Noshaq and Neighboring Peaks. On July 7 Ambros and Anton Aich- horn, Günter Brenner, Oswald Kollreider, Herbert Müller and I as leader left Austria in a VW bus and a VW bug for the 5000-mile trip, which went without a hitch. In Kabul, the Afghan capital, we spent a week, completing formalities before we got final permission for the Wakhan. Udo Ertl joined us there when the companions of his small expedition fell sick. The last 250 miles into the mountains took us a week, a serious loss of time. The “road” into the Wakhan was so bad that we could not continue with our vehicles and had to rent a 4-wheel-drive truck. Even with this we had a day’s delay because of a landslide and were stuck for three days in a fort, while pouring rain threatened to sweep our equipment off the truck bed. These and other delays reduced our five weeks in the mountains to 20 days. It was little short of a miracle that we could accomplish our objectives since normally one would consider two weeks necessary just to acclimatize to 23,000 feet. At the foot of Noshaq we met the American- Austrian expedition led by Dr. Richard Hechtel. We made the following ascents (first ascents are marked by 1; second ascents by 2): Korpusht- e-Yakhi (18,695 feet) on August 6 by Axt, Brenner, Ertl; Asp-e-Safed I2 (21,350 feet) on August 9 via north face by both Aichhorns, Ertl; Asp-e-Safed II1 (20,407 feet) on August 10 via east ridge by Toni Aichhorn, Ertl; Asp-e-Safed South Summit2 (21,162 feet) on August 10 via north ridge by Ambros Aichhorn; Gumbaz-e-Safed2 (22,310 feet) on August 10 via northwest face by Axt, Brenner; Rach-e-Daros (18,681 feet) on August 12, via west ridge by Toni Aichhorn, Ertl; Noshaq West Peak (23,786 feet) via west spur and Noshaq Main Peak (24,580 feet) via west ridge on August 19 by Axt, Ertl, Muller; Shingeik-Zom II1 (23,524 feet) and Shingeik-Zom III1 (23,130 feet) via east ridge on August 20 by both Aichhorns. On Noshaq we established two high camps; all others were made either with or without bivouacs. Only on Gumbaz-e-Safed did we have three bivouacs. Kollreider was cook and jack-of-all-trades.

Wolfgang Axt, Österreichischer AIprenverein