K 2, seen from Base Camp

Another sad message from the Karakoram: The Canadian climber Serge Dessureault fell to his death at K2, the second highest mountain on earth, from an altitude of 6,700 metres. This was announced by the Alpine Club of Pakistan. The 53-year-old’s body was taken to the Advance Base Camp. Dessureault had led an expedition from Quebec. The four members wanted to be the first climbers from this Canadian province to reach the 8,611-metre-high summit of K2. They wanted to ascend via the so-called Abruzzi route (the Southeast ridge).

2007 on the Everest

R.I.P.

Dawa Sherpa from the Nepalese expedition operator Seven Summit Treks wrote on Facebook that Serge fell “from below a chimney while climbing at Camp 2”. Actually, this can only be House’s Chimney, a climbing passage through a crack in the rock, which had been first mastered by the American Bill House in 1938.

Dessureault had worked as a fireman in Montreal. In 2007 he had scaled Mount Everest from the Tibetan north side. – Last weekend, an Austrian climber had died in an avalanche on the 7,338-metre-high Ultar Sar in the Karakoram.

K 2 Base Camp

Waiting can wear down. For more than one and a half weeks, the freak weather in the Karakoram prevented major activities on K2, the second highest mountain on earth. A week ago, Mingma Gyalje Sherpa watched from Base Camp a big avalanche, which swept down over the normal route via the Abruzzi spur at about 7,000 meters. The 31-year-old head of the Nepalese expedition operator Dreamers Destination had to give up his plan to check what damage had been caused due to bad weather. Since then, he has been waiting for a summit change at the foot of the mountain, along with his clients and Climbing Sherpas. After all, the first team members left BC today heading for Camp 1. Before, Mingma Gyalje Sherpa answered my questions.

Mingma, how is the mood in K 2 Base Camp while waiting for a good weather window? 

We are already here in BC for more than 10 days without doing anything. This year, the weather is more difficult to predict and changing as per my forecaster says. And these things really keep our mood bad every time. But we are very hopeful that we will make K2 this time, so we are happy waiting for our right time to come. Fingers crossed for July 27 or 28.

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa

What are the conditions like on the mountain compared with your summit success in 2014?

Obviously we had really good weather in 2014 compared to this year. Also in 2014 was K2 Diamond Jubilee, so there were lots of teams trying K2 and it was easier in opening route with more manpower. This year is not like that. This time only few small teams and we are also divided on the Cesen and the Abruzzi route.

More than that, weather on K2 this year is really hard. I found more snow on K2 this year compared to 2014 and 2016 when I led the team here. Because of more snow, we are protected from rock fall but we have the threat of avalanche again. Our weather reports showed wind above 50 Kph everyday above 8000m, so I feel the snow conditions during our summit push will be good. 

Are you still determined to climb via the Abruzzi Route despite last week’s big avalanche?   

Yes, we have to climb via the Abruzzi route. We have deposited everything there. But the thing is that we also have to make a new fix line and need to take extra equipment.

How do you value the chances to reach the highest point this summer?

Our K2 team is one of the strongest teams on K2 ever, so I am very positive in reaching the summit.

K 2 Base Camp

With this monarch is not to be joked. K 2, the “king of the eight-thousanders”, is moody and therefore dangerous. “This morning at 8:12 am, we saw (a) big avalanche coming from (the) Abruzzi route,” Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, head of the Nepalese expedition operator Dreamers Destination, writes on Facebook. The Abruzzi route, following the path of the Italian first ascenders in 1954, leads via the Southeast Ridge of the mountain (look at the picture below, route F). “We feel all (that) Camp 3 (at about 7,300 m) is swept away again. I am sure we have all our deposit near Camp 4 because our Sherpa team made it on (a) ice cliff, but it is likely sure that all the fixed ropes are washed away.” Tomorrow his Sherpa team will go up again to assess the situation.

Strong wind in the summit area

Russell Brice

According to Mingma, the weather forecast for the coming days is anything but rosy. “It shows snow at 8,000 m every evening and very high wind at (the) summit which delays our summit plan. (We are) Waiting for good weather to come.” It is the same with the other teams in the Base Camp at the foot of K 2, with an altitude of 8,611 meters the second highest mountain on earth. For many, time is slowly running out. Russell Brice, head of the New Zealand expedition operator Himalayan Experience, points out that his team has to leave the Base Camp on 4 August at the latest to catch the booked home flights. “We all know our backs are against the wall,” writes Brice. “But everyone is prepared to work hard, carry loads, dig tent platforms and the like and not just leave it for the Sherpas and HAP (Pakistani high altitude porters) to do.”

Sleepless nights

Routes on the Pakistani south side of K 2

Russell also points to the strong wind to be expected in the upper part of the mountain, which is unlikely to allow fixing ropes up to the highest camp at about 8,000 meters before 20 July. His team is climbing the Cesen route (on the picture route E), via the Southsoutheast Ridge. Brice is not quite euphoric about the situation. “So let’s see what happens in the coming days and what adventures lie ahead,” writes the 65-year-old experienced expedition manager who’s up to every Himalayan and Karakoram trick. “But I am sure this is going to involve many sleepless nights.” The king of the eight-thousanders is rarely granting summit audiences.