Optixcam summit k2 full#

My right hand released the jumar attached to the fixed line. My neck became weak as my head dropped against my chest.

It was like a spicket was opened allowing everything I was to leave my body. вЂњThis is it.вЂќ Then I felt my life-force leave my body. It was all I could just to remain standing. I felt helpless, hopeless and ready to capitulate to K2.ДЄ sense of overwhelming sadness penetrated me like a cold mist in a dense fog reaching every part of my mind, body and soul. I was losing the physical, mental and emotional battle and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I felt like I was drowning.ДЄn immense feeling of debilitating fatigue overtook me. I coughed deeply, it hurt, each one nipping away at my strength. Only an hour out of Camp 4 at 25,500 feet on K2, I was dying.

They are not far away, moving well but the gap is widening between us.вЂќ I told myself knowing the reality was serious and I was having problems. I lifted my head and looked for my teammates. My arms went limp as I struggled to remain standing. My shoulders hurt under weight of the pack that held my life support вЂ“ two bottles of oxygen connected to my facemask.ДЄll I could hear was my own essence flowing through my sporadic, heavy breathing. The air was black, the chill penetrating.

Optixcam summit k2 full#

Standing at a full stop I was surrounded by nothing. But in fact it was High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema aka HAPE, a fatal condition where the lungs fill with fluids stopping breathing. I felt alive and fulfilled.ДЄs I arrived at Camp 2, Camp 3 and Camp 4 a cough had developed that I dismissed as normal high altitude climbing.

It was full on rock climbing at 22, 000 to 24, 000 feet with extreme exposure. Climbing the Black Pyramid was the most fun I had ever experienced on an 8000 meter mountain. We had spent five days reaching the high camp on K2.