Asia, Pakistan, Nanga Parbat Range, Baltoro Muztagh, Trango Nameless Tower, Eternal Flame and Yugoslav Routes, Ascents, and Variation
Trango Nameless Tower, Eternal Flame and Yugoslav routes, Ascents, and Variation. From June 23 to August 11, the Saxon-Swiss Trango Tower Expedition 2000, led by Jens Richter, made ascents of Trango Nameless Tower via Eternal Flame and the Yugoslav route. All eight members reached the top. Base camp was made on the Trango Glacier, Camp I at the base of the Tower, and Camp II after 300 meters of steep wall on the so-called Sun Terrace.
The aim of six of us was to climb Eternal Flame as free as the first ascensionists had done (5.12c and three pitches of A1 to A2). As we started from the Trango Glacier, we climbed up to the Sun Terrace via the Yugoslav route. We fixed ropes up to seven pitches before the summit. Except for some icy parts on easy ground, we climbed the route as free as we had planned (5.12c A2). We had bad weather the first two weeks, but we climbed as often as possible. We added bolts at the belays because there were mostly only one. We protected the rest of the route with Friends and nuts. On July 21 at 7 p.m., Jens Richter, Michael Richter, and Rüdiger Helling reached the top. Rainer Treppte, Steffen Geißler, and Christian Baum reached the top at 6 p.m. on July 26. All six members are Germans.
Due to the bad weather, the Yugoslav route, which follows a big dihedral system in the upper part, was under icy conditions, forcing the team of Markus Stofer and Urs Stoecker (both Swiss) to aid in many places. They climbed up to the Sun Terrace along with the Eternal Flame team. From the Sun Terrace, they made a route-finding error, and climbed the first three pitches of Run For Cover before rejoining the Yugoslav route via new ground. They called their variation Home Run (5.10 A2). They used fixed ropes on two-thirds of the route. On July 21 at 6:30 p.m., they reached the summit.
Jens Richter, Germany