Two Beautiful New Routes in Pakistan
August 2007Doug Chabot, Mark Richey, and Steve Swenson made the first ascent of 6,166-meter Suma Brakk ("Three Peaks"), climbing the central summit via a route around the corner from the right-hand skyline.
An all-star team of AAC leaders and past leaders—Doug Chabot, Mark Richey, and Steve Swenson—had a successful expedition to Pakistan this summer, climbing two new routes and making an attempt on the north ridge of Latok I. After an easy acclimatization climb, the three made the first ascent of a 6,166-meter peak they dubbed Suma Brakk (“Three Peaks” in Balti; the peak is also known as the Trident or Choktoi). With acclimatization for Latok in mind, the trio took two days at a moderate pace to climb snow and ice on the south-southwest side of the peak to a high camp, then climbed to the summit of the virgin peak in half a day. They found enjoyable and moderately challenging ice runnels and mixed steps along the south ridge. Chabot, a past member of the AAC board of directors, said the climbing reminded him of the Cassin Ridge on Denali or Peak 11,300 near the Ruth Amphitheater in Alaska.
AAC past president Mark Richey had tried the peak in 1998 with John Bouchard, nearly reaching the north tower before poor weather and an 80-foot unprotectable offwidth called a halt.
With a good forecast, the team started up the north side of 7,145-meter Latok I on July 4. Finding excellent ice, they quickly gained about 2,700 vertical feet on their first day, with Chabot leading most of the way. The next day, they motored up ice runnels along the flank of the ridge with AAC vice president Swenson in the lead, making rapid progress all day until, about 50 feet from regaining the ridge, Swenson ran into unprotectable sugar snow. It took him three hours of tunneling and digging to climb that last 50 feet. On Day 3, Richey took the lead but conditions got no better, and the team decided to bail from about halfway up the ridge, at 5,900 meters.
Since the snow conditions were unlikely to improve during their visit, Chabot headed home, and Richey and Swenson decided to attempt the Ogre (7,285m, aka Baintha Brakk). However, dangerous avalanche conditions prevented them from completing the icefall approach at the bottom of the route.
As they were descending from this attempt, they noticed beautiful Choktoi Spire, a circa 5,900-meter peak surrounded by the glacier. The two climbed a long snow and ice gully to reach the northwest ridge, which they followed to a blank headwall five meters below the top. Seeing no way past this obstacle (they carried no bolts), they called it good and descended. Richey said the climb had 17 pitches of easy but sustained ice, followed by eight pitches of increasingly difficult rock climbing along the ridge, with “spectacular position.” He said the rock climbing warranted 5.11 A2, conservatively. The two made the ascent and descent in a 29-hour round trip. Last year, Jeff Relph and Jon Walsh made the first ascent of this spire via a west-facing couloir and the southeast ridge. Walsh overcame the headwall via a tension traverse off a knifeblade and some deadpoints.
With the exception of a brief period during the Red Mosque incident in Islamabad, after which the Karakoram Highway was closed for about a week, travel in Northern Pakistan was fine and tourism seemed active and normal, Richey said.