One of the Latok group’s most coveted objectives, the 2,000m west face of Latok III, was finally climbed by a four-man Russian team led by Alexander Odintsov. The ascent realized an 11-year dream for the veteran leader. Considering past events on ...
The Bondid Valley extends to the west of Kande village, opposite the well-known Nangma Valley. Mojca Svajger and I visited this valley in September after an unsuccessful attempt on Rakaposhi. We set up base camp at 4,500m on the left side of the M...
“Not even the American ambassador to Pakistan is getting past these gates. Closed means closed!” These are the words that welcomed us to the Kondus Valley of Pakistan…or just short of it. Months earlier, Matt Hepp and I had applied for a “special ...
In the summer of 2009, Eamonn Walsh, Ian Welsted, and I traveled to Pakistan to play in bigger hills than the Canadian Rockies back home. We had first visited the Hispar Glacier region in 2006, when we attempted the southwest face of Khunyang Chhi...
Bruce Miller, Steve Su, and I left the U.S. on July 11 for an attempt on unclimbed Pumari Chhish East (ca. 6,900m). This peak and our base camp were located on the Yutmaru Glacier, a tributary of the Hispar Glacier. Steve and Pete Takeda had attem...
From August 20 to September 20 Martin Jakobsson and I, both originally Swedish, visited the Hispar Glacier, establishing base camp at its junction with the Khani Basa Glacier. Our goal was 6,651m Tahu Rutum by a new route, the northwest ridge [thi...
In July and August 2010 a Joint Japanese-Pakistani expedition visited the Bara Khun Valley, north of the Karakoram Highway. The team was led by Japanese cartographer Tsuneo Miyamori, and both he and Shizuo Akai carried out considerable GPS survey ...
Within a year Pakistan Youth Outreach has organized three expeditions and a training camp for youngsters in the peaks of the Shimshal region. Its purpose is to educate young people in mountaineering and the outdoors, to promote women’s adventure, ...
Rising west from Gulmit village on the Karakoram Highway is the Bulkish Yaz Glacier, dominated at its head by an outstanding peak named Gulmit Tower, one of several summits toward the end of the long ridge running east from Ultar. The village is ...
I first caught sight of Karim Sar in 2007 from the top of a small, previously unclimbed peak between the Baltar and Toltar glaciers. Lorenzo Corona identified the lovely ice-capped mountain to the south as the one his friend Ivo Ferrari was attemp...
Giri-Giri boys Fumitaka Ichimura and Yusuke Sato made the best attempt to date on the magnificent southeast pillar of Ultar. On their alpine-style push they left 4,300m base camp on September 6, ascended the glacier, and climbed to a col below a g...
The story begins with an awkward mistake many years ago: In 1997 my friends and I climbed a beautiful 6,132m peak in the Rupal Valley, close to Nanga Parbat, and claimed the first ascent in the 1998 AAJ, calling it Laila Peak. In April 2009 an ema...
After a year of research, we agreed on a plan to attempt the virgin northwest buttress of Nanga Parbat (8,125m). Our group of close friends included Austrians Günther Unterberger, Hans Goger, and Sepp Bachmair, along with the two of us. We joined ...
During our 2009 climb of Schlagintweit Peak (5,979m, AAJ 2010), I spotted an impressive summit in the neighboring Chiche Valley. Back home I did some research. I found a sketch map, on which it was named Chiche Peak. Later, I was told that the fam...
The original goal of our seven-member expedition, supported by the University of Ljubljana, was to climb Nanga Parbat by the Kinshofer Route. Although we planned to climb in classic siege style, we wanted to use no supplementary oxygen and no high...
Raghshur (Lagh Shar) is an unclimbed mountain east of the Istor-o-Nal group. Theodoros Christopoulos, Ioannis Kovanidis, and I established base camp beside the Raghshur Glacier (4,430m), north of the peak, in early August.On August 6, after mov...
Ideally, climbing partners should do many short routes together before attempting a long and serious climb, especially in the alpine environment. But that’s not always possible. Sometimes climbers hook up for a big climb without tying in even once...
In August and September, two teams from Keio University Alpine Club climbed three possibly new peaks from the Shuangqiao Valley; they also did one second ascent and completed the fourth ascent of Eagle Rock via a new route.The first team, Yusuke K...
Prior to our ascent of Gujon Ri, above the source of the Mekong River, Josito Fernandez, M'Paz Garrido, Dani Martin, and I explored the mountains of northwest Sichuan, basing our activities around the villages of Ganzi and Manigango on the Sichuan...
In 2012 Chinese Chen Hui and Pan Xiaobing made a late-November ascent of Pomiu via a partial new line. On the 17th, using horses to carry equipment, they reached base camp southwest of the mountain at 4,100m. Next day they climbed through scree an...