📷 The Land of High Mountains: Pakistan. Day 6. Minapin Glacier and...

I love sunrises very much, but seeing them is not at all easy. First, you have to get up at 4-4:20 in the morning, so as not to miss that moment, and second, you cannot just leave the tent and see the beauty — often the best view is located far from the best place for camp. For example, now a stone wall separates our camp from the glacier, protecting us from its coolness and wind. Therefore, I have to climb this moraine wall before dusk.

This is how it looks from a height, and this view brings to me the thoughts of the Game of Thrones and that ice Wall. Isn't it huge?

But an enthusiastic person will not be stopped by such trifles, and now I greet the rising sun and admire the surrounding beauty.

View of Diran Peak. A bit mysterious and unearthly picture.

View towards where we came from.

Still, in the direction of Diran and Rakaposhi it is more beautiful now.

I don’t want to miss beautiful shots, but sometimes I can, after taking two or three, sit on a stone and just watch the world come to life. In the life of a landscape photographer, there is much less adrenaline than, for example, a sports one, but there are incomparably more advantages — in my opinion: when would I still admire the top of Rakaposhi like this if I shot only competitions?

But... if it was a mountaineering competition? Maybe in such case I would have seen even more cool views, would have shot this sunrise about 2-3 thousand meters higher than now, for example, over there on the pass in the center of the picture? Hmm, who knows :)

Well, the sun is almost up, I can go to sleep. It's good that today there is time to get some sleep after dawn. This is due to the fact that yesterday we went all the way in one day instead of two, today we have an extra day in this beautiful place.

I was hoping to see at least a couple more dreams, but before I even had time to really fall asleep, someone started pushing the tent. “Busy!” I shout, but the unknown pusher continues to push. I look outside, and there the cow licks the dew from the tent. I chase her away, and after a few minutes everything starts again. What is it! I shook the tent so that the water droplets rolled down. Yes, I deprived the cow of pleasure, but I gave myself a drop of rest. And let the troublemaker go and eat some grass or flowers instead.

There is still an hour before the time of getting up agreed yesterday, but the commander's voice of Dima called everyone for breakfast earlier than promised — on this wonderful free day we are going for a walk on the glacier, and everyone wants to start this little exciting journey.

That is why, without having finished the last dream, I had to get up for a light breakfast of one egg and a chapatis with jam. Here, by the way, the chapatis were different from those that we ate before — they are larger and denser. And jam in the mountains is a great thing, I can tell you! It disappears very quickly :)

From the drone we can see our camp, which the sun is just beginning to illuminate, and far below (in the photo it is above, behind the ridge in the center) there is a valley in which the valley of Minapin is located — it was from there that we climbed to the glacier.

I wonder if I will ever get bored with admiring the mountains and glaciers? I hope never, and certainly not on this trip!

Approximately there, in the area of the glacial waterfall in the center of the photo, we want to walk. The path is not very far, but walking on a glacier is not at all the same as walking on land.

It's funny to see how a crushing glacier stream flows around this area, probably, this is quite a good hill.

Rakaposhi peak from a height of five hundred meters above the camp. From here we can clearly see the surroundings: a green hill near the waterfall, a piece of our wall, and on the left is the top of Diran Peak. How much smaller it is than Mount Rakaposhi, and yet it is far from the lowest of the peaks!

To get to the glacier, we need not only overcome the ridge, but also go through the stone moraine field.

We use sunblock heavily. Here everywhere the sun is hot and active, and hands quickly get a characteristic tan around the T-shirt, and in addition to everything ice and snow will reflect the sun's rays, enhancing their effect. Pale (and even not so) Europeans are better off protecting their skin.

It seems to me that the body is already accustomed to the height and stress, since it is quite comfortable to walk.

On the edge of the glacier there are such "mushrooms" on an ice leg. I think they are not as tasty as forest ones, but I did not try. They appear like this: stones fall on the glacier and freeze into its surface, and when the surrounding ice melts, the layer that is under the shade of the cap melts much more slowly, although it also becomes thinner, and the leg of the glacial mushroom gradually forms.

At the end of the moraine, the surface under the feet looks like this: slightly melted ice and stones.

Not very nice, but walking is almost as comfortable as on level ground, quite flat and thanks to these stones and pebbles it is not slippery, they provide good grip of the shoe sole with the surface. And much more convenient than the moraine crumbling underfoot. I wonder what will happen on the white part of the glacier?

Well, we finally have completely passed the moraine, and we are walking on open ice and snow towards Diran peak, which from below seems much more interesting and photogenic than Rakaposhi.

As soon as we entered the glacier, a cool breeze began to blow over us, and the heat receded. This is what real climate control is: neither hot in the sun nor cold on the ice!

We look funny: in shorts and T-shirts among the snow and ice, as if we have wandered into an open skating rink with artificial ice.

Our guide Haider looked at the local beauty and fell into a crack shouting "Thirteenth!" I wonder if this is the thirteenth fall or is he a fan of the actress from "House, M.D."?

And he could get into this. Cold, wet and deep ... Brrrrrr! It is certainly possible to refresh yourself with glacial water, but it is dangerous: you can fly away headlong and plunge many meters down, because where the bottom of each particular crack is not visible under water. And the glacier is not a meter thick ...

It was much more unpleasant to walk on the moraine stones than on the glacier, here the ice is not too slippery, even when it begins to melt under the sun. Apparently, the point is still in places covering it with stone dust and crumbs — there are not many completely white areas. And the crystals of ice and snow themselves from above are not smoothly rolled, but sharp and a little sticky.

But on the other hand, the glacier has another unpleasant feature — the better the weather, the wider the streams become, even in just a couple of hours. We will have to go back the same way, so we shouldn't stay for a long time if we don't want to wade.

On such a turbulent stream it would be possible to raft on something, but there are too many stones sticking out. And it can also go under the glacier again, it would be unpleasant to be there.

Oh, that's another thing! A completely clean channel without any stones, it even looks a bit like a bobsled track.

Everyone is in an excellent mood, we want to play and be naughty, our souls are good and rush upward. Attempts were unsuccessful, but some of us tried :)

I walk on the ice, streams are running around, full of cold, teeth-grinding water, and then suddenly a small avalanche descends from the top. I only managed to get my camera at the end of the show. To be honest, it is thousands of times more interesting to watch it live than on this photo, especially when it rumbles somewhere over you. A lot of emotions!

Some of the stones here do not even look like stones. Some pieces of an alien ship. And the greenish glacial water enhances this feeling, it seems that the shard is melting and dissolving in the water.

Pakistani treks are remarkable in that there are very few tourists, the trails are empty (especially in comparison with the popular and more "civilized" mountain routes in another countries), but at the same time locals can still feed us and give some tea along the way — there is some infrastructure. And the views are just wonderful!

Gradually moving down, the glacier drags with it a bunch of stones, some of which can be used as a pedestal. But first you need to climb on them :)

The perseverance of those who succeed is rewarded with photographs a meter above the glacier :)

Or you don't have to climb the stones, you can climb a snowy hill. It's so beautiful around that no matter where you stand, the photo will still turn out pretty :)

We almost came to the waterfall. Oh, and here's another cute mushroom! I was about to bite it, but I thought I should spare my teeth.

I also decided to get into the photo once, gave the camera to one of the guys, and got into the heroic pose of an orange man. @kibela is nearby and Rakaposhi is in the background — great! The whole way after the Mount Nanga Parbat I continued to walk in a buff, putting aside my baseball cap because of my torn ear. It's a handy thing, and it suits me :)

We go towards the waterfall to take a closer look and see our guide next to the ice bridge. Wow, this is the first time I see something like this!

The scale of this arch is clear with the people standing under it.

It melts under the sun, it seems that a couple of days more and this nature miracle will disappear.

And here is the waterfall itself. It starts from under the edge of the glacier, flows picturesquely along an open rocky area and again goes somewhere down under the ice. It's time for us to turn back. Quite a lot of time has passed with all these photo shoots and just joyful walking around the district, and the sun is hot and continues to melt the glacier.

By the way, our guide Haider has simple sneakers on his feet. As I have noticed, none of the local guides and porters are equipped by some special footwear for the mountains and other devices, no trekking high boots and trekking poles. What sneakers are, in those they go — apparently so. Sometimes there are slightly sturdier, but still completely ordinary boots. And if they need a stick to help themselves walk, then an ordinary stick is used. Haider, it seems, picked up this one yesterday somewhere on the way, when we were climbing to the base camp.

This is what the glacier surface looks like under the bright summer sun. Holes with melt water and some earth. It looks like cheese.

After all, such mini-gorges, stream beds right in the middle of a glacier are something cool. Probably, in winter they turn into cracks, slightly covered with snow. In summer, all of them are at least clearly visible.

One last glance at the Minapin glacier before returning to camp.

Already near the camp, Haider shows a trick with a local bull. One magic crouton and ...

... instead of one, three multi-colored heads appear at once!

When the camp owners asked Dima what to cook for dinner, he clarified from what can we choose? The answer was: "Mmmm ... Maybe rice with vegetable gravy?" :))

Anyway, today again we had a vegetarian dinner — rice with dal or dal bhat. The nice thing about this dish, however, is that it continues to be served until you are full.

I met the sunset alone, in a pit. I wanted reflections, and @kibela decided to go to the beginning of the wall, closer to the place where we first saw the glacier. And she took with her almost all the rest of the group, who decided today to also admire the sunset from a height.

I wonder what they saw there? I hope they will show me later!

Night fell, and the whole sky was covered with stars... The Milky Way appeared. Such a beauty! But it's time to sleep.

Tomorrow we will descend from the mountains to the village of Minapin Nagar, pick up the left in guest house things and immediately move on, where exactly — Dima does not tell us, he only says that the place will be beautiful and at the same time it will have a comfortable bed. Okay, I'll believe him — he hasn't disappointed us yet :)

To be continued...

Parts of the journey:

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📷 The Land of High Mountains: Pakistan. Day 6. Minapin Glacier and Ice Bridge