The Summit Page #4

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But it's so much that has to be

right for it to happen.

What went wrong was the weather.

For three weeks, it was snowing,

snowing, snowing.

It was unbelievable.

80% chance of snow today.

Wind 8 kilometers

at 8,000 meters.

He was ready to come home.

He said to me,

"I can't wait

to have a good meal"

"and a glass of red wine."

You know, he just...

he was kind of ready.

It was 60-something days

by that point.

But if you get a weather window,

you take it.

The end of July,

the good weather came in,

but then everybody

wants to use this window.

So we says,

"Let's have a talk, you know,"

"and let's try to work together."

300 rope for it to make.

If you want to, more 50.

400 rope, we are fixing.

We take 400 meters.

Then the Italians got 200 meters

for the traverse.

So 600 meters is plenty enough.

Maybe we need more.

We don't need more.

600 meters

is plenty enough, I think.

No, 700 would be better.

700? Okay, Kim says 700.

We had a lot of meetings

because if we are working

together, let's be clear.

We are with a lot of people.

We share all the workloads.

And, you know, 80% chance

that we will get to the summit

without any problem.

First, leading,

second, help them,

third, making the bamboos.

The ice?

- Ice screw.

- Ice crew?

I always saw

the base camp meetings

as a vital key to success.

It was our chance

to get together

and do this as one team.

Not South Koreans, Americans,

Serbians, Dutch-

as one team.

There is only one summit team...

Yeah.

From every group.

The question is also,

who is climbing in front,

you know?

We said, "Listen."

"Every team gives

his strongest climber,"

"and that's

the trail-breaking party."

Two good climbers

and one, two porter...

- Okay.

- Who carry this fixed rope.

Fixed rope.

These teams

start one or two hours

before other member

from Camp Four.

- Okay.

- Got it.

We were thinking,

if the strongest team,

you know, go into this part

and fixing the ropes

through the bottleneck,

we can just follow the ropes

and go to the summit.

So it's very-

it's really safe plan.

I don't know if you're going

with the summit party...

It was obvious for me and Rolf

that this was not gonna be

as smooth as it's planned.

It seemed too easy for us.

- There's nothing to do.

- Yeah, yeah, okay.

600 meters at the peaks.

Yes.

Our team's thereto, uh, more...

If you start

sharing responsibilities

with other people,

I think that in the end,

as humans we relax.

We don't really do

what we should be doing.

And K2 really demands

knowing how to do things,

giving the right answer,

having an answer for everything.

In a perfect world,

everyone is responsible

for everyone.

Only the mountain

attains perfection.

That's why you come to climb it.

They would never have tried K2

without the knowledge

and expertise of the locals.

My unlikely partner

was named Mahdi.

He was the very best

of the Hunzas.

On the eve of the summit push,

we were to take the last

of the oxygen to the final camp

and meet with the lead climbers,

Lacedelli and Compagnoni.

The names are legendary now,

the two men

who ultimately conquered K2

for the first time in history.

It could have been us with them,

Mahdi and myself.

We had agreed,

if we were strong,

we would go too,

but we never found them.

We climbed

to the point of exhaustion

to where they

were supposed to be

and began crying out for them.

As the sun disappeared,

the thin air

began to eat away at us.

As violent

as a slap in the face,

the first gust of snow

hit us head-on.

We were just thinking,

"it's just a matter"

"of, you know, an hour,

and then the wind will drop."

But it didn't drop.

It actually... it went...

it became stronger and stronger.

That was like...

Wind was go like that,

and my tent in the moment

was go up

and me with the tent.

It's impossible to even look outside the tent.

Quite critical situation.

Oh, God. God. God.

That's it. Come on.

In you go.

They put me

on the sleeping bag.

I started shaking.

I was in bad situation.

You're okay.

All right, Wilco!

Wilco, this is Ger here!

We got a situation here.

I heard Gerard

talk with the Wilco

by walkie-talkie.

"Okay, Wilco, now we

are going to bring him"

"inside your tent

because you have more space."

This is no time

for bullshitting now.

The Serbian guy...

I don't know...

but if he would have knocked

on my tent,

I would have say, "Listen."

"Go down immediately,"

"because I can't have you

in my tent now"

"because I have to rest"

"because I have to go

to the summit."

We didn't sleep all night.

Early in the morning,

Ger was a little angry.

I was not sure

whether he was angry

because of what happened with me

or because of what happened

between two of them.

I was really pissed,

so I had to make clear

that this guy

would not go with us.

And I said, "Listen.

There is just one."

"You have to go back,"

"and I don't want to see you

in that camp," you know?

For me, I don't know.

I... myself, I feel...

I don't know

how I will continue with my life

till I know to-

somebody needed my help.

Not too much-little help,

and I didn't want to give him.

A lot of guys,

they are thinking

they can climb K2

without oxygen, without ropes,

without bringing

the right stuff,

bringing the right team.

You can't climb

an 8,000-meter peak alone.

You-you didn't bring any rope.

How do you want to climb

this f***ing mountain?

Mm-hmm.

- It's really irresponsible.

- How did you do it 2006?

Wilco is very direct and blunt.

He'd lay his cards on the table.

There's no doubt about what

he was thinking, you know?

So I think, you know, Ger

kind of liked that about him.

Both Ger and Wilco,

they really had the summit

in their eyes.

You could see it.

The 29th of July 2006,

I got a phone call from Ger.

I can still hear him

saying it to me.

He says, "Jeez, JJ,

this is so doable."

And he said,

"I can't believe it."

He said, "It's so doable."

They were hiking up from...

I think

it was advanced base camp,

and they were gonna go up

to Camp Two on the Abruzzi.

Ger was going up,

and what people say is,

it was actually

a rock avalanche.

The phone rang.

She said to me, "There's been

an accident on K2."

And I said, "How bad?"

And she said, "Look..."

"You'll probably bring-bringing

him home in a body bag."

It was just an act of God

as such,

like, I mean, a rockfall

that caught him.

And, I mean, the helmet

he had on him at the time

probably, possibly saved

his life.

But I knew-l always knew

from that-from that night on,

I knew that he was gonna try

and do this again,

like, you know.

The bigger the dream,

the bigger the risks,

but, you know,

the dream was there.

From that moment,

I knew we are coming back,

you know,

and Ger would go with me again.

That's why,

when we reach Camp Four,

it was already a magic moment.

Ah, so happy to be here.

I could almost cry.

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