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National Geographic : 1979 May
Contents
with snow during the summer climbing peri od. Furthermore, the slopes of K2 are gener ally steeper than those of Mount Everest, with a higher risk of avalanches. Finally, despite the snow, K2 is a high-altitude desert, with very little moisture in the surrounding atmosphere. The extreme dry ness, the high altitude, and the need for rapid breathing threaten climbers with se vere dehydration, a condition that can lead to exhaustion and death. Both the Karakorams and Himalayas are formidable opponents. On an average, one climber out of twenty is lost there through accident, illness, or exposure. K2 has taken its own grim share: seven climbers killed, five of them on United States expeditions. Small wonder that only two teams before ours, an Italian one in 1954 and a large Japa nese group in 1977, had managed to scale K2. Since the valiant U. S. effort of 1953, which was battered by a 12-day storm, it has been called "the Savage Mountain." I had had a taste of that savagery in 1975, when I organized my first K2 expedition. Bad weather and difficulty with porters had finally forced us to abandon the attempt, al though we reached 22,000 feet. By the spring of 1978 we were ready to try again. Like a military invasion, a high-altitude climb takes planning, experience, knowl edge of the terrain, and adequate supply lines-plus that indispensable and elusive ingredient, luck. With all but the last item assured, our team of 14 climbers flew from the United States to Pakistan in mid-June. During the following three weeks, with the help of 350 local porters, we moved nine tons of equipment and supplies in 55-pound loads more than a hundred miles from the end of the road at Baha to the base of K2 (map, following pages). Finally, on July 5, we established Base Camp on the Godwin Austen Glacier at an altitude of 16,300 feet. "Inshallah[As Allah wills], this time we make it to the top," declared Jim Wickwire, an old friend and Seattle attorney who took part in the 1975 attempt. *As a member of the 1963 expedition, sponsored pri marily by the National Geographic Society, the author was the first to plant the U. S. and National Geograph ic flags atop earth's highest mountain (October 1963 GEOGRAPHIC). He also wrote about the first ascent of the Yukon's Mount Kennedy in the July 1965 issue. The first ascent of Everest was reported by Sir John Hunt and Sir Edmund Hillary in the July 1954 issue. LOUISHEICHAURDT On K2 once more, Jim Wickwire eases across an ice slope. Veteran of the failed 1975 attempt, he and Lou Reichardt will make the first assault. From the final camp they will push up in predawn darkness on a sortie toward the summit. All agreed, though only four of us had firsthand experience on K2. Besides Jim and me, the 1975 team had included my wife, Dianne Roberts, a professional photogra pher, and Rob Schaller, a Seattle surgeon. The newcomers were all experienced climbers from a variety of professions: Craig Anderson, a zoologist; Terry Bech, a musi cian and anthropologist; Terry's wife, Cherie, a nurse; Diana Jagersky, an art stu dent; Skip Edmonds and Chris Chandler, both physicians; Lou Reichardt, a neuro biologist; Rick Ridgeway, a filmmaker and writer; John Roskelley, a photographer lecturer; and Bill Sumner, a physicist. Tragedies during the previous 19 months had removed three expert members from the original list-Dusan Jagersky, Diana's hus band, and Alan Givler, killed climbing in Alaska, and Leif Patterson, who died in an avalanche in British Columbia. After we set up Base Camp, the weather began to assert itself, alternately treating us to sparkling days in the 60's and to wild snowstorms. At lower levels such storms 625
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