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2007
Mugs Stump Award Winners:
Wharton/Bowers—North
Face of Latok I
Bean
Bowers and I arrived on the Choktoi Glacier on July 1st,
hopeful that we might be the team lucky enough to finally
crack Latok 1’s infamous North Ridge. Basecamp on the
Choktoi Glacier was stunning, with unbelievable views of
the North Ridge and North Face of Latok 1, as well as the
burly unclimbed North Face of Peak 6960. This peak, which
has only been climbed once by a Korean team via the right-hand
skyline in the below photo, is certainly one of the valley’s
gems and along with Latok 1’s North Face, has one of
the baddest alpine walls I’ve seen anywhere in the
world.
The
unclimbed North Face of Peak 6960.
Despite
poor weather and a disheartening forecast, after a few
acclimatization trips around Basecamp, Bean and I headed
up onto the North Ridge on July 12th to put in a cache and
check out the bottom section of the climb. Skirting the rock
buttress climbed by many parties in the past to the west,
we managed to climb 3,500’ to around 18,500’ in
seven hours. The climbing was mostly moderate and low-angle;
and despite the fact that there was obviously more difficult
climbing to come, we both felt encouraged that given the
right combination of conditions and weather we had a good
chance of success. Unfortunately luck was not on our side.
In our 42 days at Basecamp we only experienced two truly
good days, and the pressure never went more then a few points
in either direction. Despite frequent desperate calls to
our weather forecaster in Montana the news was always grim.
Figure
1: X-marks the position of our cache from Basecamp,
in relation to the classic view of the North Ridge.
During
our time waiting and watching we learned a lot about why
the North Ridge has been such an unmerciful objective.
As you can see from the below photo, even though the line
is referred to as the “North Ridge,” when actually
climbing along the ridge your almost always operating on west-facing
slopes (see Figure 2), most of which are relatively low-angle
and collect snow. Generally speaking, poor weather in the
Karakoram means a day of two of heavier precipitation, intermixed
with longer periods of more benign “scuddy” weather.
The “scuddy” days often entail clear skies during
the late evening and morning hours, followed by afternoon
cloud build-up and precipitation above 6000 meters. On the
west-facing “North Ridge” of Latok this means
the conditions necessary for an alpine style ascent are rare.
First you need a low snow year, so you won’t be fighting
huge snow mushrooms when forced off the west face and onto
the ridge proper. Second, since clouds almost always sit
on the peak during the afternoon, the North Ridge’s
west-facing slopes hardly ever get sun. This means the Ridge
continues to accumulate snow even during periods of relatively
good “scud” weather, creating dangerous avalanche
conditions and deep snow that slows progress when trying
to move quickly. Essentially you need the unlikely combination
of a long period of very good weather (two days to clean
the ridge and a minimum of four days to climb and descend),
a low snow year, and relatively warm temperatures (often
found during the poor monsoonal weather of July and August)
to succeed in alpine style. As Bean said the luck involved
is a bit like playing slots in Vegas. “You could come
for 15 days on the right year at the right time and send
the thing, or you could come for 15 years and never get much
past Basecamp.”
During
all of the poor weather we did manage to squeeze in a nice
rock climb on an unclimbed spire near Basecamp (see photo
below) on August 20. I named the peak the “Bean
Pole” in honor of Bean’s first trip to the top
of a virgin summit. Although short, the climb was surprisingly
difficult and steep, and we were lucky the snow held off
until evening. The climb had six long
Figure 2: Our cache from the rarely seen
up-valley perspective of the North Ridge.
pitches
to an 18,500’ summit, which we managed all
free at .11+, apart from a short pendulum which I followed
free on toprope at .12a. Not exactly a new route on the North
side of Latok, but for this year it will have to do.
Bean
and I are indebted to all of you who so generously offered
support, gear, and encouragement for this trip. Special
thanks to all those involved with Mugs Stump Award and
Lyman Spitzer Grant. The money these grants provide continue
to make my dream trips a reality, and I can’t thank
you all enough.
The Southwest Pillar (IV 5.11+ AO) climbs
the central prow of the “Bean Pole.”
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