In July, Sebastian Conrad, Stephan Rath, and I did our first climb in Kyrgyzstan in the Karakol region, attempting Pik Karakol (ca 5,200m). Unfortunately, the temperature was high (freezing level above 5,000m) and we were forced to retreat from ca 4,600m due to heavy rockfall.

After this disappointment we drove east via Naryn to the Torugart-Too, on the border with China. This area has been visited by relatively few mountaineers, the last in 2010 being two British teams.

Like the British, we also visited the Mustyr Valley and headed up glacier (one of the 2010 expeditions dubbed this John Charles Glacier) to establish base camp below Mur Samir (5,035m GPS, 5,008m Russian Military map), a peak climbed by both 2010 expeditions (AAJ 2011, Leach and Russell). We first attempted to repeat the northeast ridge, climbed in 2010 by John Proctor and Robert Taylor to make the first ascent of the mountain. To approach the crest we used a couloir to the right of theirs, which proved straightforward (400m, PD), allowing us to reach the crest at 4,800m. However, rock on the ridge above was truly horrible, the “Weetabix” variety, as noted by Proctor. It was very warm and dry, and the rotten rock unfrozen, making it almost impossible to climb, let alone find anchor points. We turned around without reaching the top.

Next day, July 27, we started again, this time for an attempt on the unclimbed northwest face. Above the bergschrund we climbed steepening ice in good condition, leading toward two narrow couloirs, each 50–60°. We took the left, which gave short passages of mixed climbing. After a total of 700m climbing, we reached the north ridge and followed this on snow to the summit. The overall grade was AD. We then continued down the northeast ridge and used Proctor’s descent along the eastern part of the north face. This proved more difficult than previously described, due to dangerous rockfall from the ridge above and large crevasses that on several occasions we had to rappel.

Sebastian Wolf, Germany