Wolfgang Felderer, Martin Haid, Christian Mauracher, Sebastian Posch, Christoph Schranz, and I, all from the Alpine Bande Tirol (club) of Austria, visited Kyrgyzstan from July 8 to 25. The Kara-su Valley has massive walls similar to El Capitan, with up to 1,500m of vertical granite. After a three-day approach, Christoph and I focused on establishing new routes.

On July 13 we went to a small peak, which we called Green Wall. If you walk up the valley past Yellow Wall and continue toward Silver Wall, just before you reach the foot of the latter, a path leads up right (west). Half an hour of walking up this path takes you to the base of a steep, north-facing wall. As our new line climbed sections of compact slab, we placed a total of 10 bolts, including belays. We named the 400m route Eaßtbegeung. There are seven pitches up to 7a to reach the summit ridge, and then easier climbing (up to 5a) to the 3,600m top. The route was repeated by the rest of our team and the grade confirmed.

Our next plan was to establish a new route on the east face of the main summit of Silver Wall (4,010m), and as the climb would be around 1,200m, we planned to bivouac in the middle of the face. We climbed the new route at 6c+ and named it Tyrolean, as to reach this wall you need to make a Tyrolean traverse over the river. This route climbs the prominent east-facing pillar to the right of the 2006 route Opposite to Asan and its 2015 Italian variant Bye bye, Globo de Gas! (AAJ 2017).

Our last climb was a new route on the west face of Kotina (a.k.a. Shaitan Khana, 4,521m). The route lies to the left of the 2006 Polish route Czarna Wolga, and gave around 2,000m of climbing. We named it Krukonogi and climbed it without bolts, free, onsight, and at 7a+. We bivouacked 100m below the summit and rappelled to the valley the next day. Two Russians, Evgeny Corulin and Vasily Terekhin, were camping near us and wanted to repeat our route. We gave them information before leaving the area, but in the end they followed a parallel line to the right.

– Gebhard Bendler, Austria

Italian Route on Silver Wall: On August 11, Dmitry Anghileri, Mirco Grasso, and Matteo Motta from Italy began down and right from the start of the Ternerev Route on the southeast face of Silver Wall, climbed through the overhangs, crossed the Ternerev where it traverses right, then followed the crest of the pillar to the left to reach the summit ridge. The route is called Rocket Donkey (700m, about 14 pitches, UIAA VIII).