K2 2004: K2 North: Learning to be patient: Italian expedition Everest/K2 2004 expedition

K2 2004 - 50 years later

K2 North: Learning to be patient

Our climbers have now spent many days in the snow-covered base camp while they wait for the weather to change.  The following are Luca Vuerich’s impressions.

“What do I think of this experience?”  says Luca Vuerich,  one of the youngest climber of the K2 2004 Team. “This mountain is one of the most impressive, and it remains so, in a particular way. It was incredible to see it appear rather suddenly in front of us as we arrived at base camp.  To see it rise straight up from the camp at 5000 m. was quite overwhelming.  During the days of the approach to camp, one can certainly admire it’s formidable and splendid pyramidal shape, but it was always veiled by the clouds.

Luca Vuerich is only 27 years old, but he has years of experience in climbing with his partners, Romano Benet and Nives Meroi, the same companions with whom he reached the summit of Lhotse (850l m.) His determination is particularly admirable, especially when in 1998, at the tender age of 22, while climbing Nanga Parbat, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.

“It is my first time on K2, and it is quite a different experience from that on Lhotse last may.  The base camp there was extremely crowded, here, instead it is very quiet.  The isolation totally transforms the experience of the climb.”

copyright Italian expedition Everest/K2 2004 expedition Expedition

Dispatches

 

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