Long time no talk! It’s hard to believe it has been over a year since I returned from the Himalayas, barely enough time for my body to recover, before jumping headfirst into a training regimen for my next adventure. Which brings us to the reason for this post… for those of you who haven’t heard, I am already on my way to my next adventure, K2.

If you haven’t heard of it or have no idea where it is, you are not alone. Here is the Cliff Note’s version: K2 is the 2nd tallest mountain in the world at 8,611m/28,251ft and resides in the Karakoram Range in Northeast Pakistan. Its local name is Chhogori, which basically translates to “big peak”, but it has also received several nicknames from the climbing communities over the years; “The Savage Mountain”, “The Mountain of Mountains” and “The Holy Grail of Mountaineering”. Everest has had just under 5,000 people stand on the summit, while K2 has only seen about 360 new faces and to add a little more perspective, 536 people have been to space. There is a reason that this figure is so small and it has a lot to do with that first nickname, “The Savage Mountain”, and our team has a lot of work ahead of us…

Ever since I started heading into the mountains, K2 has always had a strange allure, and over the years, it has become the mountain that I dreamed of most. Now, that dream is becoming a reality and quite frankly, I expected the time leading up to it to be a lot different, more enjoyable. I completely underestimated how much this commitment would challenge me and could have never imagined the sheer amount of self-imposed pressure that I would face throughout my preparation. The only easy part about prepping for this climb was that most people don’t know what K2 is, so they generally lose interest within 30 seconds of asking why you are training.

But I probably shouldn’t start my first journal of the expedition by complaining about the past few months, I can vent later when we have the inevitable bad weather day. Instead, I wanted to let you know that thanks to my close friend, Jordan Wells, and his more tech-savvy brother, Jesse, we have a brand new, better looking, and more interactive website! AND thanks to generous contributions, I have been able to bring a very costly Thuraya satellite modem and satellite phone, which will allow me to post daily journals and stay in touch, just like last year! I can’t thank Jordan, Jesse, and my partner organizations enough.

I’m psyched to have this opportunity to bring you along for the ride again, let’s just hope it’s less eventful than last time. That being said, my promise to you is that I will be as transparent as possible, even if it’s not always pretty, with the intent to provide the most honest account of what it is like to attempt to climb K2. I only have a few requests…

1. The website works both ways, so please write if you want to write!
2. Share my website with others who might also enjoy it.
3. Give me a break on spelling or grammar, I will be typing on a tiny iPad with freezing fingers and a hypoxic mind at the wheel.

Alright, I can’t write anymore, my brain is turning to mush, after being up since 6 AM Pacific and need to save my last bit of cognition to find my gate in Abu Dhabi. I have to grab my three duffels of 140 lbs of gear and transfer them to Pakistan International Airlines. If I succeed, I have a quick 3 hour hop over to Islamabad, with a 2:50AM arrival. This is a long day…