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.

Here’s a link to the article as well, and make sure to visit Dave’s new site with photos and stories: www.k2tracks.com.

Hello all, The expedition is over. The team is in Skardu after the trek out over the Gondogoro La. George, Dave and Ali are sorting and repacking gear in the summer heat. Overall the expedition was very successful, all survived without serious injury.

This summer no one reached the summit of K2. Dave made it the highest on the mountain during the Aug 4 summit push. He and Mingma Sherpa fixed the bottleneck (finished by 9:30am), Louis R (Canada) led the traverse and Dave took over breaking trail with Vassily (Kazakh) belaying. The snow was chest deep, unconsolidated sugar. The slope angle was 45+ and progress was slowed to 20m per hour. At 2:30pm the choice was made to descend. The climbers started down from above the bottleneck with a height of 8350-8400 reached.

Dave downclimbed the rock step below the serac into the bottleneck. While clipped into the rope he took off his crampons and overboots, put on the skis, changed his frozen gloves, loaded the pack, adjusted the length of the ski poles, then dropped in.

He skied the bottleneck to the shoulder and then down to Camp4. The team slept another night at camp4. It was a difficult night with 1 sleeping bag for 3 climbers and super cold temps at nearly 8000m.

In the morning Dave skied to camp3 while George and Ali downclimbed and rapelled. They all decended (rappel/downclimb) the Black Pyramid together to camp2. The team packed up camp and rapelled the House Chimney. Dave then skied from the base of the Chimney down to ABC while George and Ali downclimbed. The team was in Base Camp that
afternoon.

While in base camp, the team regularly talked with Austrian speed climber Christian Stangl, who is a friend of Hans Kammerlander.

Was this the first descent of the bottleneck? Is there proof otherwise?

To read the rest of Dave’s updates, visit EverestNews.com and scroll down to the earlier posts. We at Karhu would like to say how proud we are of Dave’s accomplishments, and to have him safe and sound after such an incredible adventure!

Sweetgrass Productions – Signatures

Sweetgrass is coming off last year’s Hand Cut film, and looking good with Signatures. Karhu athletes JT Robinson and Lorenzo Worster traveled to Japan to film with Sweetgrass this winter, and the result looks amazing. Don’t miss out when Signatures comes through your mountain town this fall!

VMT – Day 1

With a roller coaster early season in the Pacific Northwest, no one hesitated when the trip came up. The fastest response was emailed back in a matter of seconds, and in no time flat we had a dedicated group of 11 committed to the trip. Traveling from Seattle, Ventura, San Francisco, Jackson, and Portsmouth, the group gathered in Nelson, BC the night before heading into the lodge. At the Dancing Bear Inn, we caught up with old friends, made new ones, organized our gear, procured last minute beer, and shared the anticipation for the next morning.

Gearing up at the Dancing Bear Inn in Nelson

After the obligatory stop at Oso Negro for coffee and breakfast, our crew headed north to New Denver, where we would meet the VMT snowcat for the hour’s ride into the lodge. With a snowcat instead of a helicopter, there would be no worrying about weather delays, or weighing in equipment – this was all the gear & beer we could bring.

Jason and Fredd looking out the window with anticipation.

Calling VMT a backcountry “hut” is a bit of a misnomer. With hot water showers, a sauna, flush toilets, spacious living area and comfortable rooms, there would be no roughing it on this trip. There would be much to explore later, but there were important tasks at hand – unloading the cat, getting a quick lunch, going through the safety briefing, and heading out to ski for the afternoon.

Getting ready for the first afternoon.

Evan gave us the run-down on the schedule over lunch, and a quick look at what the week might bring. VMT had a solid base in place, and the previous couple weeks’ high pressure had recently broken, with more storms inbound. A lurking layer of faceted snow was causing stability problems out in alpine, but VMT had plenty of steep and deep tree skiing to offer. We grouped up and did some thorough practice locating, probing and digging out buried packs with beacons, and then it was skis on.

Heading out for the first lap, fresh mountain air in our lungs.

With a couple hours of daylight left, we got our legs under us. The gray stayed in place, while the trees on Ruby Glades held a sheltered foot or so of powder. With everyone buddied up for BC tree skiing, the hoots and hollers echoed up the hill. Two laps went by too quickly, but there were hot appetizers and soup waiting back at the lodge and a lot of skiing on the table the next morning.

Marta, Lulu and Tobin relaxing in the lodge that evening.

More to come tomorrow….

-Graham

Considering the cloudy skies we decided to take Wednesday off and hit the slopes. It was great to ski as a group and get to schralp with the photographers. As Murphy would have it the light was great as soon as we got there but with nary a camera in sight there was nothing to do but ski. Good times.

That night a couple of us went over to Taro’s place for dinner. Little did I know what a treat I was in for. We had Shabu Shabu which is kind of like Japanese Fondue. There is a big pot of seaweed broth with veggies boiling over a portable burner in the middle of the table. You dip thin sliced meat or mochi (pounded rice) into the pot to cook it. It was partially the process of making the food that slows the meal down in addition to the quality of the food that made it such a great meal. There were a bunch of Taro’s friends over and it was nice to get the feel of authentic Japanese culture that is hard to get in the frey of a tourist destination.

Shabu Shabu spread. Photos by Lorenzo Worster.

Well they dont call them sucker holes for nothing. We woke up yesterday to more grey skies but got the whole crew together in one van and headed out. With Nick and Yuki interviewing Taro, we only had one camera for 5 athletes. The Aspen crew had scouted a gnarly pillow zone to ski and Aiden and I were going to build a couple jumps down lower. It worked out pretty well, all in all. We built a jump over this snowy branch and cleared it a couple of times before tapping all the snow off. Then While the Nick, Jaquie, and Will hit the pillow lines again, we built up a jump over this gnarled bush that had a huge pillow on top. It Turned out pretty cool and we hit it a bunch of times with Aiden stealing the show with a super corked 7 where his head grazed the top of the pillow as he sailed over it. We watched it over and over that night and if he had been in any other part of his rotation he would have hit the pillow but he just grazed it and got the shot of the day!

Jacqui on the pillows.

Today we woke up to, surprise surprise, greybird! We left the pad and head out toward Nakayama while the sky opened up into blueness. Of course once there we were out of the hole and into the clouds again. We hiked up to the top of a pretty cool road side pillow line. It had been pretty well tracked before the last 8 inch storm and as I got on top and scoped the line I definitely was not feeling good about it. I had to pull the plug and we went over to the front side and skied in the same spot that we hit my first day here. The snow was not great and I was glad I decided against the pillow line, but it is still a blow to the ego to pull the plug on something like that.

Redemption pillows

We still had plenty of day left and still under the clouds we went to scout another zone across the valley. About an hour skin in and we were in the “amphitheater of shenanigans” as Aiden coined it. With glide cracks and pillows galore we set out to find something for a flat light shoot. Aiden went over to scout a crazy looking log ride and Ben and I went to look at another pillow line.

It is always hard to get back on the horse after pulling the plug on something. I start doubting my judgement and flipping between super ambitious and overly cautious. The line was great in that I could scout it from the bottom and just to the side from the top. It looked great. A hanging snowfield above four pillows into a gully. It was the transition at the bottom that was the concern as the snow wasn’t super soft bit it looked great from up top and I decided to go for it. My main concern was the snow in the upper snowfield since all the sluff would head to the same spot I needed to land, but after the first turn I knew it was going to all work out. I made two turns, popped down to the first pillow and stuck the landing. It was a small line but it felt so good to skit it just as I had imagined. I hit a second pillow line with a harder tranny and almost had the landing but washed out and rolled, but the first line made up for it.

The pillow line looks tasty, but...

Feeling like we had made some progress we headed across the valley to see how Aiden was doing. The log ride was an old tree with some scraggley looking branches and a big droopy pillow. We ended up having to dig out a tranny in order to get onto it but after than it was a blast. If you sent it off the log 2/3 the way out you had a perfect roll to land on. All and all it was a pretty good day considering the so-so snow and the lack of light.

Prepping the log.

Earlier this winter, Eric guided an expedition to the South Pole, a 41-day adventure on skis. Eric brought his Pinnacles to the Outdoor Retailer show in January for us to check out, and they were in great condition (minus some faded graphics from the UV exposure) after the trip! Here’s what Eric had to say from the South Pole:

It was an amazing trip and was pleased to facilitate my clients’ dream of skiing to the South Pole. On a personal level, the journey reinforced my love of snow and cold. Antarctica is staggeringly beautiful on a bad day. On a good day, almost impossible to describe. They say its not the journey but the destination, but funny for me and this expedition, was the fact that I was so focused on Save the Poles that having this trip fall in my lap was a bit of a surprise. In aiming toward a smaller goal (getting to the South Pole) I was further surprised to see how my ideas about team work, communication and cooperation evolved. Life. It never ceases to amaze me. In completing the 41-day journey, I became one of only a few Americans to ski to both the North and South Poles.

I’ve been doing a lot of skiing lately and I have to admit, I love my Karhu Pinnacles. They endured the nearly 1,000 kilometer journey to the South Pole and I’m still using them. On Baffin, I was pushing them to their limits – spanning large cracks in pressure ice and pulling heavy loads all while thriving in the nearly –40 degree temps. Through it all, they performed remarkably.

What’s next for Eric? A lot. Eric’s been busy with training trips up in Minnesota and Baffin Island, and sent us this quick update:

I’ve got the same XCD Pinnacles up here that I took to the south pole and they are really surprising me at how tough they are. I’ve gone through some pretty gnarly stuff. I had a training in northern MN with my South Pole partner two weeks ago and was on the XCD GT’s and felt that they were great as well.

All the preparation is for Eric’s upcoming Save the Poles expedition, in which Eric and his team will be journeying to the North Pole, South Poles, and Mount Everest within a year to raise awareness for climate change issues. We’re proud to work with Eric, and he’ll be using XCD skis for his travel to both poles. Here’s some more info on Save the Poles, and as the trip develops, we’ll be bringing you updates via Where Will You Ski Today:

In 2009, renowned Arctic Explorer Eric Larsen will begin an unprecedented journey to the top, bottom and roof of the world. During a continuous 365-day period, Larsen will mount major unsupported expeditions to the North and South Poles and an expedition to the summit of Mt. Everest. This feat has never been completed in one year. To date, only 15 people (no Americans) in history have been to all three ‘poles’. The expedition’s objectives are:

• Complete the first-ever expedition to Mt. Everest, the North Pole and South Pole in a continuous 365-day period
• Promote clean energy solutions, advocate strategies for reducing carbon emissions post Kyoto 2012 and collect relevant scientific data
• Produce a documentary film, book and educational CD-ROM that focuses on global warming, teamwork and the spirit of adventure
• Develop a post expedition multi-media lecture series

Mount Everest and the North and South Poles represent the harshest and most extreme environments on the planet. Yet as inhospitable as these places are to humans, they are also the areas most affected by people. By summer 2040, the Arctic Ocean will be ice-free. Recently, the 1,250 square mile Larsen B Ice Shelf collapsed off of Antarctica and disintegrated into the Southern Ocean. Snow and ice once stretched to Edmund Hillary’s Everest base camp but now ends five miles above.

While we are seeing the most dramatic changes in the Polar and higher altitude regions, Global Warming is an issue that affects us all.

For more info: www.savethepoles.com

Lorenzo has been pumping out the blog entries from his trip as well, and shared this early entry:

The sun finally came out today!! Ian (one of the Sweetgrass film crew) and Ryan Creary were shooting Taro (a Japanese Patagonia snowboarder) and I up above the Goshiki hot springs. We got up higher than we have yet into a little more alpine feeling bowl with no trees and some cool rock features. The top was really iced over but once you got down into the chutes it was more creamy…at least if you didn’t turn too much. Luckily they were short enough to straight line which was a blast. Taro had to leave mid day so it was me and the photogs once again. I hit a cornice to some nice blown in snow about 4 times before getting the shot.

We took lunch around 2:30 and waited to see if we would get a nice pink sunset. We headed back up to Nito only to get shut out by the clouds at the last moment. It was worth the try though. A stop by Seco Mart (7-11) for a well earned delicious japanese ice cream treat and a beer and we are back home hoping for more blue tomorrow.

Photo of the Goshiki Alpine by Lorenzo Worster.

We were officially members of the crack of noon club today. Max and I woke to see the Aguille du Midi out our new bedroom window. It was perfectly clear, the jagged granite ridges framed in the wooden frame. We looked at each other with wide eyes, the forecast was wrong, and we were still in bed. After an ample amount of faffing (British word that means wasting time being totally disorganized and trying to organize your kit…aka gear) we made our way out the door. We still had to find an avalanche transceiver, Max’s new one was still on order, and borrow a pair of fat skis. As we popped round to a friend’s house to pick up our missing bits, we asked Lisa, a local friend, to join us for a leisurely afternoon ski down the Pas de Chevre.

Finally, loaded in the car, we headed up to the Grand Montets, the ski area at the head of the valley, right before the Swiss boarder, and got on the tram without hassle. No elbowing, no lines, no waiting. I think most people were caught off guard by the good weather. We stepped off the first tram and walked straight onto the top tram, the one that took us to the top of the mountain, dropped us off right on the glacier. A gentle breeze kissed our cheeks as we walked down the endless metal steps and then clicked into our skis. We ducked the rope and headed towards the Dru, though many people had skied the Pas de Chevre in the past few days since the last snow, there were still many fresh turns to be had.

With an unusually cold winter here in the Alps, and lots of snow, the turns were still light and fluffy despite the sun beating on our cheeks. We dipped beneath the behemoth of the Dru and watched as the granite ridges, the Aguilles (the needles) that line the valley blanche snaked in front of us, bit by bit we worked our way down to the trees, down the moraine, and down to the valley blanche.

A quick bootpack, and we were up to the “James Bond” trail, which snakes its way across the north side of the valley’s hillsides and lead us all the way back to town. At the bottom of the bunny slopes right in the center of town we popped our skis, walked to the café, and sat beneath the massive granite peaks and ridges and reveled in our crack of noon day!