Asia, Pakistan, K2

Publication Year: 1986.

K2. Our 16-member expedition was led by Kazuo Tobita. We reached our provisional Base Camp at 5200 meters on June 10. Then we carried our loads ourselves and moved Base Camp to 5500 meters at the base of the Abruzzi Ridge, which we set up on June 20. It took almost one month to set up Camp I at 6250 meters, Camp II at 6800 meters above House’s Chimney and Camp III at 7400 meters. On July 18 Noboru Yamada, Kazunari Murakami and I placed Camp IV at 7840 meters. However, as the weather was terrible, we were forced to go down to Base Camp. After two days of waiting for clear weather, we same three moved to Camp II and the next day to Camp IV. On July 24 we left Camp IV at 2:30 A.M. and climbed up the shoulder. Then we climbed the rocky couloir which led us to the bottom of the hanging séracs. The deep snow was troublesome as we passed through the séracs on the left side. Though temporarily stopped by the weather, we reached the summit at 1:40 P.M. Murakami and I used oxygen. On July 25 six other members attempted to reach the summit from Camp IV but gave up at 8000 meters because of heavy snow and wind.

Kenji Yoshida, Himalayan Association of Japan