Garrett Madison, founder of Madison Mountaineering is one of the few people on the planet to have summited K2 twice. He’s hoping to get his third this 2021 summer. This is his sixth expedition to K2 making him the most experienced western operator to run regular trips to the Northern Terrorities of Pakistan.
With the new 4G Cell tower in Concordia, Garret took the hour walk from K2 Base Camp to Broad Peak Base Camp to talk with me over Zoom about his expedition. We discussed their rotations to Camp 1 and 2, the snow conditions on the mountain, what happens when he finds bodies on the mountain, and more. I think you’ll enjoy getting this first-hand information directly from Northern Pakistan.
Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything
The Podcast on alanarnette.com
You can listen to #everest2021 podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Anchor, and more. Just search for “alan arnette” on your favorite podcast platform.
Teams and Trackers (partial list)
- Broad Peak, K2
- Madison Mountaineering: 9 climbers (USA, UK & Ukrain), 10 Nepal Sherpas, 4 Pakistani high altitude porters, and 10 Pakistani base camp staff. TrackerKenton Cool with a client. TrackerJon Gupta with a client
- Karakorum Expeditions: 11 members supported by 22 Pakistani climbers. Trackers: Fotis Theocharis and Carlos Garranzo
- Graham Zimmerman and Ian Welsted: West Ridge – No Public Tracker Known
- K2 Only
- Ukrainian-Nepalese K2 Expedition 2021: 3 Ukrainians and 3 Nepal’s Pioneer Adventure Sherpas
- Ukraine team Alpomania supported by 6 Sherpas from Nepal’s Pioneer Adventure
- Sajid Ali Sadpara: searching for evidence of his father, Muhammad Ali Sadpara. Team of 3 with BC support. Tracker
- Jeff Spelman and Niels Jespers Tracker
- Broad Peak only
- Gasherbrum I
- Blue Sky Czech Republic & Slovakia
- Lluis Cortadellas
- Gasherbrum II
- Poland’s Beskid Expedition with Piotr Krzyzowski’s tracker
- Czech-Slovak tracker
- The Altitude Team with Lluis Cortadellas’ tracker
- Pakistan’s Sirbaz Khan’s tracker
- Broad Peak, GI, and GII
- Serge Hardy
- Nanga Parbat – Over
- 5 person Spanish Team lead by Manuel ‘Lolo’ González. tracker
Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything
4 thoughts on “K2 2021 Summer Coverage: Video Interview with Garrett Madison from the Karakorum”
Really enjoyed that Alan.
I like Garrett, comes across as a decent chap.
Let me echo Alan and Garrett’s statements since I too have found the porters to be some of the friendliest in the world. Thanks to Garrett for walking down from K2 base camp during what sounded like a very cold morning. I forget how many hours it took me but note that the camps are not next door to each other – far from it.
Thanks Ken.
Brilliant interview. Good luck to all climbers !!
Comments are closed.