September 23, 2006
Pakistan
For more than a year I have wanted to trek some remote part of the world, but I couldn’t find the time. But one morning in early August, I simply decided – the hell with it, I’m going to Pakistan. A few weeks later I began a 24-day trek that would take me to the Karakoram of Northern Pakistan, Concordia and the base camp of the worlds second highest mountain, K2 (8,611m). The trip was organized by World Expeditions, an Australian company that specializes in adventure travel. It was a vacation like none other. Below is a picture of K2 from the door of my tent.
K2 and Broad Peak from Concordia. To provide some perspective on the size of these mountains, K2 (left) is actually five miles from Broad Peak (8,047m) has a summit over one mile long and is the worlds twelfth highest mountain.
The mountain formation to the left, the Great Trango (5,844m) is considered the greatest cliff face in the world and the point from which two Australians made a world record base jump in 1992. I’m not quite ready to try base jumping.
The porters on our trip were first rate in every way. For the ten paying customers and one western guide we had seventy four porters join us at the start of our journey – and every single one was needed in order to carry our food, shelter, gear and their own necessities for the duration they assisted. By the end of the trek, we still had eighteen porters working with us. What made them particularly impressive were their abilities to trek these mountains at incredible rates of speed with 30kg backpacks and in shoes that were little more than flip-flops. And they sped past me every day.
