Below is a diary of entries from the last several days.  We will continue to post such entries, along with recorded radio dispatches from the climbers, as we progress on the march to the summit this week.

Joel Shalowitz

Sunday, 6:30 am

On Saturday morning we received the latest weather report, which reaffirmed a promising summit window beginning Monday, pointing to a Wednesday try.  The team began using the rest of the day conferring with other teams to learn of their plans, preparing to leave Sunday morning unless the next weather report, expected sometime before dinner, added any twists.  Throughout the day several other teams streamed through our camp looking for their own confirmations - especially since a lone French climber had been informing them that he expected high winds on Wednesday and was advising Thursday as the best bet. 

Unfortunately, in the late morning, our email server went down for the rest of the day leaving us without news from the later weather report. Over dinner, the team decided to keep with the plan to leave at 6 am, in the hopes that we would be back online in the morning, and the latest report could be conveyed to the climbers in the early part of the journey, should there be adverse news.  We also conferred with the Italian team, who offered their communication services as a contingency option.

Early this morning (Sunday), we awoke to light snow and a milky fog that seemed to be showing signs of clearing.  We were also grateful to find our email working again, although there was still no weather update in the inbox.  After a brief breakfast and a bit of last minute packing, putting on of boots and the like, 6 am arrived and the climbers filed out of the dining tent for their final check.  Warner said, "Let's go girls", kissing the clear window pocket on his forearm where he keeps a picture of his wife Melinda and daughter Wendy, and the team was off.  Don and Bruce were similarly engaged in the hours before the departure - Don reflecting on how integral his family and faith were to his journey and Bruce revealing how present he felt in not looking too far ahead but focusing on challenges directly in front of him.   In addition, over the last several days, the focus of the strategic conversations seemed to concentrate more on the summit portion of the climb - how much ice they might find on the shoulder, would they need more pickets and ice screws above Camp 3?  In part this was because there was now more information shared among the teams about conditions above the higher camps, but as they left, there seemed to be an air about the climbers that announced "this time we're taking our shot at the top."

Sunday, 10:00 am

The weather report arrives...and moments later so do members from the Portuguese and Italian teams.  It seems as we radioed our climbers to inform them with the update, members from their teams were listening in on our radio frequency and headed directly to our communications tent to view the forecast for themselves. The next thing you know, the tent was filled with 4 new members all comparing summit day strategies.  The upside of the weather forecast for us was that as originally projected, Wednesday's weather was looking good, but now Thursday's looked even better, with summit winds forecasted to be very low (under 10 miles per hour) much of the day.  Chris said they were about 2 hours from Camp 1 and would call when they arrived.

Sunday, 12:15 pm

The team settles in and radios from Camp 1.  They have been climbing all morning in full blizzard conditions and by the end it has taken six really long hours to get there.  As the lead climber made footsteps, the 20-30 mph winds would quickly refill them so that in effect each climber was forced to break their own trail.  In addition, the teams reported seeing the biggest soft powder avalanches yet, coming off the face.  Fortunately, most of the route was sheltered by rock ridges, so all things considered, the protection was pretty good.  With the new weather report, they evaluated their options and decided to take a slower, more deliberate trip, such that they will stay at C1 tonight, move to C2 Monday, C3 Tuesday, C4 Wednesday, and take advantage of a summit bid early Thursday morning.  This would also allow for a return within the window before high winds and stronger weather return over the weekend.  However, execution of this plan will require negotiations with some of the other teams to temporarily exchange resources (some combination of sleeping bags and tents at Camps l & 2) to accommodate the extra day on the mountain.  We have a few ideas on how to accomplish this, and things should be solidified by dinnertime.

Dinnertime, 6:00 pm-ish

Well, we still have the ideas but the plan is yet not solidified.  Unfortunately, even at this late hour, other teams have still not committed to tomorrow's plans.  It seems we'll have to wait until they get their early morning weather reports before we can plot out our own day.  If we can't make provisions to layover at C2 tomorrow, the team will be forced to forge from C1 to C3.

Also, we communicated some emails forwarded from Chris Everett, at Earth Treks (who oversees the day-to-day of the Shared Summits site stateside) and from Robin, who funnels back news from Don's Blog.   It merits a moment here to convey our thanks for the tireless support they both have given the team.  Chris for one, along with CJ, Scot, and others at ET, are always on the ready to respond at a moment's notice--from coordinating live interviews to posting dispatches for your viewing.  I know Chris was up at 2 am the other night working on loading a new video clip.   Similarly, Robin always seems to be on call and his consistent support is a great source of comfort to Don and the rest of us.  Finally, the notes and feedback you all send to these sites mean a tremendous amount to all of us, at every camp.  They serve as a warm source of sustenance, especially at the end of days like this one.

Monday, 6:30 am

The Korean weather report arrives attached to an email predicting a forecast very similar to ours.  Joel takes it down to their camp to see if their plans now provide opportunities to meet the teams' mutual needs.

Monday, 7:30 am

After several conversations among several teams, the plan is set.  The team will leave by 9:00 am and proceed to Camp 2 as hoped.  Following, they plan to continue on a pace of one camp per day until Thursday - Summit Day.  As for today, the climbers already looked upward to see rapidly moving winds and clouds, so they expect moderate avalanche danger and 40-50 mph winds above them throughout the day.  Overall, it could take the team anywhere from 4-6 hours to reach Camp 2.  They added that they plan to plug forward no matter what.

Monday, 9:00 am

We hear Chris, ahead of Don and Bruce on the route, radio down to them saying "Maybe we should go back and wait this out."  Don says, "Why, what are you seeing up there." (Note: this is the stretch of the route about which Don had previously stated, "This is my least favorite part of this K2 thing.) Chris replies, "... there's tons of spin drift avalanches coming off this slope." Don asks, "Is it going to be this way all the way, or do you expect things to get better higher up?"  Chris responds, "Yeah, let's just keep pushing ahead, it might just be this one slope."

Monday, 10:45 am

The latest weather report comes in with no material change in conditions predicted.  The news is radioed to the climbers who say they will be in camp in a few hours to discuss further and that the conditions are brutal.

Monday, 11:30 am

Don radios to Chris... Chris responds, "Where are you?"  Don - "At the top of House's Chimney."  Chris - "Great, Bruce is just starting up..." Don - "You better button up, up top - it's pretty miserable up here..."

Monday, 12:30 pm

The team is safely at C2.  Chris says the winds continue to be brutal and asks for help passing on a message to the Italians.  The Russian team has arrived shortly after ours to find their tent has been destroyed.  They are trying to contact the Italians to see if they can borrow their tent for the night.   At base camp we go over to the Italian Base Camp to deliver the message and find a Russian base camp member, Sergey, already working on the issue with Daniel, the Italian expedition leader. 

Monday, 1:30 pm

After getting a chance to get situated and hydrated, the team called back to debrief a bit on the day.  They said the winds were coming in from every direction, reaching upwards of 60 mph around House's Chimney, and many times spouting off spin-drift avalanches.  They were the first team up to Camp 2 today, The Russians arrived shortly after and as did Joao Garcia, a Portuguese climber, an hour or so after that.  When the team arrived, Don did a quick check of all the other teams' tents, finding some pretty ravaged.  In all cases, he made sure they were secured tightly, and in some cases, where they had been besieged with snow, he moved items from inside to other tents to save them from being destroyed.   At present, aside from some windburn on exposed skin, the climbers feel pretty good.  They plan to get up in the morning and check conditions but as of now expect to proceed to Camp 3 as planned.  For a recap of the day in his own words, please listen to the radio dispatch from Don also posted on the website today. [ Play Audio ]