Nicholas Rice: Broad Peak Dispatch

2007 Broad Peak Expedition

Dispatch Forty-Five: July 24th, 2007

Day Forty-Five: Departure from Base Camp

Today we woke up to a snowy base camp and hurried to gather our things as our tents were taken down around us by the porters. After securing our 25kg porter loads, we had a quick breakfast, again racing as the porters dismantled base camp around us. We said our goodbye’s to our neighbors (Ana (Poland), the Georgian and their Liaison officer) and got on our way to Concordia. We knew the day ahead was a long one, thanks to the demands of our porters that we go all the way to Urdukas (a day comprised of three porter stages). We arrived in Concordia in two hours, had a quick break and continued to Goro II. The Mexicans, Felix (Spain) and I had a long lunch just after Goro II. We finally arrived in Urdukas at 5:00pm and waited patiently for our luggage to arrive, which included the mess tent, kitchen tent, and all of our personal trekking gear (aka sleeping bags, warm clothing, etc.). We had a late dinner at 9:00pm and went to bed with swollen knees and ankles thanks to the 1000 vertical meters we had just ascended with a mere two days’ rest after our summit attempt. We most certainly weren’t thankful for the porters’ strange demands.