Mountain climber Don Beavon of Tulalip, preparing to climb the second highest mountain in the world, attended a little birthday party recently.
Beavon’s climbing group had the party at K2 base camp in Pakistan for climber Billy Pierson, who was turning 50, according to Chris Warner, a member of another American climbing party.
The two American groups are among several from around the world preparing to scale the 28,251-foot K2 in the Karakoram range.
“The other Americans, here to climb the south-southeast ridge, invited us to lunch yesterday,” Warner wrote of Beavon’s group in a post on the K2climb.net Web site.
“The mess tent was decorated with balloons and misspelled banners overhead and we gathered around a table perched atop a rock floor flooding with streams of melting glacier water,” Warner wrote. “Billy used a cleaver to hack at a goat’s leg, while we all wore golden foil crowns atop our fleece hats.”
Several groups from around the world are lining up to climb the treacherous peak. The weather is unsettled, alternating between snow and sun, and the parties are waiting for an expected upcoming window of good weather before starting their ascent, according to Warner.
For the full report, go to www.K2climb.net.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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