19.07.2016: UPDATE

Off we go to the mountains!

We plan to arrive Minapin later today and head for Base Camp tomorrow. We will have two days trekk over the Minapin Glacier and arrive BC hopefully the 21st of July. The weatherforecast tells us it will be rain Friday so we hope we are settled in BC then. We hope the weather will be clear by Saturday so we can start climbing to Camp 1. But we will carefully monitor the snow conditions before we start climbing.

Now we feel the mountains are waiting for us!!!

I am unsure about further internett access but I am happy to have Irene, Maria and Jentesport to forward my Sat phone messangers to you.

Stay tuned and enjoy your summer!!

Greatings from NW Pakistan and the Diran Expedition Team

Buy your awesome Aclima gear at www.jentesport.no

#aclima #helsport #arcteryx #jentesport

19.07.2016 UPDATE:

Gilgit, NW Pakistan 28C, rainy

Gilgit is the capital city of the Gilgit-Baltistan district. It was an important city on the Silk Road. It is considered as a Buddhism corridor from which many Chinese monks came to Kashmir. Now the population is about 10 000 where

71% is Twelver Shia Muslims, 17% Ismaili Shia Muslims and 12% Sunni Muslims. It feels like a melting pot of tribes, religion, culture and traditions; sometimes tens but mostly a friendly and peaceful atmosphere.

This is our third day here and we have been all over the place preparing for our expedition; getting bamboo sticks at the junkyard (the strangest place in Gilgit), getting red fabrick for the sticks, shuffle for Basecamp, ropes, tarpelin, gas, SIM card, 16 meters mattress, postcards and stamps (yes oldfashion), groceries, oil, flour, a new stove for BC, washing powder, spices, exchange of money. We have been to the obligatory meeting with Department of Tourism for registration of our climb, we have visited old friends, been to a 700 years old shrine and already had 3 free taxi rides, lots of mangos, milk tea, phrata and coffe. We have had the neighbours goats visiting us for breakfast, a taxi ride together with 16 meters of mattress in the backseat with 3 persons underneat. We have had a car breakdown in the middle of nowhere, dinner with friends and several visits to the shoemaker.

Now we are testing the tents, packing and doing the final preparations before we head up to Minapin which is the last village before we start our climb.

We plan to arrive Minapin later today and head for Base Camp tomorrow. We will have two days trekk over the Minapin Glacier and arrive BC hopefully the 21st of July. The weatherforecast tells us it will be rain Friday so we hope we are settled in BC then. We hope the weather will be clear by Saturday so we can start climbing to Camp 1. But we will carefully monitor the snow conditions before we start climbing.

Now we feel the mountains are waiting for us!!!

I am unsure about further internett access but I am happy to have Irene, Maria and Jentesport to forward my Sat phone messangers to you.

Stay tuned and enjoy your summer!!

Greatings from NW Pakistan and the Diran Expedition Team

Buy your awesome Aclima gear at www.jentesport.no

#aclima #helsport #arcteryx #jentesport

17.07.2016 UPDATE:

Gilgit, NW Pakistan 32C cloudy

We have had two days in Kalash Valley visiting the indigenous people of Chitral, whom their ancestors migrated to Chitral from Afghanistan in the 2nd century BC.

On our way to our acclimatization trekk, we watched a polo game in the Pakistani elite series. (The funny thing: we 4 white people were nearly more of an attraction then the national heroes, the polo players)

Our trekk sent over a 4600m mountain pass close to the Afghan boarder and the Wahan Pass. We had all kind of weather; sun, heat, rain, thunderstorm, snow... And we met many interesting people.

Now we are two days in Gilgit preparing for our climb; registration, shopping food, gas, maps...

More updates before we leave Gilgit.

Enjoy your summer!

Greatings from NW Pakistan and the Diran Expedition Team

PS a bit of TMI (too much information) for you: I am actually wearing wool underwear in 32 degrees celcius and it is confy!!!

Buy your awesome Aclima gear at www.jentesport.no

#aclima #helsport #arcteryx #jentesport

Everything packed, all set, checked in 44kg all the way. Got it all; awesome wool from @aclima, two tents from @helsport, my goretex jacket from @arcteryx and @jentesport, stove, food, climbing gear, even shuffel and my big boots and a tooth brush!!

I dont know when I will be online again but I will arrive Islamabad Friday morning. There I will meet Irena, Mojca and Tomaz and we will head up to Hindu Kush for a 10 days aclimatization trekk before heading to our mountain.

Wish you all a nice summer!!