Wow - I slept so well last night. Probably the best night's sleep at nearly 6500m I've ever had. I was nice and warm, it was a quiet, still night and I pretty much slept all the way through, other than a couple of necessary pee bottle usages. Fabrizio had gone up to C3 the previous day (and was now on his way up to C4 - 7900m), and we had a team of 4 moving straight from BC to C2 today, and also a team of 2 just moving to C1.

We left the camp at around 8.45 and at first climbed about 150m (vertical) of rope that Dave had fixed the previous week. The terrain leading out of C2 was steep, with either ice, or powder on unconsolidated scree, or 60 degree rock slab. As I was the first one ready, I took the lead, and I must admit that those first few hundred metres were a real struggle. As my body reluctantly began to warm up and I could begin to manage more than just a few steps before having to take a break, I could concentrate on the climbing and not on my uselessness! A lot of the ground was quite technical, and I was certainly pleased to have the fixed rope there as a safety backup just in case. Careful foot placement and utter concentration was required all the time as the terrain underfoot changed with every step. A different angle on crampon placement was needed for sheet ice, than for rock for instance, and a lapse in concentration would be instantly punished with a screeching slip on slide, and either a pretty swift correction or ice axe placement, or a tug on the fixed line, would see you right.

As we climbed out of the Pinnacles (a series of rock towers which we traversed around and climbed up in between) we climbed onto a large snow slope, which was probably around 30-40 degrees. As I was out in front, I was breaking trail and often having to dig the frozen ropes out of the snow and ice. Although this excavation of the rope was tiring on the arms from cutting with the ice axe, it did however slow the climbing process down and thereby reduce to strain on my legs, which was a welcome change. At this point we were climbing on year-old, but solid and strong rope which Fabrizio had informed us should be fine, as long as we checked the anchors and there weren't any obvious abrasions or damage to the sheath. At about 6750m however the decent rope stopped, and we were left with a thin white 5mm braided cord. As Fabrizio had said, this was either some NASA super-rope, or washing line that someone had got cheap from their local hardware store. Either way, it was to be treated with serious suspicion! The 2 HAPs with us had both picked up a spool of 200m of rope a few hundred metres below, so we decided to start fixing at this point. With one of the spools dropped off at the anchor below, Chris clipped onto the sharp end (the leading end) and climbed past me and then on upwards. Unfortunately there was a little bit of a communication breakdown about what method of fixing we were going to use, which resulted in a very cold hour of sitting around at an anchor waiting to get going and try and sort it out. However, once we had that sorted we all climbed up, with me tying the rope into the anchors that we passed along the way.

Our method (the Fabrizio method) of fixing involves the leader tying into one end of the rope and the just climbing straight up to an appropriate anchor point. This maybe anything between 20m and 70m depending on the terrain, the difficulty or the direction of travel. When the leader reaches an anchor point (either an old one which is checked for strength, or a new one which he fixes with rope/pitons), he secures himself, then pulls up nearly all the rope (which can be up to 180m at the start - very hard work!), leaving a little slack at the bottom to make abseiling possible. He then ties (usually) a rethreaded overhand knot through the anchor/piton/cord, and which then leaves a section of fixed line running from him to the anchor below. He can then start climbing up to the next anchor whilst the climbers below can start safely climbing up to that anchor which was just been fixed. This method carries on ad infinitum until the target goal is reached. Although there maybe some old ropes present which the leader can clip onto for last-resort security, ultimately they are almost free climbing. A fall (which cannot be arrested) would result on the shock loading of anything up to 200m of static line (i.e. no stretch to absorb impact), which would be transferred straight through both the last anchor and the body of the falling leader - not pretty! Obviously we don't plan to fall on, and/or shock-load the fixed line. We do have a short length of dynamic rope (normal climbing rope) and a rack of gear for any seriously difficult sections of climbing, in order to protect the leader but this is ultimately a slow (yet safe) method of leading. It should be noted, that up here at high altitude, travelling fast is the safest way of getting around.

Chris ran his rope out to the top of a steep-sided ridge. At this point we checked our watches and realised that for the HAPs to get back safely to BC, they would have to turn around soon (they had nearly 2000m of vertical descent ahead of them), as it was about 3.30pm. The ridge that we were on had evidence of having been camped on before, notably the remnants of a destroyed tent which stuck out of the slope, so we decided that this would be a good place for the HAPs to dump their gear and head down, and for us to set up our tent. Whilst Dave elected to stay behind and start digging out our platform, Chris and I decided to carry on up a bit further and try and fix to C3.

This time I was on the sharp end, and with a certain amount of trepidation (having never fixed before, and now doing so for the first time at nearly 7000m!), I clipped onto the end of the spool of rope and started climbing out along the apex of the ridge. With an ice-tool in either hand I gingerly made my way long this narrow steep-sided ridge, very much aware that without the security of a fixed line, catching the front point of my crampon and tripping, or losing my balance on a bit of sugary snow would result in a 200m fall - which as discussed above, would hurt! Having said that, once the anxiousness of my situation passed, I began to enjoy it. Here I was, leading out at nearly 7000m on K2 - this is seriously exciting stuff!

Although the ground wasn't too difficult, the exposure, made the adrenaline flow, which in turn seemed to mask the fatigue that I would have otherwise felt climbing up this ridgeline. I made it to the first anchor point, where a bit of shitty blue plastic rope (which I wouldn't have hung a pair of curtains on), appeared out of the ice. Digging down, I found a well secured ice screw onto which I clipped, and then pulled the slack rope up towards me before tying it in. As Chris then moved up towards me, I started out on the next section - a 40m uphill traverse across a 45 degree snow slope.

We continued along like this for about 5 more pitches, sometimes using solid old rope instead of wasting our own, or replacing as necessary. By 4.30pm we'd almost reached the base of a cliff face that Fabrizio had camped at the previous night, but the wind had picked up dramatically, so we decided to head back down to where Dave the Digger was busy excavating our tent platform. By the time we'd got back down to him, we found that he'd started to dig a really good platform, just under the apex of the ridge on the protected side (from the wind). It took all 3 of us another hour to dig a significantly large platform (around 6x8 foot), into the snow and ice. We ended up actually putting our tent up on top of the remnants of the previous tent, including it's foam pads! Whilst digging it up, we found a good quality shovel (which made our life easier) and a bag of year old Polish food.

By the time we got our tent up, and we all safely inside, it was almost time for our 7pm radio call. Whenever anyone is on the mountain, we all have radio calls at 8am, 12 noon and 7pm, to check that everyone is okay, pass on weather reports and what the next plan is. It was at this point that we realised that our team owned the Cezen (our route)! We had people in BC, C1, C2, C3 (us) and C4 (Fabrizio). After some important information exchange, and a lot of unnecessary and wasted banter, we all turned off the net for the night, and started cooking up our suppers. Chris was on the side of the tent with the stove, and did a sterling job on the water production line, filling our mugs, water bottles and dehydrated meals. Supper for me was sweet and sour chicken, which although very good, did become a bit of a struggle towards the end, so Dave (who was having a seriously hard time with his chickpea and lentil massala, and had to abandon his attempt) helped me out.

I must admit that none of us slept that well that night. Rather than it being the fault of the altitude, I blame it much more on the comfort of the tent. The three of us were sleeping across it (rather than length ways), which although it gives more storage space for gear, does so at the expense of sleeping area! All night whilst we struggled to sleep we could hear the deep rumbles of avalanches, seemingly all around us. That's enough to induce insomnia...