Our team of Alex Hale, Chris Lewis, Alex Metcalfe, and Sarah Wysling traveled from Dushanbe to Bachor and reached Zaroshkul Lake on August 11, after three days of walking. (Tom Davis-Merry, who organized the expedition, unfortunately was not able to join us in Tajikistan.) We set our base camp near the lake, 5km short of where we had planned, due to unsuitable terrain for pack animals. Though we placed an ABC near the foot of the glacier, this meant longer approaches and descents for our climbs. Our main target was the prominent 5,783m peak (37°51’59.49”N, 72°29’29.12”E) on the southern edge of the large glacial cirque at the head of the Zaroshkul Glacier.

First we climbed Pik 5,248m (37°51’54.8”N, 72°27’21.1”E) on the ridgeline west of Pik 5,783m. The whole team reached the top on August 17, having climbed via the north ridge; this involved a short pitch of easy-angled ice over the bergschrund. The route is approximately 1km long with 220m of height gain (PD).

On August 20, Hale and Lewis made an attempt on Pik 5,783m, climbing mostly by the west ridge. After 13.5 hours of climbing, they were at 5,650m, about 300m away from the summit, and made the decision to turn around due to concerns about rockfall and potentially unstable seracs in the very warm weather. The route to that point had gained about 800m over 2.6km and involved ten pitches of alpine ice (50°–70°), plus easy snow walking and a short, easy, but loose section of rock ridge. The grade was about D-.

Download the team's expedition report here.

—Alex Hale, U.K.