The mountain locally named Geshot Peak (a.k.a. Toshe III or Toshain III, 6,200m, 35°8'44.44"N, 74°24'14.92"E) lies about 20km southwest of the summit of Nanga Parbat. On June 29, I made the first ascent of the peak, starting from the Bunar Valley to the northwest.

My plan had been to climb the mountain together with my father Reinhold (Italy), Günther Göberl, and Robert Neumeyer (both from Austria). Difficult snow conditions, warm temperatures, and very unstable weather made this potentially dangerous for a party of four, so I decided to climb the mountain in a single push, solo, from an advanced base at 4,600m.

My aim was to climb fast to avoid incoming bad weather, and although I had to break trail for the entire ascent (sometimes up to the knees!), I reached the summit at 9:30 a.m., having taken 5.5 hours. The climbing was not difficult, but snow conditions were very bad: In June the weather in northern Pakistan was unpredictable and it snowed a lot, promoting weak layers in the snowpack. I had to concentrate hard to avoid triggering an avalanche. Luckily everything went well on the descent, and I reached base camp the same day. This is a very glaciated mountain, and I have never seen so many seracs on a peak of this relatively low altitude.

Geshot Peak previously had been attempted unsuccessfully from the northwest by Polish expeditions (twice) and also Canadians. While trekking out from the mountain, locals in the Bunar Valley brought me wreaths and flowers to celebrate the ascent—what hospitality! For more history of climbing in this area, see AAJ 2010 and 2016.

– Simon Messner, Italy