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2008 K2 and Broad Peak Expedition

Dispatch Fifteen: June 13th, 2008

Day Fifteen: Jhula to Paiju; More Familiar Faces

Today, we woke up at 5:45am and had a quick breakfast. We began the 7 hour trek to Paiju around 6:30am. Just five minutes after I began walking (after crossing a small river), I realized that my sunglasses were no longer in my pocked and figured that they must have slipped out , so I walked back to retrace my steps. I did so knowing full well that at least 30 porters had walked past any spot where they could have landed and if they had seen them, they wouldn't hesitate to take them. As I predicted, I found nothing. I continued the trek, my only hope being that posting a reward at Paiju for whoever managed to get them back to me might work. Hughes and I walked with the Italians (Alex, Simone, Antonio, and Gloria) and the walk was quite pleasant at first. Then the sun came out and basically cooked us alive. According to my watch, the temperature while we were walking reached 46 degrees Celsius. Needless to say, I walked slowly, but still managed to arrive to Paiju in just over 5 hours. When I arrived, I met the Italians in the Serbian tent. One of them had been on GI and GII with me in 2006 and the other two were on Broad Peak with me in 2007. Now, it turns out,  they are coming to K2. Also, I ran into Chris Eriksson from the North Face GI and GII ski expedition, who was with me on Shishapangma in 2007. Their cook was on GII with me as well. I’ll say it again; The 8000 meter climbing community really must be tiny for me to have climbed with all these people. After socializing for awhile, Hughes and I decided it best for us to shower and get off all the sweat and dust that had accumulated in the morning. Afterward, we felt like new men. We returned to the Italian mess tent and chatted for awhile. We decided that it was a good idea to have dinner together since neither group was too large. After dinner, Gloria managed to rally the porters and get them to dance and sing. We watched this for awhile and then went to bed in what Hughes and I describe as the perfect summit day; perfect calm night with a bright moon lighting the way.