Diran. The original objective of Hanns Schell, Rainer Göschl and mine was the Hindu Raj, but as other expeditions had the same goals, we requested permission for Kampiri Dior, but when that was not granted we decided to try Diran (23,862 feet). Diran or Minapin Peak had been attempted four times before, each time by the steep, broken northwest face which leads to the relatively broad west ridge. We got to the town of Minapin on August 1 and made our temporary Base Camp at 11,500 feet on the 3rd. Since this was too distant, we moved Base Camp to 13,000 feet directly under the 6500-foot northwest face. Camp I was established on August 7 at 15,750 feet in the face. Giant crevasses, deep snow and bad weather hindered progress and it was not until the 14th that we placed Camp II on the col of the west ridge at 18,700 feet. On the 16th the weather improved and we carried to Camp III at 20,350 feet. On August 17 we left at six a.m. in lovely weather for the summit. We still had to gain 3500 feet with much trail breaking. First we had a steep step before the ridge flattened and led finally to the 1300-foot, 45° final summit slope. We reached the highest point of the surprisingly big summit plateau at 4:15 p.m. and were back in Camp III at eight at dusk. We descended to Base the next day.

Rudolph Pischinger, Österreichischer Alpenverein