We went around Skardu trying to arrange a van back to ISB - the flights, of course, were not working… so after getting ridiculous rates from many people, I was walking back to the hotel when a car pulled alongside, the guy inside said "You're looking for a van , hop in". I hopped in, and we drove to the edge of the city where a nice brand new 20 seater van was parked. I took a look, called the other guys, and we finally settled on 12,500Rs back to ISB - which was a lot better than the 24K plus figures we had gotten earlier.

The van had a 9 speaker sound system with a subwoofer and cd system, so we searched Skardu Bazaar and came up with a Noori cd and a couple of others, which we blasted during most of the drive down. Left Skardu for Islamabad at 9:15am, heading back to our respective lives - but what a interlude this had been!

Strangely enough, it took us longer driving back down to Rawalpindi than the other way around, and once again our driver turned out to be cracked, falling asleep at the wheel.

Spent an hour negotiating with the porters, then finally settled and paid them off. In the meantime we found an empty jeep heading back to Skardu, negotiated a good rate and set off at 3pm for Skardu.

We stopped at Shigar Fort for dinner en route - the hotel manager gave us a tour of the entire fort, including all the suites - it's an amazing place, possibly the best hotel getaway in Pakistan. It's run by the Agha Khan foundation, and the restoration work on the fort is nicely done.

Dinner was great, a big change from daal chaawal! Expensive, but well worth it.

Set off once again, finally arrived at Indus Motel at 11pm, where Mhd. Nazir seemed a bit surprised to see us back, still in one piece with no complaints. He questioned us about the trek - I think he was checking to see if we actually went all the way or tuned back halfway.

Stopped at Bardulman army camp for tea, parathas and army butter.

We ended up taking too many breaks along the way, and straggled into camp at 6pm - which is very very late!

Did an hour of accounting, as we were going to have to settle with the porters at Askole, as calculated all the moneys due - the totals are in this spreadsheet here.

Some notes: There are 9 stages from Askole to Concordia, then 2 more stages to K2 base camp. So if a porter goes all the way to K2 and back, it's 22 stages in all. For every 5 stages, they get paid for a rest day, regardless of whether there is an actual rest day or not.

Atif was our official treasurer, so we all handed him our money, and turned in for the night.

Met a swiss team at Paiju, who is here to summit all four 8000 meter peaks in the Baltoro glacier! Their group leader / capitan is Mike Horn - http://mikehorn.com

Met Sharif, rescue master & guide. He conducts a one month course in rescue operations and more, funded by a Canadian NGO.

Asad cooked cooked aloo ka salaan for dinner, was nice. He managed to barter some potatoes from another group. The other dish was our regular daal/chaawal combo!

A climber died at Gaserbrum 1 basecamp from a heart attack, so there was lot of talk in the campsite about that. The porters know everything happening along the entire Baltoro - which team has reached where, which climbers are overusing their porters and not doing enough climbing themselves, who is planning what, and so on. Every time a local summits, they all celebrate - but generally that doesn't happen often, as the high altitude porters generally just go till the last camp to dump stuff, then head back down.

Tonight was a big day at Paiju, as many groups were camped here tonight - so there was a big song and dance after dinner.

more to be added later

Arrived Goro II at 1:30, so it's a five hour steady walk from Concordia. We stopped there for green tea and to wait for the rest of our group to catch up - Asad, Atif and Khizer R. had fallen behind.

Met the mountain company's group there- 12-14 people, along with Roland Hunter, their tour guide. Their group is from the UK & Norway mostly, interesting people. We had gone up to meet Roland Hunter, as we had been using the Mountain Companies guide as our reference throughout the trip, and he invited us in to their mess tent where their group was finishing lunch. It was an interesting half an hour, with much talk of far away places...

The weather is worsening, as we move further away from Concordia - it turns out we were lucky as we've had the best possible weather for trekking and mountain watching. It's getting cloudy now, so hopefully tomorrow won't be too sunny. Considering we're walking on a glacier with snow capped peaks all around, it gets surprisingly hot in the sun.

There was a 4 person Australian group camped at Goro I, spent some time with them. Had our usual Dal/Chaawal for dinner and turned in early.

Had tea with a couple of high altitude porters, heard stories of the mountains the mountaineers, then moved onwards closer to K2, where there was a song and dance being held at the base of K2... A famous Italian mountaineer called "Big Papa" was the guest of honor, along with a number of other mountaineers.

Walked back to Broad Peak basecamp in an hour and a half, where we were just in time for lunch with a whole bunch of people. Today was the fiftieth coronation anniversary of Prince Karim Agha Khan, and as most of the people working in the tour companies are Ismailies, they celebrate with great fervor.

Lunch was wonderful, especially after our spartan diet of rice and daal throughout! The company was great too, most interesting people! While we were having lunch everyone was on the lookout for a French climber who was going to paraglide down from Camp 3 (7,200 mtrs) on Broad Peak. At the end of the lunch, he was spotted, and we all rushed out to watch him fly.

We reluctantly set off from Broad Peak basecamp back to Concordia - took us 4 and a half hours - today was the longest day yet; we straggled back into camp at 6pm.

K2 & BP up close are something else altogether, and the people who attempt to climb these peaks are really something else. Once Polish climber made it to 8,400 meters on K2 in 2006, when an avalanche killer 4 out of 7 members. He survived, and next year was back once again, climbing Broad Peak now.

Reached Broad Peak base camp in the evening, and as were looking for someplace to camp, met Nadir Ali Shah of Nazir Sabir Expedition. He gave us a 2 hour overview of the entire mountaineering scene in Pakistan, and helped us clear out a spot on the glacier for our tent. It turned out we had come just the right time, as tomorrow was the Agha Khan's fiftieth coronation anniversary and there was going to be celebrations and feasting - and we were invited!

We are camped on top of the Godwin Austin glacier. The tent is right on top of the ice, with no insulating rocks, so it is damn cold.

It's strange, even after spending so many days on the ice to be sleeping directly on ice, with just a super thin mat beneath! When we were shopping in Skardu for mats, we bought the cheapest desi ones, for 100 and 150 Rs a month - and after a few days when they started falling apart the 100 rupee mat ones were wishing they had least bought the 150 rupee one, while the 150 rupee mat ones were dreaming for the 300 rupee mats!

While we were shivering at basecamp, Asad and Atif were nice and warm:

Atif's diary from Concordia, where he and Asad had stayed back at the Army camp:

Asad has very bad condition with his knee. The soldier were very helpful, they provided us a campsite next to their camp, and served us energy drinks, and when we went back to our tent at night gave us sleeping bags for the night.

Capt. Hassan offered us to come to the Army Camp at 5pm to have dinner and to watch a film. After that me and Atif went to their camp and had tea. Asad sang many a song, and Capt. Hassan appreciated a lot and together they sang many songs!

Finally we started watching a Indian movie (a very sorry movie it was) and than we watched "Hard Target". After that moved to our own tent, and slept in the army provided super sleeping bags, which worked a lot better than our own!

We woke up next morning and had Paratha, jam and tea for breakfast with Zafar.

There is a army check post on the way to Concordia, just 20 minutes short of the main camping grounds. The two army jawans posted there were sitting on the path, waiting for us - they had spotted us miles back and had figured only Pakistan's would be travelling so slow and with so few porters! Had a long talk with them, general gup shup. Everyone is friendly out here, so far from normal everyday contact with other people.

They invited us for tea, but we had to refuse as we were already running late, and no one wanted to do the extra walk to the army camp and back!

On the way to Concordia we met a couple of groups heading back - they had turned back from Concordia without even glimpsing K2, as the snowfall we had experienced on the way to Goro II had been fiercer at Concordia, and become a total "white-out". Bad luck, but they were glad just to have made it all the way to Concordia.

One of the group members was in a very bad way, could barely see and walk and was being led by a guide and porter back down. It was a sobering reminder of altitude sickness...

Arrived a little after 3pm at Concordia. As luck would have it, just as we were getting closer to Concordia, the storm clouds dispersed, and when we got to the campsite itself there were just a few fluffy white clouds on the fringes of the horizon.

N35 44.70 E76 30.634

It snowed most of the way, and at times visibility became really poor as the snow fell in sheets across the landscape, and the white glacier loomed up all around us - it was the closest I felt to being really out there, as the low visibility and the many chunks of exposed glacier loomed like icebergs around us. The clouds were dark and threatening, and the mountains were barely visible.

We finally arrived at Goro I, to see the welcome sight of our porters huddled in the shelter of some rocks with a blue tarp on top to keep out the snow and a kerosene stove blazing away in the middle. As we straggled in one by one we squeezed in, and had a cup of super hot tea.

We waited almost an hour for the snow to stop and the cold to life, and finally set off again, reluctantly turning the stove off and putting on backpacks once more.

[lots of walking amongst snow here...]

Arrived at Goro II at 3pm. Soon as the tent was up everyone collapsed inside, where we waited for dinner, read a book (me and Khiz) and played some cards. Dinner was the usual daal chaawal, our aachar long finished.

N 35 44.741 E 76 24.264

We were sending back a couple of porters from Concordia, so were working out the amount due after dinner - the stages to Concordia:

1. Askole - starting point
2. Korophon
3. Jhola
4. Bardulman
5. Liligo
6. Khoburtse
7. Urdukas
8. Biango
9. Goro II
10. Concordia
11. Broad Peak basecamp
12. K2 basecamp

A total of 10 stages, and even though most days you cover 2 stages going up, the porters get paid by the stage, not by the day. Back in the old days when the path wasn't so well defined and the going tougher, hikers would do 1 stage at best.

Me and Khiz took a freezing cold shower in the slow trickle of water coming down the piping system from the glacier above, and generally we just lazed about. It was a nice, relaxing day, with wonderful views up and down the Baltoro glacier.

A 10 member Singaporean / Malaysian group we had met in Paiju arrived today at Urdukas. A German group also arrive late in the day - both of them will be leaving with us in the morning on to Goro II. The German group leader is on his 16th visit to Pakistan!

The walk form Liligo to Khoburtse is a scramble up and down boulders - the walk from Paiju to Urdukas is the toughest part of the whole hike. Part of the way walked on a glacier with exposed ice for half an hour, which was quite a experience!

Khoburstse N 35, 42.970 E 76, 13.970
Altitude 3,844 meters

Rested an hour at Khoburtse, by which time all the group gathered there, then left at 9:30am after green tea and a paratha saved from breakfast.

The way to Urdukas winds up and down, over rocks and ice. Most parts of the Baltoro glacier are covered with rocks, sand, dirt, so you get a overall greyish look to the whole glacier - but the parts which are 'naked' are something else altogether. This part of the glacier is often exposed, the ice melting in the sun - making the hike tougher.

Me and Khizer took a wrong turn somewhere, and ended up walking up and down on white ice for an hour, a good distance parallel to the main path.

Met a Russian mountaineer heading back from the base camp, talked with him for a few minutes. A fellow mountaineer had died on K2 last year so a team of Russian mountaineers have gone this year to make a memorial for him. He said Pakistan is a lot more scenic than Nepal, and they're planning to head to Pakistan from now on, instead of their regular mountaineering haunts of Nepal and others. Asked him how much further ahead Urdukas was, and he gave a super precise answer, including the amount of declines and inclines left! He had a very nice mountaineering GPS watch, which told you just about everything possible. On a mountain walk the most important figure is the height you climb up and down, not the distance horizontally.

We reached Urdukas at 1:45pm - and after a super tough hike so far, the campsite literally made us sit down below and stare up at it in disbelief - the path winds up vertically a thousand feet up from the glacier! The Urudukas campsite is perched high up on the hillside, and the path is a killer.

Asad's knee was troubling him, so we decided to take another rest day at Urdukas.

Asad cooked Mashed aloo fried with onions and spices - very delicious! It was served with our staple food every day, daal and chawaal.

Asad with his bad leg had it tough, so we went slowly, and soon everyone else who had been camped alongside us shot on ahead.

We first glimpsed the Trango Towers way off in the distance during this portion, and they remained visible in parts between the mountain peaks all the way to Urdukas. We could just glimpse a camp at the base, at least thats what your guide said it was, it just looked like a black dot to the rest of us.

We got to Lilligo in the afternoon, by which time not just Asad but everyone else wasn't willing to go any further. We set up camp there after a bit of argument. The Liligo campsite is a bit sparse, huddled against a overhanging cliff, which looks like it might deposit a few big rocks at any moment on you - and you can't move away from the cliff as there is a sheer drop on the other side. A stream runs down from the mountain, just-melted glacier water flowing down right by the campside.

A spanish hiker walked into camp later on in the evening, on his way from the Trango towers to Concordia, carrying 30kg's of everything on his back!

He sat up camp alongside, and we had dinner together.

Baqar told us the story of how the campsite got its name. The badly remembered gist is many years ago, once upon a time there was a hiker called Lily who fell ill at the campsite, and jumped or fell of the mountainside and died. Her guide rushed back to the rest of her group shouting Lily Go! Lily Go! And so it got the name Liligo.

there is more to be added...

Clothes spread out to dry on our tent...

Melted glacier water is piped down to the campsite, and while in the sun it must have been 10C, the water was at least freezing cold! Still, took a bath, though it was so cold that I got brain freeze.

Pack of biscuits at Paiju after negotiations: 50Rs for being Pakistani, 100Rs for foreigners. Fortified with food, me and Khiz set off to climb Paiju peak, and made it almost 2000 meters up from the campsite, where we got stopped by impenetrable thorn bushes
and slippery rock.

Found out the hard way the value of a good walking stick - without one it's much harder to climb down, so cut two sticks from the bushes. One served us all the way to K2 and back!

It was nice and green on parts of Paiju Peak...

A group of Russians walked through Paiju at midday, planning to camp a further stage back. Spoke to a couple who collapsed on entering Paiju campsite about the journey ahead - they said tough, but worth it.

A pressure cooker exploded in the distance, making a few people jump. Luckily no one got hurt, but it made me look warily at our own cheapest price pressure cooker.

Once again, we ended up camping outside the main Paiju campsite, as all the best spots were taken. The other groups send some of their porters ahead with their tent to 'book' the best stops. Khiz managed to find us a camping spot smack in the middle of the campsite.

Tomorrow is a rest day, so we decided to see about Asad's knee than - though he did it no good by dancing the night away at the party that night - Paiju is a traditional rest day on the hike, so whenever a couple of groups are camped here together there is a big song and dance.