Today, we woke up at 3:00am (to avoid trekking in the heat) and quickly began descending in the pre-dawn hours toward Askole. We knew that today would be long as we had originally intended to arrive to Bardumal rather than to Paiju. In not arriving yesterday, we added 15km/2.5 hours to our already long trekking day. We arrived to Askole destroyed at close to 4:00pm. After spending the better part of the day walking with a heavy pack in the hot sun, my minor cough had turned into a major problem. I arrived with a fever and a productive cough. Thankfully, the heat broke shortly after we arrived to Askole and a torrential downpour began. Badia and Mauricio (Mexico) graciously offered their mess tent as refuge from the storm while we continued to wait for the rest of our equipment to arrive. When it finally did, we quickly unpacked the tents and tipped the porters who were eager to go. We settled into the mess tent for our last dinner together in the mess tent, then went to sleep, hoping that the rain wouldn’t cause any massive landslides that would prevent the jeeps from passing through to Skardu in the morning.