How young Briton tamed killer peak in the ‘climb of a generation’
A YOUNG British climber who completed a mountaineering feat described as “possibly the climb of this generation” has told how he continued after an attempt ahead of him ended in tragedy.
Tom Livingstone, 27, and Luka Stražar and Ales Cesen, both Slovenians, last week became the first climbers to conquer the north face of Latok I.
The fearsome northerly route to the 23,442ft peak in Pakistan’s Karakoram range has earned special status among mountaineers after remaining beyond the sport’s best practitioners, and defeating more than 30 expeditions.
The danger of the unclimbed face was underlined late last month when a
Russian climber fell to his death and his companion was rescued by helicopter after being stranded for six days.
In his first interview with a
British newspaper since his feat, Mr Livingstone, from Llanberis in North Wales, said his party learnt of the death of Sergey Glazunov and the plight of Alexander Gukov ahead of them as they prepared to climb from base camp.
He and his companions saw repeated attempts by the Pakistan military to rescue Mr Gukov and offered assistance.
Mr Livingstone told The Daily Telegraph: “You would not be human if you said it didn’t affect you. It’s like being a Formula One driver and just witnessing a total pile-up and then getting in your car thinking well, that won’t happen to me. Yeah of course it might happen to us.” Mr Livingstone said the seven-day climb had left him exhausted and the party had “pushed it quite far”. “There were times when we just couldn’t fail,” he said. The north face has held a special respect among climbers since a first attempt in 1978 saw four of the world’s best alpinists get within 500ft before they were forced to give up.
Jeff Lowe, an American who was on that expedition once called the climb “the unfinished business of the last generation”. After so many subsequent failed attempts, mountaineers around the globe have widely praised the achievement of Mr Livingstone and his companions.
“It’s been considered as one of the last great Himalayan climbs,” said Kenton Cool, a mountain guide who has scaled Everest 13 times. “Many of the very best have pitted themselves against this colossal ridge line, and all have been repelled, either by technical difficulties, the route’s condition or by the notoriously bad Karakoram weather. When I first read that the boys had climbed the route I literally spat my coffee out. It’s certainly the ascent of the year, possibly of our generation.”
The ridge running up the north side of Latok I has become known as “impossible ridge” because of the number of top-class climbers it has defeated.
Mr Livingstone, Mr Stražar and Mr Cesen climbed three quarters of the ridge, before they diverted to find safer ground to the summit.
Conscious of the dramatic helicopter rescue of Alexander Gukov they had viewed only days before, the trio tried to minimise risk-taking where possible.
Mr Livingstone said: “We limited the risk as much as we could. For example, we stopped early in the day, so that when the sun hit the walls above us, we could watch the rockfall thundering and smashing down, thinking oh good, we’ve stopped in a safe place.”
The climbers saw avalanches a dozen times a day. “You’re constantly worried about the weather, you’re stressing about the next pitch, about getting down,” he said. “And you’re not trying to think about anything else, like back home.”
Since being introduced to climbing at age 14 by Julian, 59, his father, Mr Livingstone has steadily progressed from climbing on British soil to earning his stripes on test-pieces in the French Alps and exploring unclimbed routes in Alaska and the Canadian Rockies.
What makes the successful expedition remarkable is the fact that this was his first time climbing in the Himalayas. “The ridge was such a big prize. It was a 10-year goal. I’ve always thought, imagine if you could climb that, and to actually do it was such a special experience,” Mr Livingstone said. “For it to be my first Himalayan trip makes it even sweeter”.
He said high-altitude climbing was “the most intense, the most ‘out there’, and ultimately the most satisfying thing I can think of doing.
“Climbing often has these circles, where you might one day as a beginner read about a climb and get a sense of it, and then one day five years later you climb it.”
His father later declared he understood his son’s passion for climbing but was “naturally anxious and relieved to have him home”.
Mr Livingstone is not yet ready for a relaxing summer holiday after his climb. In three weeks he’s jetting off to attempt another unclimbed route on a mountain in the Indian Himalayas. He said his girlfriend was not a climber but “understands” the attraction of the sport. “She’s a psychologist so I bet she’s got some interesting theories, but she’s never told them to me,” he said.
He added that he may also one day attempt to take the north ridge all the way to the top of Latok I.
He said: “One day I might go back and attempt the whole of the north ridge. It looks more like a battle, a bit of a war at the top there.”
‘Many of the very best have pitted themselves against this colossal ridge line, and all have been repelled’