The route is essentially clear of snow and ice all the way to the summit. One notable exception...right at the beginning of the K2 traverse, where you step onto the face, there is a patch of snow and ice. We instead ascended the very dry and somewhat rubbly pitch on the southern aspect of K2, while others did the direct class-4 pitch (east). On our descent, I checked out the K2 traverse, while others did the descent off the class-4 pitch. The traverse is great...mostly dry, some easily avoidable snow...until those last few feet. I ascended to the next line to avoid that snow, and was able to move onto the bottom of the class-4 pitch. But there was some unbelievably invisible ice on one sharply slanted rock...glad I had good hand placement. I was able to stretch over this ice, but only because I am 6'4".
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