Day 3, 7/7: Tashkurgan (11000 ft) - 204 (12000 ft) - BC (14500 ft)

Today marks the official start of the climb. We travel from Tashkurgan to a place called “204,” where all Muztagh Ata climbers start trekking into basecamp (BC). The location is called “204” because it marks the 204th kilometer along the Karakoram Highway from Kashgar. The hike to basecamp is about 12km (7.5 miles) with an elevation gain of 800m (2600 ft).

Group photo before we left Tashkurgan.

From here on, we’ll abbrieviate the names of camps on the mountain:

Basecamp = BC

Camp 1 = C1

Camp 2 = C2

Camp 3 = C3

We go up the red route.

The drive back to Muztagh Ata was equally suffocating and hot (no AC again!), but people already got used to it so there weren’t’ t as much complaints as there were yesterday. Everyone seemed to have adjusted well to the 10000 ft altitude, as no one showed apparent signs of altitude sickness.

On the road.

204 was not only a place for climbers, but also a village for locals. When we got there, some of them tried to sell us watermelons. Since no one was willing to carry that weight, we didn’t buy any. The climate at Muztagh Ata and the entire Kashgar-Tashkurgan area is extremely dry, so some melons would’ve been so refreshing after a long afternoon of thirsty hike.

204.

Another group photo, at 204.

Weather not looking so great. But just look at our formation.

Then Muztagh Ata showed us her angry face. About 2 miles into our hike, it started pouring rain, then hails. The ice balls were very big, and it hurt when the hail hit my head and hand. I barely had time to react to the sudden change in weather before my softshell jacket got wet. Luckily, it did not get soaked, but my backpack did. I forgot to pull the pack shield/cover out of the duffle bag. For some reason, I brought a poncho along, and struggled so hard to put it over myself and my giant, 75-liter backpack. In the end, I tore the poncho, but I couldn’t care about that. I had to go on because other team members were already very far from me.

Hail.

Duck.

When I caught up to the others, they all squatted down because it was hailing too hard. I was so jealous of the girl who brought an umbrella, as she seemed to be having some fun (but honestly, we all are). It was, however, risky, because I could see lightning strike at a location about 2 miles away from us. Our backs were like a packet shield, bouncing the falling ice balls off. Below is a video shot by a teammate. It's funnier if you understand Chinese.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVUrjoZZX4U

After about 40 more minutes of hiking, we finally exited the clouded, hailing area. That’s where we really started hiking uphill. At around 4 p.m., we finally got to basecamp. Before we arrived, our guide brought a bucket of ginger tea along the way. It warmed my heart, physically and emotionally.

On the way.

Closer to the mountain.

I’ll do a more thorough introduction of basecamp in Day 4 (preview: we stayed there the entire day). But honestly, it’s like a 5-star hotel. I finally didn’t have to build it myself and use what’s left over from previous groups.

BC from far.

We had our first meeting at 9:30 p.m., when we were informed of all high-altitude tips as well as our plans for the next few days. Although everyone was tired and sleepy since 8, we weren’t allowed to sleep until 12 a.m. At high altitudes, people simply cannot sleep well. If we sleep too early, waking up in the tent at 3 a.m. and suffering through all the way until it gets bright is a very painful thing.

Meeting.

At 14000 feet, signs of altitude sickness started to show up. There several were people vomiting, some even had to use their hand to force themselves to vomit because they couldn’t digest what they ate during lunch. I had some headache. It felt like there was a pencil sharpener turning in my head (just the turning part, it didn’t feel like my head was getting sharpened).

Sleepy.

I’ve had a long, tough night. Even though I got into my sleeping bag at 12, I couldn’t fall asleep until 1:30 a.m. because there was no way to turn off the light in the tent. Power supply at basecamp was set to turn on at 8 and off at 1. I wear night contacts, so my eyes were already irritated after I put them on (probably because my hands are dirty and sanitation on the mountain was not comparable to that at home).

Sleepy.

Even worse, for some reason, the supply ran on for 30 more minutes. I was basically turning around in my sleeping bag for 90 minutes with a sour eye and a sour body. As the night went on, I could sleep for a maximum of an hour before waking up due to bathroom, headaches, etc.

You can only see up to C2 from basecamp. Summit is invisible here.

According to our guide, all we needed was to suffer through tonight. Tomorrow will be much more comfortable, as long as we drink 4+ liters of water.