Intro/route photo
Photo gallery of the trip
Trek timeline
1:Four beautiful words
2:The high Sahara
3:Base Camp at last-->
4:First foray on the mountain
5:A summit, finally
6:Well, here we are, then
7:Reflections
Trek timeline
1:Four beautiful words
2:The high Sahara
3:Base Camp at last-->
4:First foray on the mountain
5:A summit, finally
6:Well, here we are, then
7:Reflections
Dispatch #3: Base Camp at Last
Monday, July 3. We arrived in Base Camp yesterday. The trek from Paiju was mostly uneventful, in relatively good weather. We had some snow on the hike to Concordia, but by the time we stuffed aboutt 20 climbers in a cook tent and ate some food, the weather cleared and the hike to our actual campsite was in good weather.
Danielle Fisher and Kim Mathieson leave Urdokas.
The weather has been quite variable. We're getting sun, wind, cloud, snow, then sun again. Luckily we've had some great views of the big mountains. Interestingly, I have yet to see my target, Gasherbrum 2!
On the Abruzzi Glacier below Shagharing camp.
The mountain is very crowded, with many more expeditions to come. There was a meeting today about the fixed (permanent) ropes. This issue is more difficult each year. Here's how it works. The first teams on the mountain must fix the ropes if they want to climb. Later teams (and individuals like myself) don't have to spend the time and money to fix the ropes, so these earlier teams want us to pay for the use of their ropes. On the other hand, there is enough rope in camp to fix the route 4 times, so why should we pay when we can set another set of ropes? At this point, I can proceed without paying anyone so in true local style, I'll ignore the problem until I need to deal with it.
I agreed to serve as 'expedition leader' as a favor to my friends at ATP, the trekking company that supplies all of our needs up to and including base camp. It's been as much work as I expected, and that's more than I cared for. I'll be happy to get up onto the mountain.
Speaking of climbing, tomorrow we're going to go drop a load of gear about halfway to Camp I. The goal over the next week is to get Camp 1 stocked with everything I'll need to climb the rest of the mountain. The photo on the Intro page is taken from Camp I.
Our Base Camp. Different groups are spread out along this moraine
Cheers,
Mike