K2 Tall Mountain Expedition
 
 
The team just received news that it was good that we departed Islamabad when we did. After the village of Besham, three sections of the Karakorum highway were wiped out due to rock slides. We had spent the night at the Continental hotel in Besham arriving at 2:00 totally burned out and hungry after not eating since lunch and enduring an eight-hour drive. Our early departure in the morning allowed us to beat the reaper and not get stuck behind this rock slide which will take days to clear. Today it's so nice in Skardu that the planes are flying. The Karakoram Highway, is an amazing 840Km-long engineering feat, that connects Northern Pakistan and China. The highway starts 40 Kms north of Islamabad and connects to the 4570-meter-high Khunjrab pass on the Pakistan-Chinese boarder. Finished in 1978 after 12 years, sacrificing the lives and limbs of both Pakistani and Chinese road builders, it is considered to be the world’s eighth wonder. There is another road cutting through the Indus gorge that connects Gilgit with Skardu.
 
Departed Islamabad 2
Tuesday, June 17, 2008