Porter Abbas rests after crossing the Gonogoro pass early that morning.

The Balti - people of the Karakorum mountains.

“ I have borne respect because of their intense devotion to what they believed to be their duty …..And for Wali I entertain a regard such as I do for few other men - No one could have more loyally carried out his compact and but for him we should never have crossed the Mustagh pass. He went to work in a steady, self reliant way which gave everyone confidence, the men looked up to him and obeyed him implicitly. The more I see men like him the more convinced I am that if once these Baltis are given responsibility shown trust, and left to work out their own salvation, they may develop latent qualities which probably neither they nor anybody else believed to be in them”

Sir Francis Younghusband wrote these words in 1887 at the end of one of the most daring explorations of the 19th century across Asia starting in Easternmost China and finally crossing the Mustagh pass near K2 into Baltistan. Younghusband was one of the first foreigners (meaning Westerner at the time) to experience the good services of the Baltis in early explorations in the Karakorum range and most lavished praise on them. Not all though - a few notably the famous woman explorer Fanny Workman, notorious all over the Himalaya for the mismanaging and contempt of her laborers poured scorn and derision all over Balti porters and even resorted to hurling stones at them when she felt it was needed!

Until the 1930’s most explorers went lightweight and were on intimate terms with their mountain crews and even the few larger expeditions rarely had problems. The European explorers of the time were of the well educated middle class who would go to great lengths to treat the “natives” civilly and many regarded their physical powers in the high mountains as a virtue to be preserved - much like the 18th century Liberals had painted the idea of the noble savage these mountain peoples , Sherpa’s, Bhotia’s and Balti’s were the noble mountaineer races.

Rising national aspirations in the great mountains of the world during the 1930’s saw a big change in the values bought to the great peaks - that of national conquest. To the despair of purest like Shipton - who had done some of the best exploration in the Karakorum in the 1930’s that spirit of conquest bought massive expeditions to the highest mountains and consequently a loss of intimacy with many of the locals in the Himalayan regions. . After the Second World War new armies were raised - these to climb the big peaks and the largest of all, an Italian expedition went to K2 in 1954 with almost 700 porters carrying many tons of food and equipment. Obviously the age of intimacy was over - well not quite , once the fervor of climbing the highest peaks especially the 8000 meter peaks had passed most expeditions became smaller again. In the last 30 years the rise of commercial mountaineering has seen in the Karakorum as elsewhere in the Himalaya the scene of large scale commercial expeditions much in the mold of the national expeditions of the past but these are tempered with generally much smaller trekking and lightweight mountaineering groups.

The Balti’s like the other mountain peoples of the great ranges have seen their lives change immensely with the presence of first the explorers , than the mountaineers and nowadays the tourists to their regions. Isolated in remote valleys for centuries the Balti’s descended from the Tibetans had little or no contact with the outside world. Their value to the early explorer’s saw the introduction of money and ever since the main cash in the economy has been from expeditions in the mountains. In recent years , much like their distant cousins far to the east the Sherpa’s , the Balti’s have developed their own company’s too deliver tourism packages to their mountains and the qualities Younghusband observed almost 140 years ago in them is borne out in the excellent services they provide.

Entering the mountains

The Sirdar of our group or porter chief sings to the mountains (K2 and Broad Peak)

Porters relaxing with a fire on the moraines of the Baltoro after a day of heavy carrying but they remain still full of laughter and life.

Leaving Concordia it’s hard work where the glaciers meet turning them into hilly country - porters (on left) are in a jumbled world.

Abbass, Ali Cautiva (cook) Hassan Balama and Sher Muhammed - the core of the pass group.

Ali caught with chapatti in midair . This local flat bread is a staple of the local diet.

Guide Ejaz in orange surrounded by jovial porters.

Karim , our chef at Bondit peak has amazing capabilities of putting together great food every day from limited supplies always with a smile!!

The Gonogoro pass at 5650 m and high point of trek is just hours away. These are the young guys - 17 to 20 years in age. For some this will be their first crossing of the pass - an initiation into the really tough side of the job. Most aspire to other things in life, becoming teachers, doctor’s, lawyer’s or joining the army and portering is a summer job to raise money for schooling.

Watching the porters climb the pass in the night with their heavy loads was the highlight of the trek.

We offered but the porters wanted nothing of our boots and jackets - only they asked for socks which they put over their shoes and called Balti crampons.

Abbass taking a break on a flat spot on the long upwards grind.

Descending the Gonogoro glacier.

Sher Muhammad,27 years old was the strong man of the porters and a role model for the younger ones carrying over 40 kilos on his back with ease. He hopes to be a Sirdar one day.

With the appearance of green the trip is drawing to an end.

Part of the porters job is to set up camp which they do with remarkable speed and efficiency.

Hurrahs from the porters at Bondit base camp.

Kandi village at just over 3000 m in the Hushe valley.

High above Kandi during the summer many women, children and older men will come up to these type of small stone hut’s to tend the flocks of goats and herd’s of cows and yak’s In Autumn they will be used as the storage for firewood before transporting it over 1000 meters down valley to the village.

A female shepherdess in the mountains. In summer whilst the men are away earning cash the women folk do all the hard work maintaining the village and also pastoral work like this high in the mountains. They are incredibly fit and we watched them from Bondit Base Camp running after flock’s and herd’s for sometimes over 10 hours at altitudes above 4500 m in all weathers with a diet of consisting of little more than chapattis!!

A crowd of boys formed up as I was flying the drone.

Interviewing Nalia , headmistress of the local privately funded local primary school in Kandi. With the Government schools only providing a budget education that covers about half the primary school children in Pakistan schools like this one are the only way for the other half to get a basic education. Kandi has hundred per cent of it’s primary age children in school.

Visiting the classroom’s.

Resources are meager but the local’s are happy all the same.

Abbas , 55 years old and oldest porter we meet plans to march on till 70. Here he rest’s (see first photo) after crossing the Gonogoro pass for the 4th time in that season.

The Bondit peak journal

It’s been 4 weeks since arriving back in New Zealand - quite some time to reflect on our attempt on Bondit peak. Below is an account of the 2 weeks we spent there which perhaps will not interest many outside mountaineering circles although I have tried to make it as entertaining as possible. For myself personally every time out exploring is a success in the way I learn both more about the world on the outside and about also about the world inside myself. Interestingly one usually learns far more of both from what the general public would consider failure than success (actually success rarely contributes much as far as learning is concerned at all).

Since we failed to climb either the 2 peaks we attempted our Bondit peak expedition would be considered a failure - but we learnt alot about the mountain and conditions surrounding it and started to learn about the area as well. From articles in the American Alpine journal it appears that at least one attempt has been made previously on Bondit (the locals say 4 or 5?) although the information gleaned there was of zero value . It seems that at least 3 other expeditions had visited the general area - one last year of Chinese scientists, although only one left any information of any value. Likewise if there was any other information published, topographically wise , history wise or mountaineering wise I couldn’t find it and the whole mountain valley system(s) from Kandi to the Kandi Glacier seems largely unknown to the outside world despite it’s relative ease of access. (There are however regular treks from Kandi to at least as far as Bondit glacier - I have found no information apart from advertising brochures and guides talk about these)

starting up the ice fall on Bondit peak.

“If you really want  to climb, don’t go to the Himalaya”. Legendary mountaineer and explorer Bill Tilman said that 80 years ago and it still holds true today - the Himalayan/Karakorum chain and mountains throughout Central Asia are far more for the “cross country mountaineer” as Sir Edmund Hillary called Eric Shipton , Tilmans partner on so many adventures. The Himalayas – and Karakorum range especially is largely about exploration , route finding , carrying heavy packs, river crossings and trying to find out if the country you are traversing has any relationship at all to the published maps or Google earth sat images you have. Yes it is possible to go “just” climbing on generic expeditions to some of the few mountains  that have actually been climbed and have routes set up on them but for everyone of them there are literally dozens of 6000m peaks, hundreds of 5000m ones and even the odd 7000m peak un-climbed and valleys and villages almost as remote as in the days of Tilman.

 Just “climbing’ is merely a part of mountaineering for me  - that is the sport side but the real interest is exploring and there the mountains of Central Asia are still as far as actually setting feet to the ground largely untrod by those who live outside them (and sometimes even by those who live there)  and mountains untouched.

Our trip was in 2 parts – the firstly in fact very Generic – trekking up the Baltoro , to Concordia  - visiting the memorial at K2 than heading over the Vigne glacier , up the Gondogoro Pass into Hushe valley.  There were several reasons for doing this – the main one for me was to film the Balti mountain workers and especially the porters in action over what is perhaps the most difficult regular commercial trek in the World. The  trek proved even more interesting in this regard than I thought and that was entirely due to the tremendous efforts of those same Balti mountain workers and through out one wondered on their incredible strength, endurance and ever sure feet in the very tough conditions and not the least in the frugal existence they accept with smiles. The Gondogoro pass seemed like a rite of passage even for the porters and those that had crossed the most with the heaviest loads were looked up to by the others as leaders of the pack.

Apart from the spectacular scenery of trekking right thru the midst of the greatest  mountain range on Earth surrounded at one stage by four 8000m peaks including the mountain of mountains K2  not to mention at least a dozen 7000m peaks  the trek was  training for our small group in advance of going into the unknown.  Trekking over the 5650m Gondogoro would be good acclimatization for attempting some 6000m peaks.  Kadin , Elliot , Dairmuid and myself had our sights set on trying this in a valley near Kandi in the Hushe valley. Although this area was by no means un-visited I can honestly say we had no idea where the peaks were and the maps are totally inaccurate just giving a rough outline of what could be there and even previous reports being totally unclear of what was actually there.

So we found ourselves at base camp in a glacial valley called Bondit attempting a beautiful white pyramid called locally Bondit peak of about 6000m. Our 2 youngsters, Kadin and Elliot were down ill , they had been on and off sick ever since arriving in Pakistan 3 weeks before – Dairmuid and myself had both suffered as well and I have never been on such a sickly trip before , but we had never been bed ridden. Seeing the mountain we optimistically attacked the ice fall with full loads hoping to establish a route up to camp 1 at 5000m plus. Initially the going was great but than , well huge chasms opened up in all directions stymieing us completely . Only later when we saw the ice fall from above did we fully realize the impossibility of climbing the Bondit glacier via the icefall so late in the year. We retreated with some difficulty and returned to camp somewhat chagrined. The next day more sagely with out loads, we made a  reconnaissance on  another potential route which seemed to be more viable and set up camp 2 days later with help of a fresh and now recovered Kadin.

My previous experiences around Nanga Prabat and in the Karakorum is that its all pretty straight forward till around  5000m give or take – that’s if you discount the rivers. There is nothing like the rivers and even small streams  that are found here – we are talking several orders of violence over anything else I have ever seen – I read somewhere that blocks as big as apartment buildings are been thrown down them – this is surely an exaggeration but blocks as big as trucks  wouldn't be!   If the rapids could be survived for a few seconds you would be crushed to pulp by all the blocks coming down. Than around the  5000m mark  it all turns to custard and from than on it seems the sole wish of the mountain is to exterminate those who tread on it. Bondit peak was no different. As soon as we left camp 1 at roughly 5000m and traversed some ice cliffs over huge drop offs before climbing up a moderately angled ice climb the action began. First let me explain what moderate angle in the Karakorum means. Even further back in time than Tilman was Tom Longstaff,  one of the truly incredible Victorian era English explorers and mountaineers . He wrote – "in the Alps  slopes are usually easier than the look – in the Caucasus mountains they are as difficult as they look but in the Himalayas they are much steeper than they look". The same holds true today – there is some optical illusion operating in these mountains  and you look at an easy slope say 30 – 40 degrees and when you get on it its like 60 plus. There was one small consolation on Bondit  – the only one we got in 2 weeks  - after scrapping of loose snow a couple of good belts of the ice axe would give excellent plastic ice to climb on – something I needed considering the short slide and than 1000 foot plus vertical drop over a huge rock face if things came unhinged.

 Well we barely got onto the slope when blocks of ice came hurling past –  a shot across the bows in nautical terms I called it  or a small warning of the malevolence that could be expected by any any attempt to climb on  - and so it was. Further up we tried to climb – or at least Kadin did a ice couloir (gully) covered in extremely dodgy snow under belay – it was scary just to look at not to mention tottering seracs (ice cliffs)  directly above us . We gave up on that and didn't even attempt another couloir that may have been possible but again it was covered in dodgy snow. Both Kadin  and Dairmuid were for trying the ice cliffs directly behind us – Dairmuid didn’t think they were even 50 degrees – my own estimation – publicly was 60 degrees plus  - privately 70 -80 degrees factoring in that it's always way steeper than it looks. Perhaps with no loads we could get up ok but it was no route for an expedition where we had to set up further camps  – even if we had 3-400 meters of fixed rope to put up which we didn’t.

Diarmuid and I stayed at camp one the night were we woken up frequently to rain and crashing seracs. The rain began a whole change in weather and a vast deterioration in mountain conditions.  It rained for 2 days  and havoc  was been unleashed  on the mountain while we returned and rested in BC.

 We gave up on Bondit!! During the rest days we had all explored some other possibilities on smaller surrounding mountains and one un-named peak of  about 5600m  west of Bondit looked  interesting and Diarmuid and Kadin had found a rocky route to access it.  We went and retrieved our gear from camp 1 and started the shift to the second mountain – not without incident as Diarmuid almost got clobbered by falling rock.

Dairmuid went down ill so Elliot , Kadin and I went up , set up fixed line over a rock cliff  – and than we ventured up onto the unknown glacier. looking for a good spot to place camp one although Elliot decided to turn before we actually got on the ice. There was plenty of evidence of rockfall from the huge almost vertical rock cliff's to the right of us so we kept a very good distance from them choosing the medial moraine rocks down the center of the wide glacial plateau we found ourselves upon. It’s often said if you respect the mountains they will respect you. From what I've seen, if you respect the Karakorum they will hurl ice and boulders all over you – least of all they seem to have no respect at all for Sir Issac Newton and the laws of gravity. In theory rocks coming off a cliff go straight down – but not here- they fly horizontally out at a tremendous speed going a tremendous distance not at all In the calculations of the odd alpine enthusiast that visit's them. Here I’m not even mentioning the amount that is flying , not dozens , or even hundreds but thousands of blocks exploding sideways out of a cliff . Yes this was no warning shot over the bows – this was a full broadside. I was someways in front therefore much closer to the action and dove immediately under the largest, nearest bolder and curled myself into the fetal position . Kadin behind started a mad dash backwards. Fortunately the falling rock was a few minutes in our future and although stuff was coming  close I think nothing landed next to me although the 300 odd meters in front was totally annihilated and huge blocks went deep onto and into the glacier. After the shrapnel died out I stood up and started walking back to Kadin -  we were both shaking our heads in disbelief when a second broadside was unleashed,  Back I was,under another boulder just hiding and waiting . This time when the shrapnel cleared I think we had both had enough.  It's sobering indeed to know the safe route you were on now lay under thousands of tons of dirty rock with the whiteness of ice no longer to be seen. Even worse as far as any prospect of climbing this mountain when I spied that the prominent coulior high up we had planned to climb had a vee shape of rocks at the bottom of it signifying avalanche rock. From the distance it still looked insignificant but realistically it was a death trap for anyone in it that narrow gully.

We went back to where we had dropped off the gear with Elliot and I must admit , I was all for quitting than and there - Karakorum shell shock had set in. There was nowhere safe or even moderately safe up high– perhaps earlier season was better but it was just a matter of time hanging around here before we were squished. These mountains were tottering mass’s whose even tiniest stone defied the laws of gravity by not falling. Compared to these even the worst weetbix rock we talk of in New Zealand was like reinforced concrete.

We descended in falling snow and sleet with Kadin preserving the faint hope that there may still be another way.The weather packed up for another couple of days giving us time to think about it all and rebuild shattered nerves.

Shell shock - first noted in World War one as the psychological breakdown of soldiers exposed to constant enemy fire seems to be a feature of the Karakorum - I’ve seen it in the glazed eyes of most who have spent a week or more higher on the slopes - the constant exposure to danger. The best way to over come this is to adopt the “if God will’s” attitude of the local’s. “In Shah Allah”. Arabic of “if God will’s” is the most common general expression in the Islamic world and certainly no more fitting than once you get up to these mountain heights around the Karakorum massif and K2 - or for that matter if you take a K2 bus on a highway much lower down. During our next 2 days at base whilst I sat down in base camp interviewing Ibrahim a crack drew both of our attention’s upwards to the slope adjacent to us. An enormous block , the size of a car was tumbling down with it’s associated shrapnel. I looked at the slope above our Camp - it was almost identical and covered in large blocks - certainly it didn’t seem steep enough to launch any but as I looked around the campsite I realized it was covered in those same blocks from those same slopes- this wasn’t moraine debris from below as I had thought! - this was rocks from above - “In Shah Allah” as I went I lay in the tent that night. In the morning I looked up to our former Camp 1 on Bondit and the route we has climbed on. An enormous serac from far above came tumbling down and shattered into a millions glassy shards all over that same route for spreading itself for acres - “In Shah Allah”. Yes anyone wanting to cure themselves of atheism should come and spend a couple of weeks here!!

After a day at Base camp and getting bored I did a solo hike to attempt a climb of about 5200m at the base of the valley. I left to late in the day to have any real chance of success but the story was the same. Moving light and fast with no pack or anything , not even a water bottle, I climbed a steep water gully to a small glacier than up towards the rocky summit which looked fairly possible .At about 5000 meters though the terrain started getting much steeper and the again incredibly loose. Time had run out on me and I had to turn back but that was a relief more than anything else although at one stage I had to walk under a massive tower of loose blocks that I had inadvertently walked under on the way in. Alternatives looked even worse and it was an In Shah Allah attitude that I scrambled as quickly as I could under this tower as high but much wider than a 20 story building so perforated with airy holes that one could see clean through it in places and it defied my imagination as to how it actually managed to “float” there. Elliot had previously attempted the same climb and came back with the same story and results.

2 days of rest left me rather more positive of one last attempt on our unknown peak - maybe a mad dash to the top if possible. The others kitted up just after breakfast to leave but for some reason I just couldn’t get going. Finally after lunch we all started dragging ourselves towards camp 1 but after climbing the steep scree to the small col above base camp I sat down totally exhausted. It was physical exhaustion - 4 weeks on the go with almost no rest had caught up with me and now it was hard to move even. The other 3 waited expectantly so after 45 minutes I dragged myself on but was totally empty just making it into the tent that was pitched already and crashing out. Diarmuid’s alarm went at 5am and although I had had a bad sleep, curiously as the human body does I felt fairly recovered and almost though of joining Kadin and him on attempting to get higher up. I was still to weak though and rested up with Elliot who had not got any sleep too busy listening to crashing rock and ice all night - he was still at shell shock stage. From far below we watched Dairmuid and Kadin spend an impossibly long time climbing what appeared to be a moderate ice wall (the original couloir we had looked to climbing was now liberally covered with avalanche debris after the recent bad weather)- they disappeared for awhile than started retreating back to camp where we meet them early afternoon with familiar story’s, crevasse’s had blocked the route , Kadin had fallen in one and what looked like a moderate ice slope Diarmuid claimed was almost vertical??

The climbing was over - we returned to Kandi and headed East to the more well defined Nangma valley with its amazing collection of awesome rock towers. It is a geological wonder that the Nangma side has rock as hard and finely defined as the Kandi glacier valley to the west was no more than pile’s of loose ragged boulders. The river separated the opposite sides cleanly and evenly split them into their real natures and this difference was evident all the way down the river valley.

For three days we trekked in Nangma - just making the most of the last of our time in the Hushe/Kandi area. Whilst in the hills we meet Nazir, a school teacher who was chasing around a yak bull trying to get him down to the village far below. Maybe I was looking old and tired because he kept on insisting to carry my pack (which was not heavy anyway) - and I had to rebuff him several times - I mean honor and pride would have never let me do that no mater how tired! Just 2 days later though whilst crossing a small river (or large stream) things got tricky. Crossing a stream in these parts is kinda like traversing a steep bit of loose rock or glassy ice in the mountains - first you look down to see whats going to happen if you don’t make it and it’s usually quite a fall before you hit the surging current. It was a couple of meters jump - but almost a meter up as well and the consequences of miss footing didn’t look very positive. We had a local guide with us - a sure footed Balti who promptly jumped across - than almost went over in the boulder into the water and fell back again and than sideways - I thought he was going swimming for sure but at the last moment he saved himself. I went to jump - it was going to be close and I dared not hesitate. I leaped - halfway across the guides hand shot out and I grabbed it - pride and honor had gone - now it was survival!

Bondit

Cows and yaks been herded.

Spot the climber about to start up the ice.

a bemused Elliot wakes up late in morning having been kept up all night by crashing rocks.

It’s over !1 we greet Kadin and Dairmuid after thier final attempt on the Unknown peak.

The Unknown peak - center stage.

Packing up camp - Bondit stands serenely above - the unknown peak off to the right.

Base camp at Bondit peak under a full moon

It’s been a busy two weeks since I arrived back from Pakistan and sorting through the mass of photography has been keeping me busy as well.

 The five plus weeks away –  1 week travelling and a little over 4 in Baltistan itself  proved very successful  – the one blemish being almost constant illness plaguing the 4 of us throughout. The younger two members , Kadin and Elliot were particularly afflicted been bed ridden more than once. In all the years of travel  I would have to say this was the worst trip illness wise I have experienced.

The filming went well – better than expected although I had no way of knowing that whilst up there and was only when I watched video on the computer back in New Zealand I realized how much good film I had. Of course good film largely depends on good subject matter and in filming the Balti’s I had an inexhaustible source of good material. Not only whilst watching them working on the glaciers or mountains but filming kids at school or watching shepherdess's running about steep  mountain slopes  after goats and cows- not to mention all the other great film occasions, the Balti’s never failed to deliver more than anyone wishing to make a documentary would hope. Their energy and good humor was a constant source of admiration for us all.

The journey was really several trips , one up to Askoli – all in bus’s and jeeps but a mission in itself, than hiking up the Baltoro glacier over the Gondogoro La into Hushe valley where we joined 5 Spanish trekkers who proved tougher than there physical dispositions and ages belied , before doing our mountaineering mission to Bondit peak. At the end we threw in a short trek to the Nangma valley before I rushed off to meet up with my old friend Khurram in the Kaghan valley and drive up to Babusar pass  to check out routes for  the mountain bike race we plan there for next year. 

 I have made a photo journal as below to cover the trip chronologically with the intention in later blogs to cover individual subjects in more detail.

The Gondogoro La trek starts on the left hand side of the map at Askoli (outside the picture) , heads via Urdokas and Goro 2 to Concordia before visiting the K2 Memorial outside K2 Base camp. Than it heads south over the Vigne Glacier, up over the pass at 5630m before heading down to Hushe valley. Kandi - just below Hushe out of the picture was our final destination - from there we headed up to Bondit peak in the West for 2 weeks before going east for a quick 3 days trip to the Nangma valley.

The drive from Islamabad to Skardu - and than to Askoli is a mission in itself.

dwarfed in the Baltoro Glacier

the Trango towers

Masherbrum at dusk

Guide Ejaz , center in the blue cap jokes with porters at Concordia.

Campsite on glacier from vertically above.

On the way to Gondogoro pass , looking back to Concordia with K2, Broad Peak , Gasherbrum’s 4 - G2 and G1 all in the picture, the greatest concentration of major peaks in the world.

on top of Gondogoro pass 5630m the next morning at 4.30am - all the same peaks appear on the Norther horizon.

south from Gondogoro looking down the Glacial valley of the same name.

camping below Laila peak.

After days on rocky moraine and ice the porters finally hit easier trails

raging torrents

Chefs Ali and Muhammad are flanked by Abbas on the left and Sher Muhammad on the right. Despite being the oldest porter at 55 years Abbas was one of the strongest and believes he can go onto 70 years old. Sher Muhammad was the strongest , 27 years old , carrying 40 kilos over the Gondogoro and leading the young porters by virtue of his strength.

the village of Kandi in Hushe valley - Masherbrum dominates the Northern skyline.

Kandi - horizontal oasis in a vertical desert.

The team before heading to Bondit peak relax on Ibrahim’s rooftop , L-R Dairmuid, Elliot, Kadin and Ibrahim.

Aerial shot of Kandi.

Children at the local private school missed a day of their holidays to give us a cultural performance - they proved to be excellent singers. Kandi boast’s that 100 per cent of primary school children are at school either in the Government school or this private school where girls fees are subsided fully and boys only have to pay %10 to encourage parents to send the kids to school. This compares very favorably to the national average which is only about 50 per cent.

trekking towards Bondit - the smaller peak to left of picture was what we attempted when we gave up on Bondit.

Bodit icefall in detail , very broken !

Kadin and Diarmuid relaxing near camp 1 on Bondit

our gear dump at the base of the climb.

The little climbing we did was challenging , even enjoyable but for the very real threat of succumbing at any moment to blocks of rocks and ice been launched out of the mountain far above us.

looking down to our tent at camp 1 (the spot on the snow ridge center picture)

view over the ice falls to the rock walls that would provide Kadin and myself with a frightening display of aggression about a week after this photo was taken.

view to east from a glacier in a mountain cirque above Base camp

heading up the snow field to camp 1

camp 1 on the unnamed peak. we found an isolated spur well away from cliffs but even this seemed threatened by rockfall.

our tents with a view!

Departing view of Bondit - and its un- named sidekick.

Last descent - the photo tells it all - we never really got beyond the outer defenses of the 2 peaks behind me!!

dinner time in the Nangma

Nangma valley a Rock paradise.

Relaxing with Karim the cook and Akbar. our support staff at base camp. These guys spent 2 weeks looking after the show - always in good humour and full of interesting stories.

bumping along again!1

a hectic schedule saw me travelling almost 4 days straight - with a brief stopover in the Kaghan valley to meet Khurram. It was 20 years ago - 1999 that we first meet. He was a young fella back than - I haven’’t changed much!!