On K2 this week, the doubts were carried by avalanches. Russians and Italians on the Abruzzi, Czechs on the SSE Ridge, climbers going up and climbers coming down: baptized in doubt by avalanches.

Doubts creep in. 15,000 feet of climbing rope is stretched from top to bottom. The ropes are thin. The winds drag them back and forth across the rocks, while climbers pull them up and down. The ropes abrade. Falling rocks crush them. They snap. The leader of the Italian team fell 10 feet, landing like a cat, luckily. 

Doubts creep in. The snow is piling up. Our trip from Camp 2 to Camp 3 takes 11 hours, not 5. The snow is waist deep. We can't, physically, break the trail to Camp 4. We retreat. Another storm arrives. The Russians can't make it to Camp 2. The Koreans are stuck for 3 days (going on 4) at Camp 3.

Doubts crept in. It was time to call a meeting of the Abruzzi teams. Fueled by doubts, partnerships form. We gathered at the Italian camp and laid out the agenda: ropes have to be replaced and summit bids coordinated. Bruce shared his plan: the Russians would replace 4 year old rope below C1, as well as a really nasty section below C2. The Italians would replace the single stranded (used to be triple stranded) section above C1. The Portuguese would replace the knotted rope in House's Chimney. Our task is to improve the rope leading to C3. It was an easy conversation: any of us could fall victim to a broken rope, and with so much new rope sitting in barrels at base camp, it was a sin not to safeguard each other. We were all thankful for the plan, despite the labor involved. 

We then discussed summit bids. The Koreans were sitting in Camp 3, intent on summiting after this storm. The Russians and our team are next in line, physically. We are acclimatized, with our gear at Camp 3. The Russians are poised to go to 3 and are acclimatized, nearly summiting Broad Peak the other day. Our two teams may unite for a summit push this week. The Italians and Portuguese need another week, maybe looking at a bid in 10-14 days.

Well, that describes most of us on the Abruzzi. But we aren't the only teams on the Pakistani side of K2. The Russian West Face team, the machine, is churning out 60 meters of vertical terrain each day, regardless of the weather. They are now at 7400 meters and hoping to put in one more camp before going for the summit. We have never met a more disciplined, hard-core team. They are super-natural. 

On the SSE Ridge (Cesen) the Czechs continue to push the route, but like my experiences in 2005, the section from C3 (7050 m) to the Shoulder (7800 m) is proving improbable. The snow is so deep. The winds, funneled through the Negrotto Col, accelerate across the South Face and whip the climbers attempting to fix ropes on this section of the route. Those winds, enjoying the taste of ambitious climbers, accelerate again across the next few spines and flatten tents at Camp 2 on the Abruzzi.

Following the Czechs on the SSE Ridge is an American team and a solitary French climber with his high altitude porters. A handful of them have slept at Camp 2. Similarly, there is a solitary Iranian, who has slept at C2 on the Abruzzi. And in base camp, a solitary Czech climber waits. He has a particular role in base camp, having fallen from grace from the Czech climbing community. Not that I know all the facts, but I have heard all the rumors. Despite being the 6th Czech to summit Everest, he proclaimed himself the first. As you can imagine this didn't sit well with his peers, especially since a few of the Czechs who beat him (by years) are also on K2 this summer. 

The most recent arrival in BC is the Korean Women's Expedition. We met two of the women climbing to C1 on the Abruzzi the other day. Their two Sherpas were already there, setting up tents. According to our sources within the Korean Men's Expedition, these two are "stars" and the men are "star struck."

Any other rumors: of course. After the Russians turned back short of the summit of Broad Peak, a German team continued on towards the summit. It was so cold that someone was eventually evacuated from the mountain with frostbite. But that wasn't the rumor. It seems that another climber, seen lagging far behind, created a 5th member of that summit team one that was stumbling, in need of escort downwards, but encouraged to go for the summit. The imaginary climber never returned to camp. The rumors started. The story circulated through K2 base camp, people horrified by this gross act of negligence, only to eventually be filed as an illusion. 

So what rumors are next to fly? Let's hope that they are about summit bids, acts of heroism and base camp managers falling in love with down swaddled trekkers. At least one of those may come true. The forecast just arrived and it looks like the summit window is getting a bit longer. From the team that has twice tried to summit comes yet another workweek spent going for the top of K2. As for the falling in love, well, the trekkers never seem to hike past the mighty Russian machine.

Chris Warner