Expedition Gasherbrum 2 & Broad Peak 2022

Writer of the article, Kim Nystrom is an exclusive speaker on Cool N Talk and inspiring motivational keynote speaker and a mountaineer. Cool N Talk shares his Gasherbrum 2 & Broad Peak 2022 expedition updates throughout the trip. Here you can read the newest updates.

Home sweet home

19/7: After making my way homewards for 8 days, am finally, finally here 🙂

Got up at midnight in the hotel in Islamabad, was picked up by the local expedition operator, Mashabrum Tours, and taken to the airport.  Many slow security checks and hours on the plane later, I was met at the Helsinki airport by three beautiful young ladies, seemingly all happy to see their “skinny is the new rugged” Dad home, in one piece.🥰

Wonderful. Now I need a few days to acclimatize to being home again, then it’s time to start going through all photos and videos. Will post some of them here, mainly photos, most of the videos will go on Youtube. Tried to film a few clips each day during the expedition, like a video diary, talking (in Finnish 😉) about how I felt, what had been going on etc. Will let you know when I have those uploaded, so in case you’re interested you can always take a look.

Will also try to wrap things up here in the next few days – thoughts, ideas, the goods/bads, recommendations and so on.

Thanks for being with me on this jurney!

​Skardu, Islamabad & arranging tickets back home

17/7: After a surprisingly smooth check-in at the local Skardu airport, with our oversized luggage, we boarded the Pakistan International Airlines aircraft and took off. What an exciting flight!

After a steep and very interesting take-off, in order to cross the mountains, the skies cleared and a magnificent view opened up on both sides of the plane. Throughout the flight, the pilot worked as a tour guide and explained all about the surrounding landscape. We heard about the huge amount of high peaks in the Karakorum, their altitude, history as well as stories about any other landmarks we could see outside the small windows. Big thanks to the pilot, what an excellent and exceptional service.

​Right now the challenge here in hot Islamabad is trying to figure out how to get the homewards flights arranged. I have return flights booked on Turkish for 11/8, and naturally I would like to change those for as soon as possible. However, all TA flights seem to be full for all of July and August (!), so not sure yet how things will work out. I may have to buy a ticket on another airline. 

​So tomorrow morning am heading over to the local TA offices to see what, if anything, can be done – wish me luck!

​16/7: Slow day in Skardu. Today we repacked our extremely dusty and dirty gear, then went to get a shave. My face feels odd without the beard, and I hardly recognise myself in the mirror.

​In addition, have also lost a lot of weight (though no surprise there…) – had to tighten the belt of my trekking pants about 20 cm, so there definitely is a different me staring back from the mirror.

The most important thing today has been eating. A lot. Seems it’s very hard to eat enough. Will keep practicing 🙂

Tomorrow we have flight tickets from Skardu to Islamabad – and are sincerely hoping we at least this time will get to fly, instead of doing the Karakorum Highway in reverse.

Once I get to Islamabad, I can finally try to arrange the tickets home!!

​Finally in Skardu

15/7: We left Paiju camp early in the morning and started walking towards the planned jeep pick-up point. For a change, a quite pleasant and relaxed walk, good weather, talking to various groups that had just started their trek up towards the Baltoro glacier.

Couldn’t help but smile when they all looked so clean, fresh and eager – knowing what a rough trek they have ahead.

They have no idea! What used to be a quite straightforward trek is far, far from that nowadays.

4 hours later took a nice little break in the sunshine, boots and socks off, drinking coke and tea, waiting for the jeep to arrive.

Then – a wilder than wild jeep ride! For the first hour we had an open jeep, more like a pickup, and stood there holding on for dear life as we cruised and bumped over rocks and steep inclines.

Suddenly the jeep stopped in front of a bridge the had been washed away. All luggage off the jeep, and one by one were pulled by hand high over the roaring river in a small wooden box suspended on a cable – quite exciting and a new experience richer 🙂

The next jeep ride was even shorter, only a few km, when we again had to stop because the road had totally collapsed. All luggage had again to be offloaded and carried up and over the collapsed road section. A big group of locals were frantically fighting over who would get to carry our bags and earn a few extra rupees. Man, what a circus!

Fortunately, the rest of the road was without washed away bridges or any hanging contraptions, but the ride was long, dusty, tiring and extremely bumpy. We slowly bumped along a very rocky and narrow road, closely following the roaring river, sometimes high above, sometimes down by the river. For a large part of the time the road was exactly one jeep wide, with a very high drop on the side, marked only with small stones. One small mistake by the driver would have sent us tens of meters down into the river.

Fortunately the drivers are super good, professionals, and the jeeps incredible at not breaking down even on the rockiest sections. Quite incredible. Once I get my photos and videos sorted out, you will see 🙂

Finally, around midnight, we arrived at the Concordia Hotel, for a quick dinner and then, the long-awaited shower!

Having hiked, sweated and slept, not to mention driving on the dusty roads, in the same clothes for 4 days, it’s hard to describe the feeling. It didn’t really matter that there was only cold water, what a joy to get rid of the smell 🙂

A long day later, we are finally off the glacier

14/7: Now resting in Paiju camp. Just had a nice dinner with the brother of our mule driver . Excellent spicy rice and cummin-filled meat sauce, washed down with chai tea. Again one step closer to home.

Tomorrow we continue this long journey, on foot and by jeep. The challenge is that at least two bridges have been washed away by some flash floods, so it remains to be seen how far we get. For sure until Askole, and there is even a small chance that we could make it all the way to Skardu, very late at night. We are 100% prepared for a long day and keeping our fingers crossed that things will work out in our favour, as the sweaty aromas are getting quite strong, I can tell you

13/7: Trekked from Goro 2 camp to Urdukas today. Got a bit lost on the glacier so had to do some serious scrambling over and around boulders and crevasses.

​Started raining as we arrived. All gear is pretty much humid or wet, and the rain continues. Our feet are sore from trekking across the very rough surface, much more so than expected. Our gear bags are transported by mule as we go from one camp to another.

We only carry very little in our back packs.  The ground is muddy mixed with mule crap, clothes and sleeping bag are moist, as we are lying here in the tent listening to the rain. So it looks like we still have a couple of long days ahead before reaching any kind of civilisation, can’t wait.

Made the tough decision

12/7: Have just left BC. Made the tough decision of abandoning this expedition, based on many reasons I will open up a bit later. But mainly involves risks I am not willing to take, incoming bad weather/snowfall, and small chance of anybody summiting at all. Am happy with the decision though it was a very very tough one to make.

​Am leaving with Bill and Susanne, and today we have a looong 27km trek to Goro 2 camp. From there 3 more camps and a few jeep drives that should mean we are in Skardu on Sat.

Then, hopefully we will be sble to catch a flight to Islamabad on Sunday or Monday. Should the flights be cancelled, which seems to be the norm, we will drive down the Karakorum Highway (about 15 hs) to Islamabad.

Then the last thing is to arrange the flights back home , a lot of experiences richer!!

​Incoming snowstorm

11/7: Just as I finished the last sentence, the order came to pack everything and descend back to C1, because of an incoming snowstorm!

At the same time the wind started blowing hard and the snow came, so it was a bit of a struggle trying to pack most of the tents. Going down took a long time, as there were many of us and the rope abseils were long, over steep ice!

Arrived at C1, exhausted and super thirsty, not having had anything to drink since morning. Crashed into the tent hoping for a good night’s sleep, but were woken at 3, with an hour to pack before descending to BC. More snow on the way, with quickly increasing avalanche danger.

So here I am, in my tent at BC. The forecast looks bad for at least a week, so we will have to see what happens next.

Personally I have exceeded my comfort/risk limits way more than I like, and the climbing has been significantly harder and much more technical than expected. Every day has been physically super hard, also my stomach still has not returned to normal, which of course impacts everything as well.

Also, based on what experienced climbers here say, G2 may not be climbed this year. Based on that, and the increasing snowfall, I may well throw in the towel and return home. A tough decision, but may be the best. Will make that decision within the next few days.

Greetings from Camp 2, 6500m

10/7: Got here this morning after a brutally steep and icy climb. Those who know are comparing it to K2! Most of the sections were fortunately protected, ie there was a fixed rope in place. However, because of the heat, many of the anchors holding the rope in place are not 100% reliable. And that kinda sucks. Though they keep improving the anchors, In practice it means you cant put your full weight on it, except in an emergency.

The climbing was 60-80 degree ice in many places, and the Banana Ridge was broken up, looking nothing like before. Camp 2 tent platforms, for instance, had to be dug out from a 40-degree slope.

Also, the plan has changed, unfortunately. We will now spend today, tonight and tomorrow here, descend to C1, and to BC as there is a storm moving in.

We ran into Denis Orubko, a very famous mountaineer, and even he has doubts about the whole mountain this year.

Apparently there was a record amount of snow last winter, and those who have summited G2 before say they’ve never seen it like this. Those who have summited Everest say G2 has been much tougher, and that says a lot as well.

​7/7: Well, today was supposed to be a nice last rest and refuelling day before heading up in the night. Hasn’t yet turned out that way, unfortunately. First, it’s been raining in BC all night and day. Not hard, but still a steady drizzle. This will most likely mean that the route up will be soft and wet. Though now, at 14, at least the sky has cleared, and I had a shower  🙂

Second, I had to get up a couple of times during the night to empty myself. So have now a mild stomach issue (great timing!). Took an Imodium in the morning to calm things down, and right now it seems things have settled down. Of course it also means I am totally empty. This will affect the next few days quite a bit energy-wise as I don’t want take the risk of eating or drinking much anything, yet. Took a nap and had a bit of rice and tea for lunch, and now waiting to see what my stomach says. The timing is very unfortunate.

However bugs like this are common, and the only thing to do is wait for it to pass. But will be a tough climb to C1! So keep an eye on the Garmin map, there you will see where we are moving. At least the climbs to C1/C2 will be at night/early morning.

Summit plan

​6/7: Now we have a plan. Next time we move up will be the summit attempt! Early in the morning on the 8th, we will head up the ice fall to C1, 6000m. Spend a day, night and day there. Early on the 10th up to C2 6500m. Same thing, spend the day, night and following day there, resting and refuelling.

On the 12th we move up to C3 7000m, rest and refuel that day, and continue to C4 7400m the following day. Then, late in the evening on the 13th starts our summit attempt! If all goes well, and the weather cooperates, we will summit on the14th, then head back down to C2 for one night and on the 15th push on down all the way to BC.

​The two biggest factors are the weather and my no-oxygen approach. Right now the weather forecast looks very good, but who knows? It will be a struggle without supplementary oxygen, pushing myself both mentally and physically, no doubt about that! I am quite aware of my own limits, physiologically and risk-wise, so if push comes to shove, I will not have any problems in saying thank you for the adventure and turning around.

​What does a typical day in BC look like – how do we spend our time here?

5/7: Well, its a pretty simple life. At BC we all have our own tents, which is a nice luxury – you have a bit of privacy, plus plenty of space to spread out and organize your things.

​You typically wake up between 4 and 6, lie in your sleeping bag listening to the camp waking up. Breakfast is scheduled for 8, so the cooks get up at 6, fire up the kerosene burners and start boiling water and preparing breakfast for us all.

The kitchen help organize the mess tent, make sure the table is set with cans of coffee, tea and chocolate. Cans of marmelade, nutella and honey, as well as cookies are laid out.

​We lie in the tents, waiting for the first rays of sun to hit the tents around 630, warming it up so you can get out of the sleeping bag and change into clothes for the day. That is followed by typical morning routines – brushing teeth, going to the latrine etc.

Then we have a leisurely breakfast with plenty of coffee, some muesli, fried eggs, chapatti bread.

​If there is nothing specific on the agenda we retreat to our tents or hang around in the mess tent, reading, talking, relaxing.

You have a lot of time for doing nothing, which for the more restless of us can sometimes be difficult. Plenty of time to think, which in today’s world is a rare luxury, as there are no emails, whatsapp ir other messages to constantly interrupt

​Sometimes you do a bit of laundry, take a shower, or service your gear.

​The cycle then repeats itself for lunch around 1 and dinner around 7. On this expedition the cook is a real magician and we have enjoyed everything from pizza and french fries to steak, cake and fresh fruit! After a long dinner with stories from everyone, its time to return to the tent, change into night gear, crawl into the sleeping bag, perhaps read a little and finally close your eyes and go to sleep

​Crevasses, crevasses and more crevasses

4/7: Base Camp. Crevasses, crevasses and more crevasses was the theme when we left C1 at 22. An unforgettable night.

​The five of us were roped up at ca 5m intervals as we started our way down towards BC. At regular intervals one of us would plunge through seemingly solid snow into dark and unforgiving crevasses, up to our hips.

​Everybody had to stay super alert and immediately when someone shouted ”Fall!” we would throw ourselves either forwards or backwards, depending on who had gone through. Then we hauled that person up and continued until the next shout came.

​We thought the snow surface would have hardened enough three hours after sunset, but we were clearly wrong. All in all the descent lasted 6 hours.

The teams who left a couple of hours after us had no such problems and were down in 4 hs. Lesson learned. So it looks more and more like the majority of the work needs to be done at night.

​That messes with us in many ways, especially with recovery – sleeping and eating. Sleeping a few hours in the evening, climbing at night, trying to sleep in a hot tent during the day, repeat – well, you get the picture…

​In addition it messes up eating and restoring energy levels completely – who has an appetite at altitude in a steaming hot tent? We have all lost weight readily, and there is more to come.

​To combat this, we all have our own snacks of some sort. I have Nosht energy gels, Puhti honey packages, some beef jerky strips – and of course salmiakki and Pantteri candy.

3/7: The sherpas left at midnight to start fixing the ropes to C2. We left at 2 and started up the steep wall. This time, without packs, and using the fixed ropes, the going was relatively easy. 2 hs in, there was an unfixed section just above a steep wall, that our group deemed too risky to cross, so we descended back to camp from 6300m. A bit of a disappointment, but we have clear risk limits we do not wan to cross. At least we got some altitude in.

​The rest of the day has been spent trying to sleep in this sauna, waiting to descend to BC at 21 when the surface has hardened. Hopefully it wont take more than 4-5 hs. Last winter saw a huge amount of snow so the mountain is exceptionally difficult this season, and the going super hard. It may well be that we will have to abandon our attempts. That will depend on our next, longer rotation, and of course weather. Should there be more snow, then we may have to retreat, and somehow get all our gear down. Lets see, it’s not over yet 🙂

Greetings from camp 1 6000m!

2/7: We are all lying in tents here, exhausted from our push up here. Left at midnight, worked our way up the icefall with heavy packs. We tried to bring everything we need for the next rotations, i.e all clothes and equipment we might need. Mainly high altitude down bags and clothes etc that we are then going to leave here for the next pushes higher up. Super hard work!

Going was ok until the sun hit us and then everything became a struggle, small steps at a time! Extremely difficult going as the crevasses are enormous and we have circle around, back and forth to find a relatively safe route on the softening snow. We are now at the foot of the mountain and the sun has turned this into a huge sauna. There is nothing to do. You cant walk around as you just keep sinking into the snow. Just lie in the hot tent and melt snow to drink.

Next, the super strong sherpas will try to push up the first ridge and fix a rop to Camp 2. The only time to do that is after sunset when it gets cold and the snow hardens. This means most of our movement will need to be done at night. And that doesn’t make recovery any easier.

So we will spend this night here, and the night will be cold. Tomorrow the day will be as hot as today. If the sherpas manage to fix the route tonight and set up a few tents at C2, we might make our way up, and then just touch the camp and return to BC – or, I may stay there for one night with another guy who will also not be using extra oxygen, as we need the extra acclimatisation. But we will see, tomorrow will know better.

30/6: Last night went to bed for a couple of hours, then wakeup at 2330, get the gear on and to the mess tent for some coffee and cookies.  After midnight we set off towards the icefall. It is beautiful and menacing, broken up into apartment-sized blocks and seracs, and beautiful sculptures.

As said before, it is very complicated and similar to the Khumbu icefall next to Mt Everest. The biggest difference, fortunately, is that it barely moves.

Anyways, we made our way sideways, up and down, trying to avoid the huge crevasses everywhere.The route was very complicated and involved quite a bit of ice climbing. Very hard and slow going. Also very much different from last time in 2008. Ca 4 hours in, it turned into more of a flat plain, and 1 hour later at 5560m we dug a hole in the snow, left some tents and gas canisters, turned back down. The sun started blasting us about an hour later and made the last two hours a sweaty zigzagging journey.

Returning to BC, we all retreated to our tents, but as the temperature inside is a dry 35-40 degrees, it is not really possible to sleep. The good thing is we got in some altitude to help us next time when we bring some more equipment for the rotation I mentioned earlier, on Sat morning. The rest of today and tomorrow we will rest and prepare.

The question Why? went through my head numerous times, but the fact is that if you want to achieve something big, you have to take steps towards it and not just think about it. And that’s what this is all about 🙂

Wonderful easy rest days 

28/6: Rest day. Been relaxing, eating salmiakki and drinking a lot . Swede Stefan and I hiked an hour up the moraine ridge from BC to get a look at our mountain, Gasherbrum 2. Took a bunch of photos and then we had a close look at the route on my laptop.

This year the big challenge is the 10km long icefall that we need to tackle on our way to Camp 1 at 6000m. A team has already been hard at work for nearly a week in trying to find a route through. Its a big challenge as the icefall is a barrier that is the only way up. For continuing the acclimatisation process, we will need to start moving up the icefall no matter what. The plan now is to take off upwards for 4-5hrs around midnight1am on Thu morning and then return back to BC before the sun starts roasting us.

​Fortunately these two expeditions have the best sherpas, awesome super guys. They together have an enormous amount of experience and summits  from 8000m peaks. One of them has 17 Everest summits under his belt, incredible!!!

If all goes well, we will do our first rotation a few days after that. Bring some tents etc to Camp 1 at 6000m, sleep a night, go up to Camp 2 at 6600m, sleep a night, perhaps try to touch C3 at 7000m, return to C1, sleep and return to BC.

From our team the others are going with supplementary oxygen, and two have their own personal sherpas. From Kobler there are two others who have also decided to forego the supplementary oxygen. Will be interesting to see how this pans out 🙂

It is essential that we do most of the climbing during the night. Because when the sun hits us, it’s like walking around in the sauna in warm clothes and high altitude boots – you can imagine how it drains all your energy!

27/6: Very hot though, so even only lying in bed with all doors open is like being in a dry sauna!  Have been using my Garmin InReach Mini, connected via bluetooth to the Garmin app on my iphone. It allows sending sms over satellite, and works amazingly well. Been communicating with family and friends daily 🙂

So updates have gone to Taru in sms-sized pieces, and she has then compiled them and updated the web site. Lets not make it too easy 🙂

​While expedition members have been relaxing, the sherpas have worked hard at finalizing this tiny village. That means comms tent, storage tent, both kitchen tents, toilets and shower tent. Super hard work in this heat, having to hack away ice and move rocks around. The highlight today, without any doubt, was showering! In addition I also washed dirty clothes, by hand, in a glacial stream’s super cooled water . So, a clean me, in clean clothes, especially in clean underwear feels wonderful!

Gasherbrum 2 base camp – Our home for the next few weeks

26/6: We overnighted about 3hs from Concordia towards Gasherbrum. Then a very early wakeup for the final push to base camp. Once again a super rough trek, lots of ups and down over a very much broken up glacier – again very different from last time. Global warming is very apparent here, so sad!

4 hours later, yes! Our home for the next few weeks. As we were looking on, the sherpas and staff did a huge job of hacking away ice and moving rocks in order to build smooth platforms for the mess, kitchen and storage tents, and of course for our tents.

We have a luxurious 3-person tent per person, including a foam mattress. A new experience for me, and am not complaining  as have not slept well at all for the past week.

We also have a mess tent, which is insulated and heated! Meaning it is cool in the daytime when the sun is beating down, and to eat dinner and hang around in the evenings without being cold. Also a new experience 🙂

The day was super hot, but right now the weather is clearly changing, it is very windy and cold. Tomorrow we should have our first weather forecast, it will help a lot in making plans for the coming week. Fortunately we have two rest days ahead, after that we will probably start our rotations and moving up the mountain.

Up to now we have been moving as one 15 person unit – our 5 360-expedition team of 5, Kobler’s 7 person team, plus sherpas. From now on, fortunately, its just us 5; Susanna (Switzerland), Bill (UK), Stefan (Sweden), myself, and our fearless leader Rolfe Oostra (Australia) plus our sherpa Pemba. Rolfe has an incredible amount of experience from 8000:ers, Antarctica, and pretty much from all over the world – so we are in very good hands!

So what do we eat on an expedition?

Quite often expeditions come with a kitchen and staff, so with ours. They have a few kerosene burners and can conjure up incredibly good food!

A typical breakfast is coffee (of course!) with lots of sugar, mashed eggs, chapatti bread, toast with honey or Nutella. Sometimes also oatmeal or muesli.

Lunch and dinner typically start with some sort of soup, followed by rice or french fries and a main course of chicken or pasta. On occasion there will be pizza as well. At dinner we also get dessert – fresh and delicious mango or some other fruit. So we are definitely set on that front.

As we move up the mountain we will mostly eat ready-made expedition meals, which could be a bag of pasta or curry, you just heat up some water on a small gas stove, pour it in, wait a bit and eat 🙂

Gotta say they are definitely taking care of us well foodwise, the cook is a master.

Oh boy, it is expedition Gasherbrum 2 & Broad Peak time!

15/6: Time to leave family and friends and the daily routines behind for a while. To go and experience the raw nature; the mountains, the incredible views, the stars of exceptional brilliance, the white snowfields and glaciers, and the blue sky. Time to experience new things.

Being fortunate to have that opportunity makes you very humble, and you understand that life is all about experiences, and that what you experience in life is all up to you. You make your own destiny.

​Why the mountains?

Aah but I hear you thinking – why can’t you experience all that raw nature on a beautiful sunny beach somewhere, or on a safari? Wouldn’t that be better than going where there is a lot less oxygen, it’s cold, possibly dangerous and physically and mentally tough?

Well yes, it could be. I’ve done that too and enjoyed it to 100%. So, why the mountains???

For some reason, with regular intervals, I have a drive to challenge myself. Mountains are an incredible place to do that. The challenge is both physical and mental, it requires motivation, commitment, dedication, overcoming setbacks, endurance and often a bit of luck as well. It is also a huge learning experience, learning not just about oneself but also very much about humility, courage, team working, trust, cooperation and leadership.

But the simple and short answer as to “Why?” is – because I like it. Why do you paint, play basketball, run a marathon, or drink a beer? None of those are necessary – yet you are never questioned as to why you do them. I just happen to really, really like it.

Where am I going, and when?

I’m going to the Western edges of the Himalayan range, to Pakistan. I should be leaving on 15.6 and returning on 11.8. One of the most beautiful areas in the world – the Karakoram mountains. During the approach you can see over 40 mountain peaks that are over 6500m high. Of those, four are over 8000m. One of them is K2, the second highest mountain in the world. The two of interest for this trip are Gasherbrum 2 and Broad Peak.

I have been to the same area once before and ever since have been wanting to go back. The scenery and experience was really that good and I’m so happy I finally have the chance to return!