Two teams are heading toward Masherbrum, one of the most aesthetic yet difficult peaks in the Karakoram. A Czech all-star team is eyeing a new route: They may even attempt the first ascent of the west face. Three Colombian andinistas are also heading for Masherbrum, which has been summited just four times before.
Early cartographers first identified the peak as K1 because they believed it was the tallest in the Karakoram. In fact, the needle-sharp peak rises “just” 7,821m. Its relative lack of altitude has kept away the 8,000m collectors, and the great technical difficulty on all sides discourages almost everyone else. Read more about the mountain here.
Masherbrum as seen from the Baltoro. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The West Face
However, Zdenek Hak, Radoslav Groh, and Jaroslav Bansky of Czechia are far from “everyone else.” The former two are Piolet d’Or recipients who open new alpine-style lines on Himalayan faces nearly every year.
The west face of Masherbrum. Photo: Marek Holecek
As soon as the team said they were leaving for Pakistan, the rumors started. One of their sponsors mentioned that their objective would be the still-unclimbed West Face. Groh made a first attempt on that wall in 2022 with Marek Holecek. In fact, Holecek has dreamed of climbing that face for years. However, he is not on the current team.
Only an option
“Well, that is one of the options we are considering, but we’re far from having reached a final decision,” Zdenek Hak told ExplorersWeb today, right after landing in Pakistan. “We don’t have a clear idea of the route we want to climb on Masherbrum. We are pondering several options.”
Hak said that the expedition will start on Biarchedi, a peak they intend to ascend and descend on backcountry skis. “First, we climb Biarchedi, and then we’ll see,” Hak said.
Biarchedi (6,581m) is just northeast of Masherbrum and west of Mitre Peak, at the end of Biarchedi Glacier, a branch of Baltoro Glacier. Legendary Polish climber Jerzy Kukuczka made the first ascent of Biarchedi, alone, in 1984.
Radoslav Groh also hinted at their destination just before departure, without naming names. Check his statements (in Czech) here:
Karakoram regulars
The three elite Czech climbers have acquired a taste for first ascents in the Karakoram. Last year, Zdenek Hak and Radoslav Groh climbed a 2,300m new line on the “Patagonia-like” Hunza Peak (6,300m). Theirs was the first ascent of the southwest face.
In 2024, together with Bansky, they achieved the coveted first ascent of Muchu Chhish, in the Batura range. Until then, Muchu Chhish had been the highest unclimbed peak in the world (among those mountains open to climbers).
Groh also attempted the South Face of Cho Oyu with Marek Holecek last fall, and opened a new M7 mixed route on the south face of Grossglockner with Juraj Koren.
A second team
Unusually, for such a rarely attempted peak, they will not be alone. A three-member Colombian team led by Anibal Pineda, 64, and also comprising Julio Cardona and Fernando Acosta, has also set its sights on Masherbrum. According to social media, the team is not using porters but will climb in traditional expedition style: They will fix ropes, rotate up and down the mountain to acclimatize, and set four high-altitude camps.
Julio Cardona, left, Anibal Pineda (in red hoodie), and Fernando Acosta (in black) with a friend during the approach to Nevado Tolima (5,220m), a preparatory climb before heading to Pakistan. Photo: Julio Cardona
They have not confirmed the route they will climb. However, the most obvious option is the southeast face, which was the line chosen during the first attempts on the mountain and by 1960 first summiters George Irving Bell and Willi Unsoeld. Nick Clinch and Pakistani Jawed Akhter followed that first pair to the top two days later.
South of Baltoro
The Masherbrum massif lies on the southern edge of the Baltoro Glacier and is therefore often considered a sub-range of the Karakoram. Its usual approach is not the Baltoro trek to K2 and Broad Peak (which are on the north side of the Baltoro), but from the Hushe Valley.
Masherbrum in the distance, as seen from Hushe Valley to the south. Photo: Wikipedia
