Stéphane DROUIN visiting Karakoram
"On my return from the pwc in Brazil, I learned that an exceptionally well-endowed competition is being held in Pakistan. Neither one nor two: the visa and here I go with the objective of winning the bet. The day before my arrival, a serious earthquake occurred the day before and the human and material military forces planned to supervise the competition were mobilized for the disaster. The government cancels the competition and proposes to move us to the Hunza Valley in Karakoram.
18 hours later......... The mountains are gigantic, the thermals nervous, the ceilings amazing. I'm happy to have really tamed my Kanibal Race 2 harness and my Enzo 3! 3 days and a half on site. After a first acclimatization flight and a ceiling at 6500m, the next day I did a 140 kms FAI triangle in 5 hours between 4000m and 6000m without oxygen avoiding the showers... (flight on xccontest). The following days, the flight slots are shorter and shorter... overdevelopments.
I've had Karakoram in my head for 15 years! Great! Great! Glad to have come! To be done again!
But in these mountains, I'm scared! 😉
Stéphane DROUIN