Chapter 3 - Skardu and the Jeep Ride to Thungol

A Boeing 737 that was being flown like an F-16 swooping and banking as it came in for a landing. A picturesque hotel on the cliffs overlooking the Indus in high flood. A jeep ride on narrow trails clinging to the mountainside and through swollen streams where our guides had to construct fords to create passage. Scrambles on a precipitious ledge with the Braldu below or what we fondly called "the jaws of death", and finally Thungol, our first campsite.

Rawalpindi airport. We were now getting efficient at this check-in business.
Security checks. I am not quite sure how I got away with taking pictures.
Our plane that would take us to Skardu.
We knew that this time we might go because we could see olur luggage getting loaded. If you zoom into one of the luggage carts, you can see our stuff marked by the neon green duct tape.
By now we were really getting excited!
Pindi airport shares the military and commercial airfields.
Approach into Skardu airport. The plane banked and turned with wingtips almost scraping the sides of the valley. A nice piece of flying.
Massive flooding on the indus. It seemed you were flying over a huge lake...and this was the headwater. Far downstream, the Indus just got terrifyingly large.
Glad to be on the ground.
The bus was full so we have to wait.
Skardu airport.
K2Trek-2572
K2Trek-2574
Waiting for our luggage under the watchful eyes of our armed policeman.
This is the extent of the Skardu terminal.
Rich and Tanya take in the surroundings.
Loading up our minivan that would take us to the hotel.
Zahoor is on top trying the catch the bags as they got tossed up. It turned into quite the game. Ignacio was really good at it.
Altitude and temperature check. 2225 meters and 32.4 deg C....or7343 feet and 90 deg F.
Our group shot with well fed tummies. We all look a lot leaner when we return.
Poplar trees as we drive into Skardu town.
Meesha points out a mushroom. You can also spy jeff taking a picture in the background!
The view from the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) K2 Hotel. It had an amazing location on a bluff overlooking the Indus.
Ignacio looks over the surroundings. The K2 museum built by the Italians is in the background. It used to be at Concordia but moved to Skardu to get more traffic.
The Skardu fort.
Flooding on the river.
Flooding on the river.
K2 Hotel in Skardu.
The apple trees were laden with fruit in the hotel garden.
Looking towards the road we would take the next day.
Tanya was content to sit in the chair and absorb the scale. It is hard to describe.
We were all taken in by the giant mountains.
Jeff snapping away.
Matthew jaw hangs open!
Equipment check in the hotel lobby.
Trail mix being prepared.
Trail mix being prepared.
Iza tries on her new gloves.
Gorp.
Dinner at the hotel. The place never really served the best food. On the way back we found a nice hotel for food.
A geological map of Northern Pakistan.
A geological map of Northern Pakistan.
A geological map of Northern Pakistan.
A geological map of Northern Pakistan.
A geological map of Northern Pakistan.
A geological map of Northern Pakistan.
A geological map of Northern Pakistan.