Gasherbrum I and Gasherbrum II, Enchainment. The French climber and guide Jean-Christophe Lafaille, best known for climbing hard endurance routes, completed ascents of Gasherbrums II and I in one continuous push, without descending to Base Camp, in July. He arrived at Base Camp on July 6 but bad weather made climbing impossible for three weeks. He started his project on the day that had been scheduled as the end of his expedition. On July 28 he soloed Gasherbrum II (8035 m) by the standard route in the very short time of 11 hours 20 minutes. After a rest in his tent at 5900 meters on July 31, Lafaille climbed Gasherbrum I (8068 m). He felt a bit tired and the descent was tiresome too. The ascents were made totally alpine style with no help from anyone else. The two-summit round trip was covered in somewhat less than four days. The first traverse of both summits was made in 1984 by Reinhold Messner and Hans Kammerlander within eight days. They made their descents by different routes.

Jozef Nyka, Editor, Taternik