I kept feeling pain throughout the whole night. The painkillers worked for few hours only and then I woke up because of the pain. I was still undecided in the morning but then a clear sign came. A cloud of a specific rounded shape appeared on the sky, the same cloud like above Broad Peak, which means mostly the same all around the world - total worsening of weather within 24 hours of the cloud's first appearance. I explained this to two young Russian mountaineers (24 and 28 years) but they replied that they had to bring the oxygen bottles to C3 and disappeared. I knew then that due to the bad weather and problems caused by my chilblains my expedition 448 was getting over for me.

All the equipment Ghulam and I brought here had to be packed once again and for last. I had to carry those all on my own from the C2 which is at 6700m. Luckily, an Iran mountaineer was going back on the same time. Kazim was so kind that he carried one of my tents all the way down to ABC which took 7 hours to reach. On the way the pain extended from toes to the rest of the fingers which assured me that my decision was the only correct one. I had a brief discussion with the Russian expedition leader who confirmed that the weather was getting bad - three days of dense snow falls and wind that will reach 120 km/h on the K2's peak. His boys made it with the oxygen load to C3 but he urged them right back over the radio.

The whole way to the BC took me 11 hours altogether. There I was meeting sad looks from other mountaineers. Everybody knew that my long eighthousanders journey was at the end. I felt their sights as well as tears coming to my eyes. By now I know that my expedition Project 448 was a daring toward the nature. Maybe somebody else is destined to accomplish it. Unfortunately, nature hasn't allowed me to and I'm leaving for my home.

Miro

How surprised I got in the morning! I felt fine. No pain, I was totally calm and sure to continue higher up. The only concern was my toes. When a chill came I started to feel them immediately and very intensively. Thus again I had to wait for the sun to pop out instead to set off immediately for another 700 vertical meters that were in front of me. As I had a problem to rightly warm up the toes I moved the departure to 7am that morning.

Climbing up went under absolutely perfect physical and psychical conditions. But the pain piercing out from the chilblained toes was worsening with the higher altitude and rising chill. In the middle of the trek I ran into Ghulam who started to cry. He is a tough man thus, dazzled, I asked him what was the reason. He wasn't good in English so he only pointed towards his chest and said: Very bad, and kept shedding tears. We were supposed to build together C3 but instead I told him to go down as there was something wrong with his lungs.

Continuing up I met the whole Korean expedition. They had kept waiting during the bad days for a better weather to come there and to go for the very peak. They were now coming back without reaching it. The wind at C4 was so strong that it blew away one of their tens after another altogether with oxygen bottles and other equipment. I also found out that the expeditions left the idea of cooperating and everybody was going for the peak on his own. It took me 5 and a half hour to reach C2 which showed I was in good condition. The only thing that kept bothering me were my toes which hurt so much that I had to take some painkillers. This was a situation the Belgian doctor also described adding that in such case the curing process may stop or even reverse and the infection may start spreading into the inner of the body. That could have led to amputations of the fingers. Bad outlook but I left the final decision until the next morning.

Because of my chilblains we set off at 6 am when the sun already shines warmly. It is 700 vertical meters to overcome to the C1. The declination is quite steep and with the entire load in our backpacks it's a tough workout. The first half was rather a pain for me. For 14 days I had been waiting for a better weather and during the time I tried to cure my chilblains. But all the rest & relax and doing of not that much rather harmed my fitness level. So during the first half of the trek I was struggling so much that every step I made was making me angry. At that point my brain said a strict: No!

I sat down and tried to calm down. Besides the pain from toes chilblains there was also lot of jitteriness. For about half an hour I kept thinking about how to calm down myself since my mindset was quite bad. I reached for a piece of chocolate and my thermo flask with juice I prepared in the morning. Ghulam, my altitude carrier, meanwhile disappeared up there and I was left completely alone with my problems. The stop helped and shortly after I continued to the C1. To reach it took me 7 hours so I stayed there to sleep over - at 6000m. Before falling asleep I kept thinking about what was happening with me down there. I laid totally exhausted in my sleeping bag and waited how would I be in the morning.

K2 Resists To Mountaineers

Though weather showed its better side to us and a nice day was here, all expeditions kept waiting until avalanches would fall down. Nobody started to go up the mountain in the early morning. Thus at 6 am I was taking photos of the ice fall and during that I decided to count the avalanches. Six big ones within half an hour and then I got tired of it and focused on the photography business. The idle attitude of the expeditions was just right as avalanches kept falling until through afternoon, though not at the morning frequency.

My plan was to set off with Ghulam in the afternoon for the ABC. But before that few trekkers from Czech Republic visited us and we had a lunch together in my mess tent. Thus we departed with one hour delay at 3 pm. The good part of that was that the sun already disappeared behind the clouds and we didn't have to walk in the hot. By crossing the ice fall we moved by 300 vertical meters up to the ABC which is at 5300m. Since Russians moved from BC to ABC as well, we weren't there alone.

I'm lying in the tent and thinking about the yesterday's mystical date of 7.7.2007. But as far as I remember nothing extraordinary happened. Only a meeting of the expeditions' leaders during the trek over Abruzi's ridge, which meant agreeing on when and how we will cooperate on the way to the summit. Tomorrow on the 9th all expeditions should start going up together. It should be altogether 20 people including the sherpas.

The forecast talks about nice weather for the 9th but with 80 km/hour wind at the altitude above 8000m. The same it should be on the 10th, with slightly slower, 60 km/h wind, when we should be at C3 at some 7200m. Seems fast? Yes, we plan to reach already C2 at 6400m on the first day. July 11th is set for reaching the C4 at 8000m but the wind is forecasted at 40km/h which will make the trek quite difficult. The summit day (12.7.) should bring 30km/h wind at 8000m which should change to cold 45km/h north wind on the very peak.

All the expeditions have been waiting so long for the good weather days that are not coming… The above mentioned days are the best considering the weather conditions of the past 30 days but nobody gives much chance yet for reaching the summit on these. Silently, all of us hope that during the climbing up the wind will cease to a fine level for the summit day. A climb up during a night is not a solution. The wind is weaker but still blows on and the temperatures are much lower which makes it, the conditions summed up, the same as during the day with the strong wind. The word goes around the BC that we might leave a day later. Let's see...

Anyway, lot of snow fell during the night and thus the first nice day will also bring the avalanche danger which is nothing pleasant to fight with during the climb up. Thus I think that the start of the climb up will be postponed. Talking about me, the toes stopped hurt and one of the friends from the Russian expedition gave me some special medicaments for speeding up the treatment. I walked the camp today in the altitude boots and nothing hurt. Yet I will go to the doctor and see what he thinks. It seems that I should go up together with the others.

Greetings from the K2' BC,
Miro

The BC Today

I woke up at 5 am as on every morning and waited until 6 o'clock when the sun started to shine on my tent. The bandages on my toes tend to slip thus I thought about making new ones from the material Mr. Hugo (a Frenchman) gave me. He had problems with fingers in the past and the doctors gave him a special foam tunnel to keep the fingers warm. It took me some time and meanwhile Mojiz, the cook’s assistant, brought me a 'milk coffee' right into my tent. Arman, the cook, was awake as well and started to prepare the breakfast. When Hugo, who has his tent only 2m from mine, heard me to talk he told me that he received in the evening a new forecast from Chamonix and it is quite bad. He gets the forecasts from a meteorologist who had been preparing those for mountaineers such as Messner, Kamerlander and others. The fact is that his forecasts have been pinpoint until now.

After a while I left the tent with the bandages on. I made four since besides the toes I also feel pain in the fingers next to toes when there's a flow of cold air. The healing goes slowly and it works from the inside out of the feet. Everybody says that if I go up now the healing process would stop and turn around - the tissue problems would continue inwards. I need perhaps some 4 - 7 days to get over this risk.

It's been quite bad for me lately. After stepping out of the tent it was the first time in Karakoram I felt anything like a depression. Nicely sunny and the sky swept clean. The Koreans are going to the C3 today and tomorrow will try for the peak. Originally, I was supposed to be up with them. But tomorrow the wind should be 80 km/h there up high and the day after tomorrow 110 km/h. I have different feelings now and then whether I do the correct thing or not by staying here. Every eighthousander means undertaking some risk. Thus different thoughts have been coming to me. What if it is the last chance to strive for the peak? Then I feel like crying. For eight days I've been bathing my feet in warm water and watching other mountaineers to pass me by and go up. I can't take a longer walk even down the hill. Back home I was always quite active and this situation has been killing me.

I thought that I might get a bit better when I write about it to you. The weather has been nice lately and almost all mountaineers are up on the mountain now. Kazim, the Iraqi I share the cook with, is on the way from C2 to C3 today... For hours I've been thinking whether I haven't started to lose my level of acclimatization. And then if all the lying around doesn't diminish my physical abilities. As of now I feel such a strength that I would go straight to the C2, then C3, C4 and try for the summit. But what it will be like in 5 or even 10 days from now? At least I feel it gets better when I write about it. I believe that more consecutive nice days will come and I will be healthy enough and off for the summit.

I found a new enjoyment yesterday. From the Italian TV Rai Due team I've been getting the juice to charge my HP notebook and Olympus cameras. They are nice guys and yesterday I helped them with the Internet connection that broke down. After sitting together for a second time they offered me to charge the batteries whenever I want and even to share their big tent they have (a night image of the BC in the K2 section). All of that gives a possibility to put together all the panoramic pictures I took during the past three months. At last I have something to do.

Information from other 8000m + peaks:
There are so many people on Broad Peak that there's no room left for any more tents in the C1 and C2. On Gasherbrum II an Australian lady died in C1 under unknown circumstances. And that's all from me today from K2's BC.

Have a nice day,
Miro

The Untruth

The chilblained toe got worse yesterday so I visited this morning a Belgian doctor who has 15 years of experience of taking care of mountaineers. The outcome is this - new medicaments, an advice to walk as less as possible (which I did anyway) and dip it extensively in warm water. And yes, loose boots... A bit pessimistic analysis, same as from the Russian doctor. I must be as much as possible in the tent and keep my feet in the warmth of the sleeping bag. That's all to my chilblains from Broad Peak.

As it seems to be common regarding my person a message appeared on the Internet, which can be even see as a defamation, saying "... about 150m from our tent city with the national flag fluttering in the middle of it hides a lonely Czech Miroslav who has been going wide around our tents, pretending not to exist and doesn't saying even hello ..."

A pure bullshit made up by somebody was put on the Internet. I took it as an immediate invitation for visiting this expedition. So I went to talk to them about it this noon. I told them that as many steps I have to their tents for a visit, the same they have to mine. It was a coincidence that I didn't meet anybody in their camp. I went through it three times on the way to the Russians (whom I cooperated with on the Broad Peak) who cared for my chilblains. On the way back I had no mood for a visit to anybody.

That I'm hiding in the tent? I hope they were not aware of my chilblains which you have to keep in warm. I was so angry about the defamation that I even forgot to tell them about my problems possibly leading 'me hiding in the tent'. If there's sun I will try to warm my feet in front of my tent in the direct sunlight.

I also spend quite some time in the mess tent with an Iraqi mountaineer (38 years old) and a French mountaineer (60 years old). Both are very good guys, as is the cook as well, so we talked for hours in the tent he cooks in. We stopped using the other mess tent and eat in this one altogether with sherpas, the cook and his assistant. Together we have lots of fun while I bath my feet in warm salted water.

Despite of the forecast for unstable weather Koreans went up this morning. But I will wait for the real summit day which should also give me a bit more time for curing the chilblains. The forecast remains bad and the expeditions keep watching the raging wind and snowing on K2.

Miro