Bad weather has kept Marc Toralles, Bru Busom, Guillem Sancho, and Oriol Baro in base camp for three days at Saraghrar, the fourth-highest peak in the Hindu Kush. Now their wait is over. Today, they begin their summit push. They are following the original Catalan route, Hussain Ahmed, the managing director of Terichmir Travel, told ExplorersWeb.
This means that Toralles and his companions will climb the southwest buttress (referred to in some reports as the southwest pillar) to 7,300m Saraghrar Northwest.
The Saraghrar group. Photo: Pinterest
Three past attempts
Over the years, three Catalan teams have attempted the southwest buttress, approaching via the Rosh Gol Glacier.
In the summer of 1975, Jordi Colomer’s 10-man party had to deal with continued bad weather. Still, on August 4, they set up Camp 4 at 5,500m, after surmounting the most difficult part of the ridge and reaching 5,975m.
Then bad weather hit again, forcing them to rappel down to Camp 1 at 4,910m. Here, the climbers waited a week for another window. Finally, on August 24, they managed to reach 6,020m. Then the bad weather returned. By now, they had run out of food and time and had to give up.
Second attempt
The second Catalan attempt on the southwest buttress came in the summer of 1977. According to leader Ramon Bramona Rams in the American Alpine Journal, the party passed the 1975 high point, then continued along a difficult section to where the buttress looked less steep.
After that, Bramona’s party overcame still more difficulties to set up Camps 5 and 6. At 6,355m, the buttress ran into the wall. It became obvious that from here, they would need hanging camps, but they didn’t have enough food, ropes, and gear. At the beginning of August, the party decided to leave without further attempts.
Third attempt
In the summer of 1982, a third Catalan party approached Saraghrar’s base camp, led by Juan Lopez Diaz. The group included Enrique Lucas, Ricardo Herrero, renowned alpinist Nil Bohigas, Nestor Bohigas, Antonio Garcia, and Joan Marti.
From August 4 to 8, they moved up the southwest buttress, bivouacking at 5,790m, 6,355m, 6,500m, 6,850m and 7,010m. The climbing was very difficult, but on August 9, Lucas, Bohigas, and Diaz reached the 7,200m western summit of Saraghrar Northwest II, one of four points along the massif. The eastern peak, which they did not climb, is about 100m higher than the one they ascended.
“A” shows Saraghrar Main (7,340m) and “B” Saraghrar Northwest (7,300m). The upper northwest face is in the center, with the Catalan buttress to the right. Photo: Archil Badriashvili
Georgians Archil Badriashvili, Baqar Gelashvili, and Giorgi Tepnadze first reached Saraghrar’s northwest summit from September 3 to 10, 2021, via the northwest face (2,300m ED2 6B). The next day, they went down the northwest face. For this climb, Badriashvili, Gelashvili, and Tepnadze won a 2022 Piolet d’Or.
Now Toralles, Busom, Sancho, and Baro aim to complete the southwest buttress route to the higher Saraghrar Northwest (7,300m), following in the footsteps of their countrymen.
