Skiing on K2
Tuesday June 23, 2009 - Email this article to a friend

Regular readers will know Fredrik is planning to climb up and ski down the 3 highest mountain in the world; Everest, K2 and Kangchenjunga .

He has been writing a regular blog for us and here's his latest.

"K2, What a mountain.

It is 8612 meters high, but when I stand here in base camp, at 5100 meters, and look at it, it doesn't fell like it is more than 1000 meters to the summit. It is a weird feeling when I know it is more than 3500 meters to the top.
 
A few days ago when Michele and I was on our first acclimatization trip we got to experience how big the mountain really is.

We left base camp at seven in the morning and walked along the Godwin Austen Glacier for 30 minutes up to the foot of K2 and the start of the Cesen Route. With ski boots and crampons on our feet, poles in our hands and a heavy backpack filled with a tent, sleeping bag, primus stove, gas, food etc. and a pair of skis strapped onto it, we started the climbing.

One for the photo albumAt the beginning it was a nice ski slope of 30 degrees with perfect hard packed snow. Nice to climb on.

We climbed on the right hand side of a big snow slope close to a rock ridge to stay out of the danger zone of a large Serac hanging above the left side of the slope. The ski slope got steeper, between 40-50 degrees and the snow got deeper.

I had a hard time to stop dreaming about the upcoming ski descent on this perfect slope in soft powder snow. But first we had to find a tent spot where we could spend the night.

I would have liked to ski down straight away but for our acclimatization it is best to spend time on higher altitude.

To find a spot for the tent proved to be very difficult. We started the search at 5700 meters but it wasn't until we reached 6000 meters, after a total of seven hours of climbing, that we found a spot that we could imaging being flat.

After some digging and building we had a semi-bad tent spot with two of the corners hanging in the air. Guess who got to sleep on that side of the tent? Not surprisingly, I slept pretty good anyway.
 
The next morning both Michele and I woke up with a headache and it was blowing and snowing outside. Great!

After breakfast and a bit of fresh air my headache was gone but Michele must have caught some altitude illness since he didn't get well until we were back in base camp.

The coolest ski slope in the worldAfter chilling in our tent for a few hours it stopped snowing and cleared up so we put our skis on and started sliding down the mountain.

We took it easy in the beginning since I am always a bit unsecure on a new mountain especially when it is steep and rocks around.

The snow was better than we had expected, cold and just a little windpacked and it was sloughing a bit. When the slope opened up I could do bigger turns and carry more speed, just cruising down the mountain. I had a big smile on my face, cause even if only a third of the mountain, we were skiing on K2.

I got 900 vertical meters of nice skiing before, totally euphoric, I took my skis off 30 meters from my tent in BC. I had just skied the coolest ski slope in the world.
 
We will now have a few days of rest in base camp, charging batteries, before the next ski adventure on K2."
 
For more information about Fredrik and the expedition, check out his website: www.fredrikericsson.com
 
Sponsors:  Dynastar, Tierra, Osprey, Hestra, Grivel, Adidas Eyewear
Supporters: Tissot, Giro, Scarpa, Primus, Garmin, Honey Stinger, Ortovox, Exped, Jämtport 

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