Author: Luis Benitez

by Didrik Johnck

October 15, 2010 LOBUCHE HIGH CAMP – Decision was made to divide the group into two teams to synchronize summit times relative to climbing speeds. The mountain is divided into two distinct sections. The first half is rock slabs while the second half is steep snow and ice.

Team Alpha: Brad Bull, Steve Baskis, Sherman Bull, Erik Weihenmayer, Jeff Evans, Kami Tenzing, Ashley Crandall, Cody Miranda, Catherine Raggazino (Rizzo), Michael Brown, Rex Pemberton, and Didrik Johnck

Team Bravo (aka: Ramrod) – Charley Mace, Matt Nyman, Matt Murray Luis Benitez, Ike Isaacson, Dan Sidles, Kevin Cherilla, Chris Morris, Nico Maroulis, Chad Jukes, Chad Butrick, Brian Mockenhaupt

12am – wakeup call for Team A. Rizzo is not feeling well and decides not to climb. Cody stays behind to support Rizzo.

1:15am – Team A departs high camp (17,000 feet). Ashley is not feeling well and turns around shortly after departure.

2am – Team B wakeup call.

3am – Team B departs high camp.

5am – Didrik, Erik, Kami reach snow line (18,200 feet).

5:30am – Rest of team A arrives at snow line.

5:45-6am – Snow line reached by Team B.

8am – Teams merge at ice chute 400-500 feet below summit.

8:15 – Erik and Kami arrive summit (20,075 feet).

8:45 – Michael Brown arrives summit.

9-9:30 – Rest of team summits.

10:30 – 11am – Team begins staggered descent off summit.

Noon – Team begins staggered arrival back at snow line. Sherpas and porters are waiting with hot drinks.

After a rest, team begins staggered departure down the rock slabs.

12:30pm – Brad, Sherman, Jeff, Didrik, depart snow for rock slabs. Sherman is experiencing profound fatigue and is short-roped by Jeff and assisted by two Sherpas.

1:45 – Murray, Brown, Jukes, Rex are 1st climbers to arrive back at high camp.

2:30 – Nyman, who is being short-roped by Charley, shows signs of cerebral edema. Jeff begins radio calls to Kevin in high camp to prep treatment options.

4pm –Didrik, Jeff, Nyman, Morris, Mace are last climbers to arrive at base camp.

Rest of day/night is spent eating, hydrating, sleeping and treating Nyman’s cerebral edema.

Soldier Justin Moore – Justin joined the expedition after the Colorado snow and ice training in August. As such he was not adequately trained for the conditions that would be encountered on Lobuche. Justin instead climbed to the rocky, pinnacled summit of Kala Pattar at over 18,000 feet on the same day the other soldiers were on Lobuche. Climbing rock at over 18,000 feet is no easy task and the entire team salutes his accomplishment.

The team cruising along the lower snowfields. Photo by Didrik Johnck.

Ike Isaacson. Photo by Didrik Johnck.

Soldiers to the Summit team photo on summit of Lobuche. Photo by Didrik Johnck.

Outside Online published a nice blog post about the expedition and summiting Lobuche.

by World T.E.A.M. Sports

The entire Soldiers to the Summit Himalayan 2010 Expedition team including soldiers, Everest climbers, trekkers, porters, and sherpas, with Lobuche in the background. Photo by Didrk Johnck

Oct 14 LOBUCHE HIGH CAMP – The team summited Lobuche approximately 12 hours ago, 9:00 a.m. Nepal Time (11:15 p.m. Eastern, Oct 13). Our first word that they’d done so actually came via our Soldiers to the Summit Twitter feed. The team tweeted the following (via satellite phone):

9am local time team summits 20,075 foot Lobuche. Sitting on summit now enjoying view.

About an hour later came another tweet:

10:15am local time. Heading down now. Gonna be a long calf busting day. Hope to get some pics and vids out tonight

There has been one brief communication, via sat-phone, since that time (around 8:00 a.m. Eastern or @ 5:15 p.m. Nepal Time) informing us that the team had descended to Lobuche High Camp where they will spend the night before descending to Lobuche Base Camp on Friday.

We anticipate receiving photos and video of the summiting sometime tonight (@ 2:00 a.m. Eastern), pending cooperation from clouds and satellite phones. We’ll post them here as soon as possible once we’ve received them.

In the meantime, we want to invite you to a Live Web-Conference Call with the team in Nepal, where team members will recount the climb. The call is scheduled to take place Friday, October 15 at 9:45 p.m. Eastern Time. To listen in (via your computer) you must register in advance (it only takes a few seconds). To register, click here (or go to https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/823602713).

Once you’ve registered, you’ll receive directions for attending the meeting as well as email notifications regarding the same. We hope you can attend!

If you’re not already following the expedition and World T.E.A.M. Sports on Twitter and our World T.E.A.M. Sports Facebook page, we hope you’ll take a minute and do so. Follow us on Twitter here. Become a fan on Facebook here.

Thanks to everyone for your incredible support for the team. And stay tuned here for more great dispatches from the field!

Close-up of our route on Lobuche. Photo by Didrik Johnck

by Jeff Messner

Trekking above Pheriche. Photo by Didrik Johnck

October 13 PHERICHE, NEPAL – As we are about to separate to our two summit expeditions, I want to remind you that Lobuche and Everest Base Camp is not the goal. The goal is to demonstrate the courage and resilience of you, our injured soldier; and to encourage others who have been injured that they too can accomplish exceptional goals.

We are very thankful to our ten Everest summit TEAMmates who have been instrumental in bringing the TEAM together. The 2001 Everest TEAM members offered to guide us so they too could give back to others in celebration of their successful Everest summit. They had hoped that just as they had benefited from a new level of confidence that transformed their lives, this expedition would do the same for the injured soldiers. We are deeply indebted to them for all of their tremendous personal and organizational support of the expedition.

The mental and physical challenge of the Himalayan Mountains has inspired us.

Tomorrow we split into two groups, one to summit Lobouche and one to summit Kala Patar and trek to Everest Base Camp. Our goal is to climb as high as safely possible and to descend safely. We are very proud that you have accepted this challenge and accomplished so much to be here in Pheriche at 14,130 feet. The last few days have been a transitional opportunity as you have crossed a huge threshold and the next few days will help you become the person you want to be. There will be many challenges as big as Everest and Lobuche in your future, such as career, family, community, or whatever it may be.

You have sacrificed and given so much through your military service and injuries, we hope you will take this experience and lesson from this expedition and turn it into your Adversity Advantage.

Ike guiding Steve through the rocks. Photo by Didrik Johnck.

by Ike Isaacson

Scenes from the trail. Photo by Didrik Johnck.

Oct 12 LOBUCHE HIGH CAMP – Here we are at Lobuche High Camp. This is the highest that I have ever been in my life! This is very exciting. I got to to sleep around 8pm last night and woke up around 2am. I’m a bit tired but very healthy and happy. The Zopkio that carry most of our gear kept me company last night while I watched the stars over the mountains.

What an incredible place. We will be pressing to the summit around 2am which will make for a very busy night. Our only light will be from our headlamps as we push up the snowy summit. I expect us to summit the peak around 7am, exhausted yet having the time of my life.

Thank you for all of the support and prayers.

I hope to be sending out summit photos soon.

Ike Isaacson

by Didrik Johnck

Oct 11 LOBUCHE BASE CAMP – Outward Bound’s Luis Benitez takes us on a tour of Lobuche Base Camp as inhabited by Soldiers to the Summit Himalayan 2010 Expedition. Luis gives a shout out to sponsor Quaker for the oats and other eats and to the whole sherpa team for the good care they’re taking of the team.

Luis Benitez at Lobuche Base Camp

Greetings everyone. Today was spent adjusting our loads for our carry to camp1 tomorrow. Fabrizio and crew have made fantastic progress fixing towards camp2, and we are carrying up more rope to support that process, plus our personal gear. Round trip should be about 8 hours all going well. Some of us may stay high for a few more hours and help fix rope higher if the need arises, we shall see.
Other than that, it will be early to bed for all of us, as 4.30am always comes earlier than you think.
Cheers.

Lapka and Tshering packing food

Greetings everyone. Today was another day of sorting and re packing for our 1st carry up to camp 1 day after tomorrow.
Everyone is in fine form and we were all excited to be breaking into the snacks and treats we brought from home. A bit of cheese and crackers, pistachio nuts, jelly beans, all the really important stuff came out today!
We also looked over our mountain food and what will go where when why and how. Thus is life on an expedition. The afternoon snows have returned so we have all retreated to our respective tents. Lapka and Tshering are listening to a station from India on their shortwave, Katrina is rocking out on her headphones, and I of course am in my tent “geeking out” with all the communications gear trying to get the dispatch out!
The clouds and snow this afternoon have prevented me from charging everything right up, but I was able to catch this shot right out my front door this morning. Broad Peak! K2 which is a view out the other door wasnt cooperating with the cloud cover today. I guess she wants to stay a surprise for later!
Tonight most of the team is in basecamp with us, with a few folks that arrived a few days before us already on a rotation to sleep at camp1 tonight. I have a serious match with Joe from Norway to see if I can defend my connect4 champion title (a game for 10 year olds, but lots of fun for us at 16,000ft)!
Katrina has enjoyed hanging out with one of our trekkers, Nikki, who is Garth’s girlfriend. I know she has appreciated the “girl time” in the midst of all the stinky hairy climbing beasts.
All’s well here for now!

WIll the real Broad Peak please stand up

After a snowy and windy walk, we made it to basecamp! Over lunch we met the rest of the team that were a few days ahead. There are folks from South Africa, Australia, USA, and believe it or not, another girl from Canada which Katrina was quite pleased about!
We then kicked into high gear to build tent platforms out of the glacial rubble, setup tents, and generally spent the afternoon phaffing around. (phaff; to move slow at 16,000ft or higher, which is where we are now)! You can sense K2 and Broad Peak looming in the clouds above and around us….very surreal.
With the weather batteries are low, so with hopefully some sun, we will try to charge up and give you a more proper tour of basecamp.
Till then this is Broad Peak BC, signing off!

Basecamp of Broad Peak

Today’s walk was fairly straightforward. 4hrs and then quickly erecting the tents against the gentle snowfall that had rolled in. We are a 1/2 days walk away from Broad Peak basecamp, which in turn is 45min away from K2 basecamp!
Concordia is supposed to be the 1st place you get good views of K2, but with the weather we didnt get our hopes up.
However, lo and behold, after lunch the clouds started to part, the sun came out, and we caught our 1st close up glimpses of both K2 (on the left in the distance) and Broad Peak (close in on the right).
We are all very jazzed to be so close to the end of our trekking phase, and the start of our climbing one.
Stay tuned!

Today’s walk saw us finally walking on the Baltoro Glacier proper. This is high and wild country, with parts having no clear route, and other parts where you are leaping from rock to rock to avoid the glacial streams threading thru the landscape. Needless to say, its a beautiful place. The group are all doing well, and enjoying the company of climbers headed off to other mountains, but at this point we are all still trekking together up valley. Don Bowie who has been here many times over the years, pointed out to us and an Italian team some of the giants as we walked by; Nameless tower and Trango tower to name a few.
Walking with these Balti porters, you begin to develop a healthy respect for just how strong these guys are. There are no teahouses up here to duck into for a quick visit and meal, no clear trail, the going is tough without yak support, few carry animals, and yet these guys do it all with a smile on their face. They are a passionate people, and take great pride in their work.
We are camping at about 13,500ft tonight, and tomorrow takes us even higher. Hopefully if all continues as planned, we should be in Broad Peak basecamp in a few days.
Cheers to all!

Kat and Don and Tshering check out Namless and Trango Towers

Porter lunchbreak

Greetings everyone.
Today was another 7hr 90degree scorcher, but we arrived in Paju Camp by early afternoon. Mercifully some clouds have moved in making hanging out in tents bearable.
Lapka and I were looking at pics in his book on k2 about expeditions here in the ’70’s, Kat took a “bucket shower” which consisted of hiding in a shower stall out of the wind with a bucket of water, and Tshering and I have been playing with satellite phone equipment as usual!
We managed to pick up the bbc on shortwave today, so caught up with a bit of world cup action!
It’s nice to hear how the rest of the world is doing! Tomorrow will be a rest day so our Balti porters have organized some danciing for tonight! Ian promises to do the funky chicken and I will be there camera in hand to record all!
Stay tuned for what I am sure will be great pics!

Paju Camp

Porter tea time

our apologies gang. we are fine in camp after a 7hr walk, but cant get a good signal on the bgan to send a dispatch and the pda wont upload photos!
aaah the beauty of tech time in the hills! more tomorrow when we have it sorted. for now, the team is all fine and happy to be moving on foot!

What a day! For our final jeep ride to the “trailhead”, the road did not dissapoint!
Intense 4wheel drive roads, followed by massive breakdowns of machines, finally saw us reach Askole by mid afternoon. There were a few hair raising moments, especially when we saw a suspension bridge that was on the road we were travelling twisted and broken from a recent flood!
All is well now and we are all settled in here in Askole finalizing the sorting of our loads, and hiring our porters for the walk to basecamp!
It will be nice to finally be on foot travel again!

K2 STS 2010 Team

destroyed bridge

anyone have the wrench?

After an intense 30hr bus ride, over rugged roads, and driving by the mouth of the Swat Valley, which has been a Taliban stronghold till recently, we made it at about 2am to the serene and pristine Skardu!
This village is really where the Karakoram HImalayas begin, and our adventure continues! We arent fully done with autos yet, as we are still loading into a jeep tomorrow for our final leg under auto power to Askole. From there we will be on foot for another 5 days or so to Broad Peak basecamp, which is about 1hr walking away from K2 basecamp.
We will be acclimating on Broad, to prepare for K2, so it will be an amazing experience to climb on 2 8000m peaks this season! Lets hope we get to summit at least one of them!
Katrina, Lakpa and Tshering are all doing well, and we were busy today re packing loads, and enjoying the scenery while strategizing over our maps about our chosen route on K2.
We have met up with other Broad Peak climbers for this leg of our journey, as other K2 folks are a day ahead of us.
Stay tuned as it can only get more interesting from here!

skardu valley

repacking

maps and planning

This has been an amazing couple of days! We have endeavored to see the sights and sounds of this wonderful city, taking in all the bazaar’s and markets in and around the city. Everything from Afgani carpets to dates and nuts, we have seen and experienced it all!
Today we finally fly to Skardu to begin our journey up valley. We are hearing reports of large amounts of snow this year up around Concordia, stay tuned as we go to find out!

Every fruit on the planet

Dates and nuts from all over the region

Lakpa contemplates a Afgani rug

After years in the planning and even more in the dreaming of this trip, we are all here in Pakistan safe and sound. Dinner was a buzz of chatter about past trips, and eager anticipation about our current adventure.
We shared all of our Sherpa Adventure Gear with Kat, and made plans for an early breakfast to be ready for the flight for Skardu. Alas, I just got word that we will not be flying tomorrow, but the next day due to oversold flights up valley. Here is where “Inshallah” comes into its own.
The plan now is to fly day after tomorrow, if we cant get on a flight, then it is onward to a 36hr drive up the Karakoram Highway towards Skardu, we will keep you posted as we know more!
Till then….

Lakpa and Luis

The gangs all here

Puja day! A buddist ceremony might seem out of place when it comes to climbing in Islamic Pakistan, but the four of us felt like it was an important ceremony regardless of where you are climbing. As the Rimpoche Lama said to us today, “you dont stop doing what you believe just because you are far from home”. How true.
So today Lakpa Tshering and I went to Bodanath to recieve our blessing. We brought prayer flags to string over basecamp once we arrive, and went to see the RImpoche. All three of us felt better for the experience!
Then a quick visit to one of our sponors headquarters, Sherpa Adventure Gear, and we are back in the shade trying to escape the mid day heat!
Katrina arrived in Islamabad at about 2.30am today, so she is the 1st of our team on the ground. The three of us will fly tomorrow afternoon, Inshallah. ( You will see this a lot on this trip, loosely translated it means “if God wills it”).
Stay tuned!

Bodanath

Lakpa and Tshering