K2: A Journey of a Lifetime – 1
Episode 1 of 5
The blog covers the story of our epic journey to Concordia K2 which was my ultimate desire. It’ll be a five episode blog & I’ll try to cover the details of my experience of this memorable journey.
A man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. And that’s what my trip to Concordia was, where one can seize the movement of his eyes while looking at the mesmerising “Chhogori mountain”, famously known as K2.
K2 is the second highest mountain in the world after Mount Everest, at 8,611 meters above the sea level. K-2 is located in the heart of the Karakoram Range in the north of Pakistan and can be seen in its entirety from Concordia only. This sublime pyramid sits at the head of the Godwin Austin Glacier which unites with a second glacier at Concordia to form the mighty Baltoro Glacier. Galen Rowell described Concordia as the “throne room of the mountain Gods” & one can have a look at four peaks above 8000 m sit within a short radius of Concordia, thereby honouring this place with the largest concentration of the highest peaks on the face of earth.
Still amazed by the fact that this giant & the deadliest 8000+m peak is known by a code word instead of its local name, Chhogori. The history revealed that the name K2 is derived from the notation used by the Great trigonometric survey of British India. Thomas Montgomerie made the first survey of the Karakoram from Mount Haramukh, some 210 km (130 miles) to the south, and sketched the two most prominent peaks, labeling them K1 and K2. The first one was called Mashabrum in local language & the later was called “Chhogori”. The name Chogori is derived from two Balti words, chhogo meaning “big” and ri is a local word for “mountain”; however the evidence for its widespread use is scant, possibly because of its remote location & probably that’s the reason of being labelled as K2 in trigonometric survey.
The journey to this throne room of the mountains starts with a flight from Islamabad to Skardu which is the hub & starting point of all expeditions & treks. The mountain flight gives fantastic views as the aircraft follows the Indus River Valley and move past the ninth highest mountain in the world, Nanga Parbat. But sadly in our case, there was a cloud cover all around and we missed the scenic views.
However; it was amazing to see so much tourist coming into Skardu. The flight used to be ATR, a few years back but this time it was Airbus A320 & to my surprise, it was jam packed which is such a healthy sign for Pakistan tourism industry. A 40 min flight ended with some lovely mountainous views of Skardu valley, with megestic cold desert in the surroundings. It’s a nice little airport & you can see a lot of military people moving around, because of its strategic location.
Had a visit of the city & met a few of my old friends. The hospitality of the people of Skardu & Hunza has always inspired me. These people have literally set the standards for the rest of the country, to follow. The way they treat their guest is something really commendable. In the evening, had a chance to visit Katpana desert once again & beauty of this place made me realise why goras are in love with our north. Green valley, with desert on one side, river Indus flowing on the other & surrounded by mountains all around. What else one can desire for.
The next day was spent in Skardu as our tour operator had to get permits for our travel. In the meanwhile, we explored the city & bought some necessary items required for trekking. This includes, a helmet, safety harness, carabiner, trekking sticks, hats & few other items. You can get a few of the items on rent as well.
We stayed in Snowland hotel which wasn’t up to my expectations but the staff was really friendly & tried their level best to serve us in a best possible manner. It’s an old hotel & it seems that it had a good repute in the past. We were a group of nine individuals from different parts of Pakistan including two foreigners & that night we assembled together, having a brief chit chat with each other.
Visited a K2 Museum in PTDC Motel in the afternoon which has a good collection of maps & some historical photographs of expeditions. The museum has been set up by Italian climbers & one can get good info about Karakuram mountain range. PTDC motel is beautifully located alongside river Indus & present some really amazing views. Spent an hour or so while sitting in lawn of the motel & watching mighty Indus flowing through Skardu valley.
In the evening, we had a chance to meet a polish couple in the hotel who just came back from Hushe after crossing Gondogoro La & they shared their experience with our group. Frankly, at least I got frightened after the chat & it looked a mammoth task to cross Gondogoro La. I had already made up my mind, not to cross the pass & return the same route from Concordia.
It was a sunny morning of 9th August, when we started our journey to Askole. It’s like going into the world of unknown with a strong feeling of being disconnected with social media which nowadays is an addiction. Made a few last calls as we headed towards “no signals” zone & few more photos on Insta, before we jump into wild mother nature. Crossed Shigar valley which is ever so beautiful with desert in the middle surrounded with mighty mountains. Had a stopover in the middle of the valley on lovely straight road. A photographer can wait for hours on this road to capture something red on this lovely road. In our case, the red colour was of a jeep so we captured only that.
The carpeted road later got turned into a rough jeep track & we saw some beautiful scenery. A clearly sunny day with a few clouds here & there, made it look just out of this world. We moved towards Askole alongside River Braldo which seemed very clam at this stage.
Life in such remote places is really tough & people have to travel miles to get basic necessities of life. But people like us who are living a luxurious city lives, can’t even imagine of living at such raw places. We can only spent a few days before rushing to our warm cozy beds. We passed through a few villages where we saw people tirelessly working in the fields. Wheat crop was turning into gold & this presented some really different colours.
In the middle of our journey, suddenly our jeep got stopped & we were told by our driver that fan belt has broken. Came as a first shock to us & there were many waiting for us, in days to come. Surprisingly, our driver managed to get spare belt from another jeep crossing by & later he fixed it himself. A big relief for us & we resumed our journey.
In an hour or so, we were at first army checkpost which was also the start of Central National Karakuram Park. So, we had to made an entry by presenting our permits & ID cards. In the meanwhile, we met Mr. Akhtar from Army who greeted us warm heartedly. Postings at such places have their own challenges & Akhtar was now being transferred to Karachi in next two weeks, a big sigh of relief for him.
Took lunch at a beautiful spot in the middle of our travel & resumed our journey to Askole afterwards.
Crossed two more Army checkposts before reaching to our destination. It took almost 7 hours for us to reach Askole from Skardu.
The campsite was a green spot & our porters quickly made it ready for us. The arrangements were excellent & washroom facility was also available but with extremely cold water. A sumptuous dinner was served to us by our chef & with mixed feelings of excitement & anxiety, off I went for my first camp night sleep.
(To be continued)
