New Alpine Routes in Northeast PAKISTAN
“There’s years of stuff to do in that area.”
In northeastern Pakistan on the border of India near K6 and southeast of Link Sar lies a cirque of unclimbed 6,000-metre peaks offering a lifetime of new routing. Starting in July and acting on a tip from Himalayan climbing veteran Steve Swenson, Americans Jess Roskelley and Kurt Ross and Belgian Nelson Nerinick climbed three new routes in an area they describe as “way more amazing than I ever thought it would be.” The team was so impressed by their visit that they told from their hotel room in Islamabad, “we left a barrel of climbing gear, we have to come back.”
With a funding from the American Alpine Club’s Cutting Edge Award, the three flew to Islamabad on July 15 and took a sweltering, multi-day bus ride for 600 km northeast on the Karakoram Highway to reach their launching-off point in Skardu. From there they headed into basecamp at 14,500 feet near K6 and the Charakusa valley. Because the area has only recently become unrestricted due to a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, the team believes they are the third ones to visit the area and first ones to visit the cirque. Rock spires and snow-capped peaks in a lush green meadow surrounded basecamp.
Timing their ascents between storms lasting two to three days, the trio climbed their routes over three weeks. Surrounded by dozens of lines waiting to be climbed, “the hardest part was choosing options and lines,” Ross said. “There’s so much left it’s exceptional. We had free reign in the place.” For their acclimatization route, they climbed a 19,500-foot peak via a 900 metre 5.9 AI4 route they named after their cook Baba Hussein. Their ascent wasn’t just to help their bodies adapt to the altitude, also from the top they were able to get their bearings and eye future FA’s on nearby peaks. Their next objective was the tallest peak in the area at 6,300 metres, which they climbed over three days. On day one the team nearly overheated as the mountain came alive around them with rockfall and sluffs, and they set up camp on a glacier to wait for cooler conditions the next day. The following morning, they soloed a long AI4 ice field and made a long traverse right in order to gain the summit ridge. At the edge of the ridge they fixed a line – that they would jug out during the descent – and rapped off a highpoint before continuing along the ridge to reach the top. As the