K2 – Islamabad to Skardu

 Written/recorded by Sean: Friday 12^th June at 7.30 pm from Skardu, Pakistan

 This is basically my first recording live from the field. It’s been a testing 30 hours on a bus from Islamabad to Skardu. It’s 35 degrees and there’s no beer! Last night we stopped in Chilas – it took us 19 hours yesterday to get into Chilas. We did a total of 467 kms at an average of 25km/h. The plan was to fly into Skardu but the military took all the seats on the aircraft so there were no flights available. There’ve been troops and military activity all along the road as the Pakistani military transports tanks towards the North West.

Into the Indus Valley near Skardu (FTA)

We travelled along the Karakoram Highway which was built in 1966 and was finished in 1979 – it took 13 years to build. It’s not a highway really, it’s literally a road that’s been blasted and hammered out of the side of the mountain for 800 kms. It’s the main route from Pakistan to China and it’s absolutely fascinating – must take my hat off to the lads for getting it together. Over 13 years, 1500 Pakistanis and 500 Chinamen lost their lives in the construction of the road. Even now, it’s so difficult to maintain because the ‘highway’ literally runs through the gorges and along the banks of the Indus river, one of the world’s longest rivers. The Indus river is so voluminous, it’s so powerful, it’s huge. It runs for 3200 kms, the mouth is at Karachi and it’s absolutely magnificent… (canoeists would love it!). It’s amazing to see how much water flows down this river, there are massive whirlpools…what an experience travelling along the Indus.

The Karakoram Highway has literally only been open for 30 years. Very few westerners have been here so when the locals look at you, they really see you as a stranger and there aren’t any women on the streets at all…you don’t see women, they’re tucked away.

Karakoram Highway (Sean)

Now, we’ve just got into Skardu… it’s very, very windy here, there are dust storms everywhere, it’s quite intimidating actually, just sitting out here now the wind is howling… jeepers…..that was quite hectic…. will phone back in 5. (Wind issues).

I’m back. It’s a good time to climb this mountain because of what’s going on in Pakistan at the moment, you really don’t know how much longer it will be open to visitors. The next leg is to Askole on Sunday and we’ll probably be leaving here by jeep. The road is very, very bad apparently. Gear check and chill tomorrow.

KKH (Sean)

Tags: Indus river, K2, mountains, Pakistan, Skardu, Trekking