DISPATCHES

Davis

Brady and I leave camp after breakfast and hike up the military jeep road to a village that seems like Shangri-La. The Balti people have shovelled out terraced fields, fed by networks of aquaducts that are fed from the glacier rivers that run down to the valley. I can't even begin to fathom how many generations of labor the labyrinth has taken. We wind our way on narrow footpaths through the green fields, trying to look unobtrusive. But these Baltis haven't seen foreigners for 18 years, and they all stop to gape or shout at us as we intrude through their meadows.

It's insanely hot at our Base Camp below Tahir Tower. Even at 11,000 feet, we're in a desert. So Brady and I are hiking up towards a much needed relief today from the heat. Despite the two weeks of packing and travel and complete lack of exercise, we both feel energetic and happy to be moving at last. We gain elevation beside the glacier river that feeds the village waterways, stopping a lot to admire the wild, pink roses and the incredible views we're gaining of Tahir Tower—now across from us—and the Saltoro peaks. Brady's altimeter now reads 12,500 feet, and I make a mental note of the fact that we're not even looking across at the halfway point on Tahir, I'm beginning to suspect the thing is bigger than we think.

We level out a bit, now at 13,000 feet. I feel so happy to be higher now, beside the water, cruising through green meadows with rock all around us. This environment, at this elevation, is my favorite. One of our goals for today, aside from scouting, is to wash some of our clothes. Down at the base of Tahir, it's a full desert, and we've had to make a huge water cache by filling all of our expedition barrels and water bottles and driving them to our camp by jeep. Washing is an unnecessary luxury down there — it's almost like already being on a big wall.

Brady and I hike up towards the edge of the glacier, feeling a bit disappointed that the tantalizing glimpse of granite that has lured us up here has turned out to be unappealing on closer look. But that's why we're up here. The only way to find the good stuff in this place is to personally tromp around and look.

Suddenly, I look to my right and see a very high, side glacier. As we walk a little further, we suddenly catch sight of a high, thin-slivered peak. It looks exactly like a shark's tooth and is incredibly beautiful. I start squealing with excitement, as we rush forward to see if we can see what the base looks like. It's about 1,000 feet above us, and we don't want to hike all the way up there right now.

But by hiking back a ways, we can see that it rises out of snow in the tight, high basin. Disappointingly, we see no lines whatsoever on the left skyline that faces us. But we both agree that it would be well worth the gamble to go up there and climb the snow gulley that leads to the right skyline. It would be a proud alpine route if the right side went.

Excited now, we continue up and get onto the glacier. It's beautiful; ice covered with rock and pretty easy walking. Brady and I talk and laugh, so excited to be here. "I can't believe that we're the first climbers to ever come up here, or into this whole valley at all," Brady keeps saying delightedly.

Another wall rises directly out of the glacier on our right, but it appears to have pretty bad rock with maybe one gnarly aid line on it. But in front of us are two beautiful snow-covered peaks, and several smaller buttresses of nice, dark granite. Up to our left is another high glacier arm with a tantalizing snowy granite peak. If only we had the energy now to run up the 2,000-foot gully that leads to it and really scope that one out!!

At times like this, I wish desperately to be my dog Fletcher. She'd be able to run up all these side glaciers in 10 minutes. We hike out as far as we can, tortured by another turn in the glacier ahead. What's behind that corner? We want to know, but we've already been moving for six hours and are starting to think about turning around. If we go further, it will get later and later and, next thing we know, we'll be bivying up here on our day hike. We also kind of forgot to bring food and are now beginning to feel ravenous.

By the time we return to the village, I'm starving and am thinking only of the last mile of dirt road that leads to Base Camp and dinner. As we hike on the thin trails through the fields, women begin to shout at us. This is weird, because usually the women are hiding or running away. Brady and I look nervously at each other. Are they angry because we're walking through their village? What's the deal? I have a headache and really don't want to deal.

We try to look invisible (yeah, right) and cross the foot bridge over the river. Suddenly a horde of Baltis wearing warmup suits, instead of the typical shalwar kameez, approaches. "Oh no," I say to Brady.

But it's merely a troop of Pakistani soldiers out running around. They swarm us and pull out point and shoot cameras. They all want a picture with Brady and me. I know PR is important here, so I smile wanly and stand there feeling like a cardboard cutout as they take turns running up beside me to pose for a picture.

Finally, everyone has gotten his photo and we start to hike up towards the road. About 50 men, women and children, all segregrated into groups of same age and sex, are lining the trail. They're all yelling at us. Frankly, I'm beginning to feel stressed and annoyed. After an idyllic day of exploring in the mountains, I'm not ready for this culture shock. It's really worrisome not understanding what the Baltis mean by shouting at us. We really can't tell if they're just curious, or if they're feeling unfriendly.

There's a lot we don't understand in this culture. The staring, for one thing. People seem to think it's okay to just line up in front of our camp and stare openly, and hard, right at us for hours without even coming forward to say hello. It starts to get creepy after a while, but evidently staring is fine in this culture. It's hard for us to take, as staring is totally unacceptable and invasive in America.

So we don't understand how to react to this lineup of shouting people. We really can't tell from their faces and shouts if they're angry or cordial. It's strange how they're all just standing there yelling. We try to look friendly and just keep moving. Later we find out that they were mostly just excited to see us.

As we reach the road, the soldiers manning the checkpoint invite Brady to stay for some tea. He thinks it's a good idea to be sociable, so I leave him behind and make a break for the safety of our camp. Zahid has rice and dal waiting, and I start shoveling it down. Later that evening, Special Forces soldiers come to visit and get a gear demo from the boys. I hide in my tent. It's a pretty strange experience, being here so close to these villages and military. It's not like a normal trip to the mountains, being totally alone except for the tight knot of climbing partners you've travelled there with. On this trip, we're all going through phases of enjoying the cultural experience, and feeling overwhelmed by it all.

— Steph Davis, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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