This is Anisa and Matthew with one of our porters: the Chairman, for some size reference. He was a great guy, and despite his diminutive stature, carried just as heavy a load as the rest of the porters and always had a great attitude.
Today was our rest day in Paiju, to help us get acclimatized to the altitude. We decided to take a short hike, at Ayub's request, to keep our muscles active.
We had done a bit of laundry in the morning, but the weather then turned cloudy and rainy. Nothing ended up getting dry, which was frustrating. But at least it was clean. Our hike took us up and around the camp in a big circle. About an hour total.
As an MGPO camp, Paiju had the port-a-potty toilets and stall "showers", as well as running facets which fed water that was diverted from a mountain stream. So we did our laundry in soapy buckets and basins. Much better than nothing.
For our day hike, the trail around the camp is very ill-defined and it seems like Ayub and Murad are just picking ground that looks decent. Nothing too bad, but it was the loosest terrain we had to move over.
The rain continued on and off all day, even through the hike. On the one hand, it was a good day to have a rest day, since we didn't have to walk in that weather. But it would still have been nice to have a clear sunny day to enjoy the time off.
Murad and Rich discuss the mountains.
Murad with the Braldu river in the background and the camp off to the right.
Erin and Ayub discuss the possibility of seeing Markhors.
Murad points at something that is not a markhor.
From higher up on the hill, we have a better view of the Baltoro Glacier up the valley. Ignacio negotiates the "trail."
Rich and Tanya and mountains.
Something exciting must be happening down in the valley.
At the end of the hike we pass through a camp of a few of the porters. They were making chapati for dinner.
We make it back into camp, coming from the other direction.
The clouds are really rolling in.
We arrive back at camp to find Dad playing cards with Asif and Ibrahim. They taught us this card game that was cleverly named The Matching Numbers Game. It was actually pretty good and was a hit with our group. Ibrahim was very good at the game, but Khalil was even better.
Adil and Ignacio discuss the perils and pitfalls of satellite phones.
That day we also had a couple of professional climbers stop by our camp on their way down the mountain. We gave them some food and drink in exchange for stories from up the mountain. They had been up there all summer, trying to summit K2 and Broad Peak, but had been unsuccessful due to the bad weather.
The two climbers we met were Fabrizio Zangrilli, from Boulder, and Kinga Baranowska, from Warsaw. Despite a disappointing climbing season here, it sounded like both of them were off to other parts of the world for other climbs.
Porters shooting the breeze at Paiju.
