High-Altitude Gene-2. K2 expedition. 2023

 Message from RD Studio: The date of premiere of the film "The High-Altitude Gene 2. The Mountain of all Mountains" has been set. 

The premiere will take place on June 5 – in the birthday of Valdis Pelsh (head of RD Studio). It was on this day in 2017 that the premiere of the first part of "The High-Altitude Gene, or how to get to Mount Everest" took place. We decided not to break the tradition.

 The film tells about the successes and failures of the members of the expedition of the 7 Summits Club during the assault on the K2 peak in 2023. The film about the ascent of Mount Everest "The High-Altitude Gene", released in 2017, was shown on Russia's main television channel and collected more than 5 million views on the Internet.

It all started with an August 2022 video message to me from Alexander Abramov and Fyodor Konyukhov.

They were then "sitting" with a group of climbers on Mount Damavand in Iran. And, as usually happens, there was a conversation about the 14x8000 program, its implementation in the world and in our country. It turned out that I had been the leader of this program for 21 years and there was "no one close", but at the same time I had "stopped" high-altitude mountaineering since 2016.

 They called for "shaking up the old days", making another attempt to climb K2, and took over the organization and financing.

I replied to him: Alex, hello everyone! I am glad to see and hear! You don't let me live up to my age!

Yes, let the young people be puzzled by the question and solve it! It's so cool!

And I'll bend over there and fuck who needs it! I will also make a negative image for Russia! Hugging everyone!

In previous years, there were also conversations on this topic, with the same Abramov, with the famous athlete and guide Sergei Baranov. Sergey, addressing me, said - Listen, now mountaineering has become not the one that you "walked". Everything has become easier, go ahead, and I'll find the money.  But the brakes were "sitting" inside me and I refused.

 But this time Alex convinced me - Listen, Serega, I saw how some girls could not overcome the Baltoro glacier, walked, "died". And then I find out that they climbed K2! The mountain has changed, everything will be fixed, you will be helped by Sherpas to carry the cargo, plus oxygen. This year (2022) 180 people did it!

The last phrase especially impressed me.

- How is it, did they put an "elevator" there!?

I was all in doubt and decided for myself that I needed to "check" my body. Judging of the Kazbek races was scheduled for September. And I decided to make a full-fledged ascent to the top from the Karmadon gorge along the standard route 2B of the difficulty category.

Polish climber Bartholomei (Bartek) Paczoski has climbed with the 7 Summits Club not the first time. Both on Everest and on K2, he proved himself a reliable comrade, a strong athlete, a friendly and sociable person of high culture. We are extremely grateful to him for his loyalty to our friendship, for the fact that he joined the Russian company without any apparent doubts. Well, for the photos! We didn't even expect such a gift! A great warm-up before the upcoming premiere of the film "The High Altitude Gene 2. The Mountain of all Mountains"

 The full gallery is here…

Starting in June, the expedition of the 7 Summits Club to K2 ended in early August.  The conditions for climbing corresponded to the image of the "most inaccessible" and dangerous mountain in the World. We did not wait for any stable weather window, but in general we successfully coped with our task.

On July 27, 2023, sisters Maria Oglobleva and Ekaterina Safronova, Dmitry Moskalev and high-altitude operator Vladimir Kotlyar climbed to the top of K2.

On July 28, Lyudmila Korobeshko, Daniil Briman, Valery Tebiev and Arno Ter-Saakov (Armenia – Latvia – Monaco), as well as cameraman Luis Lopez Soriano (Spain) reached the summit.

A total of 8 participants, 2 high-altitude operators and 10 Sherpas ascended the summit of K2 from the expedition of the 7 Summits Club and the 8000 Club. There are 20 people under the leadership of Lyudmila Korobeshko. The ascent took place in bad weather, with a poor condition of the route. The more honorable the victory!

During this expedition, a film was shot, which later became known as "The High Altitude Gene 2. The Mountain of all mountains".   We are waiting for the release of a new masterpiece from RD Studio. In the meantime, watch the trailer!

RD STYDIA team

K2 climbers in Moscow 28.09

This morning our team left the base camp and began the long journey back home. They will have to walk the familiar path along the Baltoro glacier to Ascole, the first settlement to which the highway approaches. We remind you that on July 27 and 28, two teams of the 7 Summits Club and the 8000 Club ascended to the top of K2 in the number of 8 participants, 2 high-altitude operators and 10 Sherpas. There are 20 people under the leadership of Lyudmila Korobeshko. The ascent took place in bad weather, with a poor condition of the route. A lot of material has been shot for the future film "The Hшпр Altitude Gene 2. K2". We are waiting for the heroes at home!

Group No. 3 consisting of Lyudmila Korobeshko, Daniil Briman, Valery Tebiev and Arno Ter-Saakov safely descended to the base camp today. The weather on the mountain predictably and finally deteriorated, the descent against the background of incredible fatigue was not easy. But now when everyone is assembled, you can celebrate, receive awards and congratulations. And get ready to go home in a good mood. We are waiting! The participants of the first-second group have already started the trek down the glacier.

 Photos and videos from the RD Studio team.

There is still a little time left before the expedition of the 7 Summits Club and the 8000 Club on K2 will be completed. It is necessary that the third team (Lyudmila Korobeshko, Daniil Briman, Valery Tebiev, Arno Ter-Saakov and their escorts) descend safely from Camp-2, where they stay after reaching the summit, to the base camp. The happy winners from the first two groups, Ekaterina Safronova, Maria Oglobleva, Dmitry Moskalev and Bartolomey Pachosky, have already been welcomed at the base. Before relaxation, there is a little patience and a little luck left. We are waiting for the heroes!

On July 27 and 28, two teams of the 7 Summits Club and the 8000 Club ascended to the top of K2 in the number of 8 participants, 2 high-altitude operators and 10 Sherpas. There are 20 people under the leadership of Lyudmila Korobeshko. The ascent took place in bad weather, with a poor condition of the route. But we did it. The start was from the Camp-3, as the weather did not allow the route to be fully processed before the start. 

Nevertheless, the whole team of climbers reached the top.

This is a great achievement, since Mount K2 is the most difficult eight-thousandth mountain in the world. And this is the most massive ascent of K2 in the history of Russian mountaineering.

Tonight, third part of our team started for the summit push. The group consisting of: Lyudmila Korobeshko, Arno Ter-Saakov, Valery Tebiev, Daniil Briman and our high-altitude operator Luis Lopez.

The summiters of K2 of the first wave Ekaterina Safronova and Maria Oglobleva safely descended to the Camp-2.  Dmitry Moskalev and Bartolomey Pachosky stayed overnight at Camp 3. Everyone is resting. Tomorrow they plan to go down to the Base Camp.

Message from RD Studia: There is a K2 summit! Maria Oglobleva, Ekaterina Safronova and high-altitude operator Vladimir Kotlyar just now have climbed to the top of the most difficult eight-thousandth mountain in the world! Good luck to them on the descent!

A little bit later. Dmitry Moskalev and Bartholomew Pachosky are on top! The weather is getting worse, they are waiting for an unsafe descent. We pray!

Alexander Abramov, the head of the expedition on K2, reports from Pakistan, from Camp-3:

At 18:00, the first team left the third camp to storm the summit. Right in front of them is a team of Sherpas hanging ropes. There is a lot of snow. The Sherpas failed to set up Camp 4 due to bad weather. The season on K2 is very difficult. Weekly snowfalls. Short windows of good weather. Now the weather is average lousy. It's snowing at Camp 3. Although all the surrounding peaks are open. We pray for the friends. Good luck today!

The second team is planning an assault tomorrow evening.

Camp-3

Today, the third group of our expedition went up from Camp-2 to Camp-3. In the photo, overcoming the Black Pyramid

Photo from RD Studio. The weather is good below, all the mountains are open, except K2

Well, the ascent continued. The first two groups spend the night in Camp-3 (7400), the third – in Camp-2 (6600). The path to Camp 4 has already been trodden and equipped with fixed ropes. Tomorrow, the leading team of Sherpas will continue processing the route in order to reach the top on July 27.

 Lyudmila Korobeshko (Group-3):

They went out to storm, moving to Camp 2 on 6600. There was no good weather for a week. It seems to be getting better now.

Now at lunchtime on July 25, we came to Camp 2 on K2.

Vladimir Kotlyar, high-altitude operator (Group-1):

Today, according to the forecast, there should be bad weather, but to our joy, the forecast has not yet been justified.

At six in the morning, we got out of the tents, put on the crampons and harness, then and climbed up in the hope for the best.

If this weather lasts for four days, then we have every chance. There is a mountain, you have to climb!

We haven't waited for good weather yet, but there is still hope. Today our third group went up to Camp-1. And groups 1 and 2 continued to "sit out" in Camp-2.

Tomorrow is a key and decisive day - either up or down to rest and wait for the weather window.

Bad weather has descended on K2 again. Rain in the base camp, snow along the route. The first and second groups are together in Camp-2, and the third remained in the ABC Camp. While waiting for news. There is a very strong company of Sherpas on the route, whose task is to make a route to the top. And it is possible that they will succeed.

Today, the final, third group headed by Alexander Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko set off on their way to the summit of K2. They will spend the night in the ABC camp and tomorrow they will presumably go up to camp-2.

The first and second group are in Camp-2. Everything is fine with them, tomorrow they will go to the Camp-3.

Vladimir Kotlyar, high-altitude operator: We are in the second camp, altitude 6550. The weather is bad, for the second day in a row. A lot of snow has fallen. Yesterday there were several avalanches along the route, but we were not hooked, almost. We are idling in a tent, baiting stories. Tomorrow we will make our way to Camp-3.

The RD Studio team reports from the base camp: Yesterday, July 21, the second group, consisting of: Maria Oglobleva, Ekaterina Safronova and Bartek. They went out into the rain.  And higher it is already snowing. Bad weather again on K2. The news from the first group is good. They are already in the first camp, the height is 6100 m. They are doing well!  Today, the third group headed by Alexander Abramov is going up.

July 20. All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2!  The suspense with the fixed ropes is already pretty boring. Therefore, in the morning we went with Abramov to the camps to talk with the leaders. We had a very productive conversation with Ozzy (an Ecuadorian from SST, we had just been to Makalu with him). As a result, at 14.00 in BC K2, a general meeting of all the leaders was held, at which a new team was assembled for hanging the ropes and the release dates of this team were determined - July 22 so that they would come to the top on July 24.

 Based on this, we have developed our plans.

1. Team 1 - Bogomolov, Moskalev, a high-altitude operator and 3 Sherpas are released on July 20. The peak is July 25.
2. Team 1.1 - The twins and Bartek are released on July 21. The peak is July 25.
3. Team 2 - all others are released on July 22. The summit is scheduled for July 26.

By the evening, the first three were on their way.

 The heads of the expedition to K2 Alex Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko and the expedition doctor Andrey Selivanov are in touch.

Deputy head of the expedition Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Pakistan:

All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "Hшпр Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2!

After breakfast, Alex Abramov arranged oxygen classes. Refreshed our memory of how to use oxygen equipment. And after lunch, the second group of trekkers, led by Sveta Kotlyar and Sasha Spirin, came to visit us. Yead of the RD Studia Valdis Pelsh also arrived with this group. He plans to stay with our expedition and make some live broadcasts for Channel One. The way to us was not easy - 6 long marches under the scorching sun and rains. But the team  overcame it!

In the evening, a "Guitar in a circle" evening was held in a large tent - the trekkers brought with them a guitar bought in Islamabad. We knew that Sveta sings well. But the fact that Dmitry Moskalev has a good voice and a cool repertoire has become a revelation for many.

The heads of the expedition to K2 Alex Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko and the expedition doctor Andrey Selivanov are in touch.

July 12. All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2!  The most persistent celebrated the meeting on the Elbe all night - the meeting of our expedition and trekkers. In the morning it snowed again.

The trekkers decided to try to pass through Gondogoro La after all and left our camp at 11 am. And we just got some not very good news from above - our entire Camp-2 was blown away by the wind. 8 tents are missing. 5 seem to have remained. The gas is all gone.

In general, we decided to postpone the exit for one more night. 

 July 13.

Due to the lack of tents, we decided to go out in two groups. The first is 9 participants and 6 Sherpas. This morning, immediately to Camp-1, overnight, then to Camp-2, overnight, then exit to Camp-3 and immediately down. The second group of 3 participants and 2 Sherpas - ABC, C1, C2, down.

 The hurricane raged all night. Our tents were almost torn in the camp. The toilet was torn after all. We got up at 4 in the morning. They tried to put a toilet. In vain. Let's go wake up Vladimir Kotlyar and congratulate him on his birthday. He seemed pleased. At 5 a.m. we went out with a strong wind. By 7 in the morning they came to ABC. We rested a little and went to the first camp. In 4-5 hours we went from 5300 to 6100. There's a problem with places here. There is nowhere to put tents - about 10 tents were barely huddled over the abyss. We were accommodated in 3 tents for 3 participants. And two more Sherpas.

We rest, eat, acclimatize. Tomorrow we will go higher.

 July 14th.

The night in Camp 1 passed quietly. The wind died down. It was even hot. In the morning, everyone woke up long before 7 o'clock - it was at this time that the general rise was planned. We had breakfast and left before 8 am. On the way, we admired the views, who could. The ascent became steeper, there were many rocky areas and mixed. By 11-12 days we came to Camp-2 under the fireplace. It was hardly possible to place 5 tents here. The toilet is a quest again - on a steep slope you have to somehow manage to do something.

After lunch, we decided to make an acclimatization rotation. We climbed 300 meters vertically. On the way, I had to climb the chimney  - everyone was impressed here - 50 meters of almost vertical mixed climbing with flowing ice. But the rest of the route was much simpler and the views are very beautiful - both Gasherbrum, Broad Peak, Masherbrum, Chinese Summits were opened…

We went down to dinnertime to our Camp-2. Having dinner, getting ready for bed at 6600. Tomorrow morning we will go down to the BC to rest and prepare for the decisive assault on the summit.

 July 15th.

We woke up at 6600 in Camp-2, again earlier than planned. At 6 o'clock there was a start according to the plan, but most did not sleep well at this height and at 5 in the morning they were ready to go down. The weather in the morning was not very cloudy and windy.

Around 7 a.m., the descent began. Near the first camp we met our second group with Sergey Bogomolov, Dmitry Moskalev and Volodya Kotlyar. They walked briskly up. By 10 a.m. we were at ABC. We drank tea and rode to the sun for lunch. Kristina was waiting for us here with a film crew, Coca-Cola and - most importantly - with compote!!!

We returned almost whole and healthy.  Only Arno was slightly touched by a stone on the descent, another whistled very close to Daniil, and I managed to fall into a crack not far from BC - I got off with one wet foot!

As it turned out, during the three days of our absence from the camp, the popularity of our expedition doctor Andrei Selivanov increased significantly - a Pakistani princess began to come to his office - that's how we dubbed her. In fact, this is a famous Pakistani climber from the family of a Pakistani government official, Naili Kiani. She has already climbed 8 out of 14 eight-thousand meters. Of the Pakistani ones, only Broad Peak remained to her.  And the next morning news came that rescue work was underway on Broad Peak…

 July 16.

In the morning, everyone slept off after a difficult acclimatization exit. Although the weather forecast was expected to be good, it started raining in the morning. By lunchtime, our second group - Sergey, Dmitry and Vladimir - came down to the camp. The guys worked out their program well and returned satisfied with the results.

After lunch, Alina Pekova came to visit us. This modest girl has gone 5 eight-thousand meters in three months and tomorrow she goes to the sixth - Broad Peak. And then - it looks like K2 and further on all 14. What to say? You can only take off your hat!

A beaming doc came to dinner and boasted that he had just pulled out a tooth of one of the Sherpas, who had been suffering with a bad tooth for a long time. In general, our expedition doctor Andrey is a resuscitator. But here in the camp under K2 he has to face various problems to restore the health of participants in fact of all expeditions:

Yesterday I did a blockade to a Pakistani who fell and got a compression fracture; I was struggling with the asthma of a participant from Estonia who went 4 eight-thousandths without oxygen and now wants to go to K2 without oxygen too…

 July 17.

The morning began at 4.00, when a messenger from the trekking group from the Goro II camp came running and said that oxygen and a doctor were urgently needed, as one of the group was ill. Oxygen was sent urgently, and the doctor came down later.

There was a lot of fuss and commotion, but when mobile communication appeared, it turned out that our group of trekkers was already doing well and they were moving normally to Concordia.

In the afternoon, we held talks with our sirdar about plans for installation of high-altitude camps. So far, the ropes are only up to the Camp-3 (7400 m), plus 8 tents and gas flew away from us in the last bad weather, so it's difficult to plan the upper camps. And according to the forecast, the weather will worsen again soon.

But in the evening, the twin sisters pleased us - they cooked stuffed peppers and mimosa salad!

In touch - the leaders of the expedition to K2 Alex Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko.

The expedition team of the 7 Summits Club on K2 spent the night in Camp-2 at an altitude of 6560 meters. Starting early in the morning, all participants went down to the base camp by 13 o'clock. At this point, the acclimatization rotations are completed, the team will wait for a favorable weather period to storm the summit.

Alexander Abramov: Mount K2 is exhaustingly difficult and heavy. It seems there are no direct difficulties, but the whole day the climb is at 45 degrees and the relief is mixed. Snow, rocks and ice at an altitude above 7000 m.  In the photo, Camp 1 is perched on a rocky ledge. All night there's ice flying from above, well not rocks. Stones were flying on the ice that year.