Killer mountain

Left the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi about five days ago, embarking on the Karakoram Highway (KKH) up to the Chinese border. We spent two days driving from Rawalpindi to Gilgit, a little town about halfway up the KKH wedged in the middle of the Karakoram range of mountains. Checked into a lovely little hostel from where we organised our first trek: a light three-day trek bringing us up to 3900m which would serve to acclimatise us for higher elevations. It was called Fairy Meadows (no jokes please!)

We left Gilgit on the morning of the first day and got a three hour jeep to Raikot Bridge where we changed into another jeep and embarked on the most terrifying journey that I have ever experienced. For only fifteen kilometres we drove on a road that had somehow been affixed to the side of mountains and was just about wide enough to get a jeep past. The driver really wasn't taking it easy and the five of us were absolutely shitting ourselves as we teetered on the cliff edge and looked down the sheer drop below. An hour later, with unfettered relief at having survived, we clambered out of the jeep and continued up the mountain face for another three hours until we reached the camp.


The camp was a collection of wooden huts on a mountain-top plain cut out of an apline-esque pine forest. It faced one of the most amazing views I have ever seen: Nanga Parbat mountain with the Raikot glacier flowing from it. Nanga Parbat is the eight highest mountain in the world and is in the Himilayan mountain range (where it meets the Karakoram range). It's also known as Killer mountain as it's ascent has claimed quite a few lives.


Given that the internet connection here is so amazingly shit, I can't upload any photos, so you're going to have wait for the usual crap shots that I grace you with every now and then. In the meantime, I've found an image on the internet which should show the same view. However, the internet is so slow here that I can't actually view pictures, so it's a bit of a gamble. The image on the left is supposed to be Nanga Parbat and the Raikot Glacier... if it's not then sorry!

On day two, we walked up to the snowline of Nanga Parbat for a better view of the mountain and glacier. That brought us from 3300m, where our camp was, to 3900m. Although these altitudes aren't significant, it's good acclimatisation for further treks, but you also notice a distinct change in how your body reacts to extertion (mine has never reacted very well to it).

Staying in the lodge was great fun as well. We watched a chick chick gets it's neck cut halal-style for our dinner. (Halal is the Muslim way of preparing food: chick chick needs to be facing a certain direction when it gets the chop and the chopper needs to mutter stuff in Arabic). We also drank lassi, which is what's left over when butter is made out of goats milk. (We all pretended to love it, but it was fucking terrible, terrible stuff). In the evenings, we had a big campfire which we sat around listening to the locals lads singin' away and your correspondant even graced the Pakistani wilderness with a woeful rendition of the Green Fields of France.

It was pretty cold as well. When the sun was out, all was good as long as you were walking, but as soon as it went down, it got really really cold and we slept under three duvets each in our little wooden huts.

So we're back in Gilgit now, relaxing and recovering while we consider what trek is going to be graced by our blistered feet next.

Take it easy folks... C.