Broad Peak and K2. An Italian group, “Quota 8000,” which has a six-year program to climb all fourteen 8000ers, had K2 and Broad Peak for its goal in 1986. The team consisted of Italians Agostino Da Polenza, leader, Marino Giacometti, Gianni Calcagno, Soro Dorotei, Martino Moretti, Tullio Vidoni, Frenchman Benoît Chamoux and me from Czechoslovakia. On June 4 we placed Base Camp below K2 at 5100 meters. We placed Camp I at 5700 meters and Camp II on the Negrotto Col at 6300 meters on K2. After bad weather we turned to Broad Peak. On June 16 we placed Camp I at 6300 meters on the normal route on Broad Peak but returned to Base. On June 18 Dorotei, Giacometti, Moretti and I spent the night at Camp I and the next day camped at 7100 meters. On June 20 the three Italians got to the summit, but I had to stop on the 8030-meter foresummit because my movie camera froze. Chamoux left Base Camp on the evening of June 19 and, taking advantage of our tracks, reached the summit also on the 20th. He was back in Base Camp 24 hours after he started. I spent a day at 7100 meters and on June 22 climbed to the summit of Broad Peak solo. After the death of the two Americans on the south-southwest ridge of K2, we decided to climb the Abruzzi Ridge. Bad weather held us up at 7800 meters. Calcagno, Vidoni, Moretti, Dorotei and I set out again on July 3. We bivouacked at 6700 and 7800 meters and got to the summit of K2 on July 5. Chamoux left Base Camp at ten A.M. and Advance Base at six P.M. on July 4 and again using our tracks, got to the top at 4:30 P.M. on July 5. We all descended together. On July 6 Austrian Kurt Diemberger and Englishwoman Julie Tullis, who were our film team, got to the “Bottleneck” at 8200 meters.

Josef Rakoncaj, Ceskoslovensky Horolezecky Svaz