Trango Towers. Photo: Public domain
The season in the high mountains of Pakistan is “going off” according to resident US pilot Brad Sander. Two teams and a total of 16 pilots have been active in the region over June and July, with big flights still to come.
Last week Brad repeated his epic 224 km flight of last year from Booni to Hunza, but this time took two days over it. In 2008 he flew the route in one flight. He repeated it again by flying back the way he had come, this time spending three days flying and two days “making butter with shepherds waiting out the rain”.
British pilot Demian Hall has flown 10 flights of near the 100 km mark in the last two weeks. He is currently (17 July) bivvied out near Askole, the small village that is the gateway to K2 and the Karakoram’s biggest peaks, waiting for the weather to clear so he can attempt a flight to Trango Towers.
A full report on the season in Pakistan will be published in Cross Country issue 125
