Free Thieves, Liars and Mountaineers: On the 8000 Metre Peak Circus in Pakistan's Karakoram Mountains by Mark Horrell Page B

they confirm that it will need at least another 24 hours of consolidation. We're still keeping our fingers crossed there's no more heavy snow, or we may have to abandon our attempt on G2 and switch to G1.
    At 1pm Phil, Gordon and Ian head back down to Base Camp, but Arian, Michael and I have decided to take it easy and spend another night up here at Camp 1 before descending again tomorrow morning, giving us an extra night of acclimatisation at nearly 6000m. We all seem to be in good physical shape for a summit attempt now – it's such a shame about the weather.
    We only have a single stove at Camp 1, so later in the afternoon Arian crowds into the tent with Michael and I, and risking a new brand of freeze dried expedition food this time, we enjoy a surprisingly tasty meal of soup, chapatti with cheese, and chicken and rice, washed down with plenty of coffee.

28. Kidnapping the cook
     
Wednesday 8 July, 2009 – Gasherbrum Base Camp, Pakistan
     
    I'm woken up at 5am by Arian shouting from the neighbouring tent, “It was minus 18 last night!”
    I look at my watch, but it reads just -8º C, which seems more like par for the course. It's been -7º C at a similar time in the morning at Base Camp, which is 850 metres lower and consequently some five degrees warmer (you can usually reckon a drop of six degrees Celsius per 1000 metres of altitude gained). I'm getting used to the cold temperatures now. It's next to impossible to put on boots, harness and crampons and go for an early morning slash without ending up with freezing fingers. Usually I clear this discomfort quickly after I've put on my big down mitts and begun walking, but it's another crystal clear morning and I'd like to be able to take photos, so I take a chance with my small leather Marmot gloves.
    Arian, cheerful as ever, jogs up and down on the spot while he waits for Michael and me to get ready, and we leave Camp 1 around 6am, Michael leading this time, with me in the middle of the rope and Arian at the back. My fingers are painful at first, but after twenty minutes of arm-swinging as I walk I manage to get them comfortable enough for photography, though soon discover taking sneaky pictures while on the move isn't quite so easy from the middle of the rope. For most of the walk down Michael's silhouette is framed above by the giant sun-kissed dome of Baltoro Kangri (or Golden Throne), which sits above Base Camp on the opposite side of the Abruzzi Glacier. This is the mountain that most frequently lets us know it's there by giving off regular avalanche rumbles, and we can see more of it – a good 500 metres crowning its top – from the upper reaches of the South Gasherbrum Glacier. However, a rope swinging in front of me, another swinging behind, ice axe under my arm, and camera in my left hand as I peer at the display as I walk, is a tricky operation, and I can only hazard it on the more open sections where we are free from immediate crevasse danger. Even so, on a couple of occasions Michael has to stop when my legs get entangled and he feels a tug on the rope.
    About half an hour after we've left camp we encounter a cheerful Serap Jangbu coming the other way with our cook Ashad, who has worked Base Camp on many expeditions, but this is the first time he's come up to the Gasherbrum Cwm. Although we're miffed that Serap has kidnapped our cook, the smile that lights up Ashad's face as he stands among the horseshoe of triangular peaks quickly dispels any hard feelings. We get back to Base Camp at 8.45. The others have waited for us before having breakfast, and at 9.30 Serap and Ashad stroll back into camp, having left at 3am, walked all the way up to Camp 1 and come back down again. We expect such feats of stamina from Serap Jangbu, the man who's climbed eleven 8000 metre peaks, but given that it took me six hours just to get up the first time I went to Camp 1 it seems we have a superstar chef in our midst as well.
    It was a great couple of days in the Cwm, and