Mortenson

Temperature: 105°F. This morning, at Islamabad airport, I met Jack Zetsger, an intriguing Seattle geologist making his annual pilgrimage to the Karakoram. He refused to reveal his travel plans to me, "I'll be here for a couple months roaming around. There are a few stones I'm dying to find. I really don't care what the climbers and hikers are doing on top of the mountains, but what is IN the mountains is the jewel for me." Then, without even a goodbye, he wheeled his trolley cart out the airport door, headed towards his Karakoram paradise.

I met Jack earlier this year, in April, when I went to his Seattle house to pick up a computer he donated to Karrimabad High School in Hunza Valley, northern Pakistan.

" There are...elite climbers like Alex Lowe's Trango Tower expedition and Steve Swenson's Gasherbrum IV group and a few people like Jack who are just here to 'roam around'...."

Jack is a die-hard bachelor, probably in his 50s. His house could easily pass as a geology museum. A huge array of several thousand gemstones and rocks from the Karakoram are displayed in several showcases in his living room. His office wall is covered with Karakoram mountain photos and a couple satellite imageries of the Karakoram mountains. His library is crammed with geological manuals, many of them in Italian, French and Russian.

It's great fun to meet all the climbers and characters who visit the Karakoram every year. There are climbers hell bent on a first ascent, novice climbers strapped onto a commercial expedition to crack the 8,000 meter mark, elite climbers like Alex Lowe's Trango Tower expedition and Steve Swenson's Gasherbrum IV group and a few people like Jack who are just here to "roam around."

Hopefully, with good weather, Pakistan International Airline's Boeing 727 flight will fly to Skardu tomorrow. By plane, it's only 50 minutes. If not, it will be a tortuous 24-hour ride along a the precipitous Karakoram highway in a rickety bus.

— Greg Mortenson, MountainZone.com Correspondent