
We are in Paju, at 3,300m, a small
oasis in this arid and mineral world that has brought us here. A small number
of trees give us shadow and comfort and we take this advantage to take the
only day of rest in our entire trekking.
The porters gather food and wood for the
trip across the glacier and we have tried to rest, to shake away some of the
dust of the trip and to prepare, like everyone, to enter the icy world of the
Baltoro glacier. From now on we will walk on this ice river during the 4 days
that take to reach base camp at Gasherbrum II.
So far, everything is wonderful and we
are enjoying our trek over these high lands of Pakistan. The views, despite
the messy weather we have, start to be spectacular. Towers of red granite are
everywhere, as a hint of we are about to see and enjoy.
We are about 80 km away from our
objective and for the moment we have not met many groups. Tomorrow we will see
Trango Towers, Paju Peak, a quick glare of the summit of K2 in the horizon and
the endless moraines of this hallucinating glacier. We will continue excited
to the sanctuary of these large mountains of Karakorum.
Calos Pauner
Translated from Spanish by Jorge
Rivera
Earlier:
DESTINATION KARAKORUM
Carlos Pauner:
Our trip to the heart of the
Karakorum goes without problems. In Islamabad we did all the necessary
paperwork in a couple of frantic days. Smothered under a heat of more than 46
degrees Celsius, we found our old friends of Pakistan, Nazir, Ghulam, Nadeem,
good people with whom we have lived good moments in previous expeditions to
this country.
From Islamabad we took the
bus to travel on the Karakorum Highway for 32 endless hours. The condition of
this semi-road is deplorable and as the hours go by it gets worst. Finally, we
reached Skardu yesterday, the entrance gate to the world of large mountains in
this region. It is a calm village, with a crowded bazaar and is located on the
edge if the Indo. We spent the day here checking the loads, organizing
everything so that it will be easy to assign each load to the porters later.
Tomorrow we will go to Askole, the last place we can reach in a vehicle,
through an arid and mountainous terrain that will lead us to that location.
There we will hire our porters, around 60 and we will start to walk to the
Baltoro glacier.
In all this trip we have the
company of eleven friends who wanted to know these places and how an
expedition is organized from the beginning. They are enjoying it and don’t
stop getting surprised of this special world they are discovering.
Everything goes well so far.
Everything is going as planed and that is reflected in the group. Raul,
Adrian, Gonzalo and yours truly are satisfied and excited with what is about
to come. We make a good team and, in fact, we are enjoying this expedition. We
will soon get into the mountains and we will start to see the spectacular and
mythical summits like Gasherbrum IV, Masherbrum, Trango Tower and finally the
king of this place, K2. How many memories come to us and what a privilege to
be able to watch all this with the company of good friends. I cannot ask for
more for the moment.
Translated from Spanish by
Jorge Rivera
Earlier:
FIRST NEWS ABOUT THE EXPEDITION
By carlos pauner
As usual and with renewed strength, there is news about the expedition that
left yesterday from Barcelona to Pakistan.
So far they are fine and doing the pertinent paperwork to start the
expedition. They are immersed in bureaucracy with the Ministry, the helicopter
company, last shopping…
Carlos said everything is calm despite the problems in Islamabad, the capital
of Pakistan.
They will leave day after tomorrow to Skardu by bus and it will take forty
eight hours to travel.
By carlos pauner
IN SKARDU
The group of climbers led by Carlos Pauner and the group of people who will do
trekking in Baltoro have finally reached Skardu (2,300 m.)
They reached their destiny by bus after thirty two hours (more than expected)
because the road was in very poor conditions. Now they will organize the loads
and the carriers and they will leave to Askole day after tomorrow.
Although Pakistan is now in a difficult situation, Pauner said that everything
is calm around him.
As things are going, it is expected that they will reach base camp around July
6 or 7.
We will keep posting as news arrive.
translated by Jorge Rivera
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