From now on, we are “on our way back” which may sound sad. But it gives us the opportunity for a “second look” at all the places seen on our way up, from a different angle, mostly at a different time of the day, different light, … and also at a different season: when we started, it was still winter, now one starts to feel spring everywhere. We have to stop early now, on the last days before noon, in the afternoon the snow gets insanely soft, water starts to flow in the bedieres which makes crossing them a bit trickier than so far.

The map showing this trek is Here.

Day 13: 8km back to Concordia (4615m) just before crossing back on Baltoro
A wonderful day for this walk down to our last camp on Concordia, all day facing an awesome panorama, of course different from the one on the way up – facing K2. Now we face the marvelous Marble Peak, Mitre of course, Vigne, Chogolosa and also the summits further down on the Southside of Baltoro: Biarchedi Peaks and Ghondogoro Ri.

Day 14: 10km back to the foot of Muztagh Tower (4405m)
Again a wonderful day without clouds, the last one. We are looking for some skiable slope. As those in the shadow still produce impressive avalanches, let’s forget them … but there are some tempting slopes running down from Crystal Peak, the problem is that alone crossing Baltoro to its foot would take too much time. Then, there is the Younghusband Glacier which of course is far too long for a single day, but still, let’s take home some dreams for another year …
Again, the scenery is great, we have time to admire Muztagh Tower from quite close now, and also Masherbrum, a bit further down on the left side of the valley.

Day 15: not even 7km back to camp with Masherbrum view (4230m)
The night is particularly warm and the snow particularly bad already quite early in the morning, and the stony moraine covering the glacier in summer gets more and more visible. We stop early because of the snow conditions, the place is beautiful, a bit hidden among the ice blocks --- not really “sails” here --- and we have running water close by, which makes the camp life easier. The afternoon haze gives them a mysterious look.

Day 16: not even 6km morning walk to end of snow (4108m)
We get up very early hoping that this would improve the snow conditions for our short walk, but it barely does, it has been cloudy and “warm” all night. The snow is soft even in the early morning, the bedieres are still frozen, but after a short time they start thawing, and crossing them is more and more a headache … especially for the last one.
We reach the end of the snow about 1km above our starting point 13 days ago. We unmount the pulkas and explore a bit the snow-free glacier, but towards the end of the afternoon it starts snowing, nothing serious barely some cm until the next morning.