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| Krzysztof
Wielicki, head of the expedition |
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| Krzysztof
Wielicki, the head of the expedition, is in the
middle, side by side to Janusz Onyszkiewicz, the
President of the Polish Alpinism Association.
Monika Rogozińska, the “Rzeczpospolita”
correspondent, talks about the Himalayas.
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| It took a
whole day to repack the equipment and prepare
the cargo for the caravan. Tomorrow we set out
farther with off-road Toyotas, towards
Karakorum. |
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| Karakorum and
the Himalayas begin where the Alps end, as they
say. We reached a pass located a few meters
higher than Mount Blanc by car. After getting
out of the vehicles, one can hardly draw breath.
All around is wasteland |
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| Burst tires
are quite frequent on these roads. The one in
the red jacket is Krzysztof Wielicki |
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| In the town of
Yilka (3490 m) we make our first bivouac, near a
Chinese military base, consisting of one
barrack, some very young, cold and scared
soldiers and hundreds of meters of barbed-wire
entanglements. Supposedly, two Chinese escaped
in the vicinity over the border to Pakistan last
week. We are not allowed to take pictures of the
base. The situation is absurd - all around us
are hundreds of kilometers of wild mountains and
wastes. We still have to go through the passport
control, though |
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| Our cargo will
be carried by 46 camels. Each one can carry 80
kg. Unlike in the inhabited Himalayas, porters
are hard to find in the uninhabited Karakorum.
In order to form our caravan, the camel owners
came with their animals from far away. There are
people from Uygur, Taj, Kyrgyzstan. |
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| The camels can
stand neither our smell nor our cargo. They are
dangerous animals. They spit at us in contempt.
Some wear metal muzzles on their snouts. They
are furious and throw off the cargo, kicking
around. The animal's kick breaks a leg as if it
were a match. We saw the camel owners' struggle
in trying to tame them. They can trample a man
down, turning him into a pulp. |
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| The expedition
members won the hearts of the children from
Yilka, organizing ice sliding races in different
styles and playing with them. It was only during
the race in cardboard boxes that their parents
protested, considering those vehicles too
precious an item for their households. In the
picture, you can see Jerzy Natkański and Maciej
Pawlikowski. |
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| The last human
settlement on the way to K2. Two families live
here: one in a house made of stones, the other
in a cave, the opening of which is visible in
the background. |
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| Animals and
people climbing the narrow and steep canyon
gully, among the wind and dust stirred up by the
camels' hoofs. Sometimes it happens that the
animals fall down. We saw a camel so scared that
it was climbing on his knees. (2 photos) |
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| The way leads
through rocky ledges |
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| The Shaksgam
River. We will be walking down its partly
frozen, partly dried-up bed to the Chinese base
under K2 for the next two days. |
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| We spent
Christmas Eve on the stony beach of the Shaksgam
River. It was exceptionally quiet and warm,
minus eleven deg. C. Maciej Pawlikowski brought
along an artificial Christmas tree from his home
in Zakopane. We shared the Christmas wafer under
the starry sky. We ate a mushroom soup with
boiled dough balls and cabbage. The fish came
from a can, of course. Among the wonderful
cakes, one could not do without the famous,
delicious "expedition" gingerbread made by Darek
Załuski's mum. We were sitting by the fire for a
while. Then a long queue for the satellite phone
formed... |
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| Gia Tortladze
from Georgia disassembled and packed the
Christmas tree in the morning. Christmas Eve in
the Orthodox Church is only in two weeks' time. |
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| The river
forms a genuine labyrinth. Almost everyone fell
or walked into the water: ice broke, Jan Szulc
fell into the river from a camel, one had to
take off the shoes and walk down the bed or run
through it with shoes on. |
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| Gia Tortlade
is climbing the glacial slope at the upper base
(5100 m).K2 is looming in the background. |
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| The upper base
is situated at 5100 m. |
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| Members of the
young support group include: Jacek Jawień and
Bartek Duda, at the upper base (5100 m) |
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| Gia Tortladze
has carried the Christmas tree to the upper
base. Christmas Eve is approaching and is to be
celebrated by members of the Orthodox Church. |
