At 7,788m, Pakistan’s Rakaposhi is a formidable peak that sees little climbing activity. Fewer than a dozen parties have topped out. Its steep slopes, technical difficulty, and unpredictable weather deter most climbers.
Rakaposhi is the 26th highest independent peak in the world and the 12th highest 7,000’er. It lies in the Lesser Karakoram mountains in Gilgit-Baltistan. The closest 8,000m peak is Nanga Parbat, roughly 110km south-southwest of Rakaposhi.
The location of Rakaposhi, marked with a red dot. Photo: Jill Neate
The mountain is also known by the name Dumani, which comes from the local Burushaski language. It translates to “Mother of Mist” or “Mother of Clouds” because the peak is often shrouded. The name Rakaposhi derives from a Burushaski term meaning “shining wall.”
Rakaposhi rises 5,800m in just 11.5km of horizontal distance from the Hunza River.
The first foreign explorers arrived at the end of the 19th century. Martin Conway explored Rakaposhi’s southern side in 1892. Conway concluded that although the upper part of Rakaposhi could be climbable, reaching the upper crest of the peak by any of the supporting ridges would be difficult and dangerous.
In 1938, British mountaineer and explorer Michal Vyvyan and his partner Reginald Campbell Secord approached the peak from the west. They ascended a small 5,800m forepeak at the end of the northwest ridge.
Sunrise on Nanga Parbat from Rakaposhi. Photo: Kenro Nakajima
The first determined attempts
In 1947, Secord returned with Bill Tilman and two Swiss climbers to attempt the southwest spur. They abandoned their attempt at 5,800m, where a great gendarme blocked the route. From there, Tilman observed a 600m wall of snow and ice, which they called Monk’s Head.
The team then tried the northwest ridge. Later, they inspected the southeast face, the north face, and the east face but found them all impracticable.
In the summer of 1954, two expeditions arrived at Rakaposhi.
An Austrian-German party led by Mathias Rebitsch attempted the southwest spur. They reached 5,200m, but extreme snowstorms, high winds, and difficult ice conditions forced them to retreat. They agreed with Conway’s conclusion from 60 years earlier: The mountain seemed unclimbable from that direction.
In the same season, an expedition from the Cambridge University Mountaineering Club led by Alfred Tissieres attempted the same route. They climbed the Monk’s Head but turned around in bad weather at 6,340m.
Rakaposhi from the west. The southwest spur is on the skyline, and the Monk’s Head is on the extreme right. Photo: Himalayan Club
In 1956, Mike Banks led a four-man British-American expedition to Rakaposhi. They were the first expedition to go above 7,000m, reaching 7,170m on the southwest ridge. They made two further attempts later on that expedition but couldn’t progress higher.
“We were all much impressed by Rakaposhi,” Richard K. Irvin recalled in his report for the American Alpine Journal. “It’s a very long climb, and it is a real climb, not just pushing along. This route certainly can be climbed to the summit, and there probably is no other way by today’s Himalayan standards.”
The first ascent
In 1958, two years after his first attempt, Banks returned to the mountain, leading a British-Pakistani Forces Expedition that included Scottish mountaineer Tom Patey.
The climbers chose the southwest spur for their ascent. They established Base Camp on May 20 at 4,267m.
Over the next month, relentless snowfall, avalanches, and blizzards hampered their efforts to put up six camps to the summit. Despite the storms, the team set camps up to 5,791m. On June 20, seven climbers and some Hunza porters ascended the slope of Monk’s Head, and the porters carried loads beyond it.
On June 23, three climbers carried supplies from 6,400m to 7,010m, allowing Banks, Patey, R.F. Brooke, and R.N. Grant to camp at 7,010m. On June 24, Brooke and Grant supported the summit party of Banks and Patey. Banks and Patey then established a high camp at 7,315m.
Rakaposhi from the southwest. Photo: Karrar Haidri
On June 25, Banks and Patey set out for the summit in a strong blizzard. Battling intense cold, they climbed for five hours and finally topped out.
Patey suffered minor frostbite on his hand and Banks on his feet. After summiting, the duo descended quickly to their high camp. Three days later, the entire team returned safely to base camp.
This first ascent of Rakaposhi was carried out without supplemental oxygen.
The first repetition of the southwest spur
The Belgian Club Alpin Beige Expedition repeated Rakaposhi’s southwest spur route in 1983. After great difficulty climbing the Monk’s Head slope, Bertrand Borrey, Daniel Bogaert, Arthur Delobbe, and high-altitude porter Sultan Ullah Baig topped out on August 2.
The summit crest of Rakaposhi from Diran Peak. Photo: Visit in Pakistan
According to the expedition’s report in the American Alpine Journal, the climbers started an avalanche while descending. The avalanche swept away Michel Bodard, who fell 200m and suffered a broken leg and thumb, a punctured lung, a concussion, and multiple contusions. He was lowered to Camp 4 (at 6,400m), and two days later, a helicopter picked him up at 6,140m.
Their bad luck didn’t end there. On August 5, high-altitude porter Sultan Ullah Baig insisted on descending alone to give his countrymen news of the summit success. He disappeared between Camp 2 and Camp 1. The team searched for five days but never found his body.
Rakaposhi. Photo: Lost Horizon Treks
New route in 1979
On June 5, 1979, a Polish-Pakistani expedition led by Ryszard Kowalewski established a base camp at 3,810m in a side basin of the Biro Glacier.
On June 14, a gigantic ice avalanche from a collapsed wall devastated the tents at base camp, but the expedition continued. The party tackled the northwest ridge, previously scouted to 6,005m by an Irish expedition in 1964.
They set up Camp 1 on June 6, placing it at 4,907m at the base of the northwest ridge. They established Camp 2 at 6,203m on June 26.
The party then descended 61m to a snow terrace below the summit pyramid, where they set up Camp 3 at 6,500m. Crossing the terrace to a col at the end of the southwest ridge took between six and eight hours. Here, on June 30, they placed Camp 4 at 7,102m.
On July 1, Kowalewski, Pakistani climber Sher Khan, and Tadeusz Piotrowski climbed to the summit in 18 hours. The next day, after a miserable night with six in a tent, Andrzej Bielun, Jacek Gronczewski, and Jerzy Tillak also topped out, reaching the summit in only six hours.
Sher Khan and Ryszard Kowalewski on the summit of Rakaposhi. Photo: Tadeusz Piotrowski
On July 5, with the higher camps empty, Anna Czerwinska and Krystyna Palmowska summited unroped through wind and snow. This marked the second-highest “ladies-only” climb after Gasherbrum II in 1975 by Halina Kruger and Anna Okopinska. The two women climbed unroped because it was too cold for one to wait for the other.
The Polish-Pakistani success was the second documented ascent of Rakaposhi.
A solo climb
In 1995, Anibal Pineda of Colombia made a notable solo climb via the northwest ridge. According to the American Alpine Journal, Volker Stallbohm was the expedition leader.
Anibal Pineda. Photo: La Piola Digital
The extremely difficult north spur
In the summer of 1979, a Japanese expedition from Waseda University arrived. Led by Eiho Otani, they summited via the north spur, a steep route on the north face.
They established their high camp on an ice step at 7,300m. From there, Otani and Matsushi Yamashita started their summit push. The duo bivouacked at 7,600m and summited on August 2. On top, they found evidence of the Polish ascent. The expedition climbed siege-style, with 5,000m of fixed rope, over six weeks.
This extremely difficult route had been attempted in 1971 and 1973, both led by Karl Herrligkoffer.
The north face of Rakaposhi is also called the Hunza Face. Photo: Khalid Mehmood
The same route saw its first alpine-style ascent in 1984. Canadians Barry Blanchard and Kevin Doyle and South African Dave Cheesmond survived lightning strikes that knocked them unconscious during their summit push. This was an outstanding ascent.
Other ascents
In the summer of 1986, a Dutch expedition climbed a variation of the northwest ridge. This route was a shorter line in the lower section and joined the 1979 Polish route at 6,000m.
In the summer of 1997, four members of an Iranian party summited via the southwest spur.
Kazuya Hiraide on the south face of Rakaposhi. Photo: Kenro Nakajima
A Piolet d’Or climb
Another successful ascent took place in 2019. World-class Japanese climbers Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima tackled the unclimbed south face before transitioning to the southeast ridge.
Starting from their base camp at 3,660m, Hiraide and Nakajima, climbing alpine style, reached 6,800m after three days. There, they waited out bad weather and summited on July 2 in a single day. They descended to Base Camp on July 3. In 2020, they were awarded the prestigious Piolet d’Or for their climb.
The last ascent of Rakaposhi was in September 2021. Czechs Jakub Vicek and Petr Macek, and Pakistani Wajidullah Nagri summited Rakaposhi via the southwest spur. The controversial expedition did not have permits and required a helicopter rescue.
Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima’s new route on Rakaposhi in 2019. Photo: Kenro Nakajima/Kazuya Hiraide
In 1985, an Austrian expedition led by Eduard Koblmuller climbed Rakaposhi’s 7,010m east peak via the north buttress. On August 1, Koblmuller, Fred Pressl, and Gerald Fellner summited in alpine style. During the two-day descent, Fellner slipped at 4,700m in bad weather. He fell 100m down an ice slope and sustained fatal injuries. Despite medical attention, he died in the night.
Rakaposhi’s climbing history shows that even after decades, new routes remain for bold climbers.
The colors of spring blossom in front of Rakaposhi. Photo: Abbas Ali
