The second trekking group of the expedition to K2 of the 7 Summits Club visited the Deosai Plateau and received permits. And also Valdis Pelsh joined us!
Svetlana Kotlyar, the guide of the 7 Summits Club, reports from Pakistan:
Greetings to all from Skardu! Today our team had a very busy day! We decided not to waste time waiting for permits, and after breakfast we went by jeep to Deosai National Park! We spent two hours on the road, which turned out to be very picturesque: alpine lakes, gorges – stunningly beautiful nature!
Deosai is the second highest high-altitude plateau in the world after the Tibetan one. It is located at an altitude of more than 4000 m at the junction of the Karakoram and the Western Himalayas. From the 4000 m mark, as acclimatization, we walked a little higher, up to 4200.
The plateau is known all over the world for its rich flora and fauna. And we were lucky enough to meet a huge groundhog here today!
After the walk, we refreshed ourselves and drove back to Skardu, where another member of the group, Valdis Pelsh, was waiting for us. He will be walking with us to the K2 base camp for the filming of the film "The High Altitude Gene-2". We listened to his fascinating stories all evening!
In the evening, joyful news came — we received permits! Now the whole team is assembled and tomorrow early in the morning we will start in Ascole!