PAKISTAN – Italian climbing team Federico Secchi and Marco Majori set out to Pakistan on June 16th with an incredibly ambitious plan to ski summit and ski down both Broad Peak (8051m, 12th tallest in the world) and K2 (8611m, 2nd tallest in the world), all without the use of supplemental oxygen.
Poor weather meant only Secchi reached the summit of K2, with Majori turning around at 8,500 meters. As such, despite Secchi having skis on his back, the ski descent was abandoned. While at the base, prior to their summit attempt, Secchi captured video of a hauntingly large avalanche traveling directly towards the base camp following a serac collapse.
“Serac collapse near base camp, luckily we were at a safe distance. I made this video inside my tent where I was resting and I was woken up by a loud bang.” – Federico Secchi (translated from Italian)
In the comments, one of their teammates on the mountain states that, following the serac collapse, “the tent was full of snow”. Pretty intense situation all around. Impressed by Secchi’s ability to capture this video without running for cover, though it seems decently clear that, despite the plume of snow, they weren’t too close to the slide.