K2

Last summer, Annapolis resident Chris Warner stood atop the world's nastiest rock pile. But even he couldn't tell me how today's NBC show about the expedition is going to end. When we talked Tuesday, the show about conquering K2, aka the "Savage Mountain," was still in final editing, with Warner on his way to New York to do some last-minute voiceovers. Chopping down more than 30 hours of high-definition video into 38 minutes of action - that's what's left after commercials and studio chatter - was an uphill battle.

A program discussing the growing use of synthetic drugs will be held Wednesday, Sept. 12, at 7 p.m., at the Westminster Library, 50 E. Main St., Westminster The program is for adults, and will discuss the dangers of bath salts, Spice, K2, and other synthetic drugs. Charles Bosley, addictions coordinator at Carroll Hospital Center, will discuss the effects of synthetic drugs on the body, the warning signs of use, and how to talk to teens about these and other drugs. The talk is free.

A frozen corpse. Pits of despair. Avalanches. Dead ends. The accommodations? "Cold, greasy and, God, that kind of wet, slimy, gummy feeling you get after being trapped in a tent with two other guys for eight days," said mountaineer Chris Warner, laughing and perched a little more than a mile from the top of 28,251-foot K2, the world's second-tallest mountain. Having struggled to get this high, the Annapolis resident and his climbing partners will have to retrace their steps back to base camp today, their summit bid postponed by an unexpected blizzard.

Baltimore County Council member Kevin Kamenetz's proposal to criminalize K2 ("Days of 'legal pot' could be number in Balto. County," Aug. 17) ignores our nation's experience with nearly forty years of a disastrous war on drugs. Making criminals out of sellers and users of a product that is said to imitate the effects of marijuana will not reduce the demand for K2. Banning K2 may also frustrate efforts by local universities to research potential medicinal benefits of the chemical compounds these products contain.

You find a body. A colleague suffers a horrific fatal fall before your eyes. It snows almost every day. You dodge avalanches and hang on for dear life. And despite all that, you can't wait to plan another assault on K2, the world's second-tallest mountain. That's what makes Chris Warner different from 99.99 percent of the rest of us who spent our summer whining about Bay Bridge traffic, the unending heat and the sorry state of baseball in Maryland. "It's the most brutal conditions I've ever encountered," Warner says solemnly.

We are enjoying the rest days at Base Camp. It snowed heavily on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Today, it has been wonderful, with brilliant sunshine and only the odd cloud dropping the odd flake of snow. The winds are whipping past the summits of Broad Peak, hopefully scouring away the fresh snow above 7,000 meters. We have been examining the various weather forecasts and it looks like next week will be a productive one. Tao and I will head back to Broad Peak's Camp 2 just after midnight on Sunday.

Like tea leaves, just about everyone has examined today's forecasts in hopes of finding either a summit window or an excuse to head home. The best two days are, arguably, Saturday and Sunday. One forecast shows summit wind speeds ranging from 17 to 11 knots per hour. A second forecast shows winds at 35-40 knots per hour. All the forecasts show some very cold temperatures. While everyone is wrestling with their options, Tao and I have decided to try to climb to at least the "Shoulder" of K2. The route on the SSE Ridge, has been climbed to 7,300 meters.

We left Concordia at 6:30 a.m. and hiked a top the moraine-covered glacier with our train of porters and two German trekkers. Our first stop was Broad Peak's base camp, where we dropped some gear and chatted with some of the assembled teams. The gang from Field Touring and ATP's international team were happy for the distraction (in stark contrast to some well dressed teams from Europe who seemed to have graduated from an egomaniacs academy: Their sneers, swagger and stylized coifs spoke volumes about their self importance)

Washington's Arena Stage opened its 50th anniversary season with a revival of the first show it sent to Broadway, "The Great White Hope." Now it has re-mounted another Broadway transfer, Patrick Meyers' spine-chilling "K2," about a pair of climbers scaling the world's second-tallest mountain. Director Wendy C. Goldberg has reassembled the design team from Arena's 1982 production: set designer Ming Cho Lee, who won a Tony Award for his facsimile of the perilous peak; costume designer Noel Borden; and lighting designer Allen Lee Hughes.

In hurricane-force winds and biting cold, without Sherpas or bottled oxygen, a Maryland mountaineer today is inching his way up the slopes of the world's second-tallest peak. Chris Warner of Annapolis and partner Rick "Tao" Franken of Colorado are hoping to ease through a tiny sliver of good weather expected this weekend to reach the summit of 28,250-foot K2. Small, international teams of climbers have been camping at the foot of the mountain - some for weeks - waiting for a break in the weather to begin the high-stakes scramble to the top. But conditions driven by India's monsoons have made leaving base camp nearly impossible.

I definitely support City Council member Kevin Kamenetz's plan to bring about a law making K2 and chemicals that have similar effects illegal ("Days of 'legal pot' could be numbered in Balto. County," Aug. 17). I think that if marijuana is outlawed, substances that share its effects should be too. They seem as if they are equally dangerous, having the same side effects such as racing heartbeats, headaches, and high blood pressure. If they have that much in common, it is possible that K2 and the like may be every bit as addicting as pot. Finally, the fact that K2 is so readily available is frightening; at least marijuana isn't so easy to get a hold of. The fact that it is in Ocean City is also a great cause of concern, given how many recent graduates go there for senior each year.

The Peace of Sunshine store off the main drag in Catonsville has lately been making more than half its weekly sales in K2, a "legal pot" known also as "spice. " But owner Lawrence J. Zwick says he has sold his last bag. As soon as he heard Monday morning that Baltimore County might make it a crime to sell the smokable leaf, he says, he packed up his inventory of two boxes and shipped it back to the distributor. "Oh, I'm going to miss it," said Zwick, a 44-year-old retired Coast Guard warrant officer who for four years has owned the the store specializing in T-shirts, jewelry, incense and hookahs.

- The Orioles ran into a string of fine pitching performances by the Minnesota Twins on Monday and managed just three hits in a 5-0 loss at Ed Smith Stadium. Starter Kevin Slowey and Nick Blackburn each pitched three innings, gave up a hit and a walk and struck out two. The Twins scored two runs off Orioles starting pitcher Brian Matusz in the top of the first inning, all they would need to send the Orioles to their fifth loss in six Grapefruit League exhibition games. Matusz worked 2 2/3 innings and allowed three hits, but he continued to overpower hitters with his fastball and changeup.

I'm at that stage in my life where I really don't care about stuff like leadership, productivity and adding value. Sure, 10 years ago, I read "Getting to Yes," "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" and "In Search of Excellence." I even skimmed "The One-Minute Manager" because that seemed apt. But now I don't aspire to build consensus, be efficient and achieve unparalleled success in the process. I just want to do the right thing. And I don't care if you follow me or not. I guess what I'm saying is: Go ahead and move my cheese all you want -- as long as you don't eat it, because I love cheese, particularly Havarti and Gorgonzola.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - At least nine climbers were reported dead yesterday on K2, the world's second-highest mountain, after an avalanche struck them on a steep gully at a height of about 27,000 feet, just below the summit, mountaineering officials said. Those who died included South Koreans and Nepalese, the Pakistani television station ARY reported. Serbian, Norwegian, Dutch and French climbers were also near the summit, according to ARY. Other climbers are believed missing. The accident occurred when a chunk of an ice pillar snapped Friday, breaking fixed ropes on the area of the peak just below the summit, known as Bottleneck, according to expedition organizers.

Last summer, Annapolis resident Chris Warner stood atop the world's nastiest rock pile. But even he couldn't tell me how today's NBC show about the expedition is going to end. When we talked Tuesday, the show about conquering K2, aka the "Savage Mountain," was still in final editing, with Warner on his way to New York to do some last-minute voiceovers. Chopping down more than 30 hours of high-definition video into 38 minutes of action - that's what's left after commercials and studio chatter - was an uphill battle.

The Peace of Sunshine store off the main drag in Catonsville has lately been making more than half its weekly sales in K2, a "legal pot" known also as "spice. " But owner Lawrence J. Zwick says he has sold his last bag. As soon as he heard Monday morning that Baltimore County might make it a crime to sell the smokable leaf, he says, he packed up his inventory of two boxes and shipped it back to the distributor. "Oh, I'm going to miss it," said Zwick, a 44-year-old retired Coast Guard warrant officer who for four years has owned the the store specializing in T-shirts, jewelry, incense and hookahs.

Before he could realize his dream and stand atop the world's second-highest mountain, Chris Warner watched a man fall to his death. In a voice thick with exhaustion and broken by spells of coughing, Warner said yesterday that the physical and mental pounding it took to climb Pakistan's K2 "were definitely worth it." But in the next breath, the Annapolis resident and Mount Everest veteran admitted it will take some time to process all that happened during the more than 15 hours it took to push the last 1,800 vertical feet to the top. Just three hours into the summit bid on Friday, Nima Nurbu, a Sherpa working for the Korean team, slipped and tumbled thousands of feet in the darkness down K2, nicknamed the "Savage Mountain."