Category: K2 2014 Summit

My Summit Video from the 2014 K2 Climb

Alan on K2 Summit

It took a while but I finally got around to editing all my K2 video clips from our 2014 summit climb into one short (33 minute) video. As regular readers remember, all my climbs are to raise awareness and research funds for Alzheimer’s Disease. I became the oldest American at age 58 and the 18th American to summit K2. We summited on my birthday July 27, 2014. The video starts with our arrival in Islamabad, then the journey via planes, and FJ Cruiser’s to the “end of the road” at Askole where the 80-mile trek to K2 Base Camp begins. Hiking over the Baltoro Glacier is an adventure in its own right. Once at Base Camp, we visit the Gilky Memorial to remember those who have died in these mountains. The climb on K2 begins at Advance Base Camp with a steep 1,000-meter (3,000 ft) climb to Camp 1. After acclimatization rotations as high as C2, the summit push begins near the end of July. I hope you enjoy the video and remember and continue to support the cause to find a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease. Climb On! Alan Memories are Everything

K2: Descending is the Real Climb

I summited K2 (28, 251 feet or 8611 meters) on July 27, 2014 struggling and fighting for each meter. Three times I went to a place deep in my essence looking for the energy to continue. Now the challenge was getting back to Base Camp and home. Through 2013, of the 84 deaths, 31 had occurred on the descent, 37%. On Everest the rate is 27%. I  was exhausted but more problematic was that I was developing High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema aka HAPE, a fatal condition where the lungs fill with fluids stopping breathing. It would take at least two days to reach base camp and any potential evacuation. After taking six days to reach the summit, now I was dehydrated, exhausted and with HAPE symptoms. I left the summit knowing I would have to use all the experience and skills I had to survive. All the enjoyment and fun of climbing K2 was replaced by emptiness and solitude. Did I have the strength, the willpower, the desire to live? Life or Death I lifted my head, balanced on my hands and knees, only to see everyone staring at me as I began gagging just to the right of our Camp 4 tent. I was at 25,000 feet on K2 having just returned from the summit, all of which was a blur. A sudden convulsion brought my head back down as I looked at a pool of clear fluids on the snow. Trying to maintain any semblance of dignity, I used humor as a coping mechanism once again. “I’m all right!” I called out as I rolled over on my back and spread my arms and legs like I was making a snow angel. The truth was very different. I took off my crampons and harness then made my way inside the tent. Garrett soon joined me. Kami grabbed my empty water bottles. “How do you feel?” Garrett began. “Lets get you on some meds. I think you have HAPE so this is life and death. I’ve had it and we have to be aggressive. Let’s aim for ABC today. We need to get lower.” I tried to process his words but the only thing I wanted to do was lie down, close my eyes and … “OK” I said, not ready to fully discuss my condition. Digging into his pack, Garrett pulled out the med kit. “Let’s start with four tablets of Dexamethasone (Dex) and one of a Phosphodiesterase (PDE5) inhibitor or .” All of this was designed to address the fluids gathering in my lungs. I opened my hand and swallowed the five tablets hoping they would stay down. Lying back on my sleeping bag, it was hot inside the tent. The sun was blazing through the thin atmosphere, no wind; a perfect summit day. I closed my eyes allowing myself to relax for the first time in 14 hours. I was tired. Physically I felt empty, no strength to get out of the tent much less down climb to ABC. Mentally, I understood I had to go lower; it was the only solution for someone with HAPE. Drugs would only delay the inevitable if I stayed at 25,000 feet. Emotionally, I felt little. The wall I had built to protect myself from whatever was going on within my body and mind was strong. Any sense of accomplishment from summiting K2 was fleeting, shallow, invisible to my ego. I was living moment to moment with occasional thoughts of the next time I had to move. Camp 4 Matt crawled in beside me so once again we were three men in a tent. Kami, Koncha and Kami Rita melted snow in a nearby tent, also taking a rest. The summit push on K2 had been demanding on all of us. Expecting to fall asleep, I let my mind drift but struggled to form clear thoughts. Sleep was elusive. All I could think of was how tired I felt, how empty, how drained. “Let’s go in about half an hour.” Garrett called out. We noted his order with silence. As I came out of the tent a bit later, Kami was going though my pack removing almost everything and putting my gear into his already overloaded pack. I put my crampons back on pulling the straps as tight as I could. Kami knelt down and pulled them tighter. As I stood up to put my harness on, I looked at the route towards the Bottleneck, the ice serac and the summit of K2. Tracing the faint boot path with my eyes, I tried to let the view sink into my essence, my soul. I closed my eyes then opened them somehow not believing what I was seeing. Not understanding I was just there. Exhaustion But it was real, I was alive and needed to descend almost two vertical miles over difficult rock at altitudes where airplanes fly. As I took inventory, my mind became focused. I was so tired I could barely stand up. My lungs were hurting so badly, I couldn’t take more than two breaths without a hard, painful cough. I was so dehydrated, I spit back up any water that trickled into my throat. A thought formed in my confused mind: the descent will be worse than the climb. I put my pack back on along with my oxygen mask. I would continue using supplemental oxygen as long as it lasted. I unclipped my carabiner from my harness to clip into the fixed line. There was no fixed line at Camp 4. I put the ‘biner back onto my harness. My mind failing to understand what I was seeing. One by one our team of six started walking towards Camp 3 at 24,000 feet. Each step required focus, balance, strength – all lacking in my depleted body. Cresting the hill that hid Camp 3, I found the fixed line. I wrapped the line around my left arm, using the down suit as a cushion against the

K2: A Summit of Unknowns

We had spent five days reaching the high camp on K2. Climbing the Black Pyramid was the most fun I had ever experienced on an 8000 meter mountain. It was full on rock climbing at 22, 000 to 24, 000 feet with extreme exposure. I felt alive and fulfilled. As I arrived at Camp 2 , Camp 3 and Camp 4 a cough had developed that I dismissed as normal high altitude climbing. But in fact it was High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema aka HAPE, a fatal condition where the lungs fill with fluids stopping breathing. The only cure is descending .. and I was climbing higher. K2: The summit Push Standing at a full stop I was surrounded by nothing. The air was black, the chill penetrating. The feeling of death was real. My shoulders hurt under weight of the pack that held my life support – two bottles of oxygen connected to my facemask. All I could hear was my own essence flowing through my sporadic, heavy breathing. My arms went limp as I struggled to remain standing. I lifted my head and looked for my teammates. “Ah, there is Garrett, Matt and Koncha. They are not far away, moving well but the gap is widening between us.” I told myself knowing the reality was serious and I was having problems. Only an hour out of Camp 4 at 25,500 feet on K2, I was dying. I coughed deeply, it hurt, each one nipping away at my strength. I gasped again for air. I felt like I was drowning. An immense feeling of debilitating fatigue overtook me. I felt discouraged, and disappointed. I was losing the physical, mental and emotional battle and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I felt helpless, hopeless and ready to capitulate to K2. A sense of overwhelming sadness penetrated me like a cold mist in a dense fog reaching every part of my mind, body and soul. It was all I could just to remain standing. Dying “This is it.” Then I felt my life-force leave my body. It was like a spicket was opened allowing everything I was to leave my body. It was real, it was physical. My neck became weak as my head dropped against my chest. My right hand released the jumar attached to the fixed line. I stared at the small white spot illuminated by my headlamp against the white snow of K2. It was over and I didn’t care. All sense of motivation, any sense of ambition was gone, leaked out of my body. I didn’t look back, only ahead and down. I never considered turning back. Standing still now with Kami behind me and Kami Rita behind him, I was content to stay where I was. I wanted to sit down, lie down but my body had stopped working. I couldn’t move. I drew a deep breath accompanied by a deep course cough. My eyes now closed. Without consideration, a new thought formed in my dying brain. Why am I here? This lead to another why question and soon I was deep in my own world, oblivious to anything else, anyone around me or the fact that I was standing on a 50 degree slope in zero degree air temperature on the most dangerous part of K2, the world’s most difficult mountain. I thought about my mom and her battle with Alzheimer’s, the fact that I was on K2 to honor her. I had told the world that I was climbing K2 to raise awareness and money for Alzheimer’s. How could I just give up? Did I have a choice? As I thought about all the people around the world that were following me, supporting me, I began to feel something. I made a conscience decision to think about those people dealing with Alzheimer’s. It was on my mind even high on K2. What if I never remembered this moment, what if … I took another deep breath but this one was different. Something entered me as I inhaled. I felt a surge of energy, not a lot but enough that something changed inside. A sense of calm began to take over the sadness, they were now in competition. I took another deep breath and with my hands, touched my chest with my palms crossed. I deeply exhaled almost like purging the sadness from my essence. I felt the energy as I inhaled. It was real. I had no idea where it came from but my body began to react. I am not sure how long I stood there but suddenly felt Kami adjusting my oxygen bottle. I held up 2 fingers, he held up 3. The flow rate was now 3 liters per minutes. This added to my sadness. I looked at him with no expression, no words. I just looked at him. He looked back. I looked up towards the summit. It was hidden in the darkness of midnight July 27, 2014, my 58 th birthday. I took a step, and another. I picked my jumar back up and slid it along the fixed rope. The Ice Tiger A bright light flashed in front of me. It was sudden and disappeared quickly. I was confused for a moment then realized it was my teammates ahead looking up at the giant ice serac that guarded the summit of K2. Their headlamps were reflecting off the vertical ice laden face. It was like a tiger sitting on it’s haunches waiting to pounce. The ice had a dirty translucent glow to it, like the tiger’s tooth. He was growling a warning, a threat – don’t come any closer. I saw this and didn’t give it a second thought. I was self-absorbed wondering if I could take another step. But the sight of the serac perked me up knowing how close I was to the most dangerous part of K2, the section that killed many people including my friend Ger McDonnell in 2008. His body

K2: Your Questions

I am back home in Colorado now still processing my summit of K2 on my 58th birthday last month. As I made the long journey home, I was thinking of how I can somehow repay in a tiny way your kindness and support for me. I am forever grateful for every donation to your choice of Alzheimer’s non-profit. I hope to get a tally soon. But another thought was to try to share my K2 experience through a Q&A on this Blog. Just post a question in the comment section and I will do my to answer it. If you prefer something less public, send me an email at climbing@alanarnette.com.  I will try to answer as quickly as possible. Obviously, I am not a professional climber, mountain guide, Alzheimer’s spets or physician so some topics I am not qualified to respond to and other resources are better suited for those topics. But I am glad to share my experiences as I have for the last decade through my site. To get things started, a few people have asked about what I thought were the keys to K2 this year. With this being my 36 major expedition and 9th to an 8000m peak, I think I can identify five areas. Obviously these are my thoughts and don’t apply to everyone. ORGANIZATION:I have to start with how the climb was organized by Garrett Madison of Madison Mountaineering. Garrett has taken more people to the summit of Everest than any other guide and summited six times himself so he understands expeditions very well. He thought through the schedule in an aggressive yet simple manner to minimize our time on K2 exposed to the objective dangers but also to reserve our energy for the summit push. As a result we only made one acclimatization rotation. This proved to be sufficient and we used supplemental oxygen. Others climbing without O’s made as many as four rotations to the higher camps. While we used the base camp and logistical services of Seven Summits Treks, we were a self contained team with our own Sherpa support. It was a comfortable base camp with good food and general support. I never got sick before the summit push, lost weight or felt stressed – all this was key to going into the summit with a good mental attitude. A final factor was that I employed every trick and technique I knew throughout the expedition from sleeping to gear to eating, drinking, foot placement (simple, small steps), clothing layers, attitude, who I hung out with, etc. One proof of how it worked was that I never lost my appetite, rare for me. WEATHER: We experienced some of the weather K2 has seen in modern expedition times. There was over a week of minimal precipitation and very low winds. When we summited at 8:00am on July 27, the winds were less than 10 mph. It was cold, maybe 0F and my fingers got very, very cold as I took off my gloves to make phone calls, etc. But for the summit of K2 at 28,251′ – this was nothing. We did see 3 feet of fresh snow the previous night covering some of the fixed lines but again, this was not a major issue. During our acclimatization rotation, we had a couple of days of high winds, heavy snow and low clouds that gave us a hint of what K2 could provide but for the summit window – it was perfect. PREPARATION: My fitness was at the level for an 8000m peak ever including Everest three years earlier.  In the previous 6 months, I climbed over 15 14,000 Colorado mountains with 30 pound packs and did a total of 58 outside activities from 14ers to day hikes. I went to K2 at my target weight which was 177 pounds for my 5’10” frame. That said, in hindsight, I could have used a bit more upper body work given the extensive rock climbing on K2, plus more cardio work. I think these are given on such a high altitude technical peak such as K2. SHERPA SUPPORT: This should be no surprise to anyone who followed me that having my Everest summit partner Kami (Ang Chhiring Sherpa – Pangboche) was a perfect match for me. At age 49 with 15 Everest summits, and an attempt on K2 in 2008, he had the maturity, experience and personality I needed. It goes without saying I trust my life to Kami. He was always supportive, professional, competent and is a genuine nice person. Kami along with Kami Rita Sherpa, Fur Kancha Sherpa made a couple of carries to establish the high camps plus were there by our sides as we climbed. I want to be clear, I would not have summited K2 without their support. Also, having a small team of myself, Garrett and Matt Du Puy was perfect. We got to know and trust one another. It is not a gross overstatement but we almost climbed K2 in alpine style as a small team – perfect for such a dangerous mountain. PURPOSE: In looking back at my other climbs, I hit my mental wall way before my physical wall and quit too soon. I never understood how much reserves my body really had. Again, many people talk about mental toughness but my previous experiences showed me how far one can push their body if the mind is willing. So in the last few years, I have been working on mental toughness. When the time came on K2 to push my body, my mind was willing. However, I had to reach into depths I didn’t know existed on summit night plus the descent. More on this as I write about the overall climb later. But the biggest difference was the inspiration and motivation that came from watching my mom struggle with Alzheimer’s. She did it with class, dignity and humor. She never let on how much it hurt. Her strength and courage kept me going

K2: The Journey Home

Well the climb is over as I’m actually on my way home. It has been a lifetime experience that brought into sharp focus my passion and purpose in life. Climbing K2, the world’s hardest mountain, to fight Alzheimer’s, the world’s hardest disease. The 75 mile trek from K2 Base camp back to Askole was very difficult on me as I had little time to recover from the summit push plus was suffering from mild pulmonary edema aka HAPE, dehydration and general fatigue. We walked for three days covering 25 miles each day taking 10 to 12 hours per day. Once we left the Baltoro Glacier, the heat was stifling adding heat exhaustion to the equation. But we moved as a team and I appreciated their support. Once in Skardu, the flight to Islambad dance began. Skardu does not have radar and is nestled in a steep valley so it is visual flight rules. Frequent storms cause the cancellation of flights but the worse part is that PIA is the only airline and has limited flights. With so many of us coming off K2, Broad Peak Gasherbrum I/II there were too many people to accommodate via standby so we were forced to take the bus over the Karakorum Highway (KKH) to Islamabad. For those of you who have done this, you know it is a grueling journey not made any better by some great scenery as you follow the Indus River. A Close Shave Our couple of days in Skardu were fun staying at the Concordia Hotel who have great food and nice people. It was like seeing old friends with so many climbers there so the atmosphere was quite festive.  As I posted on Facebook, Garrett Madison and I went for a haircut and shave based on the recommendation of Al Hancock.  It was quite the experience getting a traditional single blade shave from a young Pakistani lad in “downtown” Skardu. It was one of those totally manual affairs with scissors and sharp lethal switchblade type devices. He had the concentration of a Beverly Hills Housewife who had been scorned by her friend over a bad martini – not sure about this reference … Anyway, it started with a clip, clip clip of him cutting hair, followed by getting slapped around with his open hand to bring the facial skin alive – at least that is the theory. I was ready to tell him anything.  He used some kind of medieval snake oil to loosen the pores then lathered us up with a horse (could have been mule) brush before taking the blade to our face. In my case I covered my goatee to indicate “no touch”. He grunted, then scowled, then twisted his mouth in a strange way as he worked around my beard. I found this interesting because EVERYONE has a beard here including the horses, mules, young and old men – but not this guy. I think he is on a one man protest. I digress. He finally took the blade to my goatee itself which was fine as it needed thinning but he went on and on. It has not been this short since I was 4 years-old. Cost? $1.00 each – a bargain!! Riding the KKH The bus ride to Islamabad was a close second in drama. I was a bit worried about this part of the journey as the KKH is known for crashes, murders and kidnappings. But the Pakistani military was in full presence with multiple checkpoints plus jeeps equipped with machine guns highly visible. I never felt threatened my entire time in Pakistan. The bus ride was something entirely different. Again, as I wrote on Facebook we made it to Islamabad after driving 19.5 hours yesterday and another 9 today in a Partridge Family style bus complete with fringe and heavy red drapes to keep the sun out, we arrived team intact to now figure out flights home. The music was blaring as we left Askole so I asked for it to be turned down – just like an old man – but was told it will keep the driver awake and prevent him from running off the Karakorum Highway (KKH) into the Indus River. So making a trade-off between living and watching Bollywood movies, well …. I got in touch with my inner-Bollywood via repeat showings of a snake handed lady wiggling her hips non stop until an angry young man stormed her only to join in. I am now a convert … The KKH was packed with security checkpoints, jeeps with machine guns and random security. It was good to know someone was watching over us and not just the bad guys … thanks Pakistan. We finally arrived at the Marriott in Islamabad and had a real meal sitting in a real chair at a real table – talk about sensory overload. I’m felt like going over an sitting in one of their planters in the dirt just so I could feel at home …. Seriously, I do finally feel like I am getting back to human shape but need multiple long shower/bath/scrubbing/delousing. But just as I was ready for that first shower, I called my airline to change my flight and was told the only seats were tonight or wait a week. I was hoping for a few days of doing nothing at the hotel but this trip has kept me going. I got on the hotel scales and in fact lost 15 pounds – more than I wanted to loose. So now I’m somewhere in the air between Islamabad and Denver. K2 K2. It gets you coming in, climbing and going out. There is nothing easy about that mountain. But the rewards are genuine. It still has not sunk in that I summited. For some reason I’m not giving myself permission to think about it too much. Perhaps too busy just trying to get home. Maybe it is too good to be true. Or just that is

K2: No Victory Lap

Our team is back in Skardu now after one of the most grueling treks out I have ever made. As I had mentioned, the descent from K2’s summit was as difficult and physical as the up climb. We only spent one day resting at K2 Base Camp and then trekked 25 miles per day on the Baltoro Glacier for three days, sick or 75 miles. Each day was 8 to 13 hours. My body never got a chance to catch up. I now have lost at least 15 pounds and am extremely tired. Today we took a six hour jeep ride over very rough 4-WD roads from Askole to Skardu. To be candid, sick I struggled on the trek out still suffering from mild HAPE, extreme fatigue and dehydration. I have yet to get enough water back into my system but will be fine now that I am back in “civilization” I will post a recap of the summit night as promised plus a full trip report or even write a book on this experience. But for now I want to comment on the fact that much is being made about there were 40 K2 summits this season with some saying K2 is the new Everest and open for “tourist” business. With K2 being my 36th major expedition including four on Everest, my honest assessment is that K2 is not Everest. As anyone who has read my blog for the past decade can attest, I have utmost respect for Everest and her climbers. It is the highest mountain in the world after all! But K2 is totally different. While K2 is lower than Everest by about 800 feet, the climbing presents an entirely different level of difficulty, complexity and needs for skills. Each climber must has proven, long term skills in rock, ice, snow. Falter on one, you gamble with your life. The fixed ropes are mostly a placebo, some showing the route but others not strong enough to stop a fall. You actually rock climb using hands and feet, look for hand holds, literally use your upper body to ascend using a jumar. You use the front points of your crampons, not for traction on a snow slope, but to secure your body to a vertical ice or rock wall. It is a game of tiny edges, of inches. Your body is supported by your feet, your hands prevent you from falling backwards. If you slip on loose rocks and are not properly secured, you will fall and die. There is no recovery opportunity. Climb K2 is about as serious as one can get and at severe altitude. And the decent is in some ways worse. You must rig rapells (or absell) over and over, each one must be perfect, there is zero room for error. There is a maze of old ropes on K2 that need to be cleaned up. If you choose the wrong rope, and you slip thus weighting the rope, it will break under your weight. You are exhausted, the lack mental focus is very real so mistakes are easy and often. No one can climb for you, you are on your own, totally responsible for yourself; no guide, sherpa, teammates or porter can climb for you. You must be constantly on the outlook for large, as in microwave size, falling rocks that can kill you instantly. Avalanches are a constant threat. And the weather … In both 2012 and 2014, the weather made K2 “easier” We had a solid week of low winds and light precipitation that greatly reduced the risks. That said, those on the first summit push on July 26 came extremely close to getting frostbite and stopping their attempt as they waited for the lines to be fixed across the Traverse. Many are lucky they did not loose fingers, toes or worse – this will be underreported in my experience. One person did die. Spaniard, Miguel Angel Perez Alnarez, died at Camp 4 after two summit pushes. Everyone watched the situation unfold and stayed in radio contact with him but he was climbing solo and at first without supplemental oxygen. Rescue teams were sent to give aid as soon as he called for help but they were too late. It takes at least two days to reach him from base camp, helicopter impossible at 8000m. It is a tragic situation and I want to extend my deep condolences to his family and friends. But this situation highlights how dangerous any 8000m mountain can be in good or bad weather. So, K2 2014 is almost over for me. I need time to recover. It took a lot out of me. I don’t want to be overly dramatic, but I went to a place I never knew existed, I pulled strength from unknown sources. K2 tested me like nothing physically, mentally or emotionally in my life. This will take some time. When I close my eyes I see myself climbing the rock walls of the Black Pyramid, skirting under the translucent ice walls of the serac above the Bottleneck. I see myself checking and double checking my rap device, scanning the steep slopes for rocks, wondering if I fell, how far and how fast it would be until I came to a stop. I am glad to be down. I am grateful I summited K2 and descended safely. I am indebted to my teammates and support team. It is virtually impossible for me to raise my arms in victory, uttering that trite expression about conquering the mountain. The only thing I conquered were my own limits on July 27 that allowed me to take my body and essence to place I never thought I would reach. I have no feeling of success, vanquish or celebration; perhaps they will come with time as I give myself permission to feel what comes from a hard earned goal. On the trek out, I tried to understand what has changed inside of me, what I left

K2: Tired but not Sick, Humbled and Grateful

Just a quick update. I will post a full summit night report plus a full trip report when I can. We are all back in K2 Base Camp safe as of 8:00pm July 28, 2014. The bottom line for me is at K2 is in a league of it’s own, deserving of my mantra of climbing the world’s hardest mountain to fight the world hardest disease. I will say this many times, my heart goes out to all who supported me and especially to those who made a donation – it is not too late 🙂 I was deeply saddened to learn of Denver Bronco’s owner Pat Bowlen who stepped down after bravely revealing that he has Alzheimer’s. This further encourages me to never to give up until we find a cure. We summited K2 on July 27, 2014 at 8:30am local time. It was a long day as we left camp 4 at 10:00pm climbing through the night. I knew I would have to dig deep into a place I have never touched and it proved true in many ways. I wanted to stop three distinct times but I kept going. Why? My cause was the only real reason I can give you. A close second was the support I felt from around the world. Thank you, thank you. The traditional Bottleneck was deemed too dangerous to climb after an avalanche left rocks and high ice blocks in the ravine. So we took a slight variation which actually put us in more objective danger from the serac than normal. I must tell you that the entire climb was unbelievably steep – 60-70 degrees – but the traverse was the crux at 80-90 degrees with footing barely large enough to accommodate my crampons front points. The entire time I was climbing higher, all I could think about was how was I going to down climb this section. The final climb to the summit was long with teammates taking turn breaking trail after a meter of fresh snow on the evening of July 26. The descent was difficult, never ending, and left me in amazement I had climbed it at all. I had a few health problems from fatigue to mild HAPE to dehydration. My thanks to Garrett Madison for aggressively ing my symptoms and to Matt and the Sherpa crew, especially Kami, for keeping a watchful eye over me. Today, July 29, I am feeling much better at the lower altitude of Base Camp but only got two hours of sleep last might and I have have a persistent cough. Both should clear up as I trek lower. I am quite proud to be what believe to be the 18th American to summit K2 and perhaps the oldest American with our summit only birthday when I turned 58. Also, I am extremely proud of Garrett Madison for being the first leader to bring an full American only team to the summit in decades. I cannot overemphasize the incredible work by the Sherpa team with double carries, endless days, fixing routes, breaking trail and serving as a role model for all the other Sherpas across all the other teams for 2014. I know this sounds like bragging and it is. The Sherpa team members were Kami Rita Sherpa, Fur Kancha Sherpa (both of Thame Solu Khumbu, Nepal) and Kami Tshering Sherpa (of Pangbotse, Nepal). This the first summit of K2 for all these fine men. I also want to acknowledge the great work of our Pakistani Liason Officer, Squadron Leader Khalid Mehmood Chishti. A note on the crazy SPOT tracker during my descent. It was my fault. The SPOT fell off my harness while rapping down Houses Chimney! Thankfully Garrett grabbed it as it was falling off a steep ridge thus preventing even more worry!! Our next step is to begin the 70 mile trek back to Askole on July 31 Ok, that’s all for now. I have never been more relieved to be back in a Base Camp, never prouder of my teammates and never more grateful for everyone’s support. My mom would always tell me after a big climb, “I’m glad you got that out of your system.” Well maybe she is right this time, but I will never get the fight against Alzheimer’s out of my system until we find a cure. Climb On! Alan Memories are Everything   K2 Summit Video Selected K2 Climb Pictures

Alan Arnette’s message from the Summit of K2

We are proud and thrilled to report that Alan Arnette and his teammates have successfully reached the summit of K2!!!   Congratulations to: Alan Arnette – USA Matthew Dupuy – USA Garrett Madison – USA Kami Rita Sherpa – Thame Solu Khumbu, advice Nepal Fur Kancha Sherpa – Thame Solu Khumbu, Nepal Kami Tshering Sherpa – Pangbotse, Nepal Just an hour ago, Alan told me over the sat phone that he greatly appreciated the help of his team mates, especially Kami Rita Sherpa.  He said he hugely appreciated everyone who has been following and supporting this expedition to fight against Alzheimer’s, especially Albila, Cure Alzheimer’s Fund and USAgainst Alzheimer’s. Then in a powerful and emotional voice Alan emphatically said: “Tell everyone I can feel their support. Tell them I appreciate it. Tell them all that we can beat Alzheimer’s. Ask them to donate so that we can beat it soon.” That is Alan’s message from the summit of K2 to all of us. Please donate now. Thank you. Be sure to listen to Alan’s blog post just prior to this one to hear his stirring words, recorded on summit of K2. – admin Jim, on behalf of Alan Arnette who has now climbed K2 for Alzheimer’s.

Alan on K2 Summit Push!

Alan and his teammates are pushing hard for the summit of K2 right now! They left Camp 4 about 5 hours ago (about 10:40 pm on Saturday 7-26 Pakistan local time) and are making good progress. The weather has been very good these last few days, s and the route might be in good shape as about 18-20 climbers summitted K2 yesterday, after a very long day of climbing. Congratulations to all those who climbed yesterday, summit or not. Thanks to all the climbers, Pakistani high altitude climbers and Sherpas who put in the fixed lines. Alan can’t post to his Facebook page or Twitter accounts right now while on the summit push. The latest information can be seen on his GPS progress map http://www.alanarnette.com/blog/k2-2014/ As Alan’s temporary admin, I (Jim Davidson) am trying to integrate various sources of information from other teams on K2 to post occasional summaries on my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ClimberJimDavidson Please keep Alan and all the climbers on K2 right now in your thoughts for successful climbing and a safe descent. – Jim, on behalf of Alan Arnette