Pik Parashutny, north face, not to summit. On July 27, Tadej Kriselj, Matej Smrkolj, and I made the first ascent of the north face of Pik Parashutny (5,360m). The 1,000m face is mainly snow and ice. We took a direct line toward the summit, climbing through poor weather. Due to bad conditions in the upper section, we slanted right to the crest of the northeast ridge 150m below the summit. Before we reached the upper section of the face, the climbing was mostly on good snow and ice up to 70°. However, the upper part was steeper and objectively dangerous, and by the time we reached the crest of the ridge after 10 hours climbing, there was 30cm of fresh snow. We decided to forego the summit and immediately descend the west couloir (40-60°) before the avalanche risk became even higher. At nightfall we reached the Zvezdochka Glacier, from where we only had to walk one hour back to our tent. We named our new line Slovenian Birthday Party (TD+) and felt it was harder than the Shroud on the Grandes Jorasses. Ten days later we reached the summit of Khan Tengri (6,995m) with other Slovenian climbers from our expedition.

Ales Hole, Kamnik Alpine Club, Slovenia