Istor-o-nal North I. On July 30, after ten hours of jeep travel, we arrived at Shagram from Chitral. It took three days to reach Base Camp at 4450 meters. On August 4, three reconnaissance teams set out. We chose to traverse the southwest ridge, the Rock Pinnacle, Istor-o-nal West I (7300 meters), West II (7280 meters), North I (7373 meters) to the main summit (7403 meters, 24,289 feet). We placed Camp I at 5400 meters on the glacier below the ridge on August 5. From August 6 to 8, we prepared the route up the couloir from the glacier to the ridge. Camp II was established on the ridge at 6160 meters on August 9. On August 12 at 2:30 A.M., five climbers started for the top, but at 7000 meters one fell sick and the other four escorted him back to Camp II. On August 14, Camillo Della Vedova and Luigi Pasini set out for the top at one A.M. They reached the summit of Istor-o-nal North I at one P.M. They realized that to get to the main summit would require a third camp and so they descended to Camp II, which they reached at nine P.M. We removed all equipment on August 15. Twelve or thirteen days are too short a time to become acclimatized and many members had altitude problems.

Paolo Civera, Club Alpino Italiano