It was easy to get our permits apparently. it took hours instead of days which meant we could leave Skardu a day earlier, making up for the lost time of the 2-day bus travel. Next morning we set off with several Toyota Landcruisers through the desert and forest terrain towards Askole. A flat tire set us back a bit, but finally we arrived in camp just behind Askole.
The following four days we walked typically 6-9 hours along or on the Baltoro glacier. It was a difficult walk for me. My knees are poorly resistant to the endless rocks and boulders we had to walk on. Slowly but surely the weather and the views got better, with the first Broad Peak sighting on the third day walking, and accumulating in the gorgeous viewpoint ‘Concordia’ where K2, Broad Peak and Gasherbrum 4 are nicely surrounding you.
Whereas other teams were spending the night at Concordia, we continued walking for several hours and arrived in our basecamp, which is for both Broad Peak and K2. A Japanese member and myself, got quite lost on the glacier. It’s the second time I got lost, as I found that our lead guide continuously pushed forward with the fast people, and not care at all about the slower ones. A strange approach in my opinion, and it led to a dangerous situation where I did not know where to cross a glacier stream (they current is very strong and my suck you quickly underneath the glacier). We are now enjoying two days of rest. Moving up on Monday.
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Ciao!
Robin
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