Arian Lemal, The Sweeper Treetop

Here's a video of the first Pakistan: Different stages to arrive in the mountains ...

Pakistan 2010 (1)
sent by arianlemal

On 9 August, under an overcast sky and cool temperature, I left é ice and rocks from the base camp. Getting away, I turned é several times and look towards the e gasherbrum1 with a feeling of nostalgia, but also a sense of pleasure and satisfaction. I then said "Thanks for this great adventure and soon" the Gasherbrum 1 and 2 "(I intend to return ...) I continued my way ... ed in the direction of civilization. On that day in, I walked é 7am to join our camp. It was raining, the wind blew and froze my bones! It was rather unpleasant as time, especially as carriers have arrived é s 3h later with tents and stoves to make tea!

The next morning the sky was still overcast but not raining. A day walk from 8.30am waiting for me. On that day in, I walked the remaining 40km to exit the glacier. What a relief to leave the glacier! The big surprise of the day and pleasure was the appearance of plant odors. Indeed, for 2 months, there was no smell on the glacier. This evening at the night was starry and I slept under the stars.

Around 4am, I woke up in the fleet! My sleeping bag was wet in your browser! I rushed in the tent "dining room" to continue my night! An hour later I got up to take the breakfast! I laugh now, but not at the moment!

The third day, 40km walk (8am) waiting for me again. This morning l, I felt the muscles in my legs screaming "Arian, stretch, stretch stp! "Ok, ok. You're right. " Small stretching session, and presto, I borrowed the last section dusty and rocky hills of the Karakorum to reach the small village of Askole, first door of civilization ...

From Askole, we had to take the Jeep for 7 h to reach Skardu, the main town of the region (2nd door of civilization most important hotel, bed, shower, television and internet). But because of heavy rains, the dirt road was destroyed in several places. This morning l, we have e 1h market to pass the first landslide. We then took the jeep for an hour until 2nd landslide. We e through the debris off, and other e cot, we had the chance to find other jeeps to the rest of the way to Skardu. Pictured below, the huge rock that you see in front of the jeep rolled down the slope to 2 days before our visit. ...

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Pictured below we have through e jeep roaring river and a jeep is stuck in th e rest out of the riverbed. It took 40 minutes of work and several attempts to leave the ...

Here the landscape around us, at that time to ....

Patience was a must to this day the ...

Instead of the usual 7am, it took us 12 hours to reach Skardu. The return to civilization wins!

But the adventure was not over yet. Skardu, he had reached Islamabad to take our international flights. By road, it was impossible because the road was destroyed / blocked in several places. The only possibility was to fly, but because of the weather, the only daily flight could operate all day. So we tried to fly é army ... to no avail! After 3 days of waiting for a miracle and a few tickets under the table ", the aircraft has arrived é in Skardu and we were able to board. What a relief! The 3rd door was open ... civilization.

Here I am now at the hotel in Islamabad to write you these few lines. Tomorrow I take off for France with only one day retard.J 't lucky. I wish good luck to Pakistan with this difficult situation.

Hello,
After a long wait at base camp, I climbed in altitude, this time on Gasherbrum 1. Here is an overview of this trip:
August 3:
I did not hear my alarm clock at 3:30! It's a good sign because normally I can not sleep before a departure, but it also means that I will be "fluff" for breakfast at 4am! At 3:48, I heard someone walking around my tent. The sound of footsteps on the stones of the glacier woke me up. I looked at my watch with surprise, and I hastened to dress. I barely had time to drink a cup of tea that Phil wanted to "take off" toward the glacier. A long day and a good effort of climbing awaited us: a rise in BC (base camp) to camp2, ie elevation of 1500m and 20km away. My legs were heavy this morning. I was slightly "cooked" in arriving at camp1. After a short break we started the path to the camp2 with bags of 20kg. My legs were screaming "help Arian. Stop yourself and let us rest! "The judgments were limited to about twenty seconds every 70-80m for a bamboo plant to mark the path. Phil and I alternated the planting of bamboo to lighten our packs in a fair! The few hundred grams less are like pounds lighter at the sea! After 8 hours of climbing, we began seriously tired. Around 13:30, we climbed the last slope. Once at the top, we saw the tents of camp2. I put my bag. What instant relief for the shoulders and back! I removed my crampons and I sneaked into the tent. Phil and I were very happy to arrive and we can sit in our little tent (see photo below).

August 4:
At 5am, Phil and I opened our eyes after a good night's sleep. Still wrapped in our sleeping bags, our eyes met several times and said, "That one is warm. I have no desire to move. You? "-" Same. Let us close our eyes for a few moments! "Phil and I stayed in our bags until 7:30! At 8am, we shod our crampons and we headed towards the corridor of snow and rocks that would lead us to camp3 to 7100m. On my right lay a superb landscape of the glacier Pakistan and on my left, a Chinese mountain landscape very dry! The G1 is on the border between the two countries. Very frequently (every 5 minutes), stones and bits of ice slide down the slope. It was leaking in every direction! It should remain vigilant at all times ... Looking up at 100m above, I saw a piece of ice the size of a melon down the slope. I watched closer, I thought it would pass under me. Not at all, he was heading straight for me like a homing missile. I barely had time to say "bug", it struck my left leg hard. Peanut, what hurts! In camp3, I discovered a huge "blue" very painful!
To 6900m, the lane became very narrow (2m wide). When I could, I avoided the rocks and ice that fell. Other times, I returned my head (covered with a helmet) and I let the storm pass. After 5 hours of climbing, I reached the camp3. Phil arrived an hour later. It was cooked! But we were there, them both, and we were happy! We could stand a few hours before attempting the summit (starting at midnight). Camp3 of the view is magnificent:

Also on 4 August at 22h, I left the head of the sleeping bag to talk to Phil: "Do you hear the falling snow? It's not a good sign that! "-" No, it's even very bad sign! ". I head out of the tent to discover that it was snowing in abundance and visibility was minimal. We were in a cloud of mashed potatoes! "What can we do?" - "We are waiting to see if the weather changes ...". At 5am, the weather had not changed. The accumulated snow (20cm), the clouds were not moving, the conditions were bad. We decided to go down. The mountain will always be there. We'll go to the top again ...
August 5:
At 6am, we started the descent in bad weather. Halfway the corridor, I was wrapped by a large snow slide. I anchored as firmly as possible and I missed. After 5h down, tired, Phil and I reach the camp 1. We did not want to stay longer in the mountains. We dreamed of luxury base camp. We continued our descent. It was 11:30. The sun broke through the clouds, snow and heat made progress very slow and laborious. Every 3, I sank to his knees, and some time spent there the entire leg. After one hour, I regretted our decision. It was a mistake to travel on a glacier with crevasses during the day. Never again, I will do this mistake! What had to happen, happened! We were two rope to descend. While we were on a flat surface without any sign of crack, a climber in front of us disappeared into a crevasse. We hurried to reach the location of the crevasse and rescue. The crevice was dark, and the climber was 6m below. It is extremely cold and wet in a crevice. It was quickly activated to hold the anchors and ropes to rescue our comrade. He was trapped by the walls at the bottom of the crevasse. It took us 45 minutes to get him out. He was hypothermic, but there was nothing broken. We gave him chocolate, hot tea (we took out the stove for that), and we are eager to continue the descent it warms. The base camp was far ... Normally, the descent of the CB camp1 takes 2h30. That day, with the dreadful conditions of snow and fall into the crevasse, we had 6 hours to reach the CB. We were cooked, re-cooked, and arch-cooked! The photo below was taken in seracs 2h before coming to BC.

We left at 6am. We arrived at base camp at 17:30! What a day! As said a Slovenian arriving at CB: "It is inhuman a day like this! "From camp3, I have" swept "a bottle of oxygen, and camp1, tent torn abandoned by the Czechs.
Here I am at base camp after that famous day "inhumane"

Conclusion of this expedition: I have not reached the summit of 8000m which I wanted to get my message. But, I scanned more than 50kg of waste of these beautiful mountains and I returned to France with beautiful images and a great adventure to share with you and the schools that I visit!
Our planet deserves an effort! I still have 3 days to BC in what I call "my castle (see photo below, my tent is on a mound of rocks as the glacier has melted all around and as and extent, I strengthened my platform with stones. I am an expert in masonry now! )
Before starting the march back to civilization. I already think about the good and good fruit yogurt that I can eat! Back in France on August 15!

Assalam-E-Alakium (Hello in Pakistan)

As you may have seen the information is not tip top wig in Pakistan. The monsoon has hit the northern region (where I am) causing enormous problems of flooding. We just learned that the road back to civilization (Askole-Skardu) was completely swept by the floods.

Here at Base Camp, we have not seen the sun for several days, and it does not appear to improve before the 2-3 August. The time is long at base camp, very long ... Like I've said previously, we care as we can ... as shown in the photo below ...

By dint of making competitions throw stones, I have some soreness in the shoulder! Today is so complete rest of the shoulder ...

My sleeping bag, I spend time watching the snow fall outside my tent and I listen avalanches let down the slopes of surrounding mountains! I also hold my time picking up garbage around base camp. My latest finds are these oxygen cylinders. Small bottles date from 1990!

Today is a day of enthusiasm and excitement as we received the weather forecast for the next 6 days. It seems that the bad weather continues on 2-3 August and the winds aloft (usually around 60-70km / h) down around 30km / h. We'll go up in altitude for the last time if everything goes well on Gasherbrum 1 (8064m).

Surla photo below, in red, you can see the path of ascent (partially hidden at the foot of the mountain) and the red dot represents the camp 3 (7100m to) where is the waste that I count down.

The plane climbs is as follows:

August 3: rise of the base camp at Camp 2 (about 11 hours ride)

August 4: Ascent to camp 3 (6 hours ride) and collection of waste

August 5: If Phil and I are in shape to attempt the summit. Starting at midnight (about 12 hours of climbing and descending 6h), returning to camp 3. Maybe down to Camp 2 at 6400m (it will depend on our fatigue)

August 6: Descend to Base Camp with all the waste on the back. We will put out, but we keep our motivation by repeating: "Our planet deserves an effort!"

I'll keep you informed of events as soon as I can! In the meantime, send me the heat and sun!

July 21: 5:45 mat. Phil is outside my tent. Arian, you're
awake? "," Arian, Arian, Arian. I open the tent and Phil said: "What
time is it? My watch does not work! "Small Wake funny ...

The base camp is all white, it snowed in large quantities and for 3
days. It was freezing cold! We have found great activities
to pass the time:
- Snow tents
- Digging trenches between our tents
- Make a snowman
- Snowball fights, snow (still very funny as activity)
- Competition throwing snowballs at the other tents (Arshad
(The cook) and I are very active members of this discipline)
- Competition throwing snowballs at a can (my
favorite activity)
- And of course, all these activities are rewarded with good
cups of hot tea to warm cold hands!

On 24 July, 6:25 am, the sun came out and warmed my tent. What
great pleasure to see the sun and feel its warmth! Last night I also had the pleasure of admiring a starry night full moon.
What a sight! At 8am, we were waiting for pancakes for breakfast ...
Yum yum!
The days are very quiet right now. We chat, drink tea, listen to music, we have competed to launch stones at a tin can, you look at the surrounding mountains ... In short, this
is a real holiday! And I also think a lot of my projects sweeper tops ...
On 27, we received the weather forecast which confirmed the arrival of
28.29.30 snow for July. It was hoped that it passes to us
... Too bad side! We're stuck at base camp for a few days. I hope that in early August, the weather will be ok to go up in altitude on the Gasherbrum1 at 7100m and recovering abandoned oxygen bottles last year.

Today I went for a walk on the glacier and clean waste that had marked the previous day. I came back with 22kg of waste and an oxygen tank!

Our planet deserves an effort!