Sunrise over the Gasherbrums. It was a short, cold night, and we're up bright and early after yesterday's long hike to start another long hike back down the glacier. Today we begin the trek back home. But going back we go double speed, so cover twice the distance each day back as we did for every day up. Hence the early start.
Fortunately the morning was remarkably clear. The clouds had cleared out overnight and the whole surrounding range was completely bare. K2 after sunrise.
Mitre Peak in the morning. It has a characteristic craggy shape which makes it instantly recognizable. We eat breakfast, bundled in our down jackets against the lingering cold. Breakfast was getting increasingly bare by this point with things disappearing from the table every day. No more salt or pepper today.
A picture of Broad Peak. And maybe another army camp. The trail starting out is still the shale-covered ice. But this early in the morning, the ice which had melted during the day is still frozen, and frost covers the rocks, making them even more slippery. Everyone really has to watch their step until things start thawing out and melting, ironically.
The terrain in the part of the hike is relatively flat and Ayub leads us at a pretty quick clip. We have a lot of distance to cover over a hike that should take about 12 hours. Our goal is Urdukas camp, bypassing the Goro II camp we had stayed at on the way up, and having lunch at Goro I. Here Ignacio takes a short break. He was pretty wiped out after his trek all the way up to the K2 Memorial the previous day.
Everyone was trying to get pictures of the uncovered mountain ranges. This was the clearest the weather had been the whole trip, and it really was quite a view.
Despite my best efforts, I have absolutely no idea which mountain this is. Any help?
Matthew kindly took a picture of me in front of Broad Peak.
Looking back up the valley toward Concordia, the Gasherbrum summits. G IV, II and V from left to right. G II is just peaking out from behind the shoulder of G IV.
Murad wears his hat stylishly and catches up with us within about an hour after staying behind to take down camp.
Anisa not particularly enjoying the new fast pace of the day's hike. I will say, going down was much easier than going up, but that just meant we could go faster and harder. No rest for the weary.
Muztagh Tower. 23,862 ft (7273 m).
Matthew and Rich with Masherbrum (25, 659 ft) in the background. Matthew was feeling good after his day off at Concordia, so he started off leading the group at a pretty brisk pace. All in all, probably his fastest day.
Misha takes a break.
The group split up into a faster advance party and a slower group. We all met at lunch though. So the purpose of splitting up was kind of lost on me. We ended up having to wait for the other group to catch up at lunch for about an hour. It seems like conserving energy and going with the slow group might have been better in the long run...
Adil and Tanya take in the whole of the Karakoram between them.
Misha was having a pretty good day and was keeping up with the fast group pretty well. Here we take a break as Ayub and Khalil try to decide where the path leads. Again, as the glacier melts, the path can change and the path that was best on the way up may not be best on the way back. We ran into a couple of roadblocks this day trying to get back to Urdukas.
The mountains seemed to be plagued by an overabundance of flies. They had disappeared by Concordia, because it was so cold. But getting back to Urdukas, they returned with a vengeance. For some reason they were particularly attracted to Matthew's hat.
Sunset over the Trango Towers. Almost to Urdukas. (Yes, the sun is setting and we're not even into camp yet. Longest day ever.)
360-degree panorama at Concordia. From Left to Right. Mitre Peak, back down the Baltoro Glacier (behind the mess tent), Marble Peak, K2, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum IV, Gasherbrum V, Gasherbrum VI, up the Baltoro Glacier toward Baltoro Kangri, Chogolisa.
