📷 The Land of High Mountains: Pakistan. Day 3. Trekking to Nanga P...

On the third day in Pakistan, we decided to go trekking to the Nanga Parbat Base camp, which is 1.1 km above us and much closer to Nanga Parbat — one of the three most dangerous peaks in the world, after Annapurna I and K2. From there, climbers begin their ascents to the peak. The very first attempt was made in 1895 by the British mountaineer Albert Frederick Mummery, who died there. This was followed by six more unsuccessful attempts made by different expeditions, and only in 1953 Hermann Buhl, a member of the German-Austrian expedition, reached an altitude of 8125 meters.

I don't even dream of such heights yet. Base camp is the most suitable for me. To try to get there more or less comfortably, we had to go out almost at dawn. At 5 a.m. atrer breakfast, when the peak is already lit by the sun, we leave our base.

I wonder if we will see the climbers' camp there? It would be cool to feel this atmosphere.

On our way, after about 6 km, there will be a view point where the tired can stay, and the self-confident will move on. For now, I just want to get at least to this point.

At the beginning, the trail runs through the forest. There is quite a lot of brushwood and logs around. Powerful trees and roots — wow!

We walk along the path and wonder the surrounding beauty. And the mountain is still beckoning us closer to itself.

Shortly after leaving the camp, a Pakistani policeman caught up with us. Black clothes, boots and a cap with the inscription "Police" and the Pakistani flag, a walkie-talkie and a Kalashnikov automatic rifle — that's all his equipment. Surprisingly, he don't even have a bottle of water with him. He caught up with us and continued walking alongside, helping the girls if necessary. Thus, we had an armed guard, with whom everyone was happy to take pictures. I wonder who he is protecting us from here?

In the forest, not far from the trail, we can see abandoned and crumbling houses. Where did the residents go? Unclear.

Some strange, slightly post-apocalyptic look, the impression is enhanced precisely by the abundance of wooden debris and remnants of walls, which no one even takes from this place for use as firewood, as if there were no people left at all.

It is unexpected to see a completely residential village further along the path.

Pipes smoke, children carry water, herds of goats graze around. We saw women sitting at the doorstep of houses, but when they saw us, they all covered their faces.

The name of Reinhold Messner visibly and invisibly soars around this peak — he was the first to conquer all 14 eight-thousanders of the world. The man who ascended Nanga Parbat along the Rupal wall in 1970 with his brother Gunther, but went down alone. Brother was found by Pakistani climbers only 35 years later, his body was brought by an avalanche.

There are places for tourists to sleep in brightly colored tents. You can have a snack, drink tea and relax on the way to the foot of Nanga Parbat.

Local goats are definitely worth seeing. In general, there are quite a few of them and it is hardly possible to miss them. They are all different and almost all of them are beautiful. Some of the most beautiful goats I have ever seen! :)

I am glad that this part of the valley continues to actively settle down. New houses are being built next to the old, very simple huts and shelters. Yes, maybe it's more for tourists, but I think that the locals are building for themselves too. We wave our hand to the goat who is seeing us off, and move on.

We pass by a very symbolically enclosing fence. What is it here for?

The road leads farther and higher from the habitable places. The goal is still on the horizon, in this regard the high mountains are good — they are perfectly visible :) We can also see why these places are called Fairy Meadows: lush greenery around, and the beautiful mountains make the landscape magical and do not even seem too harsh from here.

Not only huge objects deserve attention — in this area we can always look at many small plants, bushes, flowers and leaves. And this low world pleases the eye! Summer, everything around blooms and turns green. How do they all have enough water? ...

After a dash forward and upward, we reached the side of the glacier. Here it is, the long-awaited view point to reach which was our minimum plan. We covered six kilometers and gained 400 meters height from the start. Now we can take a break and decide: will we go further?

The current altitude here is 3700 meters above sea level. Around the bend part of the glacier is almost white. This strip is not visible at all from our base.

We can see how this strip goes higher into the mountains.

Those with sunglasses see an amazing phenomenon in the sky. Dima gives his glasses to our police guard, and we see his emotions. He doesn't seem to have seen anything like it before.

This phenomenon is a halo, a luminous ring around the sun that looks like a rainbow. We even had a double halo. The halo is, of course, visible to the naked eye, but in sunglasses it is seen really much better, more clearly — as I think it is because of polarization.

It's funny to see a rainbow over the mountains going up into the sky.

Taking advantage of the time of rest, people continue to take pictures with Pakistanis — both with our guide Ishaar and with a policeman. Well, who knows when we will have a chance to hold on to the Kalashnikov assault rifle? Despite the way Russians are often shown in films, very few of us are bandits and walk around with a gun in our pocket.

Well, after half an hour's rest, the decision was made: no one wants to stay here, everyone is going forward to the base camp. We are strong, brave and all that jazz.

The strongest and bravest with the swift-footed Ishaar quickly disappear from sight. The rest of the brave, but not so strong go harder and slower, but still go.

The policeman (damn, why didn't I remember his name?) shows us laggards a different path. It goes higher than the one on which everyone went, but there is no such loss of height.

Here the forest has already surrendered its positions, there are no trees in the area. Only stones, ice, grass and flowers. Basically, of course, stones.

In some places there are a lot of flowers —it's alpine meadows, after all. Bright colors cheer us up.

From time to time we come across boisterous streams. It is clear why the policeman does not carry water — he drinks from there quite calmly. We do not risk doing the same, for us it can be very dangerous.

This is Elena, one of the oldest members of our group, who lives both in India and Russia. She is very fond of trekking in the mountains, many times went hiking in Nepal. She told and showed a lot of interesting things during our trip.

Our path snakes along the slope. With a little effort it is quite possible to see it :)

Another stream, another bridge, and another member of our team. Volodya is a historian who writes very interestingly about the country we visited. The beginning of the path did not have a very good effect on his knee, but he does not lose heart and goes forward, briskly knocking the trekking sticks on the ground.

The closer to the beginning of the glacier, the higher its teeth become and the wider the cracks between them.

Well, what else besides teeth can we call it? Somewhere snow-white, somewhere not very clean, but all of them equally are not very friendly. Toothy smile of a glacier :)

Crossing such a glacier without special equipment seems like an impossible task.

Absolutely impossible. Would you risk trying to walk on such surfaces?

Fortunately, today we do not need to cross the glacier. Our trip plans include such a pastime, but a little later, in another trekking, more long and serious. But for now we need to think about how to go through today's path: to the Nanga Parbat base camp and back. We keep going and think — can we?

To be continued...

Parts of the journey:

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📷 The Land of High Mountains: Pakistan. Day 3. Trekking to Nanga Parbat Base Camp - Start