Posted: Aug 25, 2005 07:16 am EDT
Yesterday the Kazakh climbers on K2 were forced to abort their climb after all their gear was stolen from ABC. ExWeb wrote, ”it is a very serious offence - going beyond money. Robbing high camps could lead to death.”

That's when another mail arrived - this time from American Don Bowie, describing a nightmarish descent from a summit bid on Broad Peak. Again - the difficulty of the climb went beyond weather and fatigue: Instead, Don too was robbed on the mountain.

It was not just his gear – the fixed ropes on the most difficult sections were gone as well. Only Don’s calm and good luck saved his life. Safe back home, he points out; we better do something about this, before someone gets killed. Here goes Don’s debrief.

Don’s story: Broad Peak, August 2005

“My name is Don Bowie. I was in K2 base until the 9th of August, where I stayed with Banjo, the Irish climber. I was a solo climber on Broad Peak, climbing alpine style with no support. I moved to K2 base on the 25th of July because I was the ONLY person left at base camp - and the only climber still attempting Broad Peak.

My first summit bid was with Chris and Tao on July 20th (Ed note: see the links section). On August 3rd, I made a second bid for the summit: I was completely alone on the mountain, with not one soul in Base Camp. I had constant radio communication with both the MOL team base camp and with Chris over the next three days, as we all climbed up toward our respective goals: Chris, Tao, and the Hungarians on K2; me alone on Broad.

Sharing the storm on K2 and Broad

The same storm that hit K2 also raked Broad Peak, and I spent two days hunkered down at 6580 meters. When I emerged from the storm early on the 6th, I attempted to climb to the summit but was turned back at 7025 meters by deep snow and horrific avalanche conditions.

The fixed rope was missing

Later that day, while retreating below camp one, I came to within 36 inches of rappelling off the end of the fixed ropes. I assumed that rock fall or avalanches had cut the rope, so I unclipped and down climbed to the next set of anchors. When I reached the anchors, I found that pitons had been removed and the rope was completely gone.

At this point, relatively easy snow slopes give way to a few hundred meters of extremely steep, loose, verglassed rocks and rotten ice. Early in the season, steep snow and solid ice was covering these rocks, making the climbing here far less difficult. But by August the exposed rock had become treacherous, steep, and deadly dangerous. More than one climber has met his demise here in previous years.

Life-threatening, ropeless descent

With no fixed ropes, I was forced to down climb this highly exposed section, and was subsequently hit by rockfall three times, luckily taking two strikes on the helmet and one major strike on the backpack.

The near misses were terrifying. What had previously taken 15 minutes to abseil, took me 2.5 hours to down climb - with a 30kg pack, which I was afraid to jettison in case I became hopelessly stuck, injured, or needed gear.

Nothing left in BC

I had no rope with me, as I hadn’t thought I would need to downclimb this section. When I finally reached the bottom of the last chute, I also found that the supplies that I had left- including poles, food, and climbing gear - had all been stolen. ALL the ropes from the base of the mountain (at aprox. 4900m) up to intermediate camp (at about 5500m) had disappeared, totaling more than 1600 feet of rope.

Let’s do something – before someone gets killed

I am currently writing a complaint to the Ministry of Tourism, and also spoke in depth with the highest civil official in the northern region, who's office is in Skardu, accompanied by my (rather pissed off) liaison officer. I was assured by the official that this matter would be investigated and any persons found guilty of this theft would be prosecuted.

I wrote to you because I felt that this issue was related to your latest story. The theft on Broad Peak nearly cost me my life, as I was extremely tired from the solo attempt to 7025 meters through deep snow. With a heavy pack and in the most dangerous part of the day, my retreat without the fixed ropes was harrowing. We need to make this as big an issue as possible, before someone gets killed."

High altitude thefts have increased in later years, on all the 8000ers. The robbed are usually independent climbers or small teams, and they only notice the missing gear when they reach the high camps.

The four members of Kazakhstan National team were forced to abort their climb on K2 yesterday. At their arrival in ABC, the guys found that someone had stolen all their equipment, including crampons.

American Chris Warner and Tao Franken reported on their snow anchors being stolen on Broad Peak.

On Nanga Parbat, Czech Radek Jaros and Petr Masek had their camp 2 robbed. Climbers used Radek's and Petr's gas and even took two cylinders with them.

On Everest Marcin Miotk had gear stolen in three camps, including the sleeping bag, the stove, and all of his medicals in camp 3, at 8300 meters, during summit push.

American Don Bowie risked his life to get out alive of Broad Peak, when the fixed ropes went missing at the most difficult sections, whilst he was up the mountain on a summit push.

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