K2 Broad Peak 2006 Double Dispatch Home

July 31 Update # 2 on Accident: Good news on Gerard!

from stu in theUS office 1:20pm EST,
We are very happy to share with friends family and followers of the expedition that Gerard is already safely back in Skardu and the reports are all very positive. Despite being cut badly enough to need 10 stitches Gerard is conscious, alert and oriented. The doctors feel that he is already out of serious danger and he is remaining in the Skardu hospital overnight for observation. Our ground staff at ATP have arranged a flight for Gerard back to Islamabad for the morning and we hope he will be given the okay by the doctors for this flight.

The past 24 hours have been very difficult for all involved and we would like to thank Ashraf, Essar and Naik at ATP for being so good in coordinating the rescue as well as the flow of information to the people who most needed to know. We would like to acknowledge the special efforts that Mick has made in assisting Gerard all the way from the time of the accident until he reached the hospital. Time for a good rest for MIck! We are very grateful to all of those individuals and groups who assisted Gerard on the mountain and at basecamp and we wish the remaining climbers safe passage to the summit and back. Additionally we thank the helicopter pilots who always put them selves at great risk to make these flights into thin air.

We'll hope for good news from the hill and keep you informed as we hear more about Gerard and Mick on their way back to Ireland.

July 31 Update on Accident on K2

On the way to C2 yesterday Gerard McDonnell was struck in the head by a falling rock and was assisted back to base camp by Mick and Banjo. On the way down Gerard received medical attention at ABC by two doctors from other teams. The extent of Gerard's injuries are unknown at this time.

Our ground operator ATP has arranged a helicopter for evacuating Gerard to the hospital in Skardu which is scheduled for this morning. We are hopeful for a smooth transport and that Gerard receives appropriate medical care as soon as possible. We have been in direct communication with Gerard's family and friends at home and our thoughts are with them and Gerard for a safe and speedy return.

July 27, 2007 - K2 summit push over and team at BC

Image of K2 courtesy Alan Arnette

From Stu in the US office, 6:30am EST, July 27, 2006
After a strong effort on the mountain our team has returned to base camp and with only a few day remaining there is not sufficient time to launch another summit attempt for the main group. A few members are planning another summit attempt in conjunction with other teams after some rest. The good news is that despite some rock fall that all members are safely back at base camp and that our main expedition has been able to summit Broad Peak , climb very high on K2 and will return home safely. Ryan has just reported in and you can listen to his audio dispatch. I will transcribe it in the hours ahead but he notes that everyone was at some point high on the hill and that at least a few members reached C4 as well!

With the recent news of the Italian couple summiting is is clear that the work of our group was at least instrumental in preparing the route for other teams. Small consolation perhaps but in every expedition to mountains like K2 there is always a strong element of mutual success. We congratulate the Italians and i am sure there is celebrating all across Italy! First the world cup and now K2!

The team will be leaving base camp on the 29th of June and be back in Skardu some 4-5 days later depending on the route they take. We look forward to more reports from Ryan in the days ahead and for more news you can check in on Wilco's site and on Alan's site, both of which have recent dispatches' and images as well.

recent news

• July 23 The team has reached C3
• July 22 The summit push for K2 is on!
• July 21 Alan comments on the present summit push. (this link will take you to Alan's site)
• July 16 Alan's trip report...a must read! (this link will take you to Alan's site)
• July 14 Ryan reports from K2 Base camp
• July 7 More Summits!
• July 4 Allan and JJ out safely, Wilco and Gerard heading for the summit!
• June 29 The right decision - Alan to head home
• June 29 MORE SUMMITS! Mick, Marcus and John top out for a first Irish 8000m Karakoram peak ever!!

sponsors | team list | member bios | media sources | K2 Broad Peak Information Page

Proud Sponsors and Supporters of FTA's K2 & Broad Peak 2006


Eureka	Thai Airways	Intuition Sports Vancouver

Adventure Outfitters	Hyatt Hotels	Bauly Enterprises (dehydrated food including butter and cheese)

Nemo Equipment	Loki	http://www.thompsonfoundry.com

Power Bar	Plaut

K2oo6 WORLD CLIMB TEAM LIST

Jeff Justman (US) - Leader K2 &BP
Ryan Waters (US) - Asst Leader K2 &BP
Kurt Grimm (US) K2 &BP
Mich Murphy (Ireland) K2 & BP
Carl Drew (US) K2 &BP
Matthew Gardiner (UK) K2 &BP
Josette Valloton (Switzerland) K2
Nick Barclay (Australia) K2 &BP
Wilco van Rooijen (Dutch) K2 &BP
Joelle Bruphacher (Switzerland) K2 &BP
Alan Arnette (US) K2 &BP
Marcus Dell (Canada) K2 & BP
Gerard McDonnell (Ireland) K2 &BP
Jan Van der Meer (Dutch) BP
John Roche (Ireland) BP
Ian de Bruyn (South Africa/Australia) BP
Diane Walker (South Africa/Australia) BP
Mark Sheen (Australia) BP
John Dowd (Ireland) BP
Con Collins (Ireland) BP

Team Member Profiles

Jeff Justman(USA)
Expedition Leader & Base Camp Manager
Jeff joins our team fresh from a recent effort on Mount Everest where his role as a guide was well used when he accompanied a member in need of assistance back to base camp. Jeff has led expeditions to 8000m peaks before and we are excited to have him leading this trip. His experience and skill will be well appreciated on the hill and at base camp!

For more about Jeff and our other guides see our staff page.

Ryan Waters (USA)
Expedition Deputy Leader

A father knows best and this is what Ryan's father told us recently:
"Ryan Waters successfully summitted Cho Oyu on May 24, 2006 along with 4 of
his 8 man climbing team and also summitting were 3 sherpas.
He has now led 5 expeditions in the Himalayas, 2 on Mt. Everest, 2 on Choi
Oyu and 1 on Pumori. There have been successful summits on everyone of his
expeditions and no one has ever gotten injured or had an accident. An
excellent record to say the least.
Just call me proud of him as I am his father."

For more about Ryan and our other guides see our staff page.

Jan van der Meer
Climbing Member
ICT consultant, mountaineer and amateur photographer.

My biggest achievement so far is Cho Oyu in september 2005. Climbed some Alps too. Amoung them Mont Blanc and Dom.
My trips are documented on: www.mountainpassion.net

Gerard Mcdonnell(Ireland)

Gerard hails from Kilcornan Co. Limerick Ireland and has been living in Alaska for the last 9 years. He loves to climb and likes the big mountains because it means having to spend more time climbing them.

July 23, 2007 - K2 summit push: team in C3 at 7359m!

From Stu in the US office, 6:30am EST, July 23, 2006
We have just received word from Wilco's team that Ryan, Wilco, Mick and Gerrard have all reached C3 and have successfully negotiated the Black Pyramid. As they have technical challenges and deep snow before them they clearly have a tremendous amount of work ahead. At the time of this writing they are likley already on the move to C4 where they will have a short stop before beginning the long summit push.

For more background on the push see the july 22 dispatch below. More news as we have it!

From Wilcos site:
The Update dispatch Saturday July 22nd
Wilco, Ryan, Gerard and Mick arrived at Camp 3 (7359m)
It was a very tough climb. It took us eight hours to get here. On the route from camp 2 they first had to negotiate “The Black Pyramid”. This is a technical and difficult part of the K2 ascent. The HAP’s are very disappointing. They should have climbed in front of the team but started this morning at exactly the same moment. Only one ! Hap has arrived until now and the team has some logistical problems. The Hap’s left a few hundred meters lower the oxygen for Ryan and Mick, a lightweight tent the team will need in Camp 4 and some climbing rope they will need on there summit push. That does NOT look good.

The French climber Antoine became ill on his way up. He is now in Camp 3 with the rest but will descent tomorrow morning. Wilco and Mick suffer from a light form of diarrhea. With enough fluids and medicine this should not be a big problem. Wilco reports knee deep snow. That will be a problem tomorrow when they will climb towards camp 4. This will be their last camp before they will start their summit push on Sunday night 0.00 hr.

July 22, The summit push is on!

The push for the summit of K2 is on as we speak with favorable weather conditions predicted and a strong summit team of Ryan, Gerrard, Wilco and Mick. We will be awaiting with great anticipation as they have a summit date of Monday. Given the recent snow and the general nature of summit day on K2 it is sure that they will have a full day or more on the move and we wish them a safe journey up and back.

Despite the recent avalanches which claimed much of the gear at C2 of other groups out team seems to have been spared with most of our stores at C1. At least a few expeditions have had to call off their attempts due to these significant losses of gear. There are 2 other summit teams for FTA in the works but we have no news of their progress for the moment. Much may depend on the progress of this first team in opening and preparing the route. The original intention to share the effort of fixing the most technical parts of the upper mountain has been altered with the loss of equipment at C2 and much of this work will now fall to our team.

Given the performance of the Eureka tents on Broad Peak it comes as no surprise that they are holding their own on K2. Alan write's: "I made some comments before on these tents but let me elaborate. When I was at Camp 2 on Broad, I awoke one morning to howling winds. But it was very confusing. The wind sounded like it was above me not on the surface since my Eureka 5th Season EXO tent simply was not moving. I am not exaggerating - it was not moving at all. No shake, no shimmy it like a BMW flying down the autobahn at 200kmp! Perfectly smooth." We are looking forward to using these same tents for our upcoming 2006 Spantik expedition which gets under way in 2 weeks time. You can read more of Alan's comments more on the tents in a great dispatch on his site. He also has a nice summary of the climbers presently headed for K2's summit and his personal experiences with them.

Wilco's team continues to do a fine job with dispatches dutch with English summaries and they will no doubt have the latest word from Wilco as he nears the top! His dispatch team has done a great service for our team and people watching from home by adding the English summaries and we thank them again for the excellent effort to make our trip come to life on a near daily basis.

All of us at FTA have our fingers crossed for the good stretch of weather to continue for our climbers and await the good news ahead.

More news as we have it!

stu

July 14, 2007, update from Stu Remensnyder in the US office

The past week has been a difficult one on Broad Peak with both accident and tragedy. We would like to report that our team members are all fine and either safely on the trek out or resting at K2 base camp. Several members of our team were involved on a rescue and all of them have been affected by the death of a fellow climber. On their sites both Wilco and Alan have commented on the events and you can find links to their dispatches in the media links section on this page.

As for present news we have received an audio update from Ryan Waters at K2 base camp and i have transcribed his report at the end of this update. As well Wilco has added a nice summary of recent events on K2 on his site and a list of climbers presently on K2 which include Ryan Waters, Bill Zachary, Kurt Grimm, Mich Murphy, Carl Drew, Matthew Gardiner, Josette Valloton, Nick Barclay, Wilco van Rooijen, Joelle Bruphacher, Marcus Dell and Gerard McDonnell

We need to corrrect the information in the July 7 dispatch which had Gerrard and Wilco reaching the summit. Deciding that the time and demands of the route had conspired against them they made the wise choice to turn around having reached the Rocky Summit and return to C4 where they met up with Mark Sheen and together returned to base camp. Along the way they met up with Diane and Ian and ended up in a rescue of a fallen Spanish climber who was safely helped to base camp. Mark ended up with some frostbitten fingers and we are hopeful that the injuries will be minor and he'll be back at it soon.

With the end of the Broad Peak portion of our expedition we can report that 4 members (Ryan, Mick, Marcus and John) reached the true summit while another 6 (JJ and three HAPS, Gerrard and Wilco) and reached the rocky summit or higher. A number of members also spent nghts in C4 or reached C3, both in excess of 7000m. For many it was most important to acclimatize for K2 and not exhaust themselves on Broad Peak. I suspect that if K2 did not beckon that another 4-5 members might have found their way to the top. All in all we are very happy to report a safe, and successful Broad Peak trip. Four year running now and already looking towards 2007!

Ryan has called in with the latest on the waiting game at K2 and we'll hope for good weather ahead for the team!

From Ryan at K2 Base Camp
Hello there! This is Ryan Waters, calling from K2 base camp, the
expedition leader for the Field Touring Alpine K2 expedition.
Calling you from deep snow here at base camp on Friday the 14th of July to give you a quick update on all of our goings on.

Our Broad Peak expedition is officially wrapped up. All the Broad Peak members have started their hike out a few days ago, out to skardu. They are likely into civilization at this point. We had a very successful Broad Peak expedition with people reaching the summit, a very safe trip, and everyone is either on their way out or continued up here to K2 where the rest of our members are here.

We definitely want to express our thoughts and prayers to the Austrian team who lost a member on the mountain and several of our members have gone down to the Gilkey memorial here at K2 base camp where the Austrians have put up a memorial up to there member.

We’d also like to recognize Diane, Ian and Wilco who assisted on a miraculous rescue of a Spanish climber who had fallen in a crevasse at the base of K2 last week I believe. So congratulations to them and we hope that the Spanish member is feeling good.

On to K2….
We are definitely under way here. There has been few of us here for quite some time working pretty hard to get things going on k2. We had a good weather window for a while, we got all of our gear up to ABC and camp 1 and most of the way to camp 2 so we are looking good there.

Our next plan is to get camp three established hopefully with the help of some of our HAPs and immediately being followed up by some summit bids if the weather allows that. Our weather reports are saying that things are going to clear up hopefully within in a couple of days. Because we received lots and lots of snow here we’ve all just been relaxing and sitting in the tents and drinking lots of tea and waiting for the weather to clear.

We are going to have a big meeting tomorrow with all of the team leaders to see what everyone’s plans are and maybe a plan to help each other out up on the higher part of the mountain fixing the bottleneck etc. The route seems like a terrific route. Definitely when you walk on there at the base of the Abruzzi you can feel the seriousness of the mountain and the route. Just judging the length and the difficulty there is definitely quite a bit of objective hazard to look out for, namely rock fall, so everyone is alert but we are excited about the route.

To celebrate we watched the movie K2 at basecamp the other night. So that was kind of a funny thing to see and actually a good turn of events for myself as it is the movie that started me climbing many years ago. I haven’t seen it since and now I have watched the movie at K2 base camp so that was pretty interesting.

Other than that, lots of sitting around waiting at this point and we are looking within the next hopefully 3 days or 4 days to be sending our first groups…maybe on potential summit attempts. So Inshallah, god willing, maybe we are going to get a shot at this thing and we’ll give it our best.

Sounds good from hear everyone is feeling well and hope everyone back at home is feeling good. Right now I am zero for 5 in Monopoly so I am about to go and see if I can beat some of these members and try to clear my name in that and pass some time there. We will definitely be in touch as soon as we have more information. Check here to see about information about any summit bids!

Okay, thanks everyone at home and we’ll be in touch soon.
Bye!

July 7, 2006 Update from Stu Remensnyder in the US Office

MORE SUMMITS!!
Ryan has just called in from sunny K2 base camp with great news from Broad Peak. Wilco and Gerrard have summited and are already down to C3. Quite a trip so far for the Irish and Dutch as both countries have now seen their first summits of Broad Peak! [note: Wilco and Gerrard reached the rocky summit and not the true summit so there is still room for a Dutch first true summit.]

You can listen to Ryan's dispatch on Alan Arnett's site or read the transciption below. As well Wilco's site will certainly have updates soon!

From Ryan at K2 Base Camp
Hey everyone this is Ryan waters calling from the k2 broad Peak 2006 world climb calling in a dispatch from sunny k2 base camp

Sitting here at the base of k2 looking up with beautiful skies in the morning at about 7:30, no wind the top looks close enough to touch but its is a long long way off

Some news from broad peak for our team:
We would like to congratulate Wilco van Rooijen and Gerrard McDonnell both who summited on July 6 , yesterday, in the late afternoon in deep snow conditions. But had a successful summit and are now safely back down towards camp 3 and descending down the mountain.

Also we have Matt and Jan who are approaching camp 4 , maybe they are there this morning. I need to call them and talk to them and we’ll get their update as they go for summit attempt as well.

So good news on Broad Peak and we are starting to slowly wrap up that mountain as the last members are making their summit attempts their. Our plan is close down that strip on the 13th and those members will be leaving at that time. And then the k2 climbers will be moving up here to base camp and actually they have already have started as several member are already here now officially moved to k2 and we are starting to look at this mountain.

Our K2 news as of yet is we’ve carried loads to ABC, which is about 2 hours away, through some interesting walking and climbing to get to ABC. Our plan is today to have all gear, all of our group gear, tents and rope and fuel and of that good stuff, all of that there at the base of the route as of today. So we are looking good there and our plan is to make camp and c2 with in then next 3 days we hope if this weather holds out. So we will be in good position to start thinking of summit attempts as soon as we get the next good weather window.

Things are progressing along well and everyone feeling good and we look forward to hopefully sending you more news from K2 in the upcoming time here as soon as we have some good news to report
So hello to everyone: to our friends, our families, sponsors and everyone else. Wishing you the best here from the Karakoram range in Pakistan, this is Ryan signing out and we’ll give you a call later. Good bye!

July 4, 2006 Update from Stu Remensnyder in the US Office

I have received word from both Alan and JJ that they are on their way home from Islamabad and both feeling better now that they are out of the harsh conditions which are home to our team on Broad Peak and K2. We thank them once again for their great efforts on behalf of the climbers still on Broad Peak and K2.

Wilco has added an English segment to his website dispatches and will be a good source for anyone following the news in the month ahead. We thank him for making a good effort in English as it all looks great so far!

C4 on Broad Peak

Wilco along with Mark and Gerrard are perched at camp 3 and moving up to camp 4 at near 7800m on the 5th and hoping to summit early on the 6th. Having spent 2 nights at C4 in 2003 I can tell you that this is a spectacular place and sets them up for a significantly shorter summit day than often encountered by teams trying to summit from C3. That said is is only slightly below the height of the south col camp on Everest and as such is a difficult place to get a good sleep!

They will rest for some hours, hydrate and eat and then set out. We wish them a succesful ascent and look forward to their safe descent. With luck they will be able to return early enough in the day to return to C3.

In the mean time Ryan and our team of HAPs have moved over to K2 and have established C2 for Field Touring. This is exciting news as it bodes well for the team as many members intend to move over to K2 in less than a weeks time. The break in the weather that appears to becoming up will be a great opportunity for Ryan to push the route through to C3.

We look forward to good news on both mountains in the days ahead...stay tuned!

July 2, 2006 Update from Stu Remensnyder in the US Office

Already our team has managed to get 7 members over the Rocky Summit with 4 of them reaching the true summit as well. Another week or so at Broad Peak and we will begin to turn our full attention to K2. in the past few days we have had a few very tough losses for the team in the last few days to share with you.

Our dispatches had been coming from Alan Arnette through his site until he had to leave the expedition due to illness. We thank him for all of his spectacular efforts to share the realities of expeditions in the Karakoram and encourage you to visit Alan's web site.

Our leader Jeff "JJ": Justman was forced to leave the expedition with a severe repiratory infection on the 30th of June after helping to establish the route to Broad Peaks summit. We thanks him for his outstanding efforts and look forward to his return to health and to the high peaks!

In JJ's absence Ryan Waters has already taken on the full repsonsibilites and we have every confidence in him given his extraordinary background and experience as an expedition manager. You can read more about him on our staff page. Ryan was the first to summit Broad Peak this summer and helped pave the way for the other climbers who have made their way to the top.

• June 30

JJ has been struggling with a significant rspiratory infection and has made the difficult decision to join Alan on the walk out from base camp to Askole. They are due to arrive in Askole on July 2 and be transported to Skardu the same evening. More details as we have them.

•June29

The right decision - Alan to head home

June 29 MORE SUMMITS

Mick, Marcus and John top out for a first Irish 8000m Karakoram peak ever!!

• June 27

Summit bids on Broad Peak under way - Wilco and Gerrard today, more tomorrow! Congrats to the Pakistan HAPs!

• June 25 Broad Peak Summits!

Ryan Waters tops out and the route is now open. More members nearing the high camps...

• June 21

High winds force Wilco to BC from C3...summit bids to begin in less than a week

• June 20

Now resting in C2 and C3 reached

June 12, 2006 Stu in the US office

Alan Arnette reports by audio dispatch from Goro II that he has been a bit sick and fell behind the rest of the team while he battled a serious GI problem. Whether it was a bacterial infection, a virus or a critter remains unknown but Alan seems to have recovered quite well. Last year we had more than 10 people with GI trouble by this juncture so we are well ahead in team health already!
Alan has now caught up with three members of the team at Goro II while 25 other members are at Concordia today and headed for Broad Peak base camp tomorrow. Alan reports that everyone is doing well and that he hopes to get the solar power and email system up and running in a few days. For family and friends awaiting emails from team members please hang in!
Today’s weather has been not very nice for hiking and includes 0°C/32°F temps with 20mph winds, light snow and low visibility. We’ll hope for the support trekkers that the weather clears in the next day or so to give them fantastic views of K2 and Broad Peak/
Alan admits that the no one is even thinking about climbing yet as the travel alone to base camp has been so demanding. Buses, jeeps, river crossing, hard hikes and spectacular views have kept them otherwise occupied.
A few parts transcribed from his audio dispatch:
It has been quite an ordeal just getting here to base camp….it is probably one of the most difficult and remote places on the planet earth to actually get to.
I have been fortunate in my life to travel all around the world and to be to many mountain ranges and I have never seen mountains as spectacular as the Karakoram here. They are just as rugged, just as jagged and just as majestic as any picture you’ve ever seen and the pictures don’t do them justice. I cannot believe how tall they are. Walking along the Baltoro glacier today which we’ve been doing for the last two days…is an extremely wide, maybe a mile across, is the glacier, and it runs for probably 60 miles on either side just shrouded with beautiful 6 to 7 000 meter mountains.
I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. This is a spectular place…if you ever get a chance to come to this place please do!
Climb on
Alan
listen to alans full audio dispatch

Media Sources

Alan Arnette's dispatch page

Alan is a team member and one of the critical people involved in making our expedition a reality. His site is a superb resource for mountaineering and climbing. visit Alan's dispatch home

Wilco's Site

Wilco is one of our most experienced members having already been on K2 before. His site is in Dutch but with the use of www.babelfish.com one can translate the site into somewhat understandable English or the language of your choice. visit Wilco's Site | go to babelfish.com

K2climb.net

K2climb.net has been a very reliable and consistent source for expedition news and has made every effort to get the news right with respect to our expedition. They have many sources they use and often have information about our own expedition before we do! visit K2climb.net

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