Netherlands Gasherbrum II Ascent, 1988. On June 25, 1988, Arjan van Waardenburg, Rene de Bos, Hans van der Meulen and I reached the summit of Gasherbrum II. From Camp I at 6000 meters on the glacier plateau at the foot of the south face, we climbed alpine-style, making a partially new route on the southeast ridge. During the final climb, we had very good weather. Up to 6600 meters, where we had the first pinnacles and our first bivouac, we climbed the southeast ridge. From there we made a new variant on the glaciated southeast side east of the southeast ridge with a second bivouac. We then continued to the foot of the final pyramid and a third bivouac. After reaching the summit, we descended the normal route, where Austrian, French, Czechoslovakian and Swiss expeditions were active. We lost our leader, Ronald Naar, two weeks after leaving the Netherlands. He broke his foot and injured his back very badly in a paraglider accident and had to be evacuated by helicopter from Payu.

Jeroen Jacobse, Koninklijke Nederlandse Alpen Vereniging