Surrounded by the giants

 A smooth departure from Skardu on Tuesday left us bumping along the road to Askoli with our caravan 3 jeeps deep. Kris, John, our LO- the “Major”, and Karim were separated into their own vehicle as per custom, and Kip was left as the sole protector of Ingrid, Hil and I in the “woman” jeep.
The paved road shortly turned to dirt and finally to a via ferrata for the 4 wheel world. We encountered only two obstacles- a minor vehicle repair and a sand slide near Askoli that covered the road. Luckily, two groups of porters had followed up behind us and leaped out of their open air trucks to assist in the process of shoveling and clearing the path by hand. The drivers plowed through, and the rest of our group met them on the other side, running the length of the road to dodge falling rocks.
Once in Askoli, we hopped out at the literal end of the road. For the ladies, we made a grand entrance. Surrounded by what felt like hundreds of Pakistanis, we were very much on display – which would be the theme for what seems to be the remainder of our time with the porter crew. These eyes are full of curiosity but the occasional leer can be a bit disconcerting. The presence of women, and in particular women climbers, is an extremely foreign and thought provoking concept to them
 The evening is Askoli was mild. A couple of folks in our crew have not felt well, but with some rest and a few meds, everyone bounced right back..Good news for our long trek ahead.
Wednesday evolved into quite the eventful day for us. The Serb, Russian, and South Korean groups organized their porters and headed out. We were the last group to depart. An intense feeling of desperation was building ominously around us for the remaining men looking for work and their chance to be selected. This was one of their very few opportunities for work for the year, and a rare chance to feed their families.