An ordinary moonson day at Concordia camp, Karakorum, under K2 mountain.
Camp at 4500 meters high.
Rain all night and all day long.
Long rest in the sleeping bag.
A long suspended day.
Sometimes, I left my tent, going around, taking pictures to some porters smiling, worked, crossing camp with heavy bags, going to higher camps or preparing tents here.
Watching foggy mountain, on slippery stones, above the glacier.
Glacier is under a thin layer of stones and ground. It is something alive.
I stayed a lot of time under a porters tents, to feel and see how was their daily life.
They were a little tired and sleepy, but happy. I felt at home here. I love these people.
They were around a flame, to dry some clothes. Not so much oxygen at 4500 meters, image under a close tent, with a flame. The lighter had an green flame, not red. One of them talked English, the others only Balti, but we could comunicate the same. Smiling and hospitality. Humanity. Staying in touch with essential things. One of them was a good singer, he sang for me, and they followed him in chorus.
Above the tent, the magic and relaxing sound of raindrops. All around, grey mountains and grey, dense and heavy clouds, with some blue gash as a miracle.
After work, they sit on rocks, at rest, someone smiling, some others serious, lost on deep thoughts:
In late afternoon, the started to cook and have dinner:
A check of hemoglobin saturation in the blood, to control the health at this altitude:
Here my good guide Akbar, some phalanges lost in an unlucky expedition:
Here after dinner, dreaming a warm place: a small refuge to keep away the wet night and the dark sky... An a thin feeling of an ostile nature, despite the abysmal beauty of this place, with its mistery. K2 is near, but hidden by many layers of fog and clouds, but the same I felt a presence of it. We were inside his hands, deeply inside his kingdom.
Goodnight my friend Pietro!
Let's hope a new sunny day!
Inshallah!
Pictures taken with Sony Alpha 7iii.
August 2022
