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THIS SUMMER Don Bowie (Canada) and Alexey Bolotov (Russia) return to the the Gasherbrum mountain range in Baltoro, Pakistan. The two alpinists will decide on particular objectives based on specific conditions in the region, and have secured a few seperate permits to keep their options open. Of the 6 main peaks comprising the Gasherbrum massive, 4 are of interest to Don and Alexey:


GASHERBRUM I (also known as Hidden Peak or K5) is the 11th highest peak on Earth, located on the Pakistan-China border in Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. Gasherbrum I is part of the Gasherbrum massif, located in the Karakoram region of the Gasherbrum is often claimed to mean "Shining Wall", presumably a reference to the highly visible face of the neighboring peak Gasherbrum IV; but in fact it comes from "rgasha" (beautiful) + "brum" (mountain) in Balti, hence it actually means "beautiful mountain."

GASHERBRUM II (also known as K4) is the 13th highest mountain on Earth, located on the border of Pakistan occupied Kashmir - China. Gasherbrum II is the third highest peak of the Gasherbrum massif, located in the Karakoram range of the Himalaya.

GASHERBRUM III, at 7952m (26,088ft), and GASHERBRUM IV, at 7925m (26,000ft) are respectively the world's 15th- and 17th-highest peaks. Completely overlooked in the rush to the fourteen 8000m peaks, G3 has had only 2 ascents, both by the same route, which put 7 people on its summit; G4 is rather better known for its singular elegance and for its extreme difficulty, as a result of which its true summit has still seen only 9 pairs of feet (on 4 expeditions between 1958 and 1997)

Don Bowie (Canada) Alexey Bolotov (Russia)
Category >> Annapurna 2008

Untagged  29 Jul 2010 12:00 AM
Returned to base camp by Webteam

Don's Home Team Reports:

Don phoned to say that he, Alexey, and all climbers who summited with him have returned safely to base camp.

Untagged  1 Jul 2010 12:00 AM
Phone Dispatch from Don by Webteam

July 1, 2010

 Even though Alexey and I knew that the weather was going to be bad, our goal was to try to push as high as we could toward Camp 2 on GI. Our first push got us to Camp 1 at 5926m. We spent a day acclimatizing there which means we spent 2 nights. We got up yesterday morning after the second night here and even though visibility was extremely poor, winds were high, and it was snowing, we made our way up along the glacier and up the ice fall towards Camp 2. We understand that Camp 2 is about 6500 m, but we haven’t made it there yet. Last night we camped just below Camp 2 about 6400m. Even though the weather is really bad with blowing snow and high winds, we don’t mind very much because we are dressed warm in our mountain gear and can get warm in the tent

 There is a ton of snow up here and it has filled in the crevasses. We’ve hit a few small ones, but nothing very big. Today we went up another 100m and think we found the way up into the pass.

 We feel satisfied that we have reached this high on GI and spent a good amount of time acclimatizing on the mountain. Tomorrow morning we will pack up, leave a stash of gear here, and head back down to Camp 2 and then to Base Camp where we plan to rest for a few days.

Untagged  2 Mar 2009 12:00 AM
"Summit attack halted" by Don Bowie
“Retreat: The Summit attack halted by the weather” reported Artur Hajzer on his website:

Artur continues to say that, “According to forecast from Meteo Institute till March 21 2009, which is end of the winter, there won't be the weather allowing attacking Broad Peak Summit. There will be heavy wind blowing up to 100 km per hour on summit level. Not having much of a choice, in the situation,  HiMountain Expedition decided to terminate the siege and to terminate the operation. Camp and base liquidation has started.”

”8.000 m Karakorum summits remain still unreachable during winter. Climbers have been trying at least for 20 years. Will anyone success in the future?”

Don's Webteam: Don is in base camp at the moment. He will send out a dispatch soon.

Untagged  21 Dec 2008 12:00 AM
Apologies from the Web Team by Webteam
For those of you who receive our dispatch announcements via email, we once again apologize for sending out some of Don's old dispatches along with Don's first dispatch from Broad Peak.  We thought the problem with our automated system, Feedburner, was fixed, but apparently not.  Therefore, we have dismantled it and will be sending out future dispatches with a new system. Watch for Don's latest dispatch coming up soon!
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