Asia, Pakistan, Sosbun Spires Attempt and P 5890 Ascent

Publication Year: 1989.

Sosbun Spires Attempt and P 5890 Ascent. Heinz Zak, Toni Ponholzer, Dietmar Sinnhuber, Rudi Sailer, Michael Larcher, Hans Ganzberger and I as leader were in the Sosbun valley from May 15 to the end of June. We had hoped to climb some of the 1200-meter-high granite walls of the Sosbun Spires. Unfortunately, bad weather kept us from most of our objectives. During the five weeks there, nearly twenty feet (5.9 meters) of snow fell at Base Camp. All of us except for Ganzberger did make the ascent up the eastern side of a beautiful mountain, which is given on the maps as being 5890 meters high. (We feel that in reality it is some 300 meters higher, but in that case, it would have been illegal for us to climb, since peaks over 6000 meters require special permission.) The ascent took place on June 14 in a 17-hour day from our 4300-meter Base Camp. We were able to take advantage of a track from the day before when a sudden lighning storm drove us back when we were only 80 meters from the top. The climb was not difficult technically, but we had hard work breaking trail. There are many unclimbed peaks in the Sosbun valley, but the rock tends to be rotten.

Robert Renzler, Österreichischer Alpenverein