Felipe Guarderas and I climbed three established routes in the Trango Group in June and July. We summited Trango Tower via Eternal Flame, Little Trango via the original American Route, and Great Trango via the normal route. Prior to this we had attempted the 2011 Chibitok-Kopteva-Yasinskaya route Parallelniy Mir (A3 6a) on the north face of Great Trango. After around 35 pitches we gave up on this route, which was very disappointing. The first 1,000m are poor rock with many ledges. On the incredible pillar the first ascensionists drilled hundreds of holes so they could hook up blank walls for ca 200m. After that, who knows? It was heartbreaking for us, so we decided to bail and climb something better.

Our main objective was to establish our own route in this iconic area. We decided on a 700m wall directly above the west side of the Trango Glacier, named Uli Biaho Gallery by the Austrians that probably climbed it first via the line Nilam Nijang on the southeast pillar (AAJ 2013). Our route follows a perfect crack system, with very varied climbing, from flaring fingers to awkward offwidths. It took three days to complete, aiding (A2) most of the way due to vegetation and tricky protection.

After a couple of rest days, and with a good weather forecast, we came back to prepare the route for a free ascent. We placed a bolt and piton at each belay, and around eight more bolts to protect blank sections. Bad weather, gastrointestinal distress, and fatigue prevented us from completing a full free ascent, but we tried hard and enjoyed every pitch, which were as good as the ones on Eternal Flame. A completely free ascent would be about 7b+; however, it also can be climbed at around 6c A1+. We named the route FreeTanga Ecuatoriana (700m of climbing), a reference to a traditional dish of our country and also a naughty play on words.

Roberto Morales, Ecuador