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.
