The village of Khane (2,800m) is the last place of habitation heading north in the Hushe Valley that is accessible by vehicle. The time taken to drive there from Skardu will vary depending on your form of motorized transport, but is generally four to five hours. Tomeu Rubí and Pep Roig (Spain), Derek Watson (U.K.), and I reached the our base camp at 4,470m, near the start of the Khane Glacier, in two days from the village, with an intermediate stop at Boulder Camp (4,000m).

On August 4 and 5, we climbed our first peak, named Brakk Na Brakk (5,872m, 35°19.9806'N, 76°28.0918'E GPS), according to some locals, though others refer to it as Adil, and it is named Agil on Jerzy Wala’s sketch map of the area. It stands opposite Tangra Tower in the Second Khane Cwm.

On the first day we climbed to a bivouac on the southwest side of the peak, from which Tomeu and Derek climbed partway up a 300m rock wall leading to the upper glacier, then descended, leaving three ropes in place. Next day we left at 4:30 a.m., reached our high point, and continued for a few more pitches, one of which, the crux of the route, was 6c A2. After 200m of easy but exposed mixed climbing, we reached a snow ramp leading up to a sort of col, from which a gully on the south face headed up to the gap between north and south summits. Climbing this (up to 60°—we wished we'd brought a second axe), we could see the north top was higher, and we reached it at 4 p.m. Cloud cover had been increasing, and now it began to snow a little. We descended to our bivouac, arriving after midnight and a 20-hour day. The west face of this peak had been attempted by Korean expeditions during the period from 2001 to 2003; we saw an old belay station at the start of the headwall.

On the 8th, after having only one day's rest, as poor weather was predicted to arrive in just a few days, Tomeu, Derek, and I (Pep was ill) set off for the head of the glacier and the First Khane Cwm. Reaching the cwm was difficult, but a Russian team (see report here) had left fixed ropes on the rock buttress alongside the icefall, and we used them to reach the upper plateau. Here, we saw two peaks (22.1 and 22.2 on the Wala map, immediately south of Hasho Peak II) that looked straightforward. We decided on the southerly summit, as it seemed more aesthetic and was a little closer.

We camped at 5,100m and set off before 5 a.m. The ascent was enjoyable: a 40° snow ramp on the southwest face to reach the southeast ridge, and a few easy meters of rock at the top. We called the peak Brakk Truc (5,672m, 35°20.1161'N, 76°29.3453'E GPS), after the Spanish card game Truc. (It also means “six” in Balti.) It took only three hours from our high camp to the summit, so we were able to return to base camp the same day.

During the approach to base camp, we had spotted a ridge on the right side of the north face of Peak 222.1 on the 2012 Wala map. (See AAJ 2016. Strangely, in later editions of this map, this peak is unlabelled, but is marked between 222 and 224]. The peak is a subsidiary summit to the northwest of Grey Tower (Peak 222, 5,435m, climbed in 2012 by Bulgarians via the east ridge). The ridge we were eyeing exited onto the west ridge of Peak 222.1, which we could follow to the summit and thence onward to Grey Tower.

Pep was still ill and returned to Skardu, but Tomeu, Derek, and I decided to try the ascent without bivouac gear, knowing that if we just completed the ridge, it would be worth it. We left base camp at 5 a.m., descended 400m of the Khane Valley, and in around an hour were on the spur. Approximately 20 pitches later, we reached the characteristic “horns” on the west ridge and ended our climb there. It was 3:30 p.m., and we knew the descent would be complex. We made two rappels to reach a wide, steep couloir that led down to the valley. The descent was infernal: very long with much loose rock. Sixteen hours after our departure, we regained base camp. We named the route Ridakh Ridge (1,000m, 6a+).

– Cati Lladó, Spain