14.08.2001
Today we have to pull down the base camp and to pack all stuff which is quiet complicated. This time, each wight has to be 20 kg. Our way back to civilization will lead us across the 5600 m high Gondogoro pass. This glaciered pass between the Chogolisa and the Masherbrum group is quiet difficult with ascents of up to 45 degrees on fixed ropes. A hard work for the porters with their bad equipment.
But our job is not easy either. It is unbelievable how much items an expedition needs! And from all these items, 20kg weights have to be made limited by the 60 Liter volume of our tons. Something like a 3D-Puzzle. At the end, all tons must be full and must have the same weight.
We pack and pack.
The Spanish group has invited us for dinner at 6.30 p.m.. At 6 p.m., there are still 6, at 6.30 p.m. still 4 tons. Short before 7 p.m., Jospi comes along and asked us to leave the tons and come over for dinner.
Five minutes later, we are sitting in front of a delicate soup and, shortly later, there comes the great surprise. It is called Tartiflet (or something like that). Pepe, who is university professor for physics in Barcelona, and Christoph, who is born in France with his native skill for haute cuisine, have prepared something unbelievable at 5100 meters altitude. And finally, there is a bottle of original Spanish red wine, Rioja. We nearly forgot how red wine tastes. Thereafter, Spanischer ham and sausages. And for dessert, 'Dresdner Christstollen' (a cake speciality provided by us). And half of the members of the Spanish group seriously think about to visit Dresden.
15.08.2001
Again, we have to get up early, at 4 in the morning. At 5 a.m. all is packed and we sit in our large main tent for the last time for having breakfast.
Thereafter, the tons have to be weighed which is done fast this time. Finally, the 40 porters get their weights and start to fix them at curious racks. At 7 a.m. we leave the base camp.
Our terget, "Alicamp", is situated at the base of the Gondogoro pass. This is a quiet long stage, usually made in two days. However, we want to go there within one day. The trail corsses the uppper Baltoro glacier and turns to the flat Vigne glacier at the margin of the Concordia place. The weather is terrible, snow and rain, and therfore, we make only short rests.
At 4 p.m. the first ones arrive at "Alicamp" and erect our kitchen tent which will server for sleeping as well. And its starts raining cats and dogs just when the tent has been erected. Fortunately, there is a roof upon our heads and we drink hot tea and have rice with chicken meat.
Markus Walter, 15.08.2001, 19 Uhr bei totalem Sauwetter an einem ziemlich ungemütlichen Platz zu Füssen des Gondogoro-Passes.
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