We had to give up our intention to climb up the mountain and establish Camp Two at 6400m due to bad weather; and the forecast seems to stay bad till next Tuesday at least… In a way all these long days spent in Base Camp were good for me since the cough that I got on the dusty road from Skardu to Askole seems to have settled down. The same goes for my stomach problem which got considerably better in the mean time.

Worrying news from Broad Peak (8047m)…it seems Dodo Kopold's climbing partner Vlado Plulik failed to return to Base Camp from his summit day on June 26th. Vlado went up the normal route while Dodo made a variation reportedly summiting at 9pm. The Slovaks tried a lightweight bold ascent (no sleeping bags or tents, only bivy bags) of Broad Peak, just days after their success on Gasherbrum 1 and 2. Currently the other teams on Broad Peak have only managed to establish Camp One at 5500m, no other tents being available for shelter up the mountain. By the time of writing ( Monday, June 30th ), Vlado has not returned yet into the base camp…

Last night avalanche after avalanche were thundering down the slopes. I think I counted from the warmth of my sleeping bag in the base camp more than ten of them. One in the early morning was particularly huge since I felt as if all the mountain was blasted by an atomic bomb.