Day 6 The breathtaking Concordia!
Goro II to Concordia, 9 miles (total 53 miles), 15.4 elevation
We got started at six on the trail. It’s supposed to be an easy day mostly flat, it actually was flatish this time. There were massive white and blue icebergs (not covered in rock) that we weaved our way through along the trail, even bigger than the previous day. They were amazing to trek through and the icy labyrinth of cascading waterfalls was magical. … and what would a leg of this journey be without a dead donkey frozen into the glacier. I stopped using my trekking poles and no longer had neck pain. So using the fucking poles was causing me the damn migraines this whole time!? The sun was out and scorching and reflecting off of the melting glacier water running down our trail. It was calming and beautiful but did our faces no favors. Zinc has nothing on this sun. We both got sunburned on our face/noses and my chest where Mountain Hardwear thought it was wise to put a v-neck on a sun protecting garment (WTF). We stopped for lunch because we were making good time, and we arrived at camp at noon. We had to pass through an army checkpoint again to verify our passage and were in awe over the total wasteland of garbage they had created. Appalling.
Two more helicopters flew up the valley going to either K2 or Broad Peak base camps for a rescue. Two helicopters means it’s a rescue mission. Later we found out they were retrieving another dead body (Nepalese) from the Broad Peak camp one. Apparently he had gotten caught in a rock fall that killed him. Everyday rockfall is changing this mountain. Now I understand why we have helmets for our pass descent. Didn’t think we would need for the trail to get there.
Concordia is breathtakingly beautiful with four 8000m peaks within a 180* view. I felt pretty fantastic today, and with these views all was well. I’m hopeful again. I performed more surgery on Andy’s feet to get him ready for the next couple days. We looked at the weather forecast and determined we need to make for the Gondogoro La no later than the 15th as a storm is coming. Every day all I think about is me not being the weakest link for us getting over the damn pass. We are not going back the way we came. That was not fun and we’ve already seen it, plus it will take us longer to get back to Skardu and we are ready for the next leg. We found out that a major bridge washed out and the hill finally gave way and took out a huge section of the road. It’s a bit stressful knowing I’m the question mark in the journey. I’ll take all the drugs I can because I’m getting over that pass.
The clouds rolled in around the great peaks but the views were still impressive. Once again I wasn’t hungry for dinner. Plus, Ali had fed us every 2 hours today so I’m not worried about my calorie intake. We had goat once again for dinner. I wasn’t interested but Ali was standing there watching us so I tried to eat a piece (it didn’t work and I spit it in a napkin like a child when he wasn’t watching). Off to bed at 8. We r getting up early for our K2 basecamp hike, it’s a grueling 12 hour trek there and back. Good news is it’s extremely easy to fall asleep each night.
