2002
PEACE CLIMB TO PAKISTAN'S KARAKORUM
RANGE
Dispatch
Three: Broad Peak Base camp
June 23, 2002
We are at Broad
Peak base camp! The trek from Skardu to here is
amazing, I'm really sorry that I'm not a
novelist to be able to describe with detail all
the things we see. there are so many things
that one can see in any one moment that one
can't decide what to look at first.
Part of this
amazing journey is the size of our combined
expeditions we are 20 members including the
guide and the liaison officer. From Skardu we
take some jeeps to Askole
where our journey by foot begins. But even
before we arrive to Askole
we begin to find complications, one of the jeeps
gets stuck trying to cross the river and a
modified land cruiser that carries part of the
gear cant get by. So the porters that have not
yet been hired that are on their way to Askole,
take the equipment bags and begin to cross the
river over a fallen log. We cross like amateurs
compared to them, while part of the team and
porters dislodge the jeep before it gets swept
away by the power of the river.
We arrive at
Askole and met the rest of the team, three high
altitude porters, 5 kitchen staff, the guide and
his assistant and 3 porter sirdars that will
only accompany us to base camp. In all we will
have about 4 and a half tons of food, fuel, and
equipment. Over 250 porters will be used. This
is quite a spectacle to see.
Most of our days
consist of getting up at 5am, breakfast at 5:30
and start walking at 6am. Most days we walk
between 7 to 8 hours. The first two days
although quite good for walking since they were
cool an cloudy we did not get to see much
besides rocks and sand and lots of rocks and
sand. The following days as we climbed on to
the baltoro glacier were quite amazing, the
weather cooperated with viewing on and off. but
that is one incredible valley, would recommend
it to anyone lover of nature and beautiful
things.
Fernando and Tunc
are strong and are looked upon by many in this
expeditions since they are practically the only
ones with 8000 mt mountain experience, besides
the Amical guides and one of the
members. Everyone had been very excited to
finally get a glimpse of what they came to
climb, Broad Peak, gave us a glimpse of the
summit for a few hours before it got clouded
over. K2 was hiding until the day after we
arrived to base camp and boy did it give us a
spectacular view. A lot of snow and a lot of
wind, not the most ideal climbing conditions.
We are alone here
at base camp, there are no other expeditions
here. There was a Swiss one, but unknown to us,
they left for Gasherbrum I. So the combined
expeditions here have a lot of elbow room. Each
of us has our own tents which is good, although
it has been like 20 degrees F inside the tent at
night, maybe company would not be so bad.
We have heard
there are as many as 10 expeditions on K2 but
may of the porter sirdars say there are only 6.
I will go and check it out in a few days.
If weather permits
Fernando and Tunc will try to make a deposit
site on camp 1at 6100 mts. The past two days
here have been spectacular but as I write this
everything is getting clouded over and it looks
like it will snow. If it snows a lot they will
have to postpone for a few days. Fresh snow on
ice not a good combination. I will try to write
as often as I can but since the computer crashed
before we left, I'm using my personal computer
that has a very limited battery life and I can
barely type the dispatch and send without
re-charging. We also have limited charging
availability so hopefully it won't be too long
before we can respond our e-mails.
Alberto Carrizosa
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