K2's unclimbed North Ridge Expedition report -- Monday, August 26 Summit successes verified "This is R.D. Caughron calling about the K2 North Ridge expedition. Our team just arrived in Gilgit (Pakistan) and I will call in a couple of days from the Shalimar Hotel in Rawalpindi as soon as I get there. The weather did get better in early August--a miracle--because July obviously was very bad weather. Our team put five of 10 people on top. On August 10, Krzysztof Wielicki climbed to the summit with our two Italians. Krzysztof led every pitch. It was very deep snow. They didn't arrive on the summit until 8:30 or so in the evening, which was after dark. Coming down they lost their headlamps and they had to do a forced bivouac. The Italians were out in the open. They didn't get back to Camp IV at 7,800 meters until about 5 a.m. One of the Italians arrived one hour later. The other Italian was in real trouble suffering from exhaustion and he received extensive medical treatment, not only from our team but also from the Russian team. He was treated for frostbite and shock in base camp but is okay and recovering presently. This was Krzysztof 's 13th 8000-meter peak. After this expedition he is leaving to Nanga Parbat for 11 days or so in an attempt to climb all 14. On August 14, two more Polish members on our team reached the top. Piotr Pustelnik and Ryszard Pawlowski summited at 2:30 in the afternoon and returned to Camp IV by 6:30 p.m. in good weather. Following them, there were two Russian climbers and Carlos Buhler, the American who had been on our team but switched to the Russian team in mid July. Carlos arrived on top at 4 p.m. but didn't return to Camp IV until 1 a.m. His Russian partner was last seen at about 8,300 meters while on the 300-meter fixed line above Camp IV. The Russian climber never returned. We think following this accident that the Russian may have abandoned their effort to put more people on top. Our expedition left the mountain on August 15. After some treacherous river crossings in which we lost a camel and donkey and so forth, we arrived at our trailhead in China, in Mazar, on August 22nd. We just got back to Pakistan last night and after going to Rawalpindi I'm hoping to fly home on or about August 31. The Russians will be out around September 10. Our team considers the North Ridge route of K2 as one of the more difficult routes on any of the 8000-meter peaks. The difficulties we encountered, obviously the 800 feet of vertical on the last day was quite physically exhausting. Also, just because of its extreme height there are really no long periods of good weather. Two days of good weather just about does it. It's difficult to do anything in that period of time. That makes the snow conditions quite difficult, quite deep and you have to redo the steps each time there's a snowfall. Also it's just very steep and exposed. And the face, that it's the north face, means it's very cold and you have to start later in the morning. It's also the most northern of the 8,000-meter peaks in the Himalaya and so therefore its effective altitude is a little bit greater. On the flip side, it is a very beautiful line and you can descend very quickly from the fixed ropes all the way to Camp IV. So it should be relatively safe. We're thankful that all the expedition members, our five Pakistani porters, and two Nepalese cooks made it down safely. We're also indebted for the mutual support of the Russian team and share in the sadness that they have in the loss of one of their team members. I can also give you a very brief report on the Karakoram. All the summits were in August, as I understand it. There were 14 expeditions. Nine reached the top of their respective peaks. Seven people were killed. Four Chileans reached the summit of K2 from the south side. Four Italians summited but they lost one. There were two Japanese expeditions ..." Call terminated