Carlos Pauner, Gasherbrum, 2011: AT THE GATES OF BALTORO

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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