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Hello friends: We are already in Payu, we have arrived after an
insufferable day of heat… After a quick shower in the facilities that have
been installed in the middle of the camping zone (which don't help the
landscape at all), we get caught by a strong rain, we cover all the barrels
and packages quickly and we look for refuge in the mess tent, and we patiently
wait… The trekkers ask us, what to do in these cases? Well, nothing… read,
play cards, laugh and tell jokes, talk about the mountain…
It is strange for anyone who is not used to this, to see how nervous
and active we are and also how patient when there is nothing else to do.
Why do we do it? Well I suppose it is part of the final project, we know that
you won't get nothing if you are not patient, we know that to climb high
mountains you have to adapt to the environment, or the environment will beat
you.
Between jokes we talk that when you have a "morning thing" (a climb in the
morning to a mount close to home) you have time to have some cake and coffee
before leaving, get dressed in the car before getting to walk and after a
climb and descent of this kind, be home by the time of the paella… but here
the environment is more demanding, you never know at what time your porter
will show with your package (take notice: applauses and admirations to
porters), you can not be certain if it is going to rain before you can install
the tent, you can not know either how the weather will be on the next morning
or the next day when you have 6 hours or more of trekking… but with all of
this and much more, here we are, for the surprise of everybody, adapting to
the environment… some with blisters in their feet because of the heat of the
day, some with nasal hemorrhages because of the sun, some with burned arms and
legs, some with diarrhea after drinking this water rich with mineral salts and
sand… and everybody, almost everybody, with an aching back because of sleeping
in the hard and cold floor… but happy. Let's not lose the good humor and
happiness of every day when we contemplate the landscapes that surround us,
when we see the luck we have of being here, we have made a difficult election,
but now we hare happy, not everybody has the braveness that my teammates have,
who left worried families and children behind, who fight in their jobs
to get a permit or vacations to be able to come on an expedition,
using their savings to make it here. We all have had to organize so
many things before coming here, having to convince so many people that we are
not so crazy and that we only fight for a dream or a goal, that we are sports
people, that we have been training for so many months, for this demanding
environment, for this mountain that awaits us. I make the commitment here to
don't let the bad humor or negativity show at our base camp…we are a wonderful
group and we will show it every moment. The next objective is Urdukas
(4,000 m) and an hour away from where we are, we will start to walk over the
Baltoro
Glacier.
A big hug,
Lina Quesada
Translated from Spanish by Jorge Rivera
LINA QUESADA ARRIVES TO SKARDU
Broad Peak is the first eight-thousand which Lina Quesada visited in
2003. "I had a hard time then, on the day of the summit I couldn't
get beyond the Col (7,500 m.) I could not feel my feet, I was very
cold and I didn't think I could do it, I was afraid of suffering
frostbite and I turned around, I thought, 'well, the mountain will
still be there, maybe I can try it again another day'…
Now I am here again with a stupendous group, I never had a better
company, I know that I will feel part of the group and that I won't be alone.
My teammates are Alberto Zerain, from Vitoria with 5
eight-thousands on his back, and his fellows Aitor Las Hayas and Juan Carlos
González; and those who were my teammates in the Gasherbrum 2 expedition
during the summer of 2006, Alfredo from La Rioja, Santiago Martin from Segovia
and Diego Hernandez from Badajoz. We arrived very exhausted to Skardu last
night. After two days on the road, or better said, track, curves, slopes
and paths. It is not a route I would recommend to anybody, because
unsafe driving is usual around here, let's wait that we can fly for our
return, because we can skip a lot of dangers in an hour and a half…
The worst comes tomorrow. We are now in Skardu (2,300 m.) the last town
where we can rest in a bed, take a shower and make a last minute shopping, but
tomorrow around four in the morning we will start our tour in a jeep, which
will take us over a vertiginous track, not apt for people with a weak heart,
because in every curve if you look down, you see a precipice and the force
that goes to the river… Better not to think about it… Also those jeeps
in which we will travel, with no tracks on their tires… one never knows in
which town we have to stop to repair a tire or some other damage, a usual
thing. We will arrive to Askole (3,000 m.) around noon, a town where we
will sleep in tents and start the adventure…
The landscape is wonderful, rice crops, little villages with adobe
houses, the strong Braldo river that sweeps everything on its way is
the main axis that will lead us later to the start of the Baltoro
glacier, which we will cross to get to Concordia, the central point of
the 4 eight-thousands that are on this part of the Karakorum, K2 and Broad
Peak in the glacier of Goldwin Austen and Gasherbrum I and II in the west
part. The other mountains don't have to envy anything from these
eight-thousands, other beautiful mountains like Masherbrum (vertiginous
perfect pyramid), Gasherbrum IV, Chogolisa, all of them of an unusual beauty,
majestic, which seem forgotten for not being taller than eight-thousand meters
and who knows if luckily don't get any visits of almost any climber…
There will be an Spanish expedition this year also in Gasherbrum IV,
we wish luck to our friends who will have the pleasure of transit by
those wonderful slopes and we know for a fact that they will conquer its
summit. Good luck friends! On our side, we will not be alone on Broad Peak,
there will be an Iranian expedition, which we met in Skardu, Italians,
Americans, who knows? The important thing is that once there at base camp we
will share the ascent with more friends and that we won't be alone, but we
will have to face those last decisive moments on the mountain, the day of the
summit, the most risky and important day, each one alone with our inner side,
with a strong spirit and with decision.
In our group we keep a good humor so far, we will have a lot of work
this afternoon, we have to organize the barrels, divide the loads, we
have already taken care of the generator, buy ropes, you know… we
can't stop for a moment and in these days of trekking over Baltoro we will
join with more and they will make this feel like a nice group, as friends and
mountain teammates which I have sometimes missed when I go alone on an
expedition. This is great help, because we know that we have each other
and that we can always count with a teammate.
We will leave day after tomorrow from Askole with a group of porters
who will help us with the loads along the trekking, which we still
don't know, they will be waiting for us tomorrow with the cook. They are
usually all Baltan, strong people who are born, grow and live here, in these
hard lands, of strong winds, cold winters and dry and hot summers.
This is an unfriendly landscape which doesn't invite visitors so easily, few
adventure through these lands, which offer so much beauty and so many
wonderful landscapes to climbers from around the world. Every climber dreams
with walls like those found here, Trango Tower, Mustag Tower, no name Tower,
authentic jewels of geology and natural architecture. All of them
surround us and leave us breathless when we look at them, and the glaciers
that surround them with a silvery white
in the hours of sun.
I cheer you up to visit these lands and get into their landscapes. So
long friends, I stay here in Skardu, with heat and prepping everything
for what is still to come… a big hug.
Translated from Spanish by Jorge Rivera
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