Anton Kashevnik, Yegor Suzdaltsev, and Ivan Temerev (all from Russia) climbed new ground on the northwest face of Great Trango Tower in August. Starting on the 14th, using a portaledge, they began with a couple of new pitches immediately left of the 2007 Krasnoyarsk Route (Arkhipov-Cherezov-Glazyrin-Khvostenko-Komissarov-Litvinov) on the left-hand pillar, but then realized the 2007 route was far more logical, so they moved onto it and continued for around 10 more pitches before traversing right, across Parallelniy Mir (Chibitok-Kopteva-Yasinskaya, 2011) and Lost Butterfly (Berecz-Nadaski-Tivadar, 1999) to the first big snow patch on the face. From here they slanted right, crossing Parallel Worlds (Lowe-Ogden-Synnott, 1999) and then the 1999 Russian Route (Koshelenko-Odintsov-Potankin-Samoilenko) to climb the wall parallel to and left of the upper part of Bushido (Raganowicz-Tomaszewski, 2013). They joined the latter at the point where it exits onto the southwest ridge, then continued up the 2004 Cordes-Wharton Route (Azeem Ridge). After a total of 11 days, they reached a point 200m from the south summit, progress having been slowed by inclement weather, which meant many pitches had to be climbed on aid. At this point, lack of time and food forced them to give up.

They descended directly along the “other” 2007 Krasnoyarsk Route (Belyaev-Komissarov-Loginov-Mikhaylitsin), which climbs the right side of the face and upper part of the southwest ridge (see photos in AAJs 2012 and 2014 for all routes mentioned above). On the 27th, after two days of descent, they reached base camp.

The team estimates the vertical interval of their line to be more than 1,500m, with a climbing distance of around 2,000m. They have given their partial new route the name of Inshallah (6b+ A4). A little later Kashevnik joined Alexander Gukov and Valery Shamalo for an epic attempt on Latok I.

Lindsay Griffin, with information from Elena Dmitrenko, Risk.ru

CAPTION

Dmitrenko_GreatTrango_2018_Inshallah

On the first ascent of Inshallah, a partial new route on the northwest face of Great Trango Tower. Russian Great Trango Expedition Archives