AFTER REPEATING Alexander Huber's 2012 route Nirwana (multipitch 8c+) in Austria, I met him in 2016 at one of his lectures to talk about the climb. It soon became clear that we got on well together. We went to South Africa for our first shared adventure, and since then have climbed in the Taghia, the Alps, and Patagonia, always having a good time. The logical progression for me was to go to the Greater Ranges. We decided on a small expedition to the Choktoi Glacier, where Alexander knew of an amazing, elegant arête.

This unclimbed line formed the huge south ridge of Suma Brakk (6,166m, 35°57'7.23"N, 75°55'50.93"E), a summit first climbed in 2007, via the southern slopes and southeast ridge, by Americans Doug Chabot, Mark Richey and Steve Swenson (AAJ 2008). [This mountain has also been called Choktoi Peak or Choktoi Ri; it was named Suma Brakk by the 2007 team.]The arête is one of the most prominent lines in the Choktoi Glacier basin and receives sun from dawn to dusk.

We arrived in Islamabad on July 10. From our comfortable base camp on the Choktoi Glacier we ascended nearly 1,000m to place an advanced base at 5,000m right below the south ridge. As I had no prior experience of altitude, I was constantly waiting for the headaches to strike. Fortunately, I never got handicapped by altitude and was very pleased to see that my body can handle it well.

The south arête rises in three big "waves," and during our first stay at advanced base we climbed the first of these, quickly realizing that the route would take much more in the way of commitment and energy than we first had thought. Although not too difficult, it needed all our alpine trickery and route-finding skills to navigate the enormous sea of excellent granite. From the first col we fixed a descent line directly to the glacier. After this we went down to base camp to sit out bad weather and eat our mostly vegetarian meals—a mountain fox had made off with all our chickens.

When the weather cleared and we were rested, we set off again. Alexander and I ascended our fixed ropes and climbed a long section of relatively horizontal ridge until we found a good campsite at around 5,500m (after a total of 28 pitches from the base) below the second wave of the ridge, which we called Red Pillar. It was the only flat place on the entire arête and had an incredible panorama over the Latoks and Ogres. Even more exciting were the perfect splitters just above, as impressive as in Yosemite.

Next morning the weather was as stellar as the climbing, pitch after pitch of perfect rock. We thought we might reach the headwall the following day, as the terrain was less steep, but in the morning we woke to the sound of snow on the tent. We decided to give it a go, and found it tricky but OK, constantly changing from crampons to rock shoes. However, upon arriving at the headwall, it was clear this would form the crux of the route and was way steeper than we’d expected. It was also snow covered. The weather got worse and we retreated to base camp for a rest before a final summit push.

The weather remained bad for nearly a week, and then we waited a further two days of semi-good weather for the mountain to clean its white coat. With a forecast of four days of fine weather, we set off up glacier on August 3. As walking during the blazing sun is so exhausting, we hiked to the base of the wall in the last light and jumared the ropes to our camp at 5,500m in the dark. Four hours after going to bed we were enjoying breakfast and an incredible sunrise.

We reclimbed to the headwall, jumaring a few ropes we had left in place on the difficult pitches above the Red Pillar, and then ascended the first 200m of the headwall. As expected, we found the cracks still iced. There was no bivouac spot so we needed to go all the way down to our camp for the night. Next day we climbed back to our high point and continued up a corner system. It was totally iced but still looked the easiest option. I got some really nice mixed pitches before reaching a foresummit. It was already late, as the climbing had taken longer than expected. We rappelled to a col on the far side and negotiated a long snow arête to the main top, a cornice, on which we took turns to summit. There we reflected on our good fortune to complete a line that required all our skills and energy. However, most important, we had an amazing time, with a lot of laughs and no bad moods, in the peaceful and calm Karakoram. We did what we like doing and what we live for. It clearly showed me the smaller the expedition the richer the experience.

We descended to our tent and spent one more night here, then continued down in the morning, removing all of our ropes from the mountain. We named our route the Big Easy. It gave around 2,200m of climbing over 56 pitches, with difficulties to 5.10+R A1 M6.

Fabian Buhl, Germany

Editor's note: As Buhl and Huber were leaving for home, they met Alexander's brother, Thomas Huber, with Yannick Boissenot, Simon Gietl, and Rainer Treppte. Their aim was the north face of Latok I. They repeated Panmah Kangri (6,046m), a peak on the northern rim of the Choktoi. It was first climbed in the summer of 2015 from the south-southwest via a rocky ridge by Dani Arnold, Alex Huber and Mario Walder on their third attempt. Boissenot, Gietl, Huber, and Treppte then tried the south pillar of Latok III, reaching 5,700m, after which bad weather put pay to any meaningful climbing.

The Big Easy 2018, Choktoi Ri 6166m from fabian buhl on Vimeo.