First Ascent of Shaue Sar in the Karakoram

On May 27, a three-man team made the first ascent of 6,653m Shaue Sar in the Karakoram.

Austrian skyrunner and climber Philipp Brugger, Italian Tomas Franchini, and Austrian Lukas Waldner traveled to Pakistan in mid-May to attempt the unclimbed peak. At the time, they didn’t reveal which mountain they were going for, only that they had trained hard and that Franchini has been waiting to attempt this for three years.

Climbing up the first 1,400m on the North Face of Shaue Sar. Photo: Philipp Brugger

The upper glacier slopes. Photo: Philipp Brugger

Steeper pitches led to a beautiful ridge. Photo: Philipp Brugger

“The peak lies in the Momhil Valley in Pakistan, five kilometres before Malangutti Sar,” Philipp Brugger told ExplorersWeb. Momhil Valley is near the Shimshal.

The talented trio ascended via the 2,000m North Face of the mountain. The first 1,400m was classic north face climbing. They then reached some steeper pitches to acess a beautiful ridge.  At around 6,200m, they reached the upper glaciated slopes of Shaue Sar.

Shortly before reaching the upper glacier slopes at around 6,200m. Photo: Philipp Brugger

After summiting, they descended via the same route, with lots of downclimbing and rappels on ice.

Philipp Brugger attempted the first ascent of Muchu Chhish (7,452 m), the highest unclimbed peak in the world (where climbing is permissible), in 2020 with Jordi Tosas. He also holds two speed climbing records in the Alps.

Little is known about Shaue Sar, which was unnamed until recently. “We gave it the name ‘shaue’, which means ‘horn’ in the local language, because we found so many ibexes there near Base Camp,” explained Brugger.

More details to come.

The steep North Face of Shaue Sar. Photo: Philippe Brugger