ski peak 10th june 2010

snow and wind made for a distracted night. Then because I didn't have to get up early I woke at 4a.m. CHILLY Struggled out of tent at 7.30 a.m. and chit chat with Anna all morning. By noon I was getting itchy knickers and we went to do a small peak I'd spotted yesterday. So we padded up from 4,000m to 4670m. in 23/4 hours. Got great views from the newly named ski peak and had a fab ski down in fresh, in ten minutes!

Three Peak.

Awoke to good weather this morning. Another 2 hour blister inducing walk in ski boots to get to the snow and then a beautiful skin up to the peak at 4750m. Stunning view of a quite cloudy Lake Zarcol with not a lot of snow. An amazing ski down in Spring Snow and then back to camp to the quizzical look of a friendly Kyrgyz man who couldn't quite get over the weight of ski boots of the general idea of skiing. No one has seen it here before. Weather is not great - very changeable, not sure what our next move shall be on our horse/ski mountaineering odyssey.

Lake Zarcol

We woke up excited to be finally going to the lake. After three hours of waiting for the h orses the excitement slowly wore off. Finally a big fat man on a small skinny horse trotted up. Not quite what we expected. Evenrually two other Kyrgyz arrived and we loaded the horses. Big fat man heaved himself onto h is heavily loaded horse. He wasn't walking anywhere. After four hours of mind numbing walking I understood big fat man. I was in that exhauted meditative state when a Mirafe appeared. A handsome Kirgish man dressed in colourful garb zoomed above me on his horse. A quickhandshake and salaam and he disappears into the dust. On we plodded, getting more perturbed as we saw how far the snow line was from us. Getting to do any skiing here is going to involvwe a lot of agonizing ski-boot walking. Finally we arrived at the lake. With big golden marmots whistling our arrival. It's a lush spot. A broad valley caressed by the snowy peaks of the small Pamir. Whether we will get to ski is another matter.

Mountain Make-over

Today we decided to have a rest day, having been on the go for 8 straight days - lucky as the weather turned out to be absolutely minging! Our two Afghan guides disappeared so I took the opportunity to get naked and have a proper wash. First time my skin has seen water in 11 days....I also borrowed Anna's mirror. BIG MISTAKE My face is etched with valleys and crevasses like the Hindu Kush. I slap on a load of moisturiser and quickly return the mirror to Anna. Best not to look again...Mid moisturiser application the snow started and by the time I got to washing my toes it was a full on, ten- slapping storm. This afternoon Anna and I are huddled up in the communal tent with washed clothes dripping on us as we review our rapidly diminishing food stocks. Luckily I have a healthy supply of marmite bars......