July 20, 2021
We arrived back in Skardu after our attempt on Laila Peak and had a quick 18 hours before leaving for the town of Arandu where we would trek into Spantik.
Food. Shower. Shave. WiFi. Pack. Sleep.
Clean shave :)
This was going to be a long stretch of being completely off-grid, and this time I wanted to be prepared with content. Books, movies, podcasts, audiobooks, music, you name it, I wanted to have it downloaded. Expeditions have a LOT of downtime, and you can only spend so much time talking to your climbing partner(s).
On Laila I didn’t have a lot downloaded and very quickly burned through the three books I had brought. I decided for Spantik, I wanted to pick a topic I wanted to learn more about and deep dive into it – I chose Russia, specifically modern Russia (1998-present) with an emphasis on Vladimir Putin. I’ve never been to Russia, but it’s high on the list, and I hope to get over there once their COVID restrictions ease up. Anyway, I downloaded an 18-hour audiobook, a shorter eBook, multiple podcasts, and just about every Wikipedia page with any reference to Russia. All in, I had probably 40 hours of content on Russia – perfect.
WiFi time at our hotel. You don’t realize how attached you are to WiFi until you don’t have it for weeks… :/
Then I knocked out a quick website update right before the internet crashed, and went to bed at 2:30 AM – just in time to catch a few hours of sleep before our 5:30 alarm…
July 21. 2021
Up bright and early, we shoved down a hotel breakfast of tortillas and fried eggs, absolutely drowned in cooking oil, with instant coffee at the ready – the typical breakfast round these parts. We loaded up into two Toyota Land Cruisers and headed out for the town of Arandu. The drive was on rough roads and it took 9 hours to drive 58 miles. On the way, as we creeped over large rocks, inching near massive drops on a washed-out road, I noted to James that I could “literally” run this distance faster than we were driving. And that is a rare use of the word “literally” :)
The drive was beautiful, and the Toyota trucks were antique relics that I (and many others in America) would pay a lot of money to own in the States.
On the right is Salman, our guide
Tight squeeze past a broken wagon left on the side of the road
Late afternoon we arrived at the staging point for our trek. We had 2 more miles to the town of Arandu, but the road was exceedingly muddy so we would begin trekking from there the next morning.
Unloading the “Jeeps”
July 22-23, 2021
We got up at 5:30 for a quick breakfast before we packed up camp and headed out on out Trek. Our guide Salman had brought 5 porters from Skardu and the rest of the porters had arrived from Arandu. Local law dictates that at least half of the porters were to be from the town and a lottery determined who would get the opportunity to be a porter. In the small towns, being a porter is a sought after job as the wages are high compared to the other limited opportunities for work.
We had 25 miles and about 7,000 feet of gain ahead of us to get to the Spantik basecamp: three days of trekking. This was mostly uneventful, but the trek was beautiful as we made our way up a small dirt trail along a massive glacier that slowly changed from dirt and rock to solid ice. Endless 6000 meter peaks towered above us as we made our way up the valley – a lifetime of exploration and first ascents on unnamed peaks still to be had, for those willing to put in the time and effort.
A porter trekking towards Spantik
Quick nap after getting to camp on our trek to Spantik BC
July 24, 2021
We arrived at basecamp around 2 pm. The location was absolutely stunning: perched on a rocky outcropping, the glacier 300 feet below us and the ridge towering above – leading to the summit of Spantik. The was a panorama of awe-inspiring peaks 360 degrees around us. It was definitely the best basecamp I had ever been at.
July 25, 2021
After a lazy morning, we decided to carry a load of gear up to camp 1. The climb from basecamp to C1 was up a small trail, weaving up a rocky ridgeline while rapidly gaining 2000 feet. The occasional wooden wand or rock cairn marked the often-disappearing path. We each had 27+ KG (I’ll let you do the conversion on that) of weight and would have a smaller load for our second and final carry to C1. 2.5 hours later we were at C1 at 16,500 feet.
Our first view of the summit of Spantik
We dropped our gear then skinned up for 30 minutes, ripped skins, and made a few glorious turns back to camp. FINALLY! After carrying our skis for miles and miles and never strapping them on for Laila, we were finally going to ski!
Skin track above C1
Hyped after getting a few turns in!
We hiked back down to basecamp with no loads in a quick 35 minutes. We planned to sleep at BC then head back up to C1 the following day to start our climb.
July 26, 2021
Go time! After lunch we packed up our light loads and set off for C1. This time we were faster – just under 2 hours. We were feeling strong and acclimatized. Up at C1, we had a lot of gear: a solor panel, drone, batteries, cameras (strong uses of the plural), and extra food and fuel. We planned to carry most of our gear to C2 then go fast and light from C2 to C3 and summit as that was where most of the steeper and harder climbing was. Also, anything over 18,000 feet began to feel very hard as the oxygen was seriously diminished.
We loaded up about half our gear and skinned for an hour towards C2 before dropping our loads and skiing back to C1. We planned to complete the double carry to C2 the following day. We had too much gear to carry everything in single loads between C1 and C2, and since we were on skis and a splitboard, the going was significantly faster than bootpacking.
That evening, back at C1, the views were absolutely stunning!
Part 2 to be continued…