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Tag: Pakistan

#K2Calling – La route vers le K2

Blog écrit par Charles Audier

Arrivés à Islamabad le 6 juin dernier, on se confronte aux premières réalités de l’expédition, les douanes ont bloqués les antennes speedcast nécessaires à la communication lors de l’expédition. Pas de temps à perdre, on file à l’enregistrement pour notre vol vers Skardu. Nous scotchons les bagages les uns aux autres pour passer les contrôles et Mike joue de son charme avec l’hôtesse de bord pour faire passer nos 50 kilos en trop dans la soute de l’avion. Première mission réussie. On s’installe dans l’avion et découvrons le paysage fascinant des montagnes du Karakoram à travers le hublot. L’avion se pose et le cirque des bagages recommencent. On entasse le matériel sur des 4×4 et filons vers l’hôtel Concordia de Skardu. Ce sera notre camp de base pour les 48 prochaines heures. Après, nous dirons adieu à la civilisation. Mike et Fred nous préparent à l’aventure, on regarde le parcours avec excitation et appréhension. Dès le premier souper, le binôme d’explorateurs nous fait rêver et peur avec des histoires rocambolesques. Au matin une horde de Toyota Land Cruiser d’un autre temps – aux peintures folkloriques et aux pilotes expérimentés aussi hauts en couleurs – nous retrouve à l’hôtel.

On file à la hâte a travers des paysages montagneux sublimes. Fin du macadam, on avale les kilomètres au rythme des postes militaires égrainés sur le parcours de 240 km à effectuer en 8 heures. Nous nous enfonçons dans un paysage de plus en plus lunaire. On ne sait pas trop si nous traversons Mars ou parcourons la lune en plein soleil. Les ravins abrupts et les sentiers étriqués ne nous laisse pas le temps de rêvasser. Cramponnés aux sièges on se surprend de vertiges en passant la tête par la fenêtre comme coincés entre les surplombs infinis en contre bas et l’imposante domination des montagnes alentours. Le soleil tombe derrière les cimes, nous arrivons à Askole. Dès lors tout se fera à pied. On passe notre première nuit sous la tente et au petit matin le village s’est attroupé autour de nous pour participer à l’aventure. Les Serdar – guide de locaux de l’expédition – recrute à tour de bras. Le soleil grimpe et nous filons vers Juhla, première halte après 8 heures de marche dans le canyon. Le soleil tape et cette mise en jambe annonce la couleur du périple : 20km pour cette première journée et les premiers coups de soleil pour l’équipe.

A demain pour la rencontre avec le glacier de Baltoro !

#K2Calling – Mike’s K2 Diary

Hello everyone, this is Mike reporting from K2 base camp. It has been an intense week trekking up to K2 base camp. Heavy snows started falling from day 1 and didn’t stop until we reached base camp. This is quite a change from our last K2 expedition in 2015, when it only started snowing on our last day before reaching K2 base camp. Occasional snowfalls are to be expected around 5000m and upwards, however I was surprised to witness snow on the second day of our trek.
These conditions have unfortunately made it impossible for us to use our various devices and the lack of sun meant we were unable to use our solar panels to charge our batteries. For this reason, we haven’t been able to provide our team back home with updates and content, as well as tune in to live Q&A’s. But now that we have all arrived at base camp, we hope to be able to catch up on the content and updates you have been missing out on.
To start off with, here are a couple lines from my daily diary:

Wednesday 12th of June
Snowing here this morning, we decided to set out a little later so that the porters don’t have to walk in the fresh snow. We are all well rested and ready to hike higher. The only problem we have is that we have no power to send content because we haven’t had any sun for the past 3 days – impossible to charge the batteries of our communication devices.

Thursday 13th of June
Still snowing nonstop here. We managed to hike up to 4000m today in fresh snow. The porters decided to stay lower in altitude and wait for the bad weather to pass. Our solar system has not been very efficient on the move in bad weather so no live content can be sent at this stage until the weather improves a little. The whole team is doing well and adapting to the altitude.

Friday 14th of June
Arrived in camp “Goro2” for the night. So much snow around the mules might not be able to make it to Concordia tomorrow due to the snow. They will go as far as they can and leave the equipment there to be picked up by porters on foot. It was an amazing day with no clouds in the sky. It feels nice to have good weather for a day. A lot of great content created so far; everyone is working hard when we reach base camp, I hope we will be able to start sending.

Saturday 15th of June
Arrived in Concordia. The fresh snow is knee deep. Tomorrow morning Fred and I will scout a route through the glacier covered with snow that will lead us to K2 base camp. It is still cloudy. K2 and Broad Peak stay hidden behind a curtain of clouds. We can feel the power of the mountains without seeing them at the end of the valley. Tomorrow night we will finally sleep at the foot of K2.

Sunday 16th of June
Fred and I had to make the tracks in heavy snow. The rest of the team and porters stayed behind in Concordia. Tonight, the track will freeze, and we hope the porters and the rest of the team will be able to use the frozen tracks to join us in K2 base camp tomorrow. Some of our climbing equipment had to stay in camp “Goro2” because the mules could not get through the snow. We are feeling strong and are extremely happy to be at BC sharing a tent with friendly Pakistani.

Tuesday 18th of June
The whole team arrived at base camp today! Still snowing though, and we are still waiting for some our climbing equipment. Our power situation is not very easy due to the lack of sun, but I will try to send some photos and short videos, and perhaps find enough power and connection to try and do a live tomorrow.