"I spent the summer of 07 in Pakistan attempting K2 via the Cesen Route with 9 other American climbers. It is an intense and "full on" mountain experience. No one goes there with the intent of dying-yet climbers are oftentimes surprised to find out they are in fact REPORTED dead.
Like it or not one of the great things about K2 and the majority of the Karakoram region is that it is in fact remote. Something that is very difficult to find in such an "overpopulated" world. Even the most hightech SAT phones can have less than average success rates when trying to reach loved ones back home.
During our American expedition last year we went very Low Tech to say the least. No lap tops, digital messaging equipment, generators, or even the expected SAT phone in the group. To some degree this was because the remoteness of K2 is part of the appeal.
This year I was again supposed to be participating in another K2 expedition with a much smaller but more Tech Savvy group. www.k2tallmountain.com New work obligations caused me to cancel my reservation with the team at the last minute, and I wish them luck as they are now headed to K2 Basecamp from the neighboring Broad Peak Basecamp. Even the more advanced team with their hightech gadgets hasn't been able to email anything out since the start of their expedition in June.
All that being said, one of the few constants in my expedition to K2 last season-aside from the avalanches(a couple pictured)- was the amount of "disinformation" that floated around Basecamp on a daily basis.
Often the "disinformation" originated from LO's-(Liason Officers from the Pakistani Military that each expedition is required to have accompany them)-who would regularly visit with one another's camp for tea or meals oftentimes travelling back and forth between both expedition parties and K2/Broad Peak Basecamps.
This also needs to be prefaced with the oft overlooked fact that communication between expedition parties is sometimes limited to the communication between it's LO's due to language barriers. So, "Lost in Translation" takes on a whole new meaning in these instances.
Never was there any mal intent in the reporting of "yet another climber having died" on this route or that. In fact, sometimes the vagaries of the reports would lead to not one, but two climbers missing and assumed dead from a particular partly when if fact no one was dead. It was instead a case of frozen or dead radio batteries not allowing that climber to communicate with their team.
After having taken numerous calls today wondering if I was in fact on any expeditions in the Karakoram as planned, I started searching the net. In four different articles I found four different accounts of "how many" and "who was confirmed", none of which with definitive details and all of which rimed with "suspect" info due to the mixture of teams and nationalities involved.
Last season on the hike to K2 Basecamp we were resting at Camp Joula when we heard the bustle of an Italian girl needing a rescue. Only to have an Italian team member rush into our cook tent to tell us "we have a dead girl" and that "she needs meds". Obviously those two are mutually exclusive as no dead person needs meds. It was a simple miscommunication and admittedly if I needed to rush into the Italian tent and tell them in their native tongue that we needed particular medical help-well it really wouldn't happen and I've been to Italy twice. Panic has a way of making the simple complex.
In the end the girl survived after an emergency Helicopter evac to Skardu. Probably only her team actually knows what necessitated the evac as we heard that it was everything from Heat Stroke to Appendicitis.
The language barrier between teams however was/is never really overcome in these arenas of international climbing. It is a great place to partner with other great climbers and religious and political differences are checked at the tent door as everyone is struggling to survive, much less climb one of the toughest mountains in the world.
In closing on the likelihood of "disinformation" I'll say what I told the loved ones that I left behind, and am even more emphatic about after having spent the time at Basecamp and high on K2, nothing is the case until it is the case. Meaning that even though it might potentially be the case that I'm reported dead or missing, don't start planning any funerals until everyone packs it up for the season. There are many different routes that one could find themselves struggling down-none of which are close to any civilization.
That being said, for those concerned about the potential rescue of those climbers reported trapped above the Bottleneck on K2. If the climbers cannot make it down to at least Camp 3 under their own power it is unlikely that they will make it down at all. For those on oxygen the race is even more intense as the effects of altitude will be even more compounded on their ability to keep their extremeties warm and their minds clear in order to make that charge.
I wish everyone involved in the rescue efforts the best of luck, I wish that I could be there to help. For those of you praying for loved ones my thoughts are with you, but don't pray for their survival alone, they MUST make their way down to come home."
