Ericsson Starts Expedition to Ski World's Highest Mountains

This summer, Swedish ski mountaineer Fredrik Ericsson will embark on his dream of becoming the first person to ski the world's three highest mountains: Everest, K2 and Kangchenjunga. Arguably, the toughest challenge of the three will be his expedition to the world's second highest mountain, K2, which began in May 2010.

 

Fredrik Ericsson is one of the world's leading high altitude skiers with ski descents of some of the highest mountains on earth, including Peak Somoni, Shisha Pangma, Gasherbrum 2, Laila Peak and Dhaulagiri.

 

"I have already skied on five mountains higher than 8000 metres. During these adventures I gained critical experience that will apply towards my goal of skiing the absolute highest. The project spans two years and I will try to ski the three highest mountains in the world: K2 (8612m) this summer, Mount Everest (8850m) in autumn 2010, and Kangchenjunga (8586m) in autumn 2011," says Fredrik.

   

The first big challenge starts now when Fredrik, together with American alpine journalist Trey Cook, go to the Karakoram mountain range in Pakistan. The mountain they plan to climb and ski, K2, is arguably the hardest of all 8000-metre peaks. It is a remarkably steep pyramid with no easy route to the top. Climbing the mountain is further complicated by unusually severe and unpredictable weather systems.

K2 was first climbed in 1954 by the Italians Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli. Since then, The Savage Mountain - as it has come to be called due to the extraordinarily high number of deaths on the mountain - has been climbed on 10 different routes and only around 200 people have summited. Although several of the world's best ski mountaineers have tried no one has ever made a complete ski descent from the summit of K2. Reported by planetFear, Ericsson's 2009 expedition to the mountain met with disaster when ski-partner Michele Fait tragically slipped hundreds of metres to his death .

 

"We will not use supplemental oxygen or high-altitude porters. In addition to the equipment that all climbers carry I'll also be carrying my ski equipment and wearing ski touring boots which are not nearly as warm, comfortable or functional as climbing boots. This makes the climb much more challenging but also more rewarding," says Fredrik.

 

Ericsson and Cook plan to climb the south-southeast ridge, a serious, 3500-vertical-metre route featuring extremely strenuous, high-altitude climbing. During the weeks leading to their final push the team will methodically move higher and higher up the mountain.

 

"On the final day of our summit push we will start climbing from our 8000 metre camp at midnight and I believe it will take about 12 hours of climbing above 8000 metres to reach the top," says Fredrik.

 

The ski descent, which is the ultimate goal of the two-month expedition, is expected to take five hours. The descent from the summit all the way to base camp has a vertical drop of almost 3500 metres with sections of up to 50 degrees. 

 

"To ski at 8000 metres is very strenuous. I can only manage to make a few turns before I have to stop and rest. After four to five turns I'm as exhausted as after skiing 1000 vertical metres in the Alps," says Ericsson.

 

To follow the expedition, log onto Fredrik's website http://www.fredrikericsson.com/ where regular updates will be posted.

On the 16th June Ericsson posted this video on his blog:

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