Posted on Instagram on Wednesday via satellite phone link, the message reads: ‘Bad weather . . . but satisfied we got our first acclimatisation round. All members spent two to three nights on the mountain and are now waiting for the next opportunity to go up.’
An attached clip of video shows a desolate vista of wind-battered tents on a narrow plateau between snow-covered escarpments, their peaks obscured by the ‘deteriorating weather’.
The message signs off defiantly with a bulging-bicep emoji and the words ‘All is well and greetings from K2 base camp’.
As I write this, around 70 climbers — among them cash-rich amateurs but led by two of the greatest mountain men that have ever lived — are engaged in simultaneous expeditions to conquer K2, the second-highest mountain in the world