Push for the summit
Tuesday July 27, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

2 men attempting to climb and then ski down K2 have delayed their summit attempt. The final section has been much tougher than expected. We have been following their progress on PlanetSKI.

For Fredrik Ericsson this is the first peak as he attempts to do what no-one else has done before: climb up and ski down the world's three highest mountains.

Everest, K2 and Kangchenjunga.

His partner on this trip is the American, Trey Cook, who is a keen PlanetSKI reader and who we met up with last season in Tignes.

Fredrik too is no stranger to PlanetSKI as we have skied with him in his hometown of Chamonix and followed his attempt last year when sadly his partner died.

They were hopingto summit K2 today but their going has been much slower than expected and a section that should have taken them 8 hours ended up taking over 12. They decided to camp near the summit for another night.

"I am totally wasted and the snow cover is very thin as it has been blown off by the high winds," Trey told the team at base camp on his satelite phone.

For full details of the conditions and the attempt see the expedition blog.

Before he set off for the attempt on K2 last year Fredrik spoke to us.

For news of the trip so far see this related story with full details of the tragedy last year and the attempt so far.

So, what of the new attempt?

The pair has been at base camp for a while and now the weather is forecast to be good enough for a push to the summit.

See this report from base camp.

The men are following the Cesen route and are now trying to get to the camp C4 at 8,000m which is just 600m from the summit.

Speaking on their satellite phone they have given an update to their support team on Monday.

"They sounded solid, coherent and motivated as they made their way up. The route starts with a short steep section around some rocks then follows and unrelentingly long ridge to the steep slopes," said the team.

"The wind blew at around 60kph or just this side of it being too strong to stand up for most of the day."

The wind though did drop.

For some stunning photos of the trip so far see the photo below and for a detailed blog of the expedition from Trey see here.

Approaching C3. Photo Tommy Heinrich