Ken Wanderer returns to the blog for a description of the American K2 Expedition Fund-Raising Trek that he led.
The 1986 American K2 Expedition was sponsored by the Mazamas, the American Alpine Club and others. The accompanying Folkways trek walked in with the climbers, as we did in 1985 with the Gasherbrum climb, stayed at the K2 base camp for a couple days and returned on the same trail.
The route to Concordia was the same as with the previous year's trek, but we started about one month earlier and the difference was inescapable. Temperatures were much cooler and it snowed several days. The towers and mountains were even more stunning and the glacier itself was not covered with rock but glistened with snow and ice.
There were two emergency room doctors on the trek who set up a clinic for villagers at each of our camps below the glacier. News of the clinics spread quickly so they were very well attended. With trekkers helping, the docs did tooth extractions, abscess treatment and minor amputations (parts of fingers and toes with unattended wounds). The Baltis, who farm and herd in the area, eat a lot of wheat and barley ground by local granite, which leaves a lot of stone in the flower so that the average 30 year old has worn through the enamel leading to tooth decay.
Pakistan is one of the few countries that require that those who hire porters equip them for the conditions they will be working in, provide them with a reasonable quantity and quality of food and carry accident and life insurance for them. So, with new sunglasses, boots, socks, jackets, bags of flour, five gallon tins of cooking oil, each carrying a government prescribed maximum weight, the porters headed up the Braldu River.
The ER docs were tracking the trekker's calorie consumption and weight as we hiked from 10,000 to 16,000 feet. We each consumed about 8,000 calories per day and the average person lost 5 pounds over the twelve days it took to get to the base camp.
The going was slower with the snow and ice, but once we arrived at Concordia and turned north on to the Godwin-Austen Glacier we had K2 in sight, and what a sight. During the day and a half march to base camp we could see most of the great pyramid of K2 and most of the climbing route that the American team would use.
There were a number of high profile climbers preparing to attempt various routes on the mountain that year. One of the American climbers, Dr. Steve Boyer, took it upon himself to take the trekkers around to meet all of these mountaineering luminaries.
1986 was a tragic year on K2. Despite the talent and experience of the American and other teams, there were 13 deaths. About three weeks after the trekkers left base camp, John Smolich and Alan Pennington were carrying supplies to a camp on top of a long steep ridge when the unpredictable happened and they were killed in an ice and snow avalanche. Understandably, the American team withdrew from the mountain and headed home.
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| Approach to K2 Base Camp |
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| K2 Base Camp |
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| Trango Towers |
