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solo
Sep 13, 2005, 2:52 PM
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Registered: Feb 12, 2003
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Hi, I just want to point out one serious ascent which may become a topic for the world climbing news. The following is a translation of a short note about the new route on Great Trango put up in a bold style as written by one of the protagonists. Enjoy.
On August 4 we started up the south face of Great Trango, with just two small packs and food for 4 days. We had no sleeping bags, no mats, fix lines or radios. Just the essentials for climbing and determination to succeed.
We did not know much about the line. We have scoped the wall the day before: a clear line of the buttress should lead us from the foot of the wall to the headwall, where we expected the hardest climbing. We knew, that once we start, it would be very difficult to retreat if the weather turned bad. We planned to change the leads each day.
We started up quickly but our progress was soon hampered. The terrain was too difficult to allow simul-climbing and on the second day the weather came in and it started to rain and snow. On the fourth day, when we were directly under the headwall, all hell broke loose. During the night the temperature dropped below -15 Celsius, there was strong wind and it snowed heavy.
In the following days the rock was icy and our progress was very slow. We had nothing to eat on the fifth day and were still 100 meters below the summit. We reached the ridge leading to the summit on the seventh day, having climbed over 3000 meters of vertical cracks, lots of pendulums, wet slabs with no protection and loose chimneys.
Our plan was to descend by the normal route, however the avalanche conditions forced us to opt for rappelling the west face. We were in for long hours of rappelling with minimum gear. In addition I took a 150 meters ride with an avalanche, where I had lost the rope so we had to descend unroped. Then Gabo fell on icy slabs and slid for 30 meters. After 16 hours we reached Trango Base Camp.
We only left 3 pitons in the route and 2 bolts for pendulums. The descent took all of our 8 bolts and most of other gear.
The route:
ASSALAM ALAIKUM
Dodo Kopold (BEAL, PETZL, Yak&Yeti, YakSteam), Gabo Čmárik (KAYLAND, Buff)
south face of Great Trango (6250 m)
first ascent in alpine stile (no previous attempts)
8 A2 ABO
approx 90 pitches
4. - 11. 8. 2005
Some pictures at: http://www.jamesak.sk/content/column_article_dependency.asp?id_dependency=1094
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maxdacat
Sep 13, 2005, 3:10 PM
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Registered: Sep 10, 2004
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sounds pretty hairy.....not sure how you abseil without a rope though?
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mrtristan
Sep 13, 2005, 4:29 PM
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Registered: Jun 21, 2002
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That's awesome! Here's more info, from climbing.com:
In reply to: Slovaks Dodo Kopold and Gabo Čmárik have climbed an enormous new rock route on the southwest side of 20,460-foot Great Trango Tower in Pakistan. The Slovaks are still traveling and Climbing has not been able to reach them directly, but the route takes a line to the right of the Azeem Ridge, the 7,500-vertical-foot route pioneered last summer by Americans Kelly Cordes and Josh Wharton. Climbers in Slovakia said the arcing route involved 90-plus pitches and was graded UIAA 8 A2 (roughly 5.11+ A2). The climb took eight days, from August 4 to 11. The Slovaks carried no sleeping bags and climbed alpine style, and they fought poor weather during the climb and dangerous avalanche conditions while descending the peaks western slopes. Kopold was avalanched several hundred feet but apparently was unharmed. Kopold and Čmárik were part of a Slovak expedition to the same area last year. Kopold and two partners made an alpine-style second ascent of the American route Khanadan Buttress on Shipton Spire, and Čmárik was part of a team that nearly climbed a new route on the spire. |
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tim
Sep 13, 2005, 4:50 PM
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Registered: Apr 4, 2002
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tim moved this thread from Alpine & Ice to World Climbing News.
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jderekforrester
Sep 13, 2005, 6:06 PM
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Registered: Oct 15, 2002
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Damn, no sleeping bags for eight days. That is some hardcore sh&!. Nasty
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climbinginchico
Sep 13, 2005, 7:06 PM
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Registered: Mar 24, 2004
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Big marbles to pull off something like that.
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j_ung
Sep 13, 2005, 7:18 PM
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Registered: Nov 21, 2003
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:shock:
Damn! That's some bold shit.
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far_east_climber
Sep 14, 2005, 1:50 PM
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Registered: Sep 30, 2003
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Good work. I really do like the names Dodo and Gabo.
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granitegod
Sep 15, 2005, 10:13 PM
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Registered: Jan 21, 2003
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No sleeping bags at -15 C? Crikey.
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clarki
Sep 16, 2005, 6:58 PM
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Registered: Feb 24, 2004
Posts: 192
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Damn, that's badass!! I'm going bouldering tomorrow....what in the hell am I thinking???
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vivalargo
Oct 10, 2005, 7:34 PM
Post #12 of 12
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Registered: Nov 26, 2002
Posts: 1512
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90 pitches?! That's a whole lot of clmbing and a huge descent.
Nicely done.
JL
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