|
|
|
|
 |
 |
  
|
adventure Another
Sialkot
adventure By Rabia Moghees Mountaineering in Pakistan,
involving tough terrains and weather threats, is not very popular with This year, like all previous years, many teams landed in Pakistan to scale the deadly K2 Mountain. A tragedy awaited some of them as 11 young men including two Pakistanis perished in their brave attempt of scaling the 'killer' mountain as most of us would refer to. In a guest house in Islamabad, one got a chance to meet with some of these 'crazy' mountaineers as they call themselves. These brave hearts have an adventure tale to share with us. The 7 member team comprising of Mike Farris (leader), Eric Meyers, Tim Horvath and Chris Klineke (United States) Paul Walters and Chris Warner (Australia) Chirring Dorje Sherpa (Nepal) and Fredrick Strang (Sweden) have all come back safely, with one of their team members Chirring Dorje of Nepal reaching the top of the summit while others had to return because of strong weather conditions and other factors. Chirring Dorje Sherpa is a
proud member of the team who was able to reach the top with his The original team of seven was further split into two; comprising four and three members each. The three member team decided to descend after reaching about 8400 meters as there were a number of factors that were not working for them and "it was way too dangerous to climb in the dark". Chris Warner from Australia believes that extreme weather conditions can pose a huge threat to the safety of the climbers as they were unable to convert their chances in the strong winds. "Our biggest enemy is the weather as only one member of our team managed to reach the top." K2 is 8,611m high and has
been a graveyard for many who wished to conquer it. At 8,100m, the team of
four could see many other teams from all over the world in their active
pursuit. A Slovenian climber died as the rope detached and a Pakistani who
went to rescue his Slovenian teammate also slipped and died. Nine other
climbers lost their lives in yet another tragedy with the fall of an
avalanche while they were descending. Of the total 11 who died, there were
two Pakistanis, two Nepalese, three Koreans, one French, one Norwegian, one
Irish and one Slovenian. "The mountain is so tricky that there is very little chance of survival or a rescue operation, in case an accident occurs," observes Chris Warner. "There's no time for rescue as it may take days for teams to reach the accident spots; only if the weather permits the helicopter can fly to assist the injured." This year there were three people carried by the Pakistani military helicopter to safety as they were suffering from the effects of frostbite. Carrying an injured or a dead body down is also extremely dangerous and difficult. That is why the bodies are usually left there to meet their fate. "Skardu is the last big town before we went to the mountains," informs Chris. "There we took a jeep and it took us six days to walk to the K2 base camp." Chris talks about the tough trekking of the 'Baltura' glacier where they stayed to acclimatise themselves with conditions as they established their four camps. He is all praise for Pakistani hospitality and of course the "incredible mountains". Little wonder he plans to come next year and try his luck again to reach the top of K2. Paul Walters, another Australian, says that K2 is a dangerous mountain right from the base camp as it is steep and there is a danger of rock-fall. "So one has to be careful about the team members as one climbs up. You feel a mountain is on the top of you as it is vertically angled. If you fall you are actually attached to the rope but the rope can be detached with the rock fall." The other problem with K2 is a very difficult section called 'bottleneck'. "There is chunks of ice falling from a serac which killed many climbers this year," Walters points out. "A serac is like a loaded gun. If it goes off (or falls) it is bound to destroy anything that comes in its way. It is like you get a soft snow on a hard blue ice which is very hard to make an impression with your crampons to make a foothold. So it becomes slippery and one is susceptible to fall." That is why they observed many climbers going back without making it to the top. Weather remains the bane along with strong winds and "it is unthinkable to go on a mountain in days such as these". Paul Walters was attracted to come to Pakistan because of the great history of the K2. "It is my third visit as my family has become used to my taking mountaineering so seriously. My friends were definitely concerned but we have a website blog that was keeping them posted about our safety. Sometimes the internet is a problem on such altitudes but then satellite phones can come in handy. What happened at K2 this year is very sad, though it has been a great learning experience too." Dr Eric Meyer, an American and the only doctor in the team, dubs his visit of Pakistan an "interesting experience" as he got to see diverse cultural traditions. The people he encountered during the trip were quite welcoming. About the tragic happenings at the K2 peak he says: "We have to put fear behind us if we want to take care of our safety and that of other team mates." "I was at camp 4 when I heard about the accidents. So the three of us decided to return as we had already climbed 8,100m and daylight was quickly running out. We were naturally worried but on the mountains, one has to use one's best judgment which is the key to the daunting task." After descending to the base camp, Meyer helped the survivors with medical treatment. These included two Dutch and one Italian climber who had injuries from severe frost-bite. He relishes the various challenges of being a physician in an expedition. "You can say that I'm a doctor who enjoys high altitude mountain climbing." Before attempting to tackle a mountain like K2, one must have at least 10-15 years of experience in mountain climbing. "The beginners can start by rock and ice climbing and hiking up to 4000m, taking it further up to 6000m and gradually increasing it to the level of 8000m," suggests Paul Walters. "For me the most important element is skill and experience. Then it becomes a natural process. You can only be successful if you have the required training," he says. "One can't fight against nature," observes Chris Klineke of United States. "Our expedition was successful as we placed one member on the summit of K2 without the use of supplementary oxygen. Any time a climbing team returns safely without injury or death to any of its members, it is a successful climbing trip." Chris Klineke worked for American Express for 15 years when he got fed up of his daily nine to five job routine and opted to travel and explore the world. He is happy to have climbed 12 mountains in two years and the experience has been "exhilarating so far". Though he plans to return to work some day, his heart belongs to mountaineering as he feels that this is where he belongs "on top of the world".
Walking twice around the plaza I felt I was not in Pakistan but in some European town -- so neat and orderly everything looked. It was uncanny; this could not be the country I have known By Salman Rashid It was a glorious day of
fleecy cumulus in blue skies where the sun would shine brightly only when As I wended my way through the city towards the cantonment en route to the Well of Puran Bhagat to the north, I reached what was once the hub of civil and military life in Sialkot. From previous visits I remembered Ghanta Ghar (Clock Tower) as something you barely noticed because of the lunatic bedlam all around. Here would be pushcarts, motor and animal drawn vehicles, bikes, encroachments with merchandise from shops spilling onto the pavements and even the streets. Here one could get frustratingly ensnared in unmanaged traffic that crawled along on streets all but overtaken by all sorts of commerce. It was about eight in the
morning, and the area was eerily free of traffic and pedestrians. And I returned at ten. A few stores were now open, there were pedestrians and vehicles passing by, yet with the roads and footpaths largely clear, the place had not become the madhouse of memory. I parked and stood there taking the scene in. Across from me the lovely building I had once looked up at with dismay because, if memory serves, it was neglected and about ready to fall to pieces was now looking prim. The brickwork of 'Bishamberdass and Sons Furniture House' was the colour I remembered from when we watched the sacrificial goat being opened up: the pale pink of healthy lungs. To match, the woodwork of the balconies was dark as liver pate. It did not look like an eighty year old monument but as if it was finished but yesterday. Furniture House had arguably long been the prettiest building in the square, but even the humbler ones were all spruced up. This was something that we rarely did in Pakistan. I thought of my friend Kamran Lashari to whom all of us can be thankful for endowing Lahore with a restored Gowalmandi and felt someone like him had been at work here. Walking twice around the plaza I felt I was not in Pakistan but in some European town -- so neat and orderly everything looked. It was uncanny; this could not be the country I have known. What with all night cable television viewing that is now our norm, ten in the morning was still a trifle early, even so at least one third of the stores around the plaza were open and there was no bedlam. I was still gawping, camera in hand and not yet having taken a single photo, when a car stopped and a man pulling himself out of it came striding very purposefully towards me. "Oh no, Not again." I groaned to myself. Here was another cloak-and-dagger operative come to tell me I could not photograph this "sensitive border area". But Shaikh Afzaal Ahmad offered me his hand and said, "Only a lunatic would be doing what you are doing." I asked him what horrible fate had befallen the city that Ghanta Ghar, of all the places, was deserted. He led me around saying nothing of the sort had occurred, only General Zahid had cleaned up the area when he "commanded Sialkot cantonment". Done with that, he drove me to his store for tea. He was all praise for this General Zahid. It turned out that the chaos of my memory was because of the encroachments in the square. With those gone, order of the old days returned that my friend Masood Hasan would remember from his childhood. Afzaal said that even when all the businesses were open later in the day, the place kept its sanity. But who was this general who, having the power, had the good sense to do what he could for Sialkot. This was something so few people did: to have power to change things and to use it judiciously. Some days later I learned that this was Zahid Hussain who I first knew as a rather serious second lieutenant fresh from the military academy joining the senior-most artillery regiment of the army back in the mid1970s. I again ran into him in Fort Munro twenty seven years or so later when he was a brigadier. He was still a very serious man. Thank heavens for consistency. I never knew him enough to know if he would make a general. But it was indeed that same Zahid Hussain who had started out with The First, commanded a division in Sialkot and who had now moved on to another assignment. It was this man who had brought the city's Ghanta Ghar virtually back from the brink. There are cities and there are cities in Pakistan that could do with men like Zahid Hussain. Men who have the power and the sense to preserve a little bit of our legacy. In the past thirty years, I have seen our heritage ruthlessly destroyed: from Gwadar through to Karachi and Hyderabd, Shikarpur and Rohri to Bhera and Peshawar, men of short stature and shorter sight have pawned away for a few rupees what belonged not just to the rest of the people of Pakistan but to the entire world. Bit by bit I have seen our heritage disappear. Eight years ago I passed through Ghanta Ghar so many times without so much as pausing to look because there was nothing but ugly billboards, encroachments and traffic snarls to see. This time around, I could only be grateful to Major General Zahid Hussain for doing what he did.
|
|
the local population. Mostly then, it is left to the foreigners who come from
all parts of the globe to Pakistan, fully aware of the challenges that lie
ahead. They try their luck to reach the top of the peaks they have always
dreamt of, putting aside the trepidation lurking around such a tough task.
resilience to pursue his moment of triumph. "I started mountaineering in
1991 at the age of 16 and since then I have been able to successfully scale
many mountains including the Everest ten times but the K2 experience has been
the toughest so far."
permitted by the clouds and the cool temperature like it used to be in the
rainy Augusts of a long ago childhood. After many days of rain in Sialkot
this was the first day to dawn clear and I was in town after a gap of eight
years. But for the greater number of CNG pumps, the city seemed to have
changed little.
Ghanta Ghar stood proud and tall against the cloud-laden sky in its brick red
and white wash in the centre of the crossing. The old pre-partition buildings
around the edges of the plaza that were once covered by ugly billboards were
there for one to appreciate and the mess of encroachments at the base of
Ghanta Ghar was gone. I had to pause to take the scene in because this was
not what I remembered. But I was in a hurry to get to Puran's Well and
resolved to stop on the way back.