Asia, Pakistan, Rakaposhi Attempt

Publication Year: 1988.

Rakaposhi Attempt. We had hoped to make the first ascent of the east ridge of Rakaposhi. In 1985, Austrians led by Edi Koblmüller climbed to the east summit (7010 meters, 23,000 feet) via the north spur. Before we arrived, Japanese attempted the climb in siege-style with four camps and fixed ropes to 6700 meters. On July 3, the Japanese got to the east summit and turned back despite excellent weather. They told us that traversing the ridge to the summit of the east ridge (c. 7300 meters) seemed too difficult. Our expedition was composed of Arnfried Braun, Ulrich Calmbach, Hans Jakobi, Felix Haas and me as leader. On July 1, we got to Base Camp at 3470 meters, two days distant from Pisan on the Karakoram Highway. We acclimatized for ten days and on July 11, the weather turned bad for a week. We started an alpine-style attempt on July 17, but got only to 5100 meters before being driven back down by the weather. We made a second try starting on July 22. The next day we got to 5700 meters, but the route from 5100 meters on was very dangerous from falling ice and threatening avalanches. We pulled back to Base Camp on the 24th. After more bad weather, we left Base Camp on July 29.

Hubert Bleicher, Deutscher Alpenverein