Expeditions / Trips Dragon's Backbone Diary / Updates Over Chiragsaldi Pass to Mazar
Saturday, 18 April 2009 00:00 Last Updated on Wednesday, 17 June 2009 17:02
Cycling Day: 5
Distance: 55km
Because we didn’t make the planned kilometers yesterday we slept just under 4000m. I wanted so sleep a bit higher for acclimatization purposes. We started off on asphalt for the first couple of kilometers before the dirt road started again just before the pass. All the rivers are now frozen over completely and it is much colder. The pass started off very steep with loads of switch backs but at 4200m it became less steep and very long. We stopped at 4300m for lunch (yesterdays noodles they made for us in Kudi which we didn’t finish during diner) a nice spot where we were surrounded by 5000m plus snow capped mountains.
Already here I could start feeling the altitude. From here it was 11km to the top of the pass. The last 5-6km’s was very steep and the altitude really got to us here. We had to stop very often to catch our breaths and near the top I had a pounding headache. It felt like I had 6 Black Labels the previous night. We ended up walking 1km near the top just to vary from cycling a bit. On our printed out route it says you can see K2 from the top of the pass if you climb above the road, but there was soppy melted snow everywhere so we couldn’t really go off the road which was a bit disappointing. We were proud to have reached the top of the pass at 4980m though.
Chiragsaldi Flat Stretch - Click to Enlarge
From the top it was a 24km downhill to reach Mazar, the town where we slept that night and take a rest day. Once we started to descend my headache disappeared and I felt fine again. Descending was rough and the roads got considerably worse. The dry bag that Muis had mounted on his handlebars kept moving to the side because of all the shaking. We had to stop several times for him to readjust it. He was getting very frustrated and finally snapped. This was really hilarious; he went to the front of the bike and started hitting the shit out of his bag. It looked like he involved in a boxing match with his bicycle.
We reached Mazar early the afternoon and went to the first shop we saw to have lunch. We ended up staying in the back of the shop in a room the owners of the shop rents out to truck drivers. The room is really cool and colorful. The shop and this room is pretty much a shack put together with wood and sink plates. But it is nice and warm inside because they have a coal stove and heater. The beds are wooden planks on stilts covered with colorful material and they supply these really thick blankets and heavy blankets. I sat and read till late. Tomorrow is our first rest day after 5 days of hard cycling.
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