The question has been hiding in plain sight. Where the feck is K1? And what about K’s 3, 4, 5 and beyond? Fame and fortune in the Grand Explorer tradition await. Tally-ho old chap, off we go!
Actually, I’ve wanted to do this for a very long time. See K2, that is. Maybe it was my brother’s brand of skis, or my hankering for the underdog; perhaps I was attracted to its standalone beauty, or its difficulty in climbing, or its extraordinary death rate. Whatever it was, Everest never held much appeal—just too many people. That is not why I go to the mountains.
The risk assessment started early. DFAT has this on its Smartraveller website: Reconsider your need to travel to Pakistan overall due to the volatile security situation and high threat of terrorist attack, kidnapping and violence. I drill down into the data, and the region we are going to looks OK.
Next are the health considerations. Choose your sickness here. To mention a few: malaria; polio; typhoid; hepatitis; measles; tuberculosis; rabies; and Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever (whatever that is). It’s enough to put you off. We pin-cushion up with inoculations and raid the pharmacy for all types of tablets. For me, as it turns out (spoiler alert), stomach upsets (I end up losing five kilos) and car crashes (one small ding) were the main health risks.
Outdoor folk understand risk. We’re assessing it all the time. Is that Grade 4 river running at a Grade 5? Will there be enough
