conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What could be a title for a book about Many with the genre: Sports & Outdoors, Mountaineering?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: A title for this book could be 'K2, the savage mountain'
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is the first three paragraphs for this book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: K2, the savage mountain
  At Skardu I arranged for a contractor to be responsible for enlisting and paying the coolies. This turned out to be a grave error, for little of the money reached the pockets of the coolies. There was serious unrest and it seemed that we should not be able to keep to our planned program. After the first few stages we sacked the contractor, and from then on all went well. The coolies were happy to receive their pay from me, but they were not prepared to work for us as long as a contractor had his cut of their earnings. Never again will I attempt to employ coolies through a contractor, although the lack of one makes more work for the transport officer.
  After the final three stages, the coolies were not prepared to follow the south bank of the Braldu River to Askole, for they said that the path was too dangerous for them to traverse with heavy loads. This meant our having to cross to the north bank a little above Bahar. The only way of doing this is by usually locally constructed goatskin rafts or zahks. If we had known that this crossing would be necessary, we could have sent one man ahead to arrange for a zahk to be prepared and ready at the planned place of crossing. We should have saved time if more than one zahk could have been available, but this would have meant having rafts sent up from lower down the Shigar Valley. As it was, ferrying our loads across to the north bank took two days. On the return we were able to float down from just below Bahar to Skardu on a zahk in one long day.
  Before reaching Askole, we had to cross two rope bridges. It would have been well worthwhile sending a man ahead to warn the villagers to put these in good repair, ready for the large number of laden coolies who would be crossing them. We were able to have such repairs made before our return journey.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is four more paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Some of the rations had been carried from Skardu, such as tea, sugar, and rice, but the main bulk, in the form of atta, locally ground flour, had been purchased in Askole. There it is readily obtainable at Rs 12/—per maund (80 pounds), and when made into chuppatis forms the staple diet of the local coolies. In addition to this food, we had taken some spare blankets and sufficient dark goggles for all of the coolies we expected to employ, but no other equipment was issued to them below Base Camp. The goggles were necessary only during the last two stages, when the boulder-strewn surface gave way to ice and snow.
  The hardihood of these Balti coolies is unbelievable. At night they are quite contented to huddle together in groups of ten or twelve, and squat in the small enclosures which they construct with rocks, each man throwing a single blanket, which he always carries, over his shoulders. With such limited protection for the porters, our last stage to Base Camp was a critical one, for the weather was uncertain. We reached there too late to send the coolies back the same evening, as we had planned, and so they had to spend the night on the glacier. There they consumed the small reserve of atta which we had with us.
  For the last three stages to Base Camp, the coolies who became spare as their loads were consumed were used to carry firewood, collected from the last meadow at Urdukas, to enable them to cook their chuppatis. On reaching Base Camp, we paid off the coolies, and the men from Satpura, who had proved most reliable, were told to come back and collect us on the tenth of August. We had reached Base Camp on the nineteenth of June.
  During the course of our approach march we had selected the six most enthusiastic and fittest of the party of Hunzawals. These six remained with us and later did excellent work carrying to the lower camps. The remainder were sent back. Our six quickly picked up the basic essentials of mountain craft and before long they were making good use of the rope and their ice axes. Their rates of pay had been settled with the Political Agent at Gilgit, who had kindly arranged with the Mir of Hunza to send these men to Skardu to join us. We provided food, climbing clothes and equipment, and paid at the following rates:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is the last five paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: DR. CHARLES S. HOUSTON has long been known as one of America's foremost mountain climbers. Born in New York City in 1913, he was graduated from Harvard with an A.B. degree in 1935 and from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, where he received his M.D. degree in 1939. He interned in medicine at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York from 1939 to 1941. Entering the Navy as a lieutenant, junior grade, in the fall of 1941, he obtained his flight surgeon's wings just prior to Pearl Harbor.
  After leaving the Navy in 1946, he spent a brief period at the Bellevue Hospital in New York and came to Exeter, where he and others opened the Exeter Clinic in April, 1947. He obtained his specialty boards in internal medicine in 1948.
  Dr. Houston was introduced to mountain climbing in the Alps by his father at the age of eleven. Since that time, he has been twice to Alaska, the first time to climb Mount Crillon with Bradford Washburn in 1933, and the second to make the first ascent of Mount Foraker in 1934. He has been three times to the Alps and climbed a number of the more difficult Alpine peaks. He went to India in 1936 and was part organizer of the successful Anglo-American expedition which climbed Nanda Devi, a 25,600-foot peak and the highest summit then climbed. In 1938 he led the first American Expedition to K2, and in 1950 he went with his father on his expedition to the south side of Everest, an area they were the first Europeans to visit. Although the expedition was extremely brief, they obtained many photographs and may in a sense be said to have pointed the way for the successful climb in 1953.
  In October, 1941, Mr. Bates became a consultant at the War Department and was commissioned shortly after the outbreak of World War II. He had charge of developing Arctic equipment in the Quartermaster General's Office. In 1942 he was executive officer for the Alaska Test Expedition, which climbed Mount McKinley (20,300 feet) and helped develop many lightweight items used by all troops. He went to Italy as special observer for the Quartermaster General. He served at Anzio with the Third Division and ended the war a lieutenant colonel in Italy, where he received the Legion of Merit. In 1951 he was a member of the Arctic Institute of North America party that made the first ascents of two big border peaks in the Yukon (Hubbard and Alverstone). In 1953 he was a member of the Third American Karakoram Expedition to K2.
  Mr. Bates has taught English at the University of Pennsylvania (1935-1939) and at Phillips Exeter Academy (from 1939 to the present). In 1947 he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is the first paragraph for this book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: K2, the savage mountain
  I was not sure of the going rate but some were very pleased, almost overly pleased such as the muleteers with their tip and some were angry feeling that they had been unduly under tipped but then I doubted Nadeem's ability to be a mountain guide and both his recklessness and immaturity. I tried to explain that this was a tip, and not part of what they had already been paid and that what I had given them was a reflection of what I expected from them in their respective roles and whether they had fulfilled them satisfactory. It was not a pleasant experience to say some home truths but my philosophy is that hard truths must be faced and voiced, not swept under the carpet. The next group may get a better service.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is four more paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Here were the graves of dozens of Chinese workers who met their deaths whilst building the KKH. There were rows of identical stone tombs all with a short inscription on a separate stone in front of each tomb. There were tombs stretching away to left and right and off towards the back of the site with a central memorial to commemorate their efforts to build the KKH.
  The high level bridge to carry the KKH across the Hunza River had not been completed so we had a rough track down the valley slope to a temporary Bailey bridge a few metres above the river. Then we had a rough track that lead up the bank on the far side and came out on the KKH.
  We were met at the back at the hotel by Karim with some bad news. I was due to fly back to Islamabad and spend a few days there before leaving Pakistan for the flight home. There had been cloud cover for several days and there had been no flights arriving or departing from Gilgit airport for several days and the forecast was not looking good for the next few days.
  Karim said that he would check again first thing in the morning to get me on aboard if there was a flight, and I suspected that this would be no mean feat as there would be a backlog of people all trying to do the same thing. Koshal drove Karim and Jahangir back to their respective homes and Fran and I were left at the hotel.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Add another sentence about Gilgit, followed, turned.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Here were the graves of dozens of Chinese workers who met their deaths whilst building the KKH. There were rows of identical stone tombs all with a short inscription on a separate stone in front of each tomb. There were tombs stretching away to left and right and off towards the back of the site with a central memorial to commemorate their efforts to build the KKH. 
  The high level bridge to carry the KKH across the Hunza River had not been completed so we had a rough track down the valley slope to a temporary Bailey bridge a few metres above the river. Then we had a rough track that lead up the bank on the far side and came out on the KKH. We followed this for a while and turned off to head into the south side of Gilgit. 
  We were met at the back at the hotel by Karim with some bad news. I was due to fly back to Islamabad and spend a few days there before leaving Pakistan for the flight home. There had been cloud cover for several days and there had been no flights arriving or departing from Gilgit airport for several days and the forecast was not looking good for the next few days. 
  Karim said that he would check again first thing in the morning to get me on aboard if there was a flight, and I suspected that this would be no mean feat as there would be a backlog of people all trying to do the same thing. Koshal drove Karim and Jahangir back to their respective homes and Fran and I were left at the hotel.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is the last four paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Karim didn't return to Gilgit the following year, as there were not enough tourists to provide enough work to keep him employed. Jahangir has a job in a coffee shop in Islamabad but still wants to work in the tourist industry and takes time off in the summer to guide tourists. The lack of tourists continues to leave hotels available but empty, especially above Lake Attabad. Five years after the catastrophic landside that created Lake Attabad, the first of two major tunnels high up the valley side above the lake is finished but it will be another two years before the road is open right up to the Khunjerab Pass. Meanwhile. the Chinese are busy building a motorway up to their side of the pass.
  The visa issues to cross the border are as vague and as temperamental as ever. Some tourists are allowed through and others are denied visas for no known recognisable pattern. I wanted a visa to cross from China to visit Gilgit the following year but was denied it yet I met British passport holders in Kashgar that had come across the Khunjerab Pass.
  Certain parts stand out as highly memorable but for different reasons. The Kalash valleys were especially memorable for their culture. The two week walk to Concordia to view K2 gave a great sense of personal achievement. I remember with fondness, some of the most spectacular scenery, such as the road along the Shimshal valley for its rugged scenery, the road from the village of Tareshing at the base of Nanga Parbat up to the Deosai plains, for its charm and alpine beauty, the road down from the Deosai plains to Skardu for its rocky, barren steep descent and the road from Skardu to Gilgit, for the breathtaking plunging cliffs of the gorge and the communities hugging those cliffs. I am hard pressed to pick out just one outstanding route to take.
  Some of the less pleasant memories were fading, such as the freezing cold and uncomfortable ground under canvas on the glacier for night after night or the realisation that I was in a dangerous no go area as I was driven down the Swat valley. I think I have even forgiven the cow that ate my socks, leaving me with just a single pair of walking socks for the next four weeks and I can laugh at the incident now.