Page 22 - 1998-99 AMA Winter

Karakoram Trek
By H '02 Alike Smith
Iam not a great fan of trekking in fact I’m away.
not even totally sure what trekking is. I Morale was high as we plodded along the was tasked with organising a level 3 expe­ right bank of the Hispar Glacier. The track dition for a large group to some remote part was initially good, being the main thor­ of the world. I thought that a trekking oughfare for the Yak herders that used the expedition would be considerably easier to high altitude pastures. We managed to
Bitenmal our next intended halt.
The next day dawned and was gloomy. There was only slight improvement with Billy so Nick agreed to accompany him back down to Hispar. We made arrange­ ments to meet at Askole on 14/15 June. The trog up to the previous day’s high point was much easier as we had dumped non-essential kit and food 150m above the edge of the glacier. We half hoped the oth­ ers would be there to meet us, we soon found out why they weren’t. The Kunjang Glacier looked deceptively flat and easy to cross. When we got down to the glacier, however, it became a huge maze with ice cliffs for walls and loose m oraine and huge boulders for a floor. We spent four hours stumbling through the jumbled mass, which forced us away from our chosen exit point at every opportunity.
The other group watched our painful progress from high above, unable to offer any advice. As we arrived at the edge of the glacier they descended the 150m talus slope to help us up to Bitenmal, now that’s team work.
Things now started to get tough!
The next objective was to cross the second glacier, the Pumari Chish Glacier. This was slightly easier than the Kunjang but the track to it was giving an indication of things to come. In many places old and more recent landslides had swept the track away. Although generally tedious some boulder fields offered good sport as we wobbled our way further up the glacier. Thankfully we all had trekking poles
organise than a climbing expedition. This was not so, however, I don’t plan to bore you with the reams of paper work and bureaucracy that is todays adventurous training. The workload in getting 14 men and kit to a faraway land is not something that should be taken lightly.
Trekking is probably thought of as less adventurous than clim bing or canoeing. However trekking has many facets and can be as mundane or exciting as you want to make it. We didn’t plan for any danger but we certainly found some. Some of the par­ ticipants looked worried when I started introducing them to ropes, harnesses, crampons and ice axes. Don’t worn- I assured everyone, we will only be on the glacier for a couple of days. For the rest of the time the kit will be in the bottom of the rucksacks.
We started the trek from Hispar, a green oasis at the end of a 46km roller coaster bus ride, on 2 June. We were carrying over 37 kg (80 lbs) ofrations, fuel, tents and associ­ ated trekking hardware. Our first sickener was only 5 minutes away after we descend­ ed 150m down a steep gully to the rickety suspension bridge across the Hispar River. It was then into low ratio for the climb up the opposite side of the valley. We were now leaving civilisation, heading for the Hispar La and then Askole some 130km
cover about 8 km and reached a height of 3600m, this was a 300m gain for the day.
At the end of the first day Billy was show­ ing some signs of discomfort, but was keen to press on the next day. The younger members of the team were in awe as sever­ al huge peaks; Makrong Chhish 6607m, Gandes Chhish 6346m, Kunyang Chhish 7852m plus many other minor peaks sur­ rounded us. The older members of the team seemed aloof to it all.
Crossing the Kunjang Glacier was our next objective. This was the first of four large glaciers that force their way into the Hispar Glacier from the north. Unfortunately Billy was struggling as soon as we started to the point of not being able to keep up even without his rucksack which was being moved in relays by Oily, Taff and Jonah. This was mainly due to his frequent visits to the nearest large rock to squat or lean forward. He was a pathetic sight with his bog roll in one hand and his water bottle in the other. I’m sure he can laugh about it now!
Drastic action was required; the pass was still six or seven days away so although painful at the time I decided to go back down to the previous night’s camp. Pete, Oily, Moctor, Taff, Kev and Jonah would continue across the Kunjang Glacier to
Armv Mountaineer
j Navigating through the labyrinth of crevasses and ice cliffs. Kev Hawkes in th i foreground