Before Aymeric Clouet, Christian Trommsdorff, and Patrick Wagnon ventured further up the Baltoro Glacier to make an attempt on Gasherbrum V (see report), I accompanied them to the Trango Group. After an approach to Shipton base camp, a warm-up ascent on good granite close to camp, and a few days of snow, all four of us skied up the Trango Glacier to the Sarpo Laggo Pass (5,704m), crossed in 1937 by Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman to reach the Sarpo Laggo Glacier and thence the north side of K2. We spent a night here, and then Christian and I

went back to base camp while the other two scouted a possible route up Sarpo Laggo Peak, northwest of the pass. We all left base camp again on May 28 and skied to the pass, where we spent the night again before following the southeast ridge, in deep snow, to the summit. We reached the top after an exhausting 12-hour climb and camped for the night just below the summit cornice. After spending a few hours next morning enjoying fine Karakoram scenery, we descended to the pass, camped again and returned to base camp on the 31st. [There is no record of Sarpo Laggo Peak having been climbed before this ascent.]

With the forecast offering only one and half days of good weather, and avalanches falling from the Uli Biaho side, we decided to attempt Trango I (a.k.a. Trango Ri), the highest of the Trango peaks, in lightweight style, taking sleeping bags but no tent. On June 4 we climbed a complex route up the south-southwest face, starting from the base of the large southwest-facing couloir between Trangos I and II. In 14 hours from base camp (ca 1,800m of ascent) we reached a southern foresummit, about 150m below the top. Three of the climbers continued for one hour but then retreated. After a bivouac in strong wind and temperatures down to –21°C, we descended the following morning. [Editor’s note: It is not known by whom, or even if, Trango I was climbed previously, but the line of the Austro-French attempt is most likely new.]

Lisi Steurer, Austria