Gasherbrum IV, attempt of Bonatti-Mauri route. It appears from our records and those of the Ministry of Tourism that no completely new routes were attempted in 2002 on any of the major mountains, but an old route on G-IV (7,980m), the Bonatti-Mauri route, was attempted again after a very long time by a Swiss/Italian seven-member expedition led by documentary producer Mario Casella. The expedition reached camp III at 7,400m (Editor’s note: other information has them reaching a little over camp 2 at around 6,100m). They were in the process of establishing this camp when a spell of bad weather forced them down. The expedition had to abandon the climb after that as the weather turned nasty and avalanches were feared.

This route was first climbed by a strong Italian expedition led by Ricardo Cassin in 1958, who scaled the peak via the north-east ridge after a hard climb. Walter Bonatti and Carlo Mauri reached the summit. They spent a night at camp 6 on the descent before continuing down to camp 5 via a very technical and dangerous route. Another member, Giuseppi de Francesch, miraculously stopped himself from falling to his death.

Nazir Sabir, Pakistan