Very early start today, I assume to avoid glacier melt as much as possible. Woke up before it even started getting bright. The terrain the same rolling glacier landscape as the days before. Lots of up-and-down, pretty exhausting.
To Goro II
Once again I got scammed. Every day they’d tell us something like “breakfast at 7, we leave at 8” then they’d be shaking my tent at 6 and we’d hit the trail before 7. So today I was way ahead of the announced schedule, but they were yet another half an hour early.
Onto the glacier
Pretty tough and long hike. Loose rocks all the way made it really exhausting. The Sherpas were of course moving really quick, so I felt pretty drained when we stopped for lunch.
Reaching shade
20km or so trek to Paju camp (about 3300m). Only 200m gain, but lots of up-the-cliff down-to-the-river all day so my watch was saying 700m climb total.
The Drive
Had a huge breakfast at the hotel since we were up to a 6-7 hour drive.
Skardu here I come
After ten hours at Doha airport I mostly spent just walking around aimlessly, it was time to now fly to Islamabad. The flight wasn’t long, but it was just long enough to both have a short nap and watch The Matrix: Resurrections. I’d probably need to watch that movie like two more times to be able to form a coherent opinion on it.
Getting through border control was much smoother than I expected. They just asked a few questions to see if I get too stressed out, kinda how Americans do it too. All my baggage arrived in one piece too, so shortly I was on my way to my hotel for the night. A night much shorter than I’d like… Since my flight on to Skardu was at 6am in the morning, it meant I could only get 4-5 hours of sleep, and while a shower helped get in the mood, I still kept waking up every half an hour from weird dreams in a panic that I overslept.
Halfway there
Ten hours transit at Doha airport. Sleeping is always an option, though with these time differences I’m not sure it’s a good idea. The airport is crowded (and of course about half the people don’t care about the mask requirement) so finding an open seat near a power outlet was a challenge. But at least there’s this weird yellow lamp-bear thing.
The visa ordeal
I’ve been planning an expedition to Broad Peak and K2 for almost two years now. At first the plan was to climb last summer, but then covid ruined that. The expedition was then rescheduled to this summer, while last summer I visited Denali instead. However my departure to Pakistan faced some unexpected obstacles.
のこぎりひので
大型遠征が近づくと、体力を整えるためにトレーニングで行く登山の時間も伸びるが、毎週毎週同じ道歩くのも飽きる。御岳から名栗湖に抜けるルートは楽しいが、代替もほしいので今度は奥多摩から鋸山、大岳山、御岳山と日の出山を超えるルートを試してみた。最初行ったときは逆方向で御岳から登ったが、日の出山から下るようにすることで終わったらつるつる温泉に入れるのでありがたい。
最近の発見
ここ何年もずっと同じところに住んでるけど、ここ最近でした発見が２件もあって、いつでも世界は新しい情報を渡してくれるなと思った。
まずは近くの高台から空気が澄んだ日の夕焼けの逆行で富士山（の輪郭）が見える。山頂の方しか見えないから、想像するような富士山じゃなく「えっそんなに山頂平だっけ？」と思いそうになるような富士山（案外平です）。その形状だから最初に見たときに目を疑ったけど方向と剣ヶ峰の尖りで間違いない。
そして背景（西方面）が曇っていると逆に田無タワーがはっきり見えることも最近の発見。前職でよく青梅街道の西遊記運転していつも前方の田無タワーが印象的だったが、住宅街からは普段見えない。ただしある（朝のジョギングで毎日のように通る）橋から見るとちょうど見える。最初気づいたのは（同じ方向に高圧電線も見えるから）形じゃなくその頂点の白いライトで、そこからよく見ると実は田無タワーの特徴的なあの形がお見え。
こうしてウン年住んでもまだ新しい発見があるから、新しいこと探す目を失わないようにね…
