Himalaya Expedition – Day 9

9th of June – The morning began early with orders coming directly from our French leader Hugo. Even though it was 5 am in the morning Hugo kept everyone in line without breaking a sweat.

After the kitchen staff filled us up with a high calorie breakfast we bounced off to start our long trek from Urdokas to Gore II.

In the first two hours the team struggled with the unstable debris of the glacier, however as we carried on the landscape began to look more like a glacier.

The highlight of the trek was seeing and hearing massive glaciers being carved out by small amounts of glacier melt (compared to the magnitude of Baltoro). The patterns made by the water flow created great colors of blue and turquoises which stood against the dark debris and powder white snow. Once the glacier melt has dug its way through the rock hard ice of the glacier it creates a point called a Moulin which carries the water to the base of the million year old glacier where it gathers and forms the main stream. This stream lubricates the ground and makes the glacier move forward.

At Gore II we had freezing conditions and everyone just wanted to stay in their warm sleeping bags. However we were drawn out by the fascinating stories of Mike`s incredible expeditions. Later on a discussion arose about the goal of the expedition. Everyone in the team gave their honest opinion about their motives of being here. What was summarized was that we were focusing too much on getting to the summit and forgot about the Pangaea message, which includes the research about this unique area and preserving this fragile environment from pollution and the affects of climate change.

We all went to bed with a different goal, attitude and motive for the expedition. We all still focused on the summit, however there is going to be more of a balance in protecting and preserving the Pangaea message!

By Kai & Daniel

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