The Final Attempt

Summer vacation brought a little radio silence on our end last week, but we’re back with last updates from Dave Watson and his K2 Tall Mountain teammates. They’ve committed a ton of time, energy and resources into the trip, but it’s coming to a close. The summits have been tantalizingly close and frequently unreachable, but few understand better than Dave that the experience comes from the entire journey and not just the attainability of the top.

Excerpt from the K2 Tall Mountain post:
Chuck and Dave left base camp today after a final reconnaissance of the Abruzzi Ridge from Advanced Base Camp and getting another weather forecast. The weather conditions have been severe, and they decided that the potential weather window of three days with another storm coming in on the fourth day would not be safe or sufficient for one last attempt at the summit. They would need a minimum of three clear days with a couple medium days on either side to consider climbing higher.

They headed out with a plan to hike over the Gondogoro La to Hushe, which translates to hiking over a high alpine pass to the next valley and the village of Hushe. This is a different hike out than the way they went in. Hushe is the village where most of their local support team and many of the porters live, and they have been invited to visit with them in their homes…

For more dispatches and info, see all the K2 Tall Mountain posts here or visit the K2 Tall Mountain site.