Breathing heavily, we have been struggling for hours now, trying to get up a steep, ice-covered cliff in the dark, holding tightly onto fixed ropes. Our crampons seem to be doing no more than scratching the stone, and it’s hard to get a foothold. At 5,500m, it feels like our lungs are on fire; with every step, we need to stop for a breath. Our bikes, strapped to our backpacks, have increased the load we’re already carrying to over 20kg. The trek itself is exhausting enough, never mind trying to fight the weight of our bikes and stay balanced. But we haven’t given up our hopes of conquering the biggest obstacle on our route, the Gondogoro La.
When I started planning this trip two years ago, I had no idea how hard this ascent would be. Looking back, it’s probably a good thing. I wanted to fulfill one of my dreams, that of visiting Concordia in northern Pakistan. The confluence of two mighty glaciers—the Godwin-Austen and the Baltoro—Concordia is considered the heart of the Karakoram. Nowhere else on earth are there more 7,000- and 8,000m mountains in such close proximity. And, of course, one of those peaks is the mountain of all mountains: K2.
Once I’d planned everything in detail, I started looking for travel companions. I found a motivated mountain biker in Jakob Breitwieser, and Martin Bissig was the ideal photographer and filmmaker. Back home, reactions to our travel destination were a mix of incredulity and misconceptions. Hardly surprising.
