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After having a recreation day yesterday, this day's stage leads us to Urdukas with the Trango Towers on our way.
The sky was cloudy and grey this morning when we waked up at 4.30 a.m. It has rained the whole night. After a fast breakfast we started 5.30 o'clock. Half an hour later, we got to the giant Baltoro Glacier.
There are three days we have to go on this glacier before getting to the famous Concordia place, two days more to the base camp. The dimensions of the Baltoro are gigantic. One need to ascend 200 meters at the mouth of the glacier to stand upon it. The Baltoro is 58 km long but only the fourth in length within the Karakoram...
Unfortunately, it rained from time to time during the first hours. Therefore we had to wear weather clothes. Around noon, the sky cleared and we saw the first sun rays. The famous Trango Tours were only visible for a short period in the afternoon and mostly obscured by clouds .
In Urdukas, we had to prepare additional camp sites because most of the avaiable space was already occupied by a Korean Trekking group. Our porters were in high spirits despite the rainy weather. They prefer the cloudy weather for the heat of the last days. The number of porters is decreasing daily because the food used corresponds to some weights. Those who are not necessary anymore are sad. Not only because they loose a job but also because of "Doktor Lydia" who treats wounded feet, tooth problems, stomach-ache, sunburn and does even surgical removal of furuncles in her daily consulting hour. A common porter never can pay a surgeon, therefore, some come with banal problems to get the experience of a medical treatment once in their life ...
Markus Walter
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