Paiju Peak. In the late fall of 1960 Rick Litterick, my wife Courtney and I gathered in Abbottabad, West Pakistan, to organize our visit to Paiju Peak in the central Karakoram. Some months later the government of Pakistan approved our plans, but from then on almost everything went wrong. First, Rick became so worn down with dysentry that he had to leave us for a friendlier climate. Morgan Sibbett, an American economist living in Peshawar, was invited to replace him. Next our late-May start was postponed because the liaison officer, Captain M. H. U. K. Sumbal, wrenched his knee. Yet on June 7 we left Skardu with 15 porters carrying food and gear for a six weeks’ trip. A week later, as we were resting in Askole, misfortune struck again. A policeman appeared with a note from the Political Agent: the Government for some reason was excluding Morgan from our group. With Courtney the mother of two very dependent infants, Sumbal still nursing his knee, and any local man, however skilled and willing, prohibited from high climbing by the porter insurance requirement, the team was in effect reduced to one. Morgan returned to Skardu with most of the climbing equipment. We three pushed on to the Baltoro, and a few days later we were established at Paiju campground. From there I visited the north face of Paiju, which rises above the Biaho Glacier, the east face, just behind our camp and the southeast face, which is reached from a gully and a small glacier obvious from the trail leading to camp. No matter how closely I looked, I could see no easy or obvious route anywhere. Later from some distance it appeared that a feasible route might lie up the west face, but all choices seemed problematical. After a week the clouds and monotonous drizzle of the monsoon settled upon us. A few days on the trail and two more on a goatskin raft brought us back to Skardu. Because of Morgan’s recall, we could not make use of our permission to attempt Dobani Peak, in the vicinity of Gilgit.

Felix K. Knauth