While commercial expeditions in Nepal’s post-monsoon season concentrate on Manaslu, Dhaulagiri, and Ama Dablam in Nepal, a strong alpine-style team is heading for Pakistan.
After spending the summer in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca, some of Poland’s best climbers are on their way to the quiet, lonely, but always promising Shimshal Valley.
Adam Bielecki, Janusz Golab, Michal Czech, Maciej Kimel, and Wadim Jablonski have no fixed goal, at least publicly, but the area hosts a large number of virgin 6,000’ers and some 7,000’ers that either await a first ascent or offer ample new lines for those daring to tackle their unforgiving walls.
Shimshal in Gilgit-Baltistan region. Map: ResearchGate.net
Last autumn, Felix Berg led a small group of adventurous clients to Shimshal for a number of climbs. Berg has regularly climbed with Bielecki (including attempted new routes on Langtang Lirung and Annapurna) and may have suggested some tantalizing objectives in the area.
Have a look at the area’s possibilities on this map by Himalaya-info.org, and enlarge it here.
Karakorum north, with its many unclimbed (and mostly unnamed) peaks between 5,000m and 7,000m. Map: Himalaya-info.org/Guenter Seyfferth
An injury kept Adam Bielecki away from the higher ranges last year, although he climbed in the Alps. This summer, he joined the Polish team in the Andes. Janusz Golab, another member of the team, attempted Leila Peak last winter.
