P 5900, “Tekone Peak,” Tirich Mir Massif. Our expedition consisted of Mike Browning, Dana Coffield, Bruce and John Gordon, Ed Ramey and me as leader. On July 1 our expedition flew from Rawalpindi to Chitral and the next day took the three-hour jeep ride to the small village of Parpish where we were met by our porters. A delightful 2½-day trek brought us to the site of the traditional Base Camp for the southern approach to Tirich Mir, located at 12,000 feet at the snout of the South Barum Glacier. By paying an additional day’s wage, we were able to coax most of the porters up some formidable scree slopes parallel to the South Barum Glacier to 13,500 feet. Over the next few days we shuttled our gear from this makeshift camp to our official Base Camp at 15,000 feet, the site of the Norwegian’s Camp II during their first ascent of Tirich Mir in 1950. Located just below the crest of a hill directly across from the point where the South Barum Glacier doglegs to the north and heads for Tirich Mir, this camp had running water, ample tent platforms and beautiful alpine flowers. After establishing Base Camp on July 7, the next three days were spent in transporting equipment up the long and heavily crevassed South Barum Glacier to a spot at 16,500 feet just below the upper icefall. From our glacier camp we had a spectacular view of our objective, P 5900 meters, the pyramidal shaped mountain just to the south of Lower Tirich Mir. On July 11 Dana Coffield, Mike Browning and I made what we believe to be the first ascent of this peak in one long day from our camp at 16,500 feet. Our route ascended the northeast face of the peak and involved climbing mixed snow and ice. The last 1000 feet, in particular, consisted of multiple pitches of “perfect” glacier and water ice ranging in steepness up to 55° or 60°. The summit was a classic corniced snow dome which was so precarious that we took turns crawling to the highest point while the other two climbers belayed from a safe distance below. As the area maps do not indicate a name for this mountain, we christened it “Tekone Peak,” which is the Urdu word for “pyramid” or “triangle.”

Glenn Porzak