Today we've had our very own G8 summit in BC (although perhaps it should be the K8 Summit!). All the leaders of the 8 remaining teams on the mountain came to our camp this afternoon to discuss the summit attempt. Although everyone has been acting independently up until now (and on two different routes), Fabrizio thought that it would be good to get all the team leaders together to see how people might be able to work together for a summit attempt next week.

Most of the 8 teams, and the 30(ish) climbers that they represent are looking to attempt the summit soon, and when the two routes converge on the Shoulder at Camp 4 (approx 8000m), everyone will be in the same place, and all after the same thing. There had been a thought of taking an alternative route to the Bottleneck, called the Wiessner route (pronounced Viesner), which ascends a rocky couloir, and is thought to be potentially safer than the Bottleneck (which sits plum underneath a massive overhanging glacial serac), but a team who tried for the summit last weekend couldn't find the start of it (it hasn't been climbed since 1939!), and therefore it was deemed to be too much of an unknown quantity.

So at the moment, having consulted many different weather reports, the plan is to leave BC (5100m) on Saturday the 1st August and climb to C2 (6450m). On Sunday we'll continue to C3 (7200), and then on Monday on upwards to C4 on the edge of the Shoulder (8000m), fixing as we go. Nearly all the other teams are on the Abruzzi (other than one other solo climber with us on the Cesen), and they should meet us at C4 on Monday afternoon. Early doors on Tuesday, a small mixed team of the strongest climbers for all teams will leave early (maybe around 1am) and head to the Bottleneck in order to fix rope through this difficult and dangerous section. The other climbers will leave at staggered times throughout the early morning (to avoid a bottleneck effect in the Bottleneck!). We are probably looking at a 4am start. Then, all things being good, it'll be up across the Shoulder, up through the bottleneck, out along the Traverse, and then up onto the summit ridge.

At the moment, although we are obviously thinking about the best (whilst planning for the worst), we are focusing more on our initial main effort, which is getting to, and fixing from C3 to C4, which is higher than any of us (other than Fabrizio) have climbed before on K2 this season. If we can't do that sufficiently on Monday, then thinking about a summit attempt is useless. Having said all of that, I am feeling positive about our team and our plan, and I just hope that we are safe in our execution of it.

Tomorrow will be our last rest day in BC before the final big push, and will be spent sorting out last minute bits and pieces, packing, chilling out and trying to ensure that our bodies are in the best possible condition for this last attempt. We leave BC, summit or no summit on Friday the 7th August (a week tomorrow), and so this really is a last ditch attempt. Fingers crossed, and Inshallah, we give it our best, whilst all coming back down safely from whatever height we reach. To be honest, I feel that having reached over 7000m so far on K2, we've done incredibly well, and that is something to be proud about. Any higher we get on this last foray will be a bonus.