In early July, Ales Cesen of Slovenia and Lukas Woerle of Austria will head for the west side of Pakistan’s Gasherbrum I to attempt a traverse.
The pair is already in Pakistan, where they summited 6,040m Khosar Gang in the Shigar Valley, close to Skardu, this week. Next, they will climb Laila Peak (6,096m), the iconic needle-shaped peak in the Karakoram’s Hushe Valley, before heading for their main summer goal, 8,080m G1, also known as Hidden Peak.
The always stunning Laila Peak. Photo: Andrzej Bargiel
“We are planning to use the normal route for the descent, but we need to check how conditions are when we get there,” Woerle told ExplorersWeb.
The Southwest Face of Gasherbrum I, also known as Hidden Peak. Photo: Sirbaz Khan
Three legendary routes
Gasherbrum I’s west side is part of the lore of the mountain’s infamous Southwest Face. This wall of ice and snow, rimmed by a rocky ridge, has been the scene of some epic attempts and three successful new routes. All of them were so difficult that they have become part of the history of high-altitude alpinism.
Legendary Polish climbers Jerzy Kukuczka and Voytek Kurtyka did the first complete ascent of the face in 1983. Russians Valery Babanov and Victor Afanasiev opened the second route in 2008. Czech climbers Marek Holecek and Zdenek Hak did the latest line in 2017 during an epic, eight-day, alpine-style ascent that earned them a Piolet d’Or.
Spanish Victor Arnal, Ignacio Cinto, Javier Escartin, Lorenzo Ortas, Antonio Ubieto, and Jeronimo Lopez opened a route on that side of the mountain. They proceeded across the west ridge of Hidden Peak South (a shoulder of GI’s main summit) and the SW Ridge, also in alpine style, in 1983.
The routes on the Southwest Face of Gasherbrum I. ‘Satisfaction’ is the name of the 2017 Czech route. Photo: Marek Holecek; Topo: PlanetMountain
The normal, Japanese route on Gasherbrum I starts on the north side of the mountain, on the Gasherbrum Glacier. It shares Camp 1 with Gasherbrum II, then ascends the Japanese Couloir to the peak’s West Spur (sometimes identified as the West Ridge). You can read all about the Japanese route on ExplorersWeb’s Gasherbrum I Climbers Guide.
The Gasherbrum massif and surrounding glaciers, compiled by Ardito Desio. Photo: The Himalayan Club
Line depends on conditions
The climbers didn’t reveal exactly where they plan to climb or whether they are considering a new line. They insist that conditions will rule and that they will decide once in Base Camp. Nevertheless, they confirmed they have a climbing permit for the west side of the mountain, away from the Gasherbrum Glacier and the normal routes up GI and GII, where there will be some commercial teams.
Camp 1 on the Gasherbrum Glacier, with Gasherbrum I behind. Photo: Ferran Latorre
Last year, Cesen and Worle proved their synergy as a team with a first ascent of Pakistan’s 6,224m Cherireen Sar. In a year of poor, dangerous conditions due to a lack of snow and intense heat, the two were flexible enough to abandon their original goal (a peak in the Shimshal Valley) and quickly find a second option.
Different conditions
This year, they found quite different conditions on their initial preparatory climb. Khosar Gang is 45km from Skardu by car, and its base camp is at 3,800m, making it a popular peak to acclimatize before expeditions in the Karakoram or Nanga Parbat area.
“Khosar Gang involved a lot of work, as we had to break trail in deep snow all the way to the summit,” said Woerle. “We had snow from 4,800m upward, so yes, there is a lot more snow than last year.”
This could be good news for other Pakistan teams, which might prefer higher avalanche danger but less rockfall.
Ales Cesen and Lukas Woerle in 2025. Photo: Ales Cesen/Instagram
Ales Cesen has won three Piolet d’Ors — in 2015 for the first ascent of the north face of Hagshu in the Indian Himalaya, with Marko Prezelj and Luca Lindic; in 2019, for the north ridge of the Karakoram’s Latok I with Tom Livingstone and Luka Strazar; and in 2024, for a new route on the West Ridge of Gasherbrum III with Tom Livingstone.
Lukas Woerle is a mountain guide, skier, and paraglider from Austria. He met Cesen on Gasherbrum II in 2024 and the two have climbed together since then in Europe and Pakistan. Woerle is a highly respected climber in Pakistan, after he sacrificed his summit of Broad Peak to help a Pakistani porter in trouble in 2023.
