Well we are eventually off!
As I write this Jon is already in the air somewhere and I will be flying out this evening to Islamabad to meet up with him in the morning. We'll hopefully be flying straight up to Skardu to get all the final stuff sorted and then start the approach to the Charakusa Valley which will be our home for the next 6 weeks or so right under Link Sar and K6, our objectives for the expedition.
It feels like everything has been against us so far with this trip and I'll be completely honest that I was loosing motivation for it in the last couple of weeks. The terrible terrorist attack on Nanga Parbet base camp put a lot of doubt on the trip and in my head. Luckily we had time to make a sensible rather than rushed decision and it has taken time and a lot of chatting through with family and loved ones as well as friends with a lot of experience of the area for me to get it clear in my head that I still wanted to go. Thank you to everyone who has listened and chatted to me about this for the last few weeks, it was a big decision to make and I'm happy I'm making the right one and that my family and friends understand why I am still going.
For a knowledgeable article on the back ground and politics behind some of the unrest in Pakistan have a read of Steve Swenson's blog http://steveswensonsblog.blogspot.fr/2013/06/attack-on-climbers-in-pakistan.html
Eventually after missing our first flights last Saturday (due to a lack of Visa) and wasting a lot of time at the Pakistan High Commission in Bradford I received my Visa on Monday and the psyche is back!
I'll be e-mailing updates back as regularly as possible which will get posted on here and on The North Face's new local news page here http://localnews.thenorthfacejournal.com/category/united-kingdom/
As I write this Jon is already in the air somewhere and I will be flying out this evening to Islamabad to meet up with him in the morning. We'll hopefully be flying straight up to Skardu to get all the final stuff sorted and then start the approach to the Charakusa Valley which will be our home for the next 6 weeks or so right under Link Sar and K6, our objectives for the expedition.
It feels like everything has been against us so far with this trip and I'll be completely honest that I was loosing motivation for it in the last couple of weeks. The terrible terrorist attack on Nanga Parbet base camp put a lot of doubt on the trip and in my head. Luckily we had time to make a sensible rather than rushed decision and it has taken time and a lot of chatting through with family and loved ones as well as friends with a lot of experience of the area for me to get it clear in my head that I still wanted to go. Thank you to everyone who has listened and chatted to me about this for the last few weeks, it was a big decision to make and I'm happy I'm making the right one and that my family and friends understand why I am still going.
For a knowledgeable article on the back ground and politics behind some of the unrest in Pakistan have a read of Steve Swenson's blog http://steveswensonsblog.blogspot.fr/2013/06/attack-on-climbers-in-pakistan.html
Eventually after missing our first flights last Saturday (due to a lack of Visa) and wasting a lot of time at the Pakistan High Commission in Bradford I received my Visa on Monday and the psyche is back!
I'll be e-mailing updates back as regularly as possible which will get posted on here and on The North Face's new local news page here http://localnews.thenorthfacejournal.com/category/united-kingdom/
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