Jesse’s alarm went off at 6:45 but I had already been up off and on for the past 3 hours. At this point, I had been in bed for 18 hours and despite all of the rest, I still had the chills and was a bit nauseous. I couldn’t figure it out because I had all BUT the primary symptoms of food poisoning, until I stood up, walked into the bathroom, and smelled the pungent diesel fumes from the road that were wafting in through the windows. That was the trigger that I needed and after a few painful minutes, I almost instantly started feeling better.

I dragged myself into the main hotel lobby and was warmly greeted by my team, who had become concerned over my disappearance. I assured them that I was good after the purge and we all had a good laugh. The fleet of old school Land Cruisers were sitting outside and it was quite the sight! The LC’s were all from the 70’s and are the classic type that you would imagine for a safari. Geoff, Dendi, Jesse and I piled into a red one with a sharp looking driver. This all star cast left zero doubt that it would be a fun ride. I was given the front seat due to my feeble state because it would be less bumpy and give me quick access to a window if need be.

The ride started off innocent enough, winding around the rivers, over sand dunes, and through small Pakistani mountain villages. As the ride progressed, our driver sensed the type of people that he was riding with, the excitable kind. He got a big smile on his face and floored it, flying past the other LC’s, inches away from unfazed pedestrians. We laughed as I turned up the Indiana Jones theme song on the speaker, I felt great!

The last couple hours of the ride were sketchy at best. It consisted of barely drivable roads that hang over steep river gorges. Often, we would have to improvise on the route because of rock slides, washouts, and collapsed road. Eventually we made our way to Askole, a little mountain village that was perched on the side of the gorge. It wasn’t much more than a handful of dilapidated houses but there were hundreds of people, some trekkers but mostly porters. This was the point that we joined up with the rest of our expedition staff and support team. This support team consists of about 10 cook and camp staff, and 230 porters! 70 porters already moved ahead to base camp but 150 would be traveling with us, as well as about 45 mules. We would also be joined by some of our meals; chickens, goats, and a buffalo would trail close behind. I don’t want to go into too much detail on this small army and the “food” because I want to save that for a more elaborate explanation.

As for the trekkers, much like Everest, the vast majority of foreigners that are heading to K2 basecamp are trekkers and Askole was full of them. It seems easy to discern between a climber and a trekker because climbers are few and generally wear normal street clothes, while trekkers often have team shirts and take photos of anything and everything. The day prior, Geoff and I had run into a handful of them in a shop. They had overheard our discussion about climbing and jumped at the opportunity to strike up a conversation. We of course, obliged and even agreed to take some photos with them, to their elation.

Back to Askole… this would be our first night in tents and we each settled into pairs to share, until we would have our individual tents at basecamp. My longtime partner in crime, Jesse Rosales, and I would be sharing throughout the trek to basecamp because Geoff will be sharing with another of our guides, Rob Smith. Once we were all squared away with the tents, we moved into the dining tent for dinner. My appetite had returned in full force and I was looking forward to getting on the move in the morning!