Darban Zom Attempt, Hindu Kush. The members of our expedition to Darban Zom (7110 meters, 23,327 feet) were Jürgen Diederichs, Heiki Irmisch and I as leader. We approached on the traditional way up the Udren and Darban Glaciers and got to Base Camp at 4600 meters. We placed Camp I at 5250 meters in the upper Darban cirque and Camp II at 6000 meters on an ice ledge on the north side of Noshaq. Large crevasses forced us towards the avalanche- threatened slope of Gumbaz-e-Safed. On the snow terrace where we hoped to place Camp II, there was no safe place. As we descended, we saw that our fears were justified since our route had been swept by an ice avalanche. Unsettled weather and new snow made us decide that the risk of traversing under the Gumbaz slope was too great and we gave up. We tried to climb 6250-meter-high Q6 from Camp I, but thick clouds turned us back 100 meters from the top. We had problems with porter wages and jeep prices. The expedition lasted from July 7 to August 12.

Günter Schulz, Deutscher Alpenverein