Canadians in the Karakoram

This summer, Raphael Slawinski and Alik Berg travelled to Pumari Chhish in the Karakoram on a trip that was supported by the John Lauchlan Award this summer. “We had hoped to complete our acclimatization in only two weeks, but a week-long spell of bad weather at the end of July kept us confined to basecamp,” said Slawinski. “With acclimatization out of the way, we turned our attention to the south wall of Pumari Chhish East. The shattered glacier below the face was impassable, but we were able to find an alternate approach by climbing over a rock spur. From the crest of the spur we got our first close look at the face.”

The wall looked out of condition so they played it safe and settled for an unclimbed peak. “The first day we scrambled to a bivouac at 5,700 metres on the south ridge of our objective,” said Slawinski. “The next day we spent sixteen hours negotiating the complex ridge to and from the 5,980-metre summit, arriving back at our bivouac well after midnight.”

They left the valley a few days later. “Pumari Chhish East remains unclimbed, but we still had a great adventure among great mountains and great people,” said Slawinski. “We did not come back successful, but we came back safe and we came back friends.”