Mortenson

"It was rather amazing to see the unity in the local people here. These are Balti people, communal people, who have migrated from Tibet 600 to 800 years ago...."

Yesterday, the whole town of Skardu went on strike: there was a riot and burning of tires in the main bazaar area. So, everyone was kind of hunkered down. The army has detained 15 Mujhadeen and the others were given the deadline of 10 o'clock last night to all leave town. So, today it is very peaceful again in town.

It was rather amazing to see the unity in the local people here. These are Balti people, communal people, who have migrated from Tibet 600 to 800 years ago. Upon hearing that this woman had been shot, they were definitely aroused and decided to kick the people out of town.

Four Austrians Summit Broad Peak
Four climbers from the Edi Koblmuller Expedition summited Broad Peak at the end of July. The summiters were Reinhard Koblmuller, son of Edi Koblmuller, along with Guenter Hafele, and Peter Fessler. They went up the normal route. Two others made it up to 7,850 meters and came down.

Michael Koblmuller Dies
Michael Koblmuller, son of Edi Koblmuller, the leader of the Austrian Broad Peak expedition, was involved in the avalanche on Deron Peak.

Edi heard about the accident on July 28th; the accident occurred on July 26th. Edi made an amazing trip from Broad Peak over to Deron in three days. He walked day and night and took a bus from Skardu. He was in the last helicopter search that went to Deron, but unfortunately he didn't find his son Michael, who was on Deron Peak (7,266 meters) on July 26th.

He was quoted in The Nation, a Pakistani newspaper (article by Asin Awan), as saying, 'It was a catastrophe and a great tragedy. We have previously summited as a father–son team on Dhaulagiri in 1996 and summited together on Shishapangma in 1998.'

So they were very experienced climbers.

Lowe, Synnott and Ogen in Skardu
Alex Lowe, Mark Synnott, and Jared Ogden arrived in Skardu yesterday after making a successful ascent of the Great Trango Wall. They were all in good spirits.

"Alex is very modest about his climb, but it is truly one of the great climbing accomplishments of the century...."

Alex had a large fall right near the summit, hurt his elbow and his pelvic area, but he's recovering. The team is now heading back to Islamabad by flight, and after a day in the States, they're all heading to the trade show. Alex is very modest about his climb, but it is truly one of the great climbing accomplishments of the century.

Right now they are very anxious to get home. Jared has a six–month–old son at home, and Alex, of course, is anxious to get back to his three boys and wife, Jen, in Bozeman, Montana.

— Greg Mortenson, MountainZone.com Correspondent