Day 1 - 3

Travel to Hushe

After a delayed departure at Heathrow we arrived late at Islamabad & even after being hurried though immigration only had 30 minutes to connect to the Skardu flight. 45 minutes later and still no sign of most of our luggage. We ended up on the plane having met Neal, Nabi and Margaret in Domestic departure. We left an hour late after the flight crew had finally managed to get our luggage on board. Skardu airport terminal building was no more than a big shed really. We stayed at the K2 Hotel in the outskirts of Skardu, the hotel was a bit basic to western standards. After some lunch most of us had a walk round the town.

Skardu - Hushe 130 Km (8 hr) 3100m
In the morning 4 Toyota land cruisers took us and our kit up to Hushe. We left the hotel at 0915, stopping off at Khapalu for some lunch. From here the road became a track. An hour short of Hushe the road bridge had been taken out by flooding and we had to transfer all our gear into 2 waiting vehicles on the other side. It was a bit of a squeeze especially when we gave the local police man a lift after a few kilometer. We arrived at the camp site in Hushe around 1700. There was a loo (not flushing), an outside tap and a mud floored room used as a dinning room, another building was used as a kitchen. We had a tent each.

Bridge on way to Hushe

Day 4 - 5

Walk into Base Camp.

Hushe - Intermediate camp at Dumsum 5 km 3300m

We were up at 0715, tents were all taken down and we had breakfast at 0810. All the porters came in and there was a big scrum to get some gear to carry. We all left camp at 0915. Mahmat one of the high altitude porters led the way though a labyrinth of alleyways out of Hushe, we followed the west bank of the river up the valley to an intermediate camp. We arrived at the camp at 1210, after some lunch had a bit of a kip. Later we sorted out our jummar kit and Nic discovered that his new crampons would not adjust onto his new boots (size 14!). He had only received them the day he left for Heathrow, and they would not adjust out enough. Fortunately Neal had the same crampons with a longer bar so they were able to swap. A goat was purchased by Haji Hussain, the cook, from the local farmer. It was taken to BC with us.

Dumsum - Base camp 5.5 Km 3900m

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We left camp at 0810 and arrived at Base camp at 1240 where lunch was waiting for us. We had an interesting river crossing, boots off and trousers up job, with very cold water as expected some 500m from Base Camp.

We had a Terra Nova tent each, what luxury. The camp also had a loo tent and the shower tent using a solar shower bag. Got cold in the mess tent after dinner (+4).

Day 6 - 7

Base camp sorting out

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Sorted mountain food out into days and camps before lunch.
Managed a quick shower before it ran out.
0 degrees C when we retired for bed at 2100. So much for David Hamilton saying it never goes below freezing at BC this time of year.

First trip to camp 1 (4825m) 5 Km

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It was -2C when we got up at 0600 for our 0630 breakfast.
HPAs took our crampons, with some communal gear for camp 1, using 5 donkeys. I carried up my plastic boots and my personal mountain food. Left at 0730 guided by Ishaq. We arrived at camp at 1300, dumped the gear, had some food and returned as it has started to snow, arriving back at BC 1615.

Map BC to C1
Animate route

Route BC to C1 part 1
See map for end point

On route C1

Day 9 - 11

Overnight at camp 1

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Left BC at 0915 carrying 12Kg arrived at 1345 (4.5hr) an hour faster than last time.
Settled into our tent, 2 per tent here.

Up to 5200m 1.5Km

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Left C1 to go up to col at 5100m at 0920. On reaching it most of us, egged on by Larry, ascended to a big rock at 5200m. We named the rock Larry's Rock.
Back at C1 by 1300. After some discussion it was decided to descend back to BC at 1500. Arrived back at BC at 1730. Rained heavily overnight.

Rest day

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Outer tent door zip was frozen up first thing, had difficulty getting out.

General doss day.

Back up to C1

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It was -1C when I got up at 0615.
We made our own way up to C1, I made it up in just over 4 hours this time, some made it in 3.
Very pleasant at C1 this time. Cooked lunch sitting outside in the sun, +10C at 1445. GPS confirmed altitude as 4825m.
The box of flapjacks that had been left in Neal's tent porch was missing only the odd wrapper to be seen. It is a mystery what had eaten them as we only saw small mice and a small red ferret type thing.

Acclimatisation up to start of the snow 5500m

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Up at 0100 and left at 0205. It was -5C, going was slow, so got rather cold. I added my overlayer and was OK then. Got to the col at first light & Margaret decided she could not go on so went back to C1 with Ishaq. By the time we got to Larry's rock Terry decided he would wait there. The rest of us fought our way up to the start of the fixed ropes. It was steep, exposed and very loose rock, 2 steps up and only 1 down if you were lucky. Once at the fixed ropes we donned our harnesses & helmets and jummared up to the start of the snow proper approximately 5500m. The HPAs were only some 200m above us fixing further rope up to C2. We descended back to the start of the fixed ropes after admiring the view. We then decided to abseil a rope length down the steep loose rock from the start of the fixed ropes.
Got back into C1 1300ish. I felt crap but was OK after a sleep and some Ibuprofen, Kane was less fortunate he aggravated an old ankle injury just before returning to C1.

Rest day

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Snowed over night but sunny when we got up. We had a leisurely breakfast sat outside in the sun.
Ishaq escorted Margaret & Kane back to BC at 1230.
I moved in with Dan as the inner zip on the tent I was in with Terry was broken beyond repair, I tried for over an hour to repair it.
We could see the HPA high up just below C2. They returned to C1 at 1330 having established C2.
The weather was starting to give us some concern. It was decided to get up at 0200 and see what it was like and decide then, if we go for C2.

Ready to go to camp 2

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We were woken by Neal at 0155 saying it was clear and we would go for it. By 0305 when we were ready and all out of out tents it became apparent that the weather had deteriorated considerably in the hour. It was now snowing heavily, after some discussion we went back to bed.

It snowed all day on and off. Ishaq brought up pancakes, boiled potatoes and boiled eggs from BC as we were starting to run out of food at C1, having only provisioned for 4 nights. We were now going into our fifth.

Late afternoon we all agreed that the avalanche risk was now far too high to contemplate going up for at least 2 days after it stopped snowing. This meant we would have to go down in the morning.

Return to base camp

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Shukoor the head HPA came round at 0750 saying we must go down ASAP. C1 had over a foot of fresh unconsolidated snow.
We left C1 at 0930, I carried 20Kg, arriving back at BC at 1230 to a welcome lunch of chips. BC was covered in snow, there had been minor avalanches on the right hand side of the valley all the way down..

HPA team Photo, L - R; Mahmat, Ishaq, Shukoor , Abdullah

Support team Photo, L - R; Ishaq, Hussain, Shukoor, Mahmat, Nabi & Haji Hussain

Day 17 - 21

Rest / sort out before return day

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Cold night, snowed all night over 2 inches on tent.
Read and sorted kit out ready for off. After lunch we sorted out tips for the support team.
Nabi arranged for porters to come up tomorrow and us to head off back to Skardu.
By the time we went to bed it was crystal clear and a stunning display of stars.

Return to Skardu

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Up early for breakfast, left BC at 0705.
Pleasant hike back down to Hushe which took 4 hours.
Had lunch at Abdullah's house before loading the Land Cruisers up and leaving at 1330. The bridge had been repaired whilst we were in the high mountains.
We arrived back at the K2 Hotel at 1830, fewer people there this time and we had much better rooms..
After some discussion it was agreed that we would all head by plane, in the morning, to Rawalpindi.

Fly to Islamabad & onto Rawalpindi

Breakfast at 0800 and some time for last minute shopping before off to the airport.

We were last on the plane again due to a problem with over weight baggage. After a lot of discussion by Neal and Mr. Chengarsy we did not have to pay the excess baggage. The problem was that we did not have our international air tickets which gave us a 35Kg limit, the tickets were with the agent in Rawalpindi.

Very hot in Islamabad, we stayed at the Shalimar Hotel. Kane and I managed to get our return ticket changed to Friday from Sunday and to Manchester instead of London only cost £35 which we had to pay in sterling.

On way back from the PIA office we managed to get some beer from the Flashman hotel. Which was consumed with the others in one of their rooms as we were not allowed to be see consuming alcohol in public.

We went to the Pizza Hut down the road for dinner, all you could eat for 500 rupees ( £4) I made the big mistake of having some ice cream for dessert and got Deli belly.

Sight seeing

I was taking Immodium by this time but still managing to eat a bit.
5 of us went in 2 taxis to see the Faisal Mosque, which was very impressive. The taxis waited for us and then insisted on taking us on a tour of the diplomatic area. We were not too keen as it was
"9 11"! All went well and Larry managed to call off at the golf club on the way back and arrange a game for the next day for him, Neal, Nic & Dan.
We later went back into Rawalpindi to get some food and do some shopping but I had to be helped to a taxi and go back to the hotel where I was sick and went to bed.
The rest of the team went to the Pearl International for a pleasant evening meal returning around 2400.

Return Home. & Golf

Kane and Myself said our good-byes to the rest of the team at 0950 and took the hotel mini bus to the airport.
Larry, Dan, Neal & Nick went and had their game of golf in the blazing heat.