Ishinca, Northwest Face, Magic Mushrooms. On July 6, while still acclimatizing in the Ishinca valley, Vasja Kosuta and I established the new route Magic Mushrooms (IV 80°, 500m) on the northwest face of Ishinca (5530m). We started early in the morning from our Advanced Base Camp at the lake near the Ishinca Glacier. We were very close to the beginning of our climb. After approximately half an hour’s walk over the moraine, we started climbing. We began with about 150 meters of not very steep ground (40-45°). Then, somewhere in the middle, it became steeper and we had to climb a steep slope with a little snow, in some places mixed (70°). After that we reached a big barrier of overhanging seracs (quite scary!) and started a long traverse to the left under the seracs on a slope the angle of which was 50 to 60 degrees. We wanted to climb vertical ice at the left end of the seracs, but the ice was very bad, so we decided to climb the rock to the left (initially 80°, then IV-for 15m). From there, we continued over the upper snow field (50°) to the top of the mountain (after digging through the snow cornice, 70°). It took us seven hours to reach the summit and another two or three to return to camp.

Matija Klanjscek, Slovenia