And so it came to pass, that on the third Holy Day of June, in the year of our Lord 2009, the trekkers who had been in the wilderness for many days, finally saw their quarry, shining like a bright star at the end of the valley. Some were sore afraid, whereas many dropped down on their knees, for they had never seen such a beautiful and monstrous entity. And Fabrizio said 'Lo, you have asked for K2, and now it has been delivered'. So in awe of this terrific being that they stopped in their pilgrimage, pitched their canvas, broke bread, drank tang and passed wind.
The book of Jake. Chapter 8, verses 1-3

Okay, apologies for the blasphemous start to today's dispatch, but this is big news!
For years I have been dreaming of this moment - avidly devouring photographs and stories of this incredible mountain, and finally I now gaze upon it with my own eyes (well I did until about 1 hour ago, it's gone behind a bloody cloud!).
We had a relatively relaxed start today, 7.30am breakfast and were on the trail by about 8.25. It was nice to leave Goro 2 campsite, which as I alluded to yesterday is not the most desirable place any of us would wish to camp. The walk today has been quite gentle, another few hundred meters gained, and only about 6 miles up the Baltoro to Concordia (4600m). It took the fastest of us just under 3hours to do, and just in case you think that we are being a bunch of 'big girls blouses' with our shorter and shorter days, we're getting to a height where the altitude will really bite you, if you try and go up too much in a day. The most important thing at the moment is to keep a steady altitude gain, yet look after ourselves, and keep ourselves as healthy as possible. A long day on the trail and a large height increase can really take it out of you, and as the LO found the other day, it can happen at relatively modest heights.
The trek today started by walking in amongst giant patches of the glacier uncovered by rock and scree. These towering ice formations were like a frozen snapshot of icebergs being tossed around in a dark and angry sea of shale and stones. As we picked our careful route through these monsters, we really had to watch our footing as we trampled and skidded across the ice, still frozen and not yet made soft and pliable by the sun's warming rays. As the day progressed and the sun's radiative effect began to make itself known, the ice softened and became slushy, and small trickles of meltwater grew in size until we had to make hopeful leaps across fast flowing yet still frigid streams.
It was a wonderfully clear start to the day, with the incredibly jagged and incisor like summits of Gasherbrum 4 (7925m) and Masherbrum (7821m) ahead and behind us respectively. On our left to the north lay the incredible Mustagh Tower (7273m), a large cloud of spindrift billowing from it's incredible granite facade like a loose spinnaker flapping from a mast. As we continued eastwards, the tempestuous sea of icebergs calmed and became a gently rolling ocean of dark rocky waves and foamy white patches of snow. We carefully picked our way through these, trying to stay upon the crests to minimise the up and down of the swell, and soon Broad Peak (8047m) came back into view. It's incredible double headed summit split by a gigantic notch between it's north and every so slightly higher south summit.
As we reached Concordia, the confluence of many great glaciers, including the Upper Baltoro, the Godwin Austin, the Vigne and the Broad Peak glacier, all of which create the indomitable Baltoro Glacier itself, Chogori (8611m) finally showed herself to the north. The mountain otherwise known as Mt Godwin Austin, or probably more popularly as K2 stood omnipotent only 15kms to the north of our camp. Perfectly framed by Marble Peak and Broad Peak, she sits like a hulking giant, her almost perfect pyramidal shape thrusting skywards from the head of the Godwin Austin Glacier. She is utterly beautiful, yet at the same time utterly terrifying, her massive South Face dominating the end of the valley. Like some harpee, she calls out for our attention, and any initial appreciation of her crown amidst the perfect blue skies were rapidly shattered as not before long, a massive plume started to emerge off her summit, indicating immensely strong high altitude winds scouring her peak.

Okay, enough of the 'large mountain appreciation society' chatter, I'm probably beginning to sound like a bit of a pervert! I'm sure that you get the picture - K2 is a pretty impressive hillock, and even more so when you are standing in front of it contemplating attempting to try and climb it, like a rabbit caught stock still in the headlights contemplating its destiny (and mortality!)
I'm sure this won't be the last gushing monologue about this mountain that I'll enforce upon you, but I wanted you to understand the extreme effect that this first sighting of our goal has had on all of us - wonderment, astonishment and a nonstop staccato 'ratatatat' of camera shutters!

Tomorrow - K2 Basecamp.