Yukshin Gardan Sar, Second Ascent. Our joint Japanese-Pakistani expedition was composed of Japanese Kenshiro Otaki, leader, Akio Hayakawa, Fumihide Saito, Tetsuei Hanzawa, Dr. Ichiro Shirouzu and me and Pakistanis Major Sher Khan, deputy leader, Rahat Ali, Qaiser Khan, Iftikhar Hussain and Dr. Atif Aohail. With 70 porters, we approached from May 24 to 30 from Pasu up the Shimshal valley to Base Camp at 12,400 feet on the Yazghil Glacier. At first we attempted the north ridge of Yukshin Gardan Sar, but after a month’s effort we gave it up because of vertical and brittle rock above 21,325 feet. We changed from the north to the south side and made two alpine-style attempts. On our first, three members left Advance Base Camp at 13,450 feet on July 6 carrying gear and food for eight days but failed because of bad weather and a shortage of food. On the second attempt, Hayakawa, Saito, Hanzawa, Major Sher Khan and I went up the right of the Yazghil Glacier to the Upper Yazghil Glacier to the col between Yukshin Gardan Sar and Yutmar Sar with food for twelve days. We got to the col on July 21 and reached the summit (7530 meters, 24,705 feet) on July 23. Our success was the second ascent because we found the flags of the Austrian-Pakistani expedition on the summit; they had climbed to the summit on June 26.

Akira Suzuki, Toyo University Alpine Club, Japan