K2 Base Camp Hike
A hike long in the planning, 5 of us set out from Skardu to hike to Concordia "the mountrain throne room of the gods" & on to K2 base camp and back.
The following are the notes from the diary I kept during the trek, with more details to follow later on.
K2 Base Camp trek diary, the introduction
In the summer of 2007, I went hiking to Concordia and onwards to the base camp of K2, along with 4 friends, a guide, and 13 porters. I maintained a diary throughout the hike so I could write a detailed
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May 1, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
And we drive off to Skardu, June 26th
The day dawned bright and clear, and after hearing so much about how often the flights to Skardu got canceled, we were relieved at the almost cloudless day. Rolled up to the airport, got boarding passes, and sat about in
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May 2, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Visit to Deosai, June 29th
Woke up at 5am, ate a hearty breakfast and left at 6:30am in a extended CJ-5 with a old Toyota B1 diesel engine with a 'silvertop' gearbox. Too late we found out that our driver was somewhat senile...
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May 2, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day Zero - The day before setting out, June 30th
Atif finally arrived, and he was set the grueling task of sorting all our stuff - in fact, we had so much stuff that all of us got to it. By the end of the day everything was packed, and
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May 2, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 1: Skardu to Askole, July 1st
This is the day where it all became real - the months of planning, of deciding, debating, preparing - it was all for this day, and here we were, setting off finally! We had two jeeps - one a large
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May 3, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 2: Askole to Jhola - the hiking begins!
Today was the first day of actual hiking! We set off at 6:55am, a lot later than the other groups who mostly set off by 6am. We got delayed by our porters and by us, as they reweighed the saman
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May 3, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 3: Jhola to Paiju
6am, and our group is showing no signs of moving, and we watch all the other groups stream by. According to our guidebook, today is a shorter walk than yesterday, so we're in no rush, and leave camp at 7am.
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May 3, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 4: Traditional rest day at Paiju
There is a rest day at Paiju, after just 2 days of hiking. The rationale being that the first two days are the toughest, so you need a rest, and also after Paiju the going gets even tougher than the
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May 3, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 5: Paiju to Liligo
Paiju to Liligo is particularly tough - the path goes every which way, and this is one of the longer stages to boot. The day dawned bright (and early), and we set off once again.
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May 3, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 6: Liligo to Urdukas
We had our usual tea with paratha's for breakfast, and set off once again at 5:30am.
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May 3, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 7: Rest day at Urdukas
Asad's knee was acting up again, so we decided to spend a extra day at Urdukus to give him some rest, and decide whether he would go on or not. This turned out to be a good idea, as the
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May 3, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 8: Urdukas to Goro II
It rained most of the night, and from the clouds it looks like it'll rain much of today also. The really cloudy weather which all mountaineers fear (and hikers too, for it blocks the views!) had now arrived.
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May 4, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 9: Goro II to Concordia
It's a frozen wasteland out there - yesterdays snowfall has further frozen the already frozen landscape! Left Goro II at 8am, it's a long walk to Concordia from here, so our porters grumbled quite a bit at our late departure.
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May 4, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 10: Concordia to Broad Peak Base Camp
Concordia has the best views of the entire trek - I got up in the morning and just looked around for a while - finally understanding why it's called the "throne of the mountain gods". It is spectacular beyond words,
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May 4, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 11: Broad Peak to K2 Base Camp and back to Concordia
This was a long day, so we set off decently early in the morning, before 7 towards K2 basecamp. The day dawn bright and clear, the sky stunningly blue and visibility went on forever.
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May 4, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 12: Concordia to Bianga
We had decided to head straight to Goro I / Bianga, and so planned to leave early in the morning - which didn't happen, as usual! 8:15 am and the tent is finally coming down, and we left at 8:30.
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May 4, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 13: Bianga to Khoburtse
Left 8:15 am, arrived 12:30 at Urdukas. Stopped at the army camp below Urdukas - it was raining, and they kindly invited us in for tea and pakoras. Took as 4 hours 15 minutes to Urdukas from Goro I, and
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May 4, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 14: Khoburtse to Paiju
14/7/07: This was another long walk -we left 7:45am from Khoburtse, and arrived 3pm at Paiju.
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May 4, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 15: Paiju to Jhola
At the tail end of the hike now, it finally sunk in that we had done it - made it to Concordia, and were now soon approaching the end of the hike...
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May 4, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
Day 16: Jhola to Askole, and back to Skardu
Left Jhola just before 7am, arrive Askole at 1:45pm. After so many days of walking had finally toughened up, and me and Khiz made it to Askole before our porters, despite our many breaks along the way.
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May 4, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
The end - back to reality
It felt strange to be back indoors, sleeping on a bed under a roof, with a bathroom attached right next to it!
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May 4, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments
