Asia, Pakistan, Brakk Zang, Ganyips

Publication Year: 1999.

Brakk Zang, Ganyips. From June 28 to July 5, Pep Masip and I put up a new route on the southeast face of a virgin mountain named Brakk Zang (4800m) in one of the secondary Hushe valleys of the Pakistan Karakoram. We called the route Ganyips (VI 6a A3, 540m), which is Catalan for a sort of dry fruit, like hazelnuts, almonds, peanuts. There is an offwidth on the third pitch. There are nine long pitches, one of them 75 meters. We spent nine days (eight bivies) on the wall, with some snowy days. We had fixed two pitches (110 meters) on June 25-26 before beginning.

There aren’t any bolts on the new route, just pitons at some belays because we had to rap down the route. At first we thought we could descend by walking down the north side, but when we got the top we realized that it was too difficult.

Sílvia Vidal, Spain