Boiling heat , even the rocks beside the road look like burnt toasted marshmallows. The Kohistani's themselves untamed bandits from the beginning of time reflect the attitude of this scorched land!! This land was largely unknown till the Karakorum  highway was forced up here although as far back as 4th century Chinese Pilgrim Faxin (337 -442) describes his harrowing trip thru Kohistan –translated as land of mountains.

Before the KKH the common route across these great ranges was the much more beautiful and docile Kaghan valley - and than over the Babusar pass (4170m) a miniature Kashmir valley with far tamer inhabitants to boot. Kohistan was left alone by the British in days of Empire as not worth the trouble and Kohistan is still noted for its outlaw behavior . Police gunship's (Toyota pickups with a heavy machine gun on top) manned by the Gilgit scouts patrol the highway through Kohistan indeed it seems there are more police sometimes than inhabitants. .

The road from Skardu to Islamabad is still broken and pitted, As you bounce along I face briefly something of the true hardships endured by many travelers thru the centuries and see some of the difficulties people live with here. Going thru these mighty mountain gorges with the Indus churning over countless rapids reminds one of the impermanence of all things. The guttural sounds issuing from the river as huge boulders are thrown down it in fits of rage gives one true awareness of the primeval forces at work here.

At this the junction of the worlds three mightiest mountain ranges, the Hindu Kush , Karakorum and Himalayas the titanic clash of the great forces of the world is witnessed in all its magnitude first hand. As the Indian plate thrusts into the Asian the Earth itself is folded 8 kms skywards whilst the the force of gravity connives with the insidiousness of water to subdue and destroy those vertical pillars. The clash is on such a scale over such a time that it is outside the orbit of normal human comprehension.

How does one write?

 – or more to the point how does one express something worthwhile?. Its a problem that has vexed me for my adult life. Why and how can some written words be so pertinent and full of wisdom , passion , power whilst others are an almost meaningless jumble of trash .

Education,  intelligence have seemingly nothing to do with it – many a  PHD thesis is pure gobbly gook whereas a book such as "Gone with the wind" is a masterpiece of childhood verbal memories put to paper by a one off author with no training whatsoever.

Its hard to commit to pen and paper when when one has read the luminaries that precede myself, full of eloquence and sometime wisdom and knowledge that one does not posses. Is there anything worthwhile that I can contribute , anything to be said that can leave a mark or roll an untouched stone.

Perhaps if there is a fear in me it’s the fear of not been able to say or contribute anything worthwhile and merely to add to the mass of indigestible trash that one already has to wade through whilst seeking some tasty literary morsels.

Fear , Genius , what is worth reading and what is not , can only be appraised individually justly put in the old saying one persons heaven is another's hell. My fears are different from yours, my idea of what is worth reading is almost certainly different , my idea of Genius (and a fool) , my idea of living even.

So when one writes one writes for himself, to validate his world view, to meet ones own criteria .That others may scoff , degenerate or laugh is only relevant if one needs to justify ones thoughts to the World – and sell it for its ideas or money . But if in writing one fails ones own standards that is different – and just as if living fails ones own standards than it is no longer worth while.

To travel to explore is perhaps to validate others experiences but more often than not it is to find knew ones outside the scope of what is known – and here what is known by the individual is just as important as what is known by the world. Usually once an individual makes his discovery – some thing that is new and original to the discoverer he will find that this discovery has been made before -often countless times and even in the far past. Than ones world becomes post validated. Tom Longstaff noted it well in mountaineering and I quote him  "Despite all this I believe that only the guide-less climber can distill the true essence of pleasure  from mountaineering. To the guide-less climber every new peak is in reality a first ascent" and has all the savor of the unknown.  

On occasion some purely original thought (although all thought seems to originate from prior insights) occurs and than one sees the World in a new light. Original thought is often begun by denial of the orthodox,even by taking the opposite view point.  If the sun goes around the earth lets consider the idea that the earth goes around the sun would say Galileo !! From the extreme opposite of conventional ( wisdom)  it becomes possible to realize if there is another way of looking at reality, perhaps validate or find faults in a new world view.

Our World view, the world we believe exists consists of a series of observations by our selves and others that we congeal into existence every moment after birth.There are harsh realities such as 1+1 = 2 and dropping a big stone on ones foot will hurt that lead us to believe our reality is concrete so we believe multiple theory’s lectured to us as ardently as the few facts that really define us.

But most theory is purely theory and as one wanders around the World the words of the physicist who expounded “the universe is not queerer than we imagine but queerer than we can imagine “ becomes the most pertinent.

Winter started early with the cold already encroaching by early May - that been said it doesn’t seem much colder when I write this in late July. Winter can be a time of reflection and looking back on the last 12 months I find they were certainly very interesting if not necessarily always for the best reasons. A time of changes for myself perhaps? - or just small blips in ongoing continuity. That I’m not sure of but interest is something that adds or makes life what it is. With a mixture of excitement and trepidation I’m planning to head back for another short stint up on the Tibetan Plateau in China - once again out in that vastness I have so much enjoyed in the past. Last years trip seemed like I was just dipping my feet once again in the rivers of adventure after those years of enforced lassitude and the plans for this year were initially much more ambitious. Unable to find any partner for the mountaineering sections of the trip it looks once again it will be more of a reconnaissance mission then anything else although as usual I hope maybe to climb off the bike on occasion and trek up hill on foot. My main hesitancy there has been glacier travel and crevasse risks with solo travel but maybe if I keep ambitions down to slightly lower peaks I can avoid much of this.

Despite the early winter its been dry and a dearth of snow locally but fortunately have still got out fairly regularly with friends having a good time the only real handicap has been the short daylight hours. Knowing I’ll be going flat out as usual in China for several weeks also means local trips are more just “training” then missions themselves which makes them paradoxically, rather easier both mentally and physically.

Going out with friends always fun times , with Jake above in the Raglan ranges and Carl below on Iron Hill.

An interesting year and some interesting metrological and celestial phenomena - above Tom under an ice halo which is a rainbow formed from ice crystals and white in hue and below we were treated in Motueka where I live to the Aurora Australis due to powerful sun storms and for several night hours the sky turned into a magnificent heavenly spectacle.

Room with a view - Sylvester hut

That eerie sound as Carl skips a stone on an icy mountain lake

Not black and white but mist blending light on lakes into frozen duality.

This is a filtered image though!

Selfie !!