Wow - what a week!!

Hi Everyone,

I'm now in Gilgit, and will be on the way to Skardu tomorrow. I thought it would be a good time to take the opportunity to give you all an update. It's been a really fantastic 10 days or so - so much so that I find it difficult to even find a starting point. I guess chronological is good.
We had been in Booni (Chitral) for about a week, and were contemplating moving to the Ghizer valley. I had seen it during my flight from Hunza, after we camped in the mountain with the shepherds and I ate tough goat. After a couple of days of less than perfect weather (I think we might even have not flown one day!) we were up flying again. The conditions weren't that good, and we couldn't get more than a few hundred metres above launch. Romain had flown down, but I persisted a little longer and managed to get a weak climb low down, near the village. Slowly, I managed to work my way onto the ridge and up to 5000m. I began to realize that it might just be possible to jump over a high col and into the Ghizer valley, thus avoiding a 6 hour dusty, kidney jarring ride in jeep. It was quite cloudy and raining/snowing in several places around me in the mountains, but there were some blue patches. I crossed the valley at the town of Mastuj, and now only one 5000m col and a long glide separated me from the Ghizer valley and my destination (Phander). I got close, but the cloud kept closing the gap. Eventually, I decided that I would proceed towards the lower Shandur pass – a fair detour to the west. After about a kilometer, however, a window opened up beckoning to cross the ridge.


This is a photo looking back at the ridge I had just come over








After that, it was familiar terrain. I had flown this way when I came from Karrimabad just over a week previous. The sky was looking slightly menacing, so I spiraled down to Phander.





The sky over Phander






I landed in Phander and, as usual, was greeted by a huge crowd of children. In these villages, it’s like being a super-star – everyone knows who you are. I wouldn’t like to be famous!












Yes, I know this is not a huge crowd! Most of them had gone home by this point; these were just the ones that followed me all the way to the hotel.....







Sadabahar hotel in Phander







The next day I was alone, and decided to pioneer a new take-off above town. It looked perfect. The valley bottom is at 3000m, and it is an exceedingly steep 700m up to a take-off spot. I am slightly embarrassed to say that I used the services of a porter to help me get my equipment up there. The reality of the situation was that I had no lightweight equipment. My bag weighed in at over 20kg. With the effect of the altitude, I don’t think I would have been able to carry it up such a steep trail. To make matters worst (actually it made me feel better) the porter didn’t even break a sweat, and I couldn’t keep up with him!! I made a small reconnaissance flight of the area.

Romain arrived by jeep with Mansoor later that evening. The next day was epic. We had gone to bed late the night before, so we didn’t manage to take off until about 1130 (it starts working at about 1000). The conditions were perfect, and cloudbase was over 6000m. Early on in the flight, Romain and I got separated. He ended up flying a personal best of 117km to Gilgit where he stayed the night. I flew to Gilgit and tried to fly back to make a 200km out and return. I ended up landing in Gupis after 159km and nearly 7 hours.
















































A slightly disconcerting thing happened on the way back. The batteries of my oxygen system ran out! I had been without oxygen all day, and at altitudes of around 6000m, I seemed okay. Just after Gilgit, a particularly strong thermal boosted me up to nearly 6400m. I started to see glittery stars and my hands felt numb. I knew exactly what it was, and was scared that I would pass out. I pointed at the valley and concentrated on breathing properly. Then I remembered (lucky I read the manual properly) that you could bypass the electronics by connecting the nose tube directly to the bottle. It uses up all the oxygen pretty quickly, but is good in an emergency – quite chilly opening your down jacket to get access at 6000m though!

One of the absolute highlights of the trip so far was a short bivouac with Romain the other day. We set off up the mountain with all of our equipment. The plan was to not return to Phander. We flew together and entered the Yasin valley. The clouds were getting a little big for comfort, so we decided to abort and camp on the mountainside. We chose a pasture perched at 4000m, with cliffs of 2 sides. It was a perfect take-off for the next morning. Romain landed first, and I piled in at top speed after him. I think is was a double somersault I performed!


Our camp site is just left of the cloud shadow, at the middle-left of the photo








The place was perfect. There was firewood, a flat-ish place to sleep, and some melting snow to collect drinking water. The only bad point was our fault; we hardly had any food! We had: 2 packets of biscuits,1kg of nuts and 2 energy gel sachets. This had to do for lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch and, hopefully not, dinner again the next day. We made do, but you can imagine the state I was in the next day at 7pm after another 5 hours of flight when I got hold of some decent food!



Nice beards........









Our shelter made from the bit of rip-stop theat we each carried.









Romain exposing the problem our shelter will have if it rains........










Our drip collection system - the water got clearer and clearer the longer we left it.















The next day was incredible, again! We took off at about 1100am and made a tour of the Ishkomen valley. Truly, it is an incredible place. With cloudbase over 6000m, I probed into the far corners of the valley. First I wanted to cross a high col to Darkot in the Yasin valley, and later thought about crossing another high pass to the Hunza valley. In the end, I hadn’t studied this area very thoroughly on the map, and couldn’t risk a risk there being one more valley between me and my destination than I had anticipated. A snowy landing at 5000m+ would have been very bad news indeed. Especially when I was weak and with almost no food. Finally I made my way back to the main Ghizer valley, and landed near Ghakuch.

























Some photos of the Ishkomen valley








Sorry everyone! Even my internet tolerance level has now been reached. Next update sometime soon.... I am now well rested and fed. The weather has turned bad and we're off to Skardu by bus tomorrow.

Chao.

Demian xx