Archive for August, 2009

The expedition is coming to its conclusion, and the preparations for the return to Italy brutally bring us back to our lives, our families, our friends. With our eyes still full of the fantastic views of the Karakorum, we carry with us memories and feelings that are difficult to tell; thanks to the images that we have painstakingly collected along the way, we’ll try to recreate our experience and share it with you all, because the sights we have visited are too wide for just our own eyes.

I’ll take a few moments of rest to draw some conclusions, and for some special thanks. Read the rest of this entry »

Here we are again in Skardu, after a month spent between the glaciers and after having travelled about 200 km on foot, we find again the places where we started. From the lodge’s windows facing the Indo’s valley, so many memories come back to mind; I must admit that many thoughts troubled my heart at the start, the high altitude, food, water, cold, living with people who didn’t know. Eventually, however, the outcomes from this experience are very positive, and rewarding.

Follow the expedition of “On the Trails of the Glaciers” made me discover places and people that I was not expecting at all, the Terzano peak (5400 meters), perhaps nothing compared to the mythical mountains over 8000 meters that surrounded us, was a fantastic goal for me. K2, well … you reach Concordia, turn your head left and find this immense pyramid of rock and snow built by nature, that hypnotizes and dominate you. When on August 17th began to snow, everything was covered with two feet of fresh snow, for a mountain enthusiast like me is a unique emotion, sinking into the snow is something sublime… Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday we finished some important observations on the area of Baltoro and in particular on his forehead. The extension of the glacier, with a basin area of 60 km in length, covering a range of altitudes between about 3650 meters of his forehead up to the 8611 meters of K2, and the grandeur of its numerous tributary glaciers, make its dynamics very complex. With these assumptions, it’s possible to  guess how the variables involved are many, just by thinking about the change in distribution of precipitation (snow or rain that may respectively contribute to the accumulation or ablation of the glacier) with changes in altitude or slope, which affect both directly and indirectly, through tributary glaciers, the mass balance of the Baltoro; also, the position of these  tributaries will determine sensible oscillations in their area of influence, more or less close to the front. Read the rest of this entry »

Today we’ll spend the entire day at the front of the Baltoro glacier. Weather conditions are not so good, and we’re a little worry: these measurements are important, if we fail today, we would not have occasion to repeat them again, since we can not stay another day in Payu. Prepared the equipment, we reach the glacier with an hour of travel. Before starting to measure, our guide Hassan will have to reach the nearby military base and show our special permits, issued by the Ministry of Information of Pakistan to let us take photos, videos and perform scientific findings. As soon as we are officially “go”, we walk down to the front of the glacier to reach the Desio boulder and measure again, several years away, its distance from the glacier. Read the rest of this entry »

We moved from Urdukas to Payu, and as described in the last article by Pino we met really innumerable upd and downs. During the trip we also found many historic viewpoints, especially those of Vittorio Sella. But let us proceed with order …

Last night was quite tormented in terms of photography: during a long exposure of five hours to return the stellar tracks on the Trango Towers, I had to continually discuss with Rasool, our cook, to make him take off the lights of the kitchen tent, and then with the camp’s operators, since every hour and for no apparent reason, they turned on the field lights. Incredible, I had to fight against light pollution even here, in the Karakoram! Read the rest of this entry »

Compared to the landscape’s size you’re normally used, the area of Baltoro is truly breathtaking; apart its length of 60 km (the fifth longest glacier in the world), even its dynamics is surprising in comparison to what is usually seen on Alps or on classic textbooks; in addition to the classic crevasses and moraines, here we can observe various geomorphological shapes (sails, mushrooms, ice cones, etc). Among the many trekkers we have met along our path, when asked about the nature of the pathway and the time needed to reach the next step, they always replied: “Very far with many up and down”, but regardless of distance, where do these continuous ups and downs originate? Read the rest of this entry »

Time flies away, and for us the moment comes to make the long journey home, which with about 60 km in 5 days of trekking will take us from Concordia to the village of Askole. To date, we can say the success of the expedition, with almost all the planned goals achieved. But the job is not yet finished, photographic and survey activities will continue during the journey back, not to mention the repetition of some historic shots we postponed during the trip for logistical reasons; in particular we’ll spend two days at the camp Payu Read the rest of this entry »

The first snow comes, and we are therefore forced to postpone our trip to the base camp of K2; the weather conditions are rapidly deteriorating, and certainly we’ll not be able to achieve Sella’s photographs and measurements at the Memorial. From previous measurements and photographic comparisons, it seems that 100 years ago the Godwin Austen glacier was nearly the same height of the Memorial, a small rocky buttresses, the cemetery and place of memory for all the explorers who have lost their lives on K2 or Broad Peak. Read the rest of this entry »