JOURNAL

It was 8:30 PM and was now completely dark outside. My summit pack was complete and my down suit was filled with all the calories that I would need for the next 24 hours (or at least as many as I could fit). All that needed to be done was to fill my water bottles with...

Camp 3 was dead silent that morning, as everyone slept in from the big move up through the Black Pyramid. At least that was the case for everyone except, Garrett, Geoff, Phurba, and me, who were in the routine of waking up for regular 6:30 AM radio call. While we...

Today was a pivotal day, we would either be heading up for a summit push or down to lick our wounds. Descending would mean at least 3 rest days at BC, to recover from our failed attempt, and then however many days it took to find a favorable weather window. I knew it,...

Whenever I awoke last night, I could hear the pitter-patter of the heavy snowflakes landing on our tent walls. I didn’t let it keep me awake but I made mental note of it because there was a very good chance that it would affect our plan. Sure enough, when I woke up,...

The team was supposed to depart for C2 at 9:00 AM but David, Geoff, and I were ready at 8:30. Several members of the rest of our team were also ready early and I began to wonder if they knew our plan to race to C2. It was almost like a scene from a movie, where...

As many of you have already reminded me, it has taken me a couple of weeks to compile my notes from our summit rotation, primarily due to the limited amount of downtime during our trek back to civilization but also some cumulative fatigue on my part. And those are the...

  Yesterday, on July 22nd at 6:40 AM, my dream of summiting K2, “The Holy Grail of Mountaineering”, became a reality. It was a surreal moment filled with emotion and even after 40 hours and 12,000+ ft of descent, it has yet to truly sink in. Perhaps it is the sheer...