Marty Schmidt — 10th dispatch from Gasherbrum, Pakistan — есть вершина

Hello Macpac, hello everyone following Tim, Giannina and I in the wonderful Karakoram mountains.

I don’t have much time, today is the 22nd of July… On the 18th went for… well actually the 16th, 17th and 18th went from Camp 3 to Camp 4 and then summited on the 18th of July. Tim and I attempted it in the morning. It was very cold and the base was off a little bit to make that long climb, it’s a very hard mountain to climb (…) and… we made it to roughly to about 7,650m and it looked like we didn’t have enough time to go ahead and make the summit, so we got down safely to Camp 4.

Tim went ahead and stayed put at Camp 4 and I turned around and was able to go up very quickly from 11 o’clock in the morning to a summit in 4 hours at 3 and I came down in Camp 4 at 5 o’clock. It took 2 hours to get down. So with my speed I could do it, but for Tim, he needed a little bit more strength, a little bit more time but that’s great that’s what he’s up here for (…) to get it all in his blood, in his bones, in his body.

We’re down at base and Giannina and Tim are heading back down to Skardu and I’m taking the opportunity to go up and do a fast ascent of G1. So I will communicate again after G1 which will be in about 4 or 5 days from now. Communication is not the best I know with the sat phone and I’m sorry about that. I’ll try to get out another email if I can. If not, I call again in about 3, 4, 5 days when I know more about the G1 expedition.

OK, all the best from Pakistan… I hope New Zealand is doing well with the snow and thinking of you guys. We’ll be in touch.
Bye from the Karakorams.