Dispatch 7 – Trek from Askole to Jhula (10,400ft/3170m)

Askole
Askole

Today, I woke up after a very good night’s sleep in Askole, packed up my gear, and ate breakfast. I waited for some time as porter loads were divided up, but was told by my liaison officer to begin the trek before the porters were ready to depart. I conceded as I didn’t want to start our relationship off on a bad foot, and began trekking toward Jhula at 6:10am. I made good time, arriving quickly to Korofong, where I stopped briefly to eat something. I finally arrived to Jhula at 11:00am (the distance from Askole to Jhula is 12.5 miles/20km) and waited with Badia, Mauricio, and Thomas for the equipment to arrive. I continued waiting for more than 5 hours until I was finally informed by our Sirdar that one of the horses had fallen through a broken plank on the first bridge crossing and had broken his leg. As they tried to free him, the wire suspension bridge tipped over and he was stuck hanging from his cargo which had caught on the wire of the bridge. They tried for some time to get the bridge to flip back to its correct orientation, but finally had to cut the horse free. Since the cargo was the only thing holding him, he fell into the water below and passed away as he was swept away in powerful whitewater. I have always resented the use of pack animals here in the Karakorum and elsewhere. Although ferrying loads up the glacier is dangerous for both pack animals and men, the porters who carry loads choose to do so by their own choosing. The animals on the other hand don’t have a choice in the matter. When I first came to the Karakorum in 2005, only porters worked on the glacier. The predominance of donkeys and horses is a recent shift and one that I think was a mistake. I hope that incidents like this will drive home the point that this terrain is no place for a pack animal. Fortunately, due to my feelings about the use of pack animals, I had requested that my equipment be carried by porters if possible. Therefore, all of my personal equipment for the expedition arrived safely to Jhula in the late afternoon. Since the equipment that was loaded onto the horse was caught on the bridge, it will make its way up either on another horse of on the backs of porters in the coming days. But tonight, I mourn the loss of one of the members of my team. He will always be remembered and I will forever be grateful for his hard work. I ate my dinner with the Iranians then went to bed. Tomorrow, I will continue the trek to Paiju where we will rest for one day before continuing on to Urdukas.