All was set for final push. The weight was too heavy. We left onto the path our porters had told us before they left. First half hour hike is kinda plain. Its simply grounded walk on a glacier.
There are two Gali points on this trek. First Gali is 30 minutes walk from the spot where we camped and second is just below the summit point of the shounter pass. we had to cross both Gali points in one day. both Gali points are elevated at the angle of almost 80 degrees. It is like a vertical wall of slippery and hard snow. Thanks to Allah we had our Ice Axes with us.
Me and nauman made a lead at this point a started to cut a trail on this deadly wall with our ice axes. we cut the trail slowly in S shape so the climb would be easy and we would climb with a support of Ice Axe. So we climbed. Arslan Bhai and Fahad followed the trail. we were above this Gali point and on a plain glacial point in three hours. We felt a joy of achievement. We were tired but felt lucky. This First Gali is first deadly point where people had died in the past trying to reach the pass. Nobody was hurt among our team. now we had this strong feeling that either we are going to reach Astore or we are going to die trying. there was no turning back cuz it was almost impossible to get down from this Gali without using rope which we didn't have.
This point is the first point where you can have a look at Shounter pass top.
Weather was clear. No clouds. Sun shining. high hopes.
We walked for almost 3 more hours on this glacier having these dry fruits, dehydrated completely. Eating snow. during this walk, we had the first feeling that we were being engulfed by Altitude sickness. Even straight grounded walk was becoming more and more painful. After few steps, we had to catch our breath.
We planned to walk together, and to stop after 15 steps. catch our breath. and walk 15 steps again. the plan seemed to be working nicely. It was like a game. We didn't take any pictures during this time, we didn't care for pictures to be honest. All we cared for was for air to breath in. we were getting slower and slower, each step getting harder and harder.
We reached the base of Shounter pass by 3pm. and sat onto the snow for an hour. getting refreshed by eating snow for hydration and feeling helpless seeing onto the final wall infront of us. It looked harsh.
We didn't want to climb further even after an hour's rest. we knew we couldn't camp at this height without any food and cold conditions. we had to cross today which seemed never happening at that point.
At around 4pm, clouds seemed to be getting together again in the distance. We had the idea that we had not more than an hour of time to cross cuz after that it definitely would rain or snow fall.
We carried our weights, ice axes. Arslan bhai Led us here from the front. the plan was to climb without cutting any trail and using ice axes to simply climb this section due to limited time. the clouds brought us new motivation that we had an hour to save ourselves from the trap again. We picked our ice axes and climbed this last section, FINALLY!
by 5pm, we were on the top of Shounter Pass. Alhamdulillah. we shouted, Literally. loud. I didn't remember the last time i was this much happy. we hugged each other. and photographed a little.
