Ueli Steck Preps for Makalu (Hardwear Sessions)

By Ueli Steck, Mountain Hardwear Athlete

Just back from the United States where my wife Nicole and I climbed in beautiful and warm weather. It's time to say goodbye to the summer and head back to get used to cold temperatures and snow.

Our trip to the States was gorgeous. I could - except to one pitch - redpoint on sight the route "Golden Gate" on the legendary El Capitan in the Yosemite National Parc. El Capitan is 1000 meter high and the highest free standing monolith of granite in the world. The difficulty of the route is 5.13b (US-scale), which corresponds to an 8a. This is motivation enough for the upcoming expedition to Gasherbrum II.

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Gasherbrum is a remote group of high peaks in the Karakorum, located at the northeast end of the 36-mile Baltoro glacier. The group forms a semi-circle around its own South Gasherbrum Glacier. The highest peak is Gasherbrum I. Three of the Gasherbrum massif's high peaks are over 8,000 meters. Gasherburm I is the world's eleventh highest peak, Broad Peak is the twelfth highest, and Gasherbrum II is the thirteenth highest. They do not lie - like Everest, Lohtse, Makalu or Ama Dablam - in Nepal, but in the sister mountain range of the Himalaja, in Karakorum Pakistan.

Gasherbrum II is an easy peak of 8000 meters in Pakistan. The base camp lies in an incredible wild and deeply amazing world of glaciers. Nearby are summits where alpine history has been written, particularly on K2.

On July 9, 2006 Cédric Hählen, Hans Mitterer and I reached the summit of Gasherbrum II east summit (7772m) over the Magic Line (first ascent).

The idea of the Gasherbrum II expedition is to reach on a relatively simple way a peak of 8000 meters. I need to know how it feels to stand on a summit of 8000 meters. This is very important for the Makalu expedition in fall and for my self-confidence. As mentioned before, the peak of Gasherbrum II is a relatively easy moutain to ascend. Further I would be able to travel already well acclimatised to Nepal.

From Zürich we fly to Islamabad. The journey from Islamabad to the base camp over the 100 kilometer long Baltoro glacier lasts about 1 ½ -2 weeks.Depending on how long the formalities with the government department and liasion officer will last, we hope to be able to move on on the second or third day. If possible we try to fly directly to Skardu in order to avoid the Karakorum Highway. From Skardu we continue our journey with porters and jeeps to Aksole (3048m). From there we will trek during approx. 7 days to the basecamp at 5100 meters.

Ueli Steck to Makalu