COVER STORY
ain’t no mountain high enough Mountain climbing is the ultimate in high-adventure sport, but before you start trekking, do a trial run on your treadmill BY SAAD ZUBAIR
Wheezing and gasping, I stopped in my tracks, and sat down, scrambling for my bottle of water. I was attempting to make my way up the first ascent from Tarashing village towards the campsite at Herrligkoffer which would give our group a breathtaking view of the Southern Rupal face of the Nanga Parbat. Honestly, though, at that point, I would’ve been perfectly happy to unroll my sleeping bag right where I sat. Thankfully, our trek leaders had dealt with such pansy-like behaviour before and they got me moving again.
Signing up for a 7-day trip through Gilgit-Baltistan up to Astore
and then on to the base of the 8,126 metre Nanga Parbat had been
a brilliant idea. Putting zero effort into getting in shape for the trek had been considerably less brilliant.
Our group of 29 adventurous souls had set out from Lahore on
the morning of May 20th. We were joined by other buses on different journeys up north. All together, the buses for all the trips
made up a convoy eight coasters long. We made our way North on
the GT Road, stopping only for food, diesel and bathroom breaks.
Come nightfall, we were well into the lesser mountains of the Hindu Kush.
Music in many different languages blared from each bus as we
got acquainted with the dramatic change in landscape. Around 4 am, we pulled into the PTDC motel in Besham and the human cargo of eight coasters spilled out and took over the motel. We made ourselves right at home: some of us, including me, lay down in the motel gardens overlooking the Indus River and destressed to the endless rushing of the great river, while others slept indoors. We awakened in a few hours by calls to an early breakfast so we could hit
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the road and make good time on our second day of travelling. JULY 17-23 2011