Snow Lake, Pakistan

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SNOW LAKE, PAKISTAN Matt Comeskey Travelling across Snow Lake (Matt Comeskey) "Snow Lake" - the name suggests some kind of remote One of our main objectives was an unnamed and mythical place. Not until 1937 were some of the unclimbed peak beyond the Khurdopin Pass at the head of geographic riddles of this area of the Central Karakoram Snow Lake. The pass is about 5700 metres high -a grunt solved. Eric Shipton and H.W. Tilman produced the first in itself, not to mention the 6500 metre peak beyond it. accurate map of the area, but since their exploration, Our progress was delayed by bad weather which dumped Snow Lake has only been visited occasionally. Many of more snow on the pass. the surrounding peaks are unclimbed even their heights are uncertain. It was the uncertainty and remoteness of Near the top, we camped on a spectacular site before Snow Lake that attracted John Nankervis, John Wild, crossing the pass the next day. We crossed the Khurdopin John Cocks, Dave Bamford and myself to visit this part glacier and under our chosen peak. The next day we of the Karakoram in June of this year. climbed the peak without difficulty and enjoyed an incredible view from the summit. More peaks, passes, We left the well trodden route to the Baltoro Glacier and glacier and icefalls than the eye can take in, from giant K2 base-camp to head north up the long and easily Nanga Parbat in the south all the way into China. travelled Biafo Glacier. For five days our porters faithfully humped our gear up the glacier under the We returned to base-camp after visiting a side glacier and granite spires and ice hung peaks that line the Biafo. We making another first ascent, only to find that a bear had pitched our base-camp on snow near a camp-site used by payed us a visit. Shipton. We even found tins and an old packframe in a rock cairn above the camp. After fifty days, a visitor, any visitor was welcome, but one that eats tins without opening them first doesn't make For the next few weeks, we acclimatized on skiing and polite company. Table manners aside, Himalayan Crown climbing trips from our base-camp. We soon began to Bears don't always respect the privacy of their hosts. An appreciate the scale of the Karakoram. Its big, its hot and Italian trekking party camped across the glacier had a bear its a long way to anywhere. Contrary to the fact that rip into a tent with two people sleeping inside. The bear Snow Lake looks like a slice of Antarctica, it can get hot. returned to our camp that night before disappearing into Without skis, travelling in the soft snow would have been a snow storm that lasted four days. extremely tedious.

We decided to fortify our camp by burying the food cache and surrounding it with skis, up-turned crampons and iceaxes. These didn't deter the bear as it didn't return, but did impale me while trying to retrieve a tin of tuna! When the storm cleared our porters arrived to carry our gear out. Our route out was over the Hispar Pass and down the Hispar Glacier to the Hunza Valley. On the way out we wanted to attempt an unclimbed peak, Hispar Sar, approximately 6400 metres high. Unfortunately our attempts were frustrated by difficulties in getting onto the peak. We left feeling a bit cheated at not being able to get ferk4Pe13e 14111 11 - - XN Y to grips with the peak itself. The trek down the Hispar was a delight despite our overloaded packs. The route followed ablation valleys above the glacier they were full of flowers and fragrant herbs. It felt sO good to have grass beneath the toes again. Our arrival in the Hunza Valley coincided with the apricot harvest. After having gone without fresh fruit for so long, it was wonderful to have "fresh-off-the-tree" juicy apricots thrust upon us by local kids. After loitering in the Porters, Biafo (Matt Comeskey) Hunza for as long as possible, we reluctantly headed home. Before the plane touched down in Wellington, I was already doing my sums, hoping my bank "imbalance" would stretch to a trip away next year. There's an awful lot of the world to see! Ascending Khurdopin Pass (Matt Comeskey)