Broad Peak, Alpine Style. After two weeks of completing formalities in Rawalpindi, on May 15 Georges Bettembourg and I, accompanied by Gilles Sourice, movie photographer, and Dr. Jean Fauchard, left Skardu. It took us twelve days to reach Base Camp on the Godwin Austen Glacier below Broad Peak. We had 40 porters who carried 1000 pounds of gear, about half of it food. We acclimatized on the approach by climbing high during the day and returning at night to camp. Immediately after our arrival at Base Camp at 15,750 feet, on May 29 we climbed to 20,000 feet and bivouacked, but the weather turned bad and snow drove us back to Base. Equipped with bivouac gear, food, one 35- meter rope and a few ice pitons, on June 2 we started our second try, going back up to bivouac at 20,000 feet. We climbed the 4250 feet of mixed terrain which averaged 45°, in eleven hours. Sourice was with us and we all went the next day to 24,600 feet in ten hours. Bettembourg and I went on from there, finding the third day the most difficult, but we got to the summit and back to the bivouac despite the cold. We had to concentrate particularly during the descent because of fatigue. After this third bivouac we descended to Base Camp. The return march was rapid, but fatigue and frostbitten feet made things difficult.

Yannick Seigneur, Club Alpin Français