Nikki Wallis Italian ADIQ Expedition to Broad Peak

It is very humid here with temperatures over 30 degrees. The flight from Milan to Doha (Qatar) was very exciting as we were accompanied by the legendary Kurt Diemberger who is also trekking to K2 Base Camp with another Italian 50th Anniversary K2 expedition.

Road travel in Pakistan is very 'exciting' - there are no road rules (seemingly to the Western visitor anyway) and the Darwinian Law applies - those who beep their load, vibrato horns the loudest are usually the more successful in getting to their destination - however in some cases their arrival in 'heaven' may be quicker than anticipated.

Every square meter of the highway is busy with something going on, from council workers cutting grass (well, using a manual 'mower' to cut the various clumps of greenness amongst the mounds of dirty soil) to workers putting up billboard posters (not in the usual way of wallpaper paste and ladders, but using 10 men and a hoist made of ropes slung over from the other side), to bicycles overloaded with piles of material to sell waiting to be overbalanced.

We are apparently unable to get a flight from Islamabad to Skardu as there have only been two flights this week and it is heavily overbooked - so we are gritting our teeth, crossing our fingers, and will be traveling on road via the notorious Karakorum Highway from tomorrow.

The group had the first briefing last night from Giampolo to ensure that everyone was familiar with the ins and outs of the three high altitude alpinists with diabetes - myself, Marco Peruffo and Daniele Mirolo. We have 3 small sub cutaneous gadgets from Minimed that will be used by us throughout the trekking and at altitude to continuously measure blood glucose levels which will then be downloaded to a PC which will give us a daily profile of our blood sugar levels.

There are a total of about 30 of us, 11 high altitude alpinists and the rest trekkers who will be trekking to Base Camp at an altitude of 4800m and who will then, weather and conditions dependant, will be trekking over the beautiful high pass of Gondogoro La down to Hushe.

We visited Raj Bazaar yesterday afternoon. We emerged from our protective air conditioned vehicles to be greeted with humid air mixed with a mixture of sweat, spices, fruits, diesel fumes, open drains and coffee - and as we seemed to be the only Western faces in the locality at the time - were something of a spectacle for the locals. The bazaar lead us down narrow squeeze alleys filled with narrow shops containing everything from recycled aluminum cans to mounds of colored herbs and spices, tinsel and ornate headwear for weddings to cloths of silks and cottons of a myriad of colors. We were followed by numerous beggars who had a variety of different English words asking for money from "plis, syr" to moans and whimpers from those who were unable to speak. This was quite difficult to deal with especially as we obviously had lots of money and objects e.g. cameras that were worth more than they would ever possess.

We must now go back, end of report one - speak to you all soon.

Nikki Wallis Italian ADIQ Expedition to Broad Peak

Altitech2: Digital Altimeter, Barometer, Compass and Thermometer. Time/Date/Alarms. Chronograph with 24 hour working range. Timer with stop, repeat and up function. Rotating Bezel. Leveling bubble. Carabiner latch. E.L. 3 second backlight. Water resistant. 4" x 2-1/4" x 3/4" 2 oz. Requires 1 CR2032 battery. See more here.

  Altitude pre-
   acclimatization

   Ascenders

   Atlas snowshoes

   Black Diamond

   Botas

   Brunton

   Carabiners

   CaVa Climbing Shoes
   Clearance

   Clif Bar

   CMI

   Crampons

   Edelweiss ropes
   Eureka Tents

   Featured

   FoxRiver

   Garmin

   Granite Gear

   Harnesses
   Headlamps
   Helmets

   HighGear
   Ice Axes

   Kavu Eyewear

   Katadyn

   Kong

   Lekisport

   Lowepro

   Motorola

   Nalgene

   New England Ropes

   Nikwax

   Omega

   Outdoor Designs

   Pelican

   PowerBar

   Princeton Tec

   Prescription Glacier

   Glasses

   Primus

   Rope Bags

   Seattle Sports

   Serius
   Sleeping Bags

   Stubai

   Suunto

   Tents

   Trekking Poles
   Ushba
   and more here