K2: Climbing up the Baltoro Glacier

Happy Fourth of July! Just like the previous day, we got up at 4:00 AM and hit the trail about 30 minutes lasted in order to beat the heat. I prepared for the arduous journey by downing 1.5 liters of water at breakfast and packed two more liters for the road. That’s wasn’t even enough as I had to refill my bottle from a glacier stream. In total, I consumer 6 liters of water by the time I arrived in Urdukas.

Today was the most scenic day yet but also the longest. We got on the Baltoro Glacier and what a roller coaster it was. I mean that literally. We climb up several meters only to go back down every meter we gained. That was the scenario throughout the 7 hours climb. The terrain on the glacier started out in pretty decent shape for the first couple of hours but then quickly changed as the trail disappeared. From there on out it was a mad scramble on pretty sketchy scree and loose rock.

Along the way we were treated with some clear amazing views on the grand Trango Tower and shortly thereafter an imposing view of Broad Peak, in sight for a big portion of the day. We plan on attempting Broad Peak (the 12th highest mountain in the world) after K2.

Although we only gained 600 meters (2,000 feet) for the day, we estimated more than 1,500 meters/5,000 feet) were climbed.

We will rest for the rest of the day, eat an early dinner and start a dawn tomorrow.