Shakhaur, North Pillar, Wakhan. The members of our expedition were Jean Paul Paris, leader, my wife Isabelle, Roger Dietz, Jean Pierre Fresafond, Paul Gendre, René Gillot, Claude Jager, Benoît Mathieu, Jacques Soubis, Jean Thomas, Felix Magnin and myself. The North Pillar of Shakhaur had been tried in 1963 by the third Polish Hindu Kush expedition, which reached 19,000 feet and gave up under a 2600-foot barrier of séracs, reporting that there was a “problem”. We set up Base camp on August 6 at the foot of the pillar at 14,000 feet. After having established camps at 17,725, 18,700 and 21,000 feet, on August 20 Jager, Mathieu and I reached the summit; a second group, Gendre, Paris, Soubis and Thomas, repeated the ascent on August 22. (This was the first ascent of the pillar and the second ascent of Shakhaur; the first ascent was made from Chitral by Gruber and Pischinger August 17, 1964. A.A.J., 1965, 14:2, p. 475. — Editor.) Fresafond and Dietz reached the foresummit and Mme Agresti got to within 650 feet of the summit. Although the summit of Shakhaur has been given as 23,346 feet, it did not seem to us to be higher than 6900 meters or 22,638 feet. The North Pillar rises nearly 10,000 feet and we fixed some 9000 feet of rope. We were on crampons for the whole climb, even on the rare and generally not difficult rock. Below Camp II we found much ice and above it, powder snow. The angle was rather steep; no part was less than 40° and some pitches had sections of 70°. Although Camps I and II were comfortable, Camp III was merely scratched out of the slope in a crevasse, since there was not the slightest flat spot between Camp II and the summit of the pillar.

Henri Agresti, Club Alpin Français