Edmond and Joost compare with Gasherbrums IV and V.

And in the evening.

The goats struggle towards K2, towards their unhappy endings.

Gasherbrum IV, with 50 mm-lens, borrowed from Ronald.

On the brink of Concordia (4550 m). Cas and I walked together here. During these trekking-days a sort of competition evolved. In the morning we all leave together more or less , but after half an hour everyone has his position. And your position is ruled by your shape.

Detail from Italian Baltoro-map: At Concordia the Godwin-Austen glacier from the north, the Broad Peak and East Gasherbrum glaciers from the east merge with the Baltoro glacier, coming from the south. Baltoro glacier is about 70 km long and genarally between 2 and 3 km wide. And still not the longest glacier in the Karakoram-range!

From here the Muztagh Tower (7273 m) shows beautifully.

Biarchedi Peak in close-up from Concordia.

As we approach Concordia, Broad Peak (8051 m) reveals itself. As a rule Hans arrives first at our destination each day. Wilco and Edmond move fast as well. Joost, Arjan and I go a little slow, we generally arrive when camp is being built by the fastest.

As we enter Concordia our goal comes out all of a sudden (but quite expectedly). Quite unexpectedly a cameramen-argument came out here as well.

Edmond came quite hard on Joost as "I had clearly proposed earlier" to arrive here first of all, in order to film the arrivals of all the team-members right here, thus recording all the "ooohs" and "aahs" of the K2-revelation upon entering Concordia. Joost reposted that his shape and speed simply weren't enough to keep up with Edmond. Edmond wouln't stop moaning for about an hour.

From here K2 (8611 m) seemed very steep, even untouchable. I always find the dimensions of such a huge mountain hard to estimate. K2-summit (8611 m) rises more than 3500 meters over Basecamp (4950 m)! 160_ABc-Camp 1 Trail Ronald N.jpg=Breath-taking 45 degrees upwards in deep snow; very exhausting and very boring.

On our other side is Baltoro Kangri (7312 m), near the cease-fire line with India. On the other side of this mountain, to the left, is the Siachen glacier where the firing still goes on; we heard shooting from there every now and than.

Last camp on the trek is at Broad Peak Basecamp (4800 m). The morning of the last stage; we leave Broad Peak Basecamp to change to K2 Basecamp.

The weather veryvery fine. We were lucky; many people arriving here, see only clouds.

View from Godwin-Austen Gl. to Concordia and Chogolisa (7628 m).

The goats had to be supported going up. They seemed exhausted, maybe even suffering from altitude sickness. The poor animals didn't know they were only serving as fresh meat source.

Upon arrival the porters are arranged per village of origin and get paid and leave.

The procedure takes more than an hour. After being paid they will happily speed away, back home.

K2 dominated our stay in Basecamp in many ways.

At early morning.

In the evenings.

From the other side we were constantly observed by Broad Peak.

Chogolisa is thought to be a reliable weather sign from K2-Bc; weather almost always comes there first.