Posted: Jul 24, 2005 09:18 pm EDT
Pretty cool. Here goes straight from the team:

"Friday, July 22nd, Jorgen and I reached the summit of Gasherbrum II (8035 m). That's when we started our ski descent of one of Pakistan's five giants and also the 13th highest mountain in the world."

"Jorgen and I left Base Camp Tuesday morning and we had three sunny days while climbing up to Camp 3 at about 7000 meters. At midnight, after sleeping a few hours, we strapped our skis onto our backpacks and left our tent. It was six cold hours until the sun rose and warmed us. The climbing was mixed, first a rocky part then a long traverse on snow that took us to the north side of the mountain where a snow slope led up to the summit ridge."

"An unforgettable ski run."

"After a clear and sunny morning the wind got stronger and clouds where forming quickly. Totally exhausted we were sliding on our knees on the narrow summit ridge. At noon Jorgen and I could go no further. It was the summit of Gasherbrum II, 8035 meters above the sea. Strong wind and massive clouds didn't make the stay on the summit any pleasant so after some photos the skis were on and we were making right and left turns down the slopes of Gasherbrum II."

"The thin air makes you exhausted, five turns up there equals skiing 1000 meters in the Alps. The surroundings are probably amongst the most spectacular in the world. Just one look at mountains like Chogolisa and Hidden Peak makes you forget
about tiredness and gives new energy to continue skiing. The slopes on Gasherbrum 2 are fairly steep and broken up by lots of seracs and crevasses making it very interesting skiing. One month, lots of vertical meters of climbing and an unforgettable ski run."

"Two happy guys are now back in Base Camp eating and resting, looking forward to the Scandinavian summer."

September last year, Fredrik made it to the Central summit of Shisha Pangma - and skied down! This year, he was off to Pakistan. The targets were a virgin ski descent of Laila peak west face (6614 m) followed by a climb up and ski down a virgin line on Gasherbrum 2.

Fredrik Ericsson is a skier and mountaineer that’s spending most of his time in the mountains around Chamonix, France. He has done ski descents of Shisha Pangma Central summit in Tibet and Pik Imeni Ismail Samani (7495 m) in Tajikistan.

Jörgen Aamot grew up in the mountains of Oppdal, Norway. He’s teaching skiing, climbing and avalanche awareness at the Hallingdal College in Gol, Norway. During the last few years he’s gathered multiple first ski descents throughout Norway for example in the Lyngen Alps, Hurrungane and Sunndalen Alps. This will be his first encounter with the high mountains of Karakoram.

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