DISPATCHES

Anderson

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Jimmy, Zahid, Ali and myself leave the Indus and walk down to the Naya Bazaar to order our food. The streets are alive with people and vehicles. Rugged Toyota Land Cruisers and the Jeep CJ7s have replaced the tiny taxis and mini-mini vans common in Islamabad. The store Zahid is partial to has fixed prices, which expedites the whole process.

The storehouse itself is about the size of a boxing ring. Two narrow corridors provide access to shelves cluttered with everything from pineapple drink mix to corn flakes and sardines. The floor is packed with 100-pound bags of curry, sugar, salt, pecans, apricots, flours and countless other spices and staples open for inspection. Jimmy and I sample some of the known items and only smell some of the unknowns.

Zahid has bought food for countless expeditions and has a good idea of the types and quantities needed. But invariably there are 101 decisions to be made. Should we get 40 or 50 boxes of crackers? Like most things in life, compromise is the rule and 45 boxes of crackers are the end result. We consult Zahid on various quantity questions and his common retort of, "As you like, sir," usually means we have estimated pretty close. And his soft-spoken suggestions of "Maybe more, sir," lets us know when we have screwed up.

Over lunch, we meet with Shah Jahan, a close friend of Brigadier General Tehir. General Tehir is the man in charge of the military in the Kondus area. We show Jahan our permit and ask him about the possibilities of a slight deviation from our written route. He says, "It is not possible to change our route at this point, any changes to your route should have been made by the Ministry of Tourism in Islamabad."

Of course when we were in Islamabad and asked these same questions, we were told the specifics of the route were left up to the local military. It seems that "passing the buck" is a universal phenomenon.

He also informs us that the General is going to provide us with a military escort to help us through the various military checkpoints on the way to the Kondus. This news is relief to us all. After Jahan leaves, we strategize about what our expedition goals should be. We agree to inventory all the climbing possibilities on the way to the end of the Kondus Valley. We will decide on climbing objectives once we have a good sense of what is out there. We ask Zahid if he thinks this is a good plan. "Why not?" is his smiling reply.

After a full day in Skardu, we sit down to another hearty meal in the Indus Hotel. Our dinner guest is Little Karim, a well-known Pakistani climber and high-altitude porter. Standing just over five feet tall, his gentle manner and friendly smile belies his inner strength. As a young man, he was overlooked as a porter for an American expedition due to his small size. Undaunted, he picked up the six-foot-three, 200-pound expedition leader, and carried him several hundred feet to prove his worth. He was hired immediately.

Little Karim entertained us with amusing tales of expeditions over the last 20 years. Like the time he spent two nights above 8000 meters "laughing and dancing all the time." Or when he carried a 25-pound parapente to the top of another 8000-meter peak so a French climber could float down to base camp in 10 minutes, leaving Little Karim to descend alone for two days back to base camp

He also filled our heads with visions of virgin walls and towers that he has seen in his travels. With hand and arm gestures, he communicated the whereabouts and heights of these dream climbs then snapped us awake with the imitated sounds of bombs exploding at the base of some of these walls. Brightly colored portaledges would make good target practice, so we all decided not to push our luck.

— Dave Anderson, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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