Gasherbrum II. It took 13 days to get from Dassu to our temporary Base Camp at 16,000 feet on the Abruzzi Glacier, including two rest days, one caused by heavy snowfall at Concordia. We arrived on May 14. We had started with 60 porters but arrived with 40 since many who had carried food could be discharged. Because of cold, fog and snow, the porters could not carry the last two or three hours to Base Camp. Expedition members made the carry in five days. We followed the first-ascent route and used no fixed ropes. We set up Camp I at 19,700 feet on May 21 and Camp II on the southwest spur at 21,650 feet on May 25. Bad weather and stomach troubles defeated the first summit try. On June 8 Georg Kaser and Gerhard Markl set up Camp III at 24,275 feet and climbed to the summit on June 9. Michel Grüner and Robert Renzler ascended from Base Camp to Camp II on June 7 and in the next two days to 23,000 and 24,275 feet to reach the summit on June 10. On June 9 Christine Miller, Josef Trattner and I reached Camp III and headed for the summit on June 11. Christine Miller fell ill and I descended with her while Trattner made the summit. On the descent on the 12th she suffered third-degree frostbite on three toes and Grüner had minor frostbite. We had picked up stomach and intestinal infections in Rawalpindi, which bothered us throughout the expedition.

Helmut Rott, Akademischer Alpiner Verein, Innsbruck, Austria