In August 2022, a team of friends traveled to the Shafat Valley, where several of us opened new rock routes.

Marc Toralles and I made the first ascent of a 5,700m peak we named Punta Guillem Aparicio in memory of a good friend who was killed in 2011 while ice climbing. This peak lies at 34°00’17”N, 76°11’42”E in a small side valley that runs west into the Shafat and is a southern outlier of Shafat Peak (5,900m; immediately north of Shafat Peak and at a lower altitude is the well-known Shafat Fortress).

After a long day’s approach from base camp, we reached the foot of the access couloir. We started up our proposed line on August 14, loaded with bivouac gear, as we were planning to climb the face over two days. After ten pitches up to 6c+, we reached a narrow ledge, where we spent a terrible night. A storm with lightning, hail, and rain lasted all night, and we survived the best we could using a thermal blanket for protection. It was one of those nights you will never forget.

Next morning, very tired, very wet, and with a dubious forecast, we retreated and returned to base camp.

On August 23, we came back for a second try. Our plan this time was to go fast and light, hoping to climb to the summit and descend in one day. As we already knew the first half of the route, we reached pitch ten early in the day. Seven more pitches, with several at 6c+ and a crux of 7a+, saw us on the summit. It was now snowing, and we had only a few hours of daylight remaining. Our rappel descent was to climber’s left of our ascent, so that we avoided the access couloir. After around 17 rappels from nuts and pitons, we arrived at our tent 20 hours after leaving. Our new route, Txoria Txori (740m of climbing, 7a+), was climbed entirely clean, using only nuts and cams for protection and belays.

Between these two attempts, on August 19, Jordi Mons and I climbed the southwest face of Shafat Peak (34°00’48”N, 76°11’48”E). On July 1, Oriol Baró and Guillem Sancho had climbed this aspect of the mountain via Tukcheche (500m, 6c), following one of the rock pillars that characterize this face and which they had called Wild East Pillar. After another long approach east up a side valley from the main Shafat, we climbed the same pillar but via a line slightly farther right.

After an initial pitch of 4+, five sustained pitches from 6a to 6c, with a little A1+, followed by another pitch of 4+, brought us to the final 100m–150m of straightforward mixed terrain. Heading up right, we reached the summit and then rappelled the wall, the anchors not always coinciding with the line of ascent. We named the route La Gent que Estimo.

The other new route opened in the Shafat Valley was Pors de Gos (130m, 6a A3), put up by Adrià Fidalgo, Núria Garcia, and Guim Llort on the Shafat Wall. This face lies near the entrance to the Shafat Valley and has many existing routes. The three-pitch Pors de Gos is to the right of Los Asfixiados and begins with a laborious pitch of aid on pitons and Peckers, before continuing above in a conspicuous dihedral.

— Tasio Martin Elorrieta, Basque Country