Thieves, Liars and Mountaineers: On the 8000 Metre Peak Circus in Pakistan's Karakoram Mountains Read Online Free PDF Page B

with binoculars looking up at me and checking I'm behaving myself,” he says.
    Ian has spotted tracks in the snow outside his tent, possibly those of a pika, though it seems extraordinary that anything could live up here where there's absolutely no vegetation.
    “Don't worry, Ian,” I tell him, “the footprints are much too small to be a yeti.”
    “Besides, they don't eat Englishmen. They'd far rather eat a nice juicy corn-fed American,” says Gordon, pinching Cassidy on the arm. For sure she'd make a better meal than the tall gangly Ian, and everyone chuckles.
    Shortly before lunch we say goodbye to most of our porters, who turn around and head straight back down the Baltoro Glacier to Askole. We could never do the expedition without their help in bringing our several tons of supplies up to Base Camp, but I certainly won't miss them now they're gone. 130 of them feels like a small noisy town, and it will be so much more peaceful now that it's just us and our kitchen crew ensconced at Base Camp.

11. A description of the view from Base Camp
     
Sunday 21 June, 2009 – Gasherbrum Base Camp, Pakistan
     
    For the first time in over a week we don't have to get up at the accursed hour of 5.30, and I savour my lie in till 8am when breakfast is served, even though it's -5º C inside my tent and we still have nearly 3 kilometres of vertical ascent to go.
    It's a beautiful crisp, clear morning and I have a great opportunity to take in our beautiful mountain surroundings. From the summit of Gasherbrum I an easy snow ridge leads to the right behind 7069m Gasherbrum South. This is the route by which the mountain was first climbed by the Americans Andy Kauffman and Pete Schoening in 1958, but is now out-of-bounds and has been so for many years after the Pakistan Army put a camp at its base, about half a mile away from us close to the head of the Abruzzi Glacier. Above the army camp the gently crevassed though fiercely avalanche-prone snow slopes of 7424m Sia Kangri rise up at a point very close to the disputed borders of Pakistan, China and India. On its right flank is the Conway Saddle, dividing it from 7300m Baltoro Kangri, also known as Golden Throne. Beyond the Conway Saddle is another pass leading onto the vast Siachen Glacier, famously the highest battleground in the world where Pakistan and India meet head-to-head over disputed Kashmir. Baltoro Kangri rises directly above us on the opposite side of the Abruzzi Glacier, and is one of the closest mountains to Base Camp. Frequent avalanches tumble down its slopes, sending a noisy rumble across the glacier to disturb our silence at Base Camp. To its right sits the pointed snow triangle of 7668m Chogolisa, where the great Austrian mountaineer Hermann Buhl lost his life in 1957 just two weeks after completing the first ascent of Broad Peak. In front of Chogolisa, the Upper Baltoro Glacier vanishes round a corner on its way to Concordia. Immediately above Base Camp, and divided from Gasherbrum I by the South Gasherbrum Icefall, is 7004m Gasherbrum VI, the second smallest of the Gasherbrum Group. From where we're camped it has the appearance of a brown rock trapezium surmounted by a steep snow crest.
    Today is a lazy rest day. In the morning I sort my climbing kit out. I have some new anti-balling plates to fit to my crampons, to prevent soft snow building up on my feet and rendering the crampons useless. Unfortunately I discover I've bought the wrong plates and have to improvise a solution involving chopping my old plates in half and keeping the toe end while fitting the new heel ends and a rubber concertina to the central bar of the crampons. This should hopefully be effective in the short term and last the expedition before the toe end of my old rubber plates disintegrate like the heels did. I also insert new soles into my mountaineering boots. I still need to find a new sock solution to prevent the boots ripping the skin off my heels like they did in Nepal last month, and I