The 8,000m peaks in the Karakoram are now deserted, as outfitters and climbers turn their attention to Manaslu and Dhaulagiri in Nepal. But smaller teams on lesser but interesting peaks are still in Pakistan. We know details about at least one.
A Polish team is on its way to the Charkusa Valley in the western Karakoram. Charkusa is home to legendary mountains such as Masherbrum (recently attempted by Jackson Marvell and Alan Rousseau of the U.S), Laila Peak, where Olympic champion Laura Dahlmeier perished in a rockfall accident, and K7, where Colin Haley recently retreated due to bad conditions.
Tomek Kujawski, Wojtek Mazik, and Piotr Rozek hope to open a new alpine-style route on the southwest summit of K7, also known as Badal Peak, Polski Himalaizm Sportowy reported.
K7 massif
Badal Peak (approximately 6,100m) has had some past ascents up its south-southwest face by remarkable climbers, such as Steve House of the U.S. (solo, 2004), the Favresse brothers and Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll of Belgium with Adam Pustelnik of Poland in 2007, Slovenians in 2008, Italians in 2009, Spaniards in 2010 (repeating the Slovenian route), and Japanese in 2014.
Some of these expeditions had a more ambitious goal in mind: traversing the southwest ridge of the massif from the summit of Badal Peak to the top of K7 west. Katsutaka Yokoyama and Takaaki Nagato of Japan finally achieved that elusive goal in 2017.
The 2014 Japanese route on Badal Peak and traverse to K7 West. Photo: K. Yokoyama/American Alpine Journal
Keeping expectations low
This summer’s Polish team — whose members are on their third expedition together — has shared no plans beyond summiting Badal. Moreover, they are very aware of the bad conditions in Pakistan’s mountains this year, so they are keeping their expectations low.
“The previous two winters in the Karakoram were dry, and this year’s summer has been exceptionally warm,” Rozek told Polski Himalaizm Sportowy. “Where there is usually snow, the terrain this year is mostly loose rock, and rockfalls are quite frequent.” Indeed, rockfall has been behind the three fatal accidents in Pakistan’s mountains this season.
For that reason, the Polish team has a plan B and even a plan C, in case Badal proves too dangerous in its present condition. They are also considering the southwest face of 6,475m Farol Peak East and the north face of 6,180m Namika.
