecamp for the Gondogoro La, a high pass with outstanding views of all the high peaks in the region. Three days later we should arrive at the village of Hushe, then by jeep a day later in the city of Skardu. Weather permitting, we will then fly to Islamabad and the conclusion of our trip.

Despite not making the summit, everyone is in pretty good spirits about it all. Missing the top is certainly a part of the game and we can't take it too seriously. We did our best under some difficult circumstances, and we can all feel good about that. Already there is talk of other mountains and other trips. 

More later, Charlie

July 16, 2005: This is Charlie Fowler reporting from Camp I on Gasherbrum. Everybody is here and we are doing well. Tomorrow we are going to go up to Camp 2. The weather has been windy with a little bit of snow. We expect the same weather tomorrow, but after that we should have a spell of good weather. We are on our summit pitch, and expect to head to the top around the 19th or 20th. There are quite a number of other groups here that are expected to try and summit at the same time, which is good because they should help break trail. However, we are running out of time. It’s getting late so this will be our last chance to try to summit.

Everything else is going well, and everyone is pretty excited. There are lots of other motivated climbers here and we are all pretty healthy and happy.

More later… Charlie

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