Back to K2: Reno woman makes third trip
By Ruth Anne Kocour
Roads to K2: There are none — no flight-seeing tours either. Located in the heart of the Karakoram mountain range, K2 is surrounded by glaciers, wild rivers and many of the world’s highest peaks, 19 more than 25,000 feet tall.
K2 straddles the border between Pakistan and the Xingjian Uygur Autonomous Region of China (Xingjian for short), both fraught with riots, ethnic upheavals and terrorist attacks. It’s a lonely place.
Last fall, I returned to K2 accompanied by four Muslims (Shiite and Sunni) and three kara buras, the wooly black camels of Central Asia.
San Francisco to Beijing to Urumqi — all the way across China — in one very long day. After spending the night in Urumqi, I flew on to Khasgar, an ancient oasis empire along the Silk Road set amid moving sand dunes, immense mud flats, and areas that from the air look like southern Utah, only bigger.
Ruth Anne Kocour is author of the book, “Facing the Extreme.” Contact her at www.ruthannekocour.com.
