Now that the jetlag and initial fatigue have passed, I've had time to reflect on the experience and put it in perspective. This was truly one of the great trips I've taken. It wasn't perfect and there were a bunch of things that were hard to get through. For one, I wish sanitation issues hadn't plagued our team more or less from start to finish. But on the whole, I loved the experience. Again, for me it's not so much about summits (obviously it's fun and rewarding to reach them) but about the process. I really feel like I learned a lot of mountain craft and had a high enough level of training and experience to enjoy the climbing itself.
The trek out was a great experience. Though I was dealing with vision issues (which are now nearly back to normal and likely were the result of a pair of retinal hemorrhages due to lack of oxygen), I absolutely loved moving over the glacial and riverbank terrain the last few days. We had a full adventure, with stormy weather adding the challenge of soaked clothing, sleeping bags, and other equipment.
By this point in the trip, everything felt natural. The rhythm of life in the mountains became an effortless, comfortable flow. As a team, we worked well, moving seamlessly in groups on the route and helping each other at camps. By the time we reached Skardu, I'd fully shed the stress of the highest Karakoram. As Boukreev would say, I was reborn.
Mountains are cathedrals: grand and pure, the houses of my religion. I go to them as humans go to worship...From their lofty summits I view my past, dream of my future, and with an unusual acuity I am allowed to experience the present moment. My strength renewed, my vision cleared, in the mountains I celebrate creation. On each journey I am reborn.
Anatoli Boukreev
This continues the sequence where my camera had moisture issues. I love it for two reasons: First, it mimics my blurry vision problems and second, it really was that wet! Here, Tam Ting darts up an ice slope covered in gravel. Much of the trek out was like this...trailless hiking on grit-gravel-cobble-covered ice.
Porters cross a glacial creek, Baltoro Glacier.
Weaving between crevasses near Urdukas
I'm elated to reach the first plants after nearly a month on the ice. The weight loss is apparent. In three days I'll take a shower!
View down valley. You can see the bathtub ring height where the glacier used to be.
The terminus of the glacier! The water in the distance is the source of the Braldu River.
As I applied sunscreen, I looked back where we came from. Wow.
Glacial ice gave way to braided river sediments.
So violent. So cold. So unbelievably far to cross all of the channels. We all took a while dry off and to psychologically recover before continuing our 25-mile day.
This captures the challenging nature of the last two days of the trek. There are many consequential sections of trail. Lots of super narrow, steep sand on rock slab where slips are not an option. The trek back to civilization never lets up. Focus!
I was really diligent with the sunscreen, though the back of my hands really took a beating. All of the knuckles eventually became scabs.
OK this is as wild as it gets. We were just two hours from the end of the trek when we encountered this bridge (from the far side). Concrete was being poured and the workers were routing folks around to the right, along the insane catwalk on the bottom right, up onto the giant slippery boulder in the middle of the torment and up onto the bridge.
Here's a look at a porter lowering onto the wet boulder. It's hard to overstate how much this river was raging. This might have been the scariest moment of the trip had we gone for it. We sat around and waited for the concrete dry before climbing through the rebar, over the corrugated aluminum and onto the bridge.
Another example of the trip never letting up. Just two hours by jeep from Skardu (and our first shower in over a month!) we were stopped by a raging river. The far channel was so powerful. There was a deafening rumble of boulders crashing in the current.
A fair bit later, the current had died down somewhat and this was a wider portion of the river. Here, instead of attempting to drive across, jeeps met from either side. On the left, you can see a man jumping through the current. On the right, you can see a child being carried. While people heaved boulders into the torrent to divert the flow, we waited into the night for the afternoon swell from snowmelt to calm down. We made a desperate jeep crossing at night, getting stuck and shoveled out multiple times. It was one of the most stressful moments of the expedition.
Impressive cake at the Mashabrum Hotel in Skardu
What an unbelievable Nepali Sherpa team from G2! L to R: Tam Ting (from Rolwaling), Tundu (Rolwaling), Pasang (Khumjung), Mingma Gyalje (Rolwaling), Naoki (client from Japan), Kami (Thame), Mingma Tenzing (between Makalu and Everest)
