Nameless Tower, Trango Towers. Our expedition was composed of East German Berndt Arnold and West Germans Kurt Albert, Wolfgang Güllich, Wolfgang Kraus, Thomas Lipinski, Martin Leinauer, Dr. Jörg Schneider, Martin Schwiersch, Jörg Wilz and me as leader. Late summer and fall are ideal for the south and west sides of the Trango Towers. We had nearly perfect weather with a few snow showers and only two days of bad weather. These snowfalls made for bad conditions on the northeast buttress of the Great Trango Tower, since the sun no longer struck it at this season. Our climb there failed because of heavy icing. On southern faces the conditions were ideal with warm, dry rock because snowfields had melted. We divided into two groups. Kraus, Lipinski, Schneider and Wilz headed for the Nameless Tower. They chose a combined route. They followed the 1986 Kurtyka route to the snow band and then the 1987 Yugoslav route. They got to the summit on September 3. Albert, Arnold, Güllich, Leinauer and I attempted the Norwegian route on the northeast buttress of the Great Trango Tower. We failed at the beginning of the headwall, 500 meters from the summit because of bad conditions. This must be one of the most difficult Karakoram routes. In 14 days of climbing, we completed 25 pitches, partly free and partly with aid (VII, A3 to A4). After giving up there, we turned to the Nameless Tower. On September 3, we camped on the snow band. After a bivouac on the face, on September 5, Arnold, Leinauer and Schwiersch stepped onto the top, followed an hour later by Albert, Güllich and me. We latter three made the first free ascent of the Nameless Tower (26 pitches, 5.11 to 5.12).

Hartmut Münchenbach, Deutscher Alpenverein