Pakistan has kicked off a fantastic summer season, with two teams aiming for alpine-style ascents of K2 and Nanga Parbat, as well as other teams attempting new routes on challenging 7,000m peaks. This week saw a Czech team return for a fourth attempt at 7,453m Muchu Chishu in the Batura Mustagh range, the highest unclimbed mountain in the world that can be summited by mountaineering teams.
Another breakthrough
Details about the Czech team are still scarce, but it will consist of Radoslav Glo and Zdenek Haq, who last worked together on the impressive new route on Choratse in autumn 2023.
Much-Tis’s avalanche-prone slopes and seemingly endless summit ridge have deterred many elite teams over the years, with the Czech team re-enacting in 2020, 2021 and 2023, with a different lineup each year.
The final four to attempt it last year – Pavel Korinek, Pavel Bem, Radoslav Glo and Tomas Petreček – almost succeeded: they reached the summit ridge at 7,200 metres but failed to reach the summit at 7,453 metres.
Muchu Cish robbed Czech climbers of their last energy (and fat) last year. From left: Radoslav Glo, Pavel Bem and Tomas Petreček. Photo: Muchu Cish 2023 Czech Expedition
Pumari Chhish in French
A few kilometres southeast of Muchu Chiche, Mathieu Meinadier and the Ladevant brothers from France have just reached base camp at the foot of Pumari Chiche, another major objective of this season.
They have set up the first caches on the glacier, and will now rest for a few days, followed by another three to four days of acclimatisation. It will take them at least three weeks to reach the central peak of the summit at 7,492 metres via a difficult new route on the south face.
A map of the Karakoram shows the current destinations of expeditions: the Batura Range (including Muchu Chish), Pumari Chish, Bainta Brak (Oga) and K2. Image: Google Maps
Quiet team
We’re waiting for news about Hungarians David Klein and Marton Nagy’s attempt to summit the 7,403m Istres aux Nars in the Hindu Kush mountain range near the Afghanistan border. It’s Klein’s second attempt. Communications are difficult there, so we may not hear much from them.
Other teams in the region tend to keep quiet about their goals and only report when they succeed — some climbers, for example, will end up climbing K7, the goal of experts like Charles Duboros, Tom Livingston and Jeff and Pretty Wright.
This year, the Spanish national team will attempt it, leader Miquel Zabalza told Radio Aragon podcast. K7 is located southeast of K2, near the disputed border between India and Kashmir and Pakistan.
From K7 camp. Photo: Charles Duboroz.
Similarly, two of the American Mountaineering Club’s cutting edge grant recipients are also looking to Pakistan: Dane Steadman, Cody Winkler and August Franzen will be climbing the north face of Yashkuk Sar (6,667m) in northern Pakistan. Ethan Berman has been supported to summit Ultar Sar (7,388m) in the Batura Mustagh range, but there is no information on the rest of the team.
Russians Ratmir Mukhametzyanov, Alexander Parfenov, and Alexei Sukharev are aiming to summit the north face of The Ogre (Bainta Brak I), but haven’t set off yet. Last we heard, they were still scrambling to raise the $34,000 needed for the expedition.
Climbing 8,000m smoothly
Yoshiya Hiraide and Takeo Nakajima are heading along the Baltoro Glacier on their quest to summit the West Face of K2 on a new alpine-style route. They reached Paiju Camp today.
File image of Takeo Nakajima in the Karakoram Mountains. Photo: Ishii Sports
We are also eagerly awaiting news about David Gettler and Mike Arnold’s alpine-style attempt to summit Nanga Parbat.
