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