More coverage rolling through on Dave Watson’s incredible turns on K2 this summer, with a story from GearJunkie.com. Stephen’s story on Dave fills in a little more of the descriptive detail… the conditions, the difficulty, the exposure, along with more photos:
In August on K2, as the sun rose over the Karakoram Range, Watson and his team worked upward on the face. They kicked steps and adjusted oxygen masks. Watson had a ski pole in one hand, its handle outfitted with an ice ax blade for grip.
The group climbed for hours, pushing past 27,400 feet. No one had yet made the top of K2 in 2009. By noon, Watson and his team were realizing they might not see the summit either.
Chest-deep snow made progress similar to “swimming uphill,” Watson said.
At 2:30pm, encrusted with ice and exhausted, Watson looked down the mountain to see a climbing partner put a gloved hand to his throat, slicing it sideways in signal…
For the rest of the story, click over and keep reading at Gear Junkie.com, and check out the photo gallery from K2 as well.