Thinking of going to the Karakoram?

I've had a couple of emails over the last few weeks asking me how to go about organising a mountaineering trip to the Karakoram or Broad Peak and who we used to organise logistics/permits etc in Pakistan.

Firstly, I'm happy to answer questions if I have time, feel free to email:
john@jr-climbing.co.uk

If you're looking for a recommendation of an operator I'd highly recommend the operator we used: Lela Peak Expeditions

Email address: lelapeakexpedition@gmail.com

2 summits, 60 toes and 60 fingers

2 summits, 60 toes, 60 fingers (just) and heaps of photographs and memories. We're all recovering with respective families, wives, girlfriends and catching up on the monstrous email inboxes.

We arrived back late on Thursday afternoon into Manchester and went straight to a restaurant in Chorlton to fulfil some of the hunger cravings... red wine, mozzarella, duck salad and so on and so forth.

A big thank you to those of you that supported us whilst we were away either through email, text, blog comments or by pledging money to the DEC floods appeal. It was great to hear from you, even though in many cases we were unable to reply.

We saw much of the flood devastation in a number of valleys and support is very much needed for the region. If you still want to donate you can do here:

http://www.justgiving.com/BroadPeakAscentTeam

Who knows what next on the agenda, the email has already had its first suggestion for 2013... http://everest2013.blogspot.com

Here's a tabloid style article about us that made it into the local Islamabad paper (Scott says he didn't say half of it):

http://www.dawn.com/2011/08/05/amateur-climbers-scale-broad-peak-2.html

And finally, the team would also like to pay its respects to Jeff (Chung Wai Hung from Hong Kong) who sadly died in a fall we witnessed from Base Camp on the 25th July. Our thoughts are with the rest of his team, his friends and his family. As we all said on the day: nobody deserves to die following our dreams...

Explorer's Web and other links

So the expedition made it onto explorer's web, I assume they look through the permit issues:

http://www.explorersweb.com/everest_k2/news.php?id=20199

Unfortunately it's subscription only but it doesn't really say much:

"A British Broad Peak Expedition will be led by John Roberts Matthew."

Yes, that's all it says, $11 subscription to see that and they've got my name wrong!  Interesting given that it's the site linking through the most traffic to this blog!

And from http://karakorumclimb.wordpress.com/

"The British Broad Peak (8048) Expedition will include John Roberts Matthew, Scott Mackenzie, Benjamin Wolstenholme, Duncan Gray Robinson, John David Mason and Robert Johnson Adie."

Route info and photos

After a visit by some Pakistani climbers to the BMC's international meet we asked for some specific photos of parts of the route up Broad Peak.  Thanks to Rehmat Ullah for sending these across.

The main gully up to Camp one, this can be avoided by a steeper route on the left side of the buttress if it is particularly icy or avalanche prone.
© Rehmat Ullah

The route upto camp 2 with the camp just top the right of the rocks in the middleground
© Rehmat Ullah

The rocks just above the climbers are the bottom of camp 3, there is also a camp 3a a little higher for those not using camp 4 and pushing straight to the summit, which is what we plan to do.
© Rehmat Ullah

Thanks to Rehmat for the photos, it's great to have a bit more visualisation of the route, and the apparent mellowness of some sections, as there isn't a great deal of info out there.

However unfortunately Ueli Steck won't be there anymore to kick the steps in as he's cancelled his trip...

Success on Mount Damavand, Iran

Scott Mackenzie skiing from the summit
©John Roberts

3 of the team, John Roberts, Duncan Robinson and Scott Mackenzie (along with 2 others) made the 2nd British Ski descent of Mt Damavand, Iran (5671m) on the 19th March.

On the summit, 5671m
© Duncan Robinson

This was an ideal "training" peak for Broad Peak later in the year.

Individual blog posts:

• John Roberts - The mountain blogspot
• Scott Mackenzie - Fight Gravity
• Duncan Robinson - DR's Mountain blogspot

UKC News Item:
http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=61179

Flights: Qatar Airways

We're making progress with organisation, deposit paid, down suits ordered.  Flights are now booked using Qatar Airways.


Thanks to the Claudio Martinelli at the Flight Centre in Manchester who were really helpful in sorting everything out.

The Pakistani Tour Operator

As the first post we're hoping to document the planning and everything in the lead up to and during the expedition.


After some strong recommendations from a number of people including from the broadpeak2010 expedition we're using the Skardu based tour operator Lela Peaks.  There are a number of other operators out there but given the combination of recommendations, package and price seemed to make sense.


Hopefully they will live up to the recommendations and expectations.