Well, I’m not too sure what’s the more scary – having avalanches crash down around your ears, or constantly staring into the face of oblivion on the Karakoram Highway! We arrived back in Islamabad late last night after another white-knuckle ride down the KKH. Unfortunately I made the mistake of deciding to sit at the front of our Toyota minibus, which is somewhat akin to being at the front of a giant roller coaster – you always get the full fright-factor first! Initially it’s just the prospect of plunging over the abyss that grips you, and then later it’s the sheer manic driving of everyone else that leaves you silently striken with horror. It therefore came as no great surprise when we were forced into what turned out to be a 2hr magical mystery diversion into the back-country when the main Highway was blocked due to an accident. In the event it took 15hrs to reach the relative safety of the capital.
Our return journey had begun on the 23rd July and, together with a couple of other teams, we made the 100km trek out in just three days! Mercifully we didn’t encounter the heat of the trek in, but nonetheless covering 30kms or so every day over difficult terrain was tough. Very tough. A final 2hr early morning stagger into Askole saw us jump into the jeeps for what we thought would be a strightforward journey to Skardu – but of course we should really have known better and accounted for the two flat tyres and broken rear suspension along the way! We eventually rolled into Skardu some 10hrs later. After initially playing musical hotels we ended up at the Concordia Motel, a very basic yet relaxing place and the food wasn’t bad either! We enjoyed our couple of days here, and it was interesting to catch up with some of the other climbers that had also just returned, mostly from K2 and Broad Peak. Most notable was a Czech climber called Libor Uher, who had made an astonishing solo ascent of one of the hardest routes on K2! An extraordinary achievement.
Islamabad has proved equally as enjoyable on our return, with much time spent eating an abundance of good food – chinese in the Wang Fu, afghani kebabs in the Kabul, and of course the obligatory ice-cream in Yummy’s! We even had a pakistani beer (brewed in Murree) in the American Steak and Grill! However, given our bus journey from hell, you can imagine our surprise when it transpired that the Spanish and Australian teams had actually arrived back the same day as us, fresh as daisies, having caught the mythical 50 minute flight back from Skardu!
Well, time to finally sign off from Pakistan ….thanks so much to you all again for your good wishes and support.
Ian
