After 10 days on the virgin face of Pakistan’s K7 Central, with a final, non-stop 24 hours spent navigating a complex, 2,500m “death couloir” filled with overhanging seracs, Jeff and Priti Wright reached firm ground and vowed never to return.
In that 10 days, they had opened routes on the north and east faces of the K7 massif, but the summit eluded them. It was protected, in Jeff Wright’s words, “[by] massive skyscraper faces of cantilevered seracs and teetering rock.” The couple finally retreated just 100m shy of the 6,858m top of K7 Central.
Jeff and Priti Wright. Photo: Alpine Vagabonds’ Facebook
Extreme alpinists have a conveniently short memory. Within a week, they had forgotten their horrific experience and began planning their next attempt on this unclimbed summit.
Purposely, the climbers stepped away from social media and delayed their trip reports for sponsors. They did this partly to stay focused and partly “to keep their beta safeguarded.” That is, to avoid sharing too many details and thus tempting other teams to go and snatch such an attractive first ascent.
The K7 massif. Photo: Jon Griffith
This time, their third in this area of the Karakoram after climbing K6 central in 2020, they promise to share updates via InReach.
Map: Pakistan Adventure
