3 months in Pakistan
17 December 2018
This year I had the opportunity to visit the Pakistani Karakorum for 3 unforgettable months.
Pakistan is one of my favorite mountaineering countries. This land is full of incredible treasures: the peaks are great, its valleys majestic and the landscapes are simply breathtaking; the culture is very rich too and the people are among the kindest and most hospitable people I have ever met. In Pakistan there are also 5 of the highest peaks in the world: K2, Broad Beak, Gasherbrum 1 and Gasherbrum 2 and Nanga Parbat. Winters are very snowy and ideal for downhill skiing, while summers are perfect for trekking and mountaineering.
This year I arrived in Pakistan in early April to guide and support a group of freeriders in the making of a ski film set in the heart of the Karakorum. During this trip we spent 3 weeks alone on the Nobande-Sobande glacier in search of dream-like landscapes to capture with our cameras. We then crossed the Skam pass to reach the Biafo glacier: a 130 km long ski touring on the huge glacier of Pakistan to ski surrounded by the beautiful Pakistani spikes.
After this first ski tour, with my friend Yannick Graziani, I tried to ski on the Spantik (7,000 m). Unfortunately, 10 days of heavy snowfall brought a great risk of avalanches so we had to surrender without reaching the summit.
At the end of May we decided to give up, so we went down through the valley of Dhappa to discover the "small" local peaks (of over than 5,400 m), where we managed to ski on the fresh and dusty snow. It’s just in this valley that we came across many small villages whose inhabitants had never seen Westerners before.
After these first 6 weeks of travel, I came back to France, where I’ve rested with my family for three weeks.
On June 20 I returned to Pakistan to climb the Gasherbrum 2 (8.035 m) with my teammates Masha Gordon and Yannick Graziani. We were in the heart of the Karakorum, on the biggest glacier of Pakistan - the Baltoro - over than 100 km long. It took us a week of walk to reach our base camp at the foot of Gasherbrum 1 and 2.
After 3 weeks of acclimatization, on July19th we tried to reach the summit of Gasherbrum 2. During the night, however, passed to camp 4 at over 7400m, it fell over 40cm of snow.Anyway, the next morning we tried to climb up to the summit, but at 7600m, in front of a huge amount of snow and a very high risk of avalanches, the reason prevailed and we sadly decided to give up the deed. See you soon Gasherbrum2: I promise to come back to you soon!
And that’s how my season in Pakistan went has been. A fantastic adventure, in a country whose beauty is hard to explain in words: perhaps the best thing is to discover it in person! See you soon for new adventures!
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