On September 28, a Kyrgyz team made its country’s first ascent of 6,239m Nameless Tower.
The expedition was led by Mikhail Mikhailov, known for his role in the 2004 North Face ascent of Jannu, which earned a Piolet d’Or, and for the 2009 first ascent of Peak 6134 on Minya Konka with Alexander Ruchkin, according to Mountain.ru.
Other members of the Nameless Tower group include Mikhail Danichkin, Timur Akbashev, Aidar Akbashev, Zarina Kutanova, and Aleksei Pototsky. The Kyrgyz team carried out the technical climb of this soaring granite spire, one of the Trango Towers, via the famous Eternal Flame route.
Nameless Tower. Photo: Timur Akbashev/Mountain.ru
Eternal Flame is one of the most celebrated big-wall routes in the Karakoram. It was first climbed in September 1989 by Kurt Albert, Wolfgang Gullich, Christof Stiegler, and Milan Sykora on Nameless Tower’s South Face. The original climbing route is roughly 650m long, on a vertical wall with a total height of about 1,000m. It was graded VI, 7b+, A2.
The route combines sustained hard granite climbing with the altitude, logistics, and objective hazards of a 6,000m Karakoram peak, which is why it has remained a major objective for both free climbers and traditional alpinists. The Kyrgyz ascent adds its country’s name to the short list of teams that have summited by this classic line.
