Ultar II Attempts. Our expedition consisted of Japanese Masahiko Fujimori, Masaaki Mori, Satoru Miyashita, Kazuo Kishi, Shigeo Furuhata, Ken Takahashi, Kiyohiko Sugimoto and me as leader, Pakistanis Tufail, deputy leader, Raja and Mansoor, and American George Smith. First we tried the north face from the Ghulkin Glacier. We left Gulmit on May 30, went via Gulkin and placed Base Camp at 3150 meters on May 31. From 3350 to 4050 meters there was an icefall, where we fixed rope. We had a relay camp at 3900 meters in the icefall, established on June 7. On June 10 two members and I occupied Camp I on the plateau above the icefall. A large avalanche attacked our tent and we lost equipment and food, rope, boots, ladders, etc. We decided to withdraw from this route. On June 18 we went to Gulmit and moved to Kalimabad by tractor and jeep. Again we approached from Kalimabad with 30 porters the south face of Ultar II, which is 7388 meters (24,240 feet) high. We placed Base Camp at 4120 meters on June 21. Two days later we established Camp I at 4875 meters. We climbed over a 5060-meter peak to gain the plateau at 4875 meters. We made a higher camp on June 26. We tried two routes on the rock face from there but the route was too dangerous because of falling stones and ice. We stopped climbing on July 2 after having reached 5500 meters.

Toshio Narita, Mitokoshu, Japan